The F***ing Prince Of Darkness

"Witches at black masses", "Evil minds that plot destruction", "Satan laughing, spreads his wings"...to me nothing could be a scarier concept than Witches, Evil plots of destruction and Satan's pleasure. So naturally, to hear a song with these strong words and phrases would automatically give the musician a negative connotation in your mind. This is a demonstration of the power of music and the effect it had on Ozzy Osbourne.

Before I even get to any other point, let me say I'm well aware that Ozzy isn't a ray of sunshine. His topics are dark topics BUT they do NOT encourage dark behavior. They point out the darkness in the world that needs our attention.

The lyrics above are from a famous song he wrote called "War Pigs". In the song "Witches at black masses" is a comparison to "Generals gathered in their masses". The "Evil minds that plot destruction" are people who plan war tactics and "Satan laughing spreads his wings" is about the pleasure he gets from watching the sin that man has fallen in; "On their knee's, the war pigs crawling. Begging mercy for their sins. Satan laughing spreads his wings."

The whole point of the song, now that it has been broken down is clearly to point out the evils of war and the people who plot them. The song is called "War Pigs" for a reason. People who promote the killings of other human beings to "solve the world's problems"  is bad news.

Because of songs like this, Ozzy Osbourne has been labeled as the Prince of Darkness. He embraces the nickname because it is part of his theatrical act but society seems to see him as a dark, negative image in rock and roll music.

BLABBERMOUTH.COM published this article about church groups protesting Ozzy's performance in New Zealand:

A crusade is looming as church groups prepare to take on heavy metal heavyweights poised to play in Wellington [New Zealand] over Easter.

Wellington pentecostal church Lifepoint says the lineup of bands — including former bat-biter OZZY OSBOURNE and KISS — are "not appropriate" and will have "negative influences" on the city during the two-day Rock2Wgtn festival on March 22 and 23.

I wonder what religious groups would have to say if they heard lyrics of his like "Hand of God has struck the hour. Day of Judgement, God is calling."

If you don't believe me, take the F***ing Prince of Darkness' advice....

Responsibility

If you walk into a sex shop with some very obvious name like "naughty things for naughty people" (clearly, I made that name up...), would you expect there to be a sign on the door that says "WARNING: THIS STORE MAY CONTAIN MATERIAL THAT IS INAPPROPRIATE FOR SOME SHOPPERS (such as children and young adults...)"? I would laugh if I saw such a sign at a place like that. It is a sex shop, it's advertised as a sex shop, it's values are only limited to how dirty the community they operate in is in the bedroom.

I feel that this could apply to a record store as well. Although record stores tend to have a variety of different music, every buisness has a target class of people. If you are going to a record store to buy an album, I don't believe it is the record stores responsibility to tell you what you are engaging in when you buy their product. I work 2 jobs, one being at a department store. When someone buys a blender we don't tell them "This blender has blades inside of it. They could cut one of your fingers off!" If you are buying an item, you should have full knoweledge of what you are buying before you purchase it. If you are unsure of whether or not this item could be harmful or in this case, contain "bad" lyrics, than you can certainly ask.

If a record company, for the integrity of their buisness would like to pay the money to have advisories posted on all of the music in their store, that is completely their choice and I can respect that. Should a company have to? I don't believe so.

Let me also state though, that I do not have kids so I cannot FULLY understand a parents concern in that area but I do have plenty of younger cousins and nieces and nephews that I watch very closely. Furthermore, without parental advisories I can tell what is good and bad for them or appropriate for their age level. My eight year old cousin wants to listen to some Disney Channel star: fine. She wants to listen to Lady Gaga and Rhianna: not so fine. If you really care about what your kids are listening to, you can easily do the research yourself without the companies having to take responsibility for YOUR kids. Perhaps what you deem as appropriate for you child is different that what I deem appropriate for my child. It's your kids, your parenting style, your decision.

A Young Passion for Music

I'm going to jump right into this and say that Bloom was definitly making an overgeneralization to say that young people cannot take seriously anything alien to music. I agree that in all stages of life, I've observed that the most passion and "spunk" for music comes from young people; pre-teen, teens and early 20's. I think this stems from all the changes that are taking place in people's lives at this point. Starting from when you hit puberty all the way until you have graduated college and have your own place, you are constantly changing and growing. There is the first few years of puberty, then highschool, driving, college, bills, getting your own place, minimum wage jobs..there is always something going on to stress about and like every adult knows from experience, it becomes overwhelming. Music is powerful and has healing properties. At this age it's easy to find comfort in the songs that make you feel less alone when you are going through these things.


When I was younger one of my favorite songs to play was "Wonderful" by Everclear. It talks about kids who are promised that "Everything is wonderful now" but the kids know whats really going on (divorce, bankruptcy, fighting..etc). The kids tell their parents "How can you smile with all those tears in your eyes? I don't want to hear you tell my everything is wonderful now. I don't want to hear you say that I will understand someday." There was a lot of secrets in my family that emerged when I was still pretty young. I found out my brother was only my half brother. He had a whole other family on the other side of the country and he was leaving us for them. He had another little sister on the other side of the country and he was leaving me for her. That's how it felt to me. My parents used to say some of the things in the song like "One day you'll understand." and "Everything will be better someday" but I didn't believe them anymore. When you feel like you can't trust the people around you, you trust music and musicians because what they say makes more sense to you than what your parents said or the music talks about how you feel when things happen to you.


What I'm still trying to figure out though, is why that passion and that draw fades away as you get older. When you are very young I can understand why the extent of your musical passion is the itsy bitsy spider. But why do adults not have the same longing to listen to music 24\7? Even in the last few years of my life I've noticed I don't have to have music with me everywhere I go. My walkman, cd player, ipod...used to go with me everywhere I went in previous years. I still love music but I'm not as obsessed as I once was. Maybe as you get older you learn to cope with lifes issues in healthier or just different ways so you don't NEED it so much, just enjoy it.  Regardless, I agree that young people have an unmatched passion for music that rarely exists in other age ranges but I don't think it is ALL young people and I KNOW it is untrue that they can't take seriously anything alien to music.