Thursday, January 13, 2011

Aleister Crowley: Influence on Rock Music (and rock fans)

Lest you think that Aleister Crowley (born Edward Alexander Crowley, 1875-1947) was just some crazy fool that no one took seriously, think again.  Crowley has had a large influence upon modern rock music.  Unbeknownst to most Americans, much of the Hellish music which they idolize was written and sang by devout followers of Crowley and his Satanism.
Guitarist Jimmy Page of Zeppelin is a devout follower of Satanist, Aleister Crowley, who proclaimed himself as "The Beast 666".  Aleister Crowley was also a 33rd and 97th Degree Freemason and is recognized as the master Satanist of the 20th century.  In 1971, guitarist Jimmy Page bought Crowley’s Boleskine House on the shore of Loch Ness where Crowley practiced his hellish, satanic sex-magick rituals, including human sacrifices. Guitarist Jimmy Page actually performed Crowley magical rituals during their concerts. Their song "Stairway to Heaven" carries the reference "May Queen," which is purportedly the name of a hideous poem written by Crowley.  Page had inscribed in the vinyl of their album Led Zeppelin III, Crowley's famous "Do what thou wilt.  So mete it Be.’  Page and Robert Plant claim some of Zeppelins' songs came via occultic "automatic handwriting," including their popular "Stairway to Heaven."
The cover of the Sergeant Pepper's album by the Beatles showed a background of, according to Ringo Starr, people "we like and admire" (Hit Parade, Oct. 1976, p.14).  Paul McCartney said of Sgt. Pepper's cover, ". . . we were going to have photos on the wall of all our HEROES . . ." (Musician, Special Collectors Edition, - Beatles and Rolling Stones, 1988, p.12).  One of the Beatle's heroes included on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's was — the infamous Satanist, Aleister Crowley!  Most people, especially in 1967, did not even know who Crowley was — but the Beatles certainly did. The Beatles apparently took Crowley's teaching very serious — Beatle John Lennon, in an interview, says the "whole idea of the Beatles" was — Crowley's infamous "do what thou wilt":
"The whole Beatle idea was to do what you want, right?  To take your own responsibility, do what you want and try not to harm other people, right?  DO WHAT THOU WILST, as long as it doesn't hurt somebody. . ." ("The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono", by David Sheff and G. Barry Golson, p. 61)
Crowley has had a great influence on rock & roll. The International Times voted Crowley “the unsung hero of the hippies.” One man who helped popularized Crowley’s work among rockers is avant-garde film artist Kenneth Anger. He claimed that his films were inspired by Crowley’s philosophy and called them “visual incantations” and “moving spells.” Anger considered Crowley a unique genius. Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin both scored soundtracks for Anger’s films about Crowley. See “Led Zeppelin” for more about Page’s enthusiasm for Crowley.

Crowley’s photo appeared on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album cover. The Beatles testified that the characters who appeared on the album were their “heroes.” John Lennon explained to Playboy magazine that “the whole Beatle idea was to do what you want … do what thou wilst, as long as it doesn’t hurt somebody” (Lennon, cited by David Sheff, The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, p. 61). This was precisely what Crowley taught.

Ozzy Osbourne called Crowley “a phenomenon of his time” (Circus, Aug. 26, 1980, p. 26). Ozzy even had a song called “Mr. Crowley.” “You fooled all the people with magic/ You waited on Satan's call / … Mr. Crowley, won't you ride my white horse…”

On the back cover of the Doors 13 album, Jim Morrison and the other members of the Doors are shown posing with a bust of Aleister Crowley.

David Bowie referred to Crowley in his song “Quicksand” from the album The Man Who Sold the World.

Graham Bond thought he was Crowley’s illegitimate son and recorded albums of satanic rituals with his band Holy Magick.

Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson said: “… we’ve referred to things like the tarot and ideas of people like Aleister Crowley” (Circus, Aug. 31, 1984). Their song “The Number of the Beast” said, “666, the number of the beast/ 666, the one for you and me.” Crowley was called the Beast.

Daryl Hall of the rock duo Hall and Oates admits that he follows Crowley. “I became fascinated with Aleister Crowley, the nineteenth-century British magician who shared those beliefs. … I was fascinated by him because his personality was the late-nineteenth-century equivalent of mine—a person brought up in a conventionally religious family who did everything he could to outrage the people around him as well as himself” (Rock Lives: Profiles and Interviews, p. 584). Hall owns a signed and numbered copy of Crowley’s The Book of Thoth (about an Egyptian god).

Sting, formerly of the Police, has spent many hours studying Crowley’s writings.

Stiv Bators, lead singer for The Dead Boys and Lords of the New Church, had a song titled “Do What Thou Wilt/ This Is the Law,” after the philosophy of Satanist Aleister Crowley. In another song Bators sang: “I heard the Devil curse/ I recognized my name.”

LSD guru Timothy Leary was a Crowley enthusiast. He said: “I’ve been an admirer of Aleister Crowley. I think that I’m carrying on much of the work that he started over a hundred years ago … He was in favor of finding yourself, and ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law’ under love. It was a very powerful statement. I’m sorry he isn’t around now to appreciate the glories he started” (Late Night America, Public Broadcasting Network, cited by Hells Bells, Reel to Real Ministries).

The Marilyn Manson song “Misery Machine” contains the lyrics, “We’re gonna ride to the abbey of Thelema.” The Abbey of Thelema was the temple of Satanist Aleister Crowley.

If ever there was a God-hating degenerate, it was Aleister Crowley ...

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