TW: Abortions, censored.
Let’s talk about one of the artists I’ve been listening to for at least a decade. This will probably have vulgar language (as it is Marilyn Manson) but I will censor it out. Marilyn Manson. I’ll admit, his music was weird to me as a young child, but my dad kinda pushed him onto me and I grew into it. For example, his song My Monkey, states:
I had a little monkey
I sent him to the country and I fed him on gingerbread
Along came a choo-choo, knocked my monkey coo-coo
And now my monkey’s dead
At least he looks that way
But then again don’t we all
And later in the song these words are sang;
We are our own wicked gods…
Sadistic and constantly inflicting a slow demise
The first quotation is a quote from the famous cult leader Charles Manson’s song “Mechanical Man”. Any Marilyn Manson fan knew of Marilyn’s fascination with icons Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson and how they influenced the 1960’s. So, naturally, Marilyn would be fascinated by Charles Manson.
The second quotation is a reference to a song he would release two years later named Revelation #9. Which has a quotation: “Are all your infants in abortion cribs…” Which is a reference to when he found an aborted fetus inside of a coffee can.
The imagery of “infants in abortion cribs” metaphorically comments on the rejection of one’s child.
In his song, “The Beautiful People”, Manson protests societal views (as usual) when it comes to the once universal belief on beauty.
“And I don’t want you and I don’t need you
Don’t bother to resist or I’ll beat you…”
These are the words of the beautiful/powerful people towards the ugly/powerless people. They don’t want them or need them but threaten them not to resist or they will be demolished.
“…The weak ones are there to justify the strong
It’s all relative to the size of your steeple
You can’t see the forest for the trees….
There’s no time to discriminate…”
The first line is self-explanatory. As for the second one, it refers to a church’s steeple. It means that people compensate for their shortcomings by being more narcissistic.
The third line means that people are too focused on one aspect of things instead of taking other things into consideration. For example, say you’re one of “the beautiful people”. You’re concentrating on the homeless asking for handouts. Thinking of the homeless as “dirty beggars” rather than focusing on an actual problem like, “why are there so many homeless?”.
The fourth line ties into that. This roughly translates to, “They think that they’re better than us”.
The sixth line has to be my favorite in the song. It was practically my motto in middle school and still kinda is to this day. It just means to hate everyone equally because there’s no use in hating people for specific things that don’t matter. It takes too much time and effort to discriminate.
So, out of these three amazing (I know it’s biased but I love Manson) songs, I have found a plethora of information that is relevant to today’s society and haven’t found a single one to be crazy at all. Yes, they’re colorful, but crazy? No. He’s one of the few artists who can turn societal norms into relatable topics and show us how poisonous they can be. In short, he’s just trying to humanize us a bit more. And we could really use that in today’s day and age.
I know that there are many more Marilyn songs that I could decipher, but there’s always next week. So, if you want a specific song decoded, comment on the song.
I shall leave you all with a quote: “Music is the strongest form of magic.” -Marilyn Manson
This was a really cool read, Mick! I was personally unfamiliar with Marilyn Manson’s art before I read this, but I knew of him as being somewhat of an infamous character in the music industry. I appreciate the insight you provided on some of his songs, and I enjoyed reading about your personal relationship with his music and how you connect with him as an artist.