248 16 ‘Hear the Drunken Archangel Sing’: Blakean Notes in 1990s Pop Music David Fallon William Blake is alive and well and dancing his way into the twenty-first century. The patron poet of pop is such a frequent influence on songwriters that it’s hard not to imagine Wordsworth frowning disapprovingly from the poetic pantheon and muttering about the racket down below, whilst secretly wishing he could swap places and be less square. Other Romantic poets may get occasional references from pop musicians eager to show cultural creden- tials, but Blake triumphs in terms of his ubiquity and integral influence on rock ’n’ roll creativity. Aside from the obvious example of The Doors, Blake is widely diff- used throughout pop music. The 1990s, for example, have seen whole albums devoted to recreating Blake. Arch heavy-metaller Bruce Dickinson’s The Chemical Wedding (1998) features tracks titled ‘The Book of Thel’ and ‘The Gates of Urizen’, while the former Public Image Limited bassist Jah Wobble released The Inspiration of William Blake (1996), a series of hypnotic dub soundscapes over which Wobble intones Cockney inflections of Blake poems. Even a fleeting reference during Half Man Half Biscuit’s unexpec- tedly jaunty ‘Depressed Beyond Tablets’ has a surprising power: ‘Oh the results of my lifetime are a string of nil-nils,/Hey, Blakey, does your bus go by the Dark Satanic Mills?’ Despite the throwaway humour of fusing visionary Blake with Blakey, the inspector from On the Buses, the image of Blake either as a bus driver or passenger surreally captures the way his poetry acts as a visionary vehicle, moving around a transhistorical and psychogeographic route, while remaining familiar and accessible. The conceit also occurs in John Riordan’s cartoon strip, Blake, the Taxi Driver, in which he ferries his- torical and contemporary figures around London. 1 What is it about Blake that makes him such an attractive bedfellow for musicians? The subversive author of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell certainly presents an alluring figure for the rebellion and excess that has come to define rock ’n’ roll. While he may have had primarily philosophical and religious concepts in mind when writing the ‘Proverbs of Hell’ (‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom’ (E35), ‘Enough! or Too much!’ (E38)), 9780230280335_18_cha16.indd 248 9780230280335_18_cha16.indd 248 10/20/2011 11:42:34 AM 10/20/2011 11:42:34 AM This file is to be used only for a purpose specified by Palgrave Macmillan, such as checking proofs, preparing an index, reviewing, endorsing or planning coursework/other institutional needs. You may store and print the file and share it with others helping you with the specified purpose, but under no circumstances may the file be distributed or otherwise made accessible to any other third parties without the express prior permission of Palgrave Macmillan. Please contact rights@palgrave.com if you have any queries regarding use of the file. PROOF