The Doors (from bottom to top: Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger and John Densmore) stand on the steps of a lifeguard tower in 1969. Photo by Henry Diltz/Corbis.
On July 1, the Supreme Court ruled that if the President of the United States can justify something as an “official act” of his office, he is immune from prosecution for it, even if it is illegal. Given the increasingly broad and vague definitions of “terrorism” and “national security,” this means that the President is officially above the law.
A few days later, on July 4, the United States celebrated the 248th anniversary of its declaration that we would not submit to an irresponsible ruler and that we wanted to live in a country where all were equal before the law, except for non-whites and women, but we had made some progress on these points until recently.
Anyway, here are five songs about things that end disastrously. You know, for no particular reason.
The Doors – “The End”
It’s usually hard to argue where genres begin. When audiences hear something for the first time, it’s usually been developing for years in some local scene. “Rapper’s Delight,” for example, wasn’t the first hip-hop song in 1979; by that point, people in the Bronx had already been rapping for nearly a decade, but it was only the first song to gain major commercial appeal.
However, there are times when an established band with an experimental streak will release a song that has such a unique sound that several bands decide to make more of it. The Beatles did this a few times. Over time, the sound of that song develops into a genre of its own.
What I’m trying to say is that The End is the root of gothic rock.
The Beatles – “Helter Skelter”
Paul McCartney wrote this song. Seriously, Paul. The cheesy song with no bite. Even Lennon confirmed he wasn’t involved in the writing. I never thought he had that in him.
A helter skelter is a British amusement park ride. It’s basically a lighthouse with a spiral staircase inside and a spiral slide around the outside so the kids can run up and then slide back down. England is incredibly boring, you know, so it’s easy to entertain the youth there. Macca explained it this way: He used the attraction as a metaphor for the Roman Empire, where you climb to the top and then slide back down to the ground.
Remember what I said about a song that inspired an entire genre? It came out in 1968, the same year that Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were formed. I am convinced that Paul McCartney is responsible for heavy metal.
Monster Magnet – “Doomsday”
Even though I was in high school in the late 90s and loved metal, I was barely aware of Monster Magnet at the time. I knew and loved “Space Lord” and I had that album because back then you had to buy the whole album if you liked a song, but other than that I didn’t pay much attention to it.
Some 25 years later, Monster Magnet is hailed as a pioneer of stoner metal. The band was featured fairly regularly on film and television soundtracks during this time, and there is a comic book character named after one of the songs (Negasonic Teenage Warhead) who also appeared in several live-action films.
Even if you were there, you never really knew until you had the clarity afterwards.
Bob Dylan – “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”
The problem with looking for dark songs about the end of the world is that there are actually three phases and none of them fit the present moment.
Before World War II, there was really no extra-biblical concept of the end of the world. It was all that existed for us, so the world would always be there and we would be with it. Then we learned more about science and the universe, and the atom bomb was invented. Suddenly, humanity got the idea, “Uh oh, we could really screw everything up forever.” At this time, songs about the end of the world started to appear, including this one.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, however, the apocalyptic predictions just stopped. People in the early ’90s were really, really sure they had reached Antoine Augustin Cournot’s “end of history,” when we reached societal perfection and everything would stay the same forever. There was a whole book about it. So the music about the end of the world dried up too.
Capitalism has now ground art into a fine paste that then becomes Chicken McNuggets’ corporate-approved pop songs that would never say a bad word about the glorious future we live in and whose profit margins match investors’ expectations.
Soundgarden – “4th of July”
A grim, haunting, slightly apocalyptic lament about thinking it’s the end and it’s the Fourth of July is a bit much for this column, but I’ve never been accused of letting the fruits of the harvest go to waste.
I got curious about what the song was about, so I looked up whether Chris Cornell ever explained it. And this is what he told RIP Magazine in 1994: “One time I was on acid and there were voices ten feet behind my head. As I was walking, they were talking behind me the whole time. That actually made me feel good because I felt like I was with people. At one point I turned around and saw that one person was wearing a black shirt and jeans and the other was wearing a red shirt. They were always there. It was a bit like a dream though, where every now and then I would wake up and look and realize there was no one there. I thought, ‘Oh, damn, I’m hearing voices.’ ‘4th of July’ is pretty much about that day. You wouldn’t get that if you read it. It doesn’t read like, ‘Woke up, took some acid, got in the car and drove to the Indian reservation.'”
So… take that as you will, I guess.
Follow editor Daniel J. Willis and send him column ideas to @bayaredata.press on BlueSky.
