this page was last updated
July 12, 2003
Jack
in the
Pulpit
the devil’s music
The diatonic scale (major or minor) has seven notes.
So does the diabolic scale.
Fiddle music has long been called the devil’s music because of
its irresistible appeal: ordinarily god-fearing people begin to
tap their feet; dancing, carousing and licentious behaviour surely
follow as listeners and players come under the thrall of the music.
Clerics’ve fought the devil’s music for centuries because of its
power.
When one stops to think that each tune has evolved over centuries
into quite specific arrangements of these seven notes, the magic
of the music becomes easier to comprehend.
I always have a favourite tune (currently it’s one of the many
tunes I call "the one that goes like this,") that brings
me the image of ecstatic druids dancing; of witches, lost in the
spell of the tune, rubbing hallucinogens on their genitals to lose
themselves more completely in the hypnotic power of the music. The
devil gets his due in many fiddle-tune names: Devil in the Woodpile;
Up Jumped the Devil; Devil’s Dream.
I prefer being aligned with the devil, somehow. I’ve been known
to lecture younger people to listen to Little Richard and/or
Jerry Lee Lewis if they really want to get at the heart of
rock and roll. They both knew they were going to hell for playing
this music; yet they were unable to stop. Now that’s the basis for
some intense shit.
Get into music in the diabolic scale. Perhaps the best window to
the power of the music, to the symbiosis of tune and dance is found
in Morris-dancing: like a lizard or an amaranth plant, it is instantly
recognizable and something primeval and ancient. And check out Reverend
Ken’s Celtic jam
Sunday afternoons at the Arms.
As my pal Riffraffi says "Satan needs some loving
too / it’s the Christian thing to do / ...so get yer ass way up
high / it’s leap-frog Poppa Satan style / ’cause Satan’s only human
and he needs some loving too."
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