Post by B on Sept 30, 2009 17:49:46 GMT -5
This is a bit of a continuation of the post before the last one, featuring the "When We Was Fab" video.
If we go with Apollo's axiom that "Everything points back to Pepper", I'd have to say that
Desmond wheeling his barrow full of fruit in the video at 2:25 points to "Burrow" on the Sgt.
Pepper cover, or William S Burroughs specifically, number 26 in the line-up.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs
It would be an understatement to say that William S Burroughs was gay. And in 1960s lingo,
a term in use for a gay person (used desparagingly) was "a fruit".
What is interesting, with Burroughs, is that there are three of significant historical note;
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Seward_Burroughs_I the father, William Seward Burroughs I
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs the son, William S. Burroughs
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs,_Jr. the son of the son, William S. Burroughs, Jr.
The father would probably not appear to be significant relative to a discussion of PID/PWR, were it
not for the fact that:
"...he obtained a job in a machine shop. These new surroundings.... hastened the
development of the idea he had already in his mind...to put into tangible form the first conception
of the adding machine. Accuracy was the foundation of his work.
No ordinary materials were good enough for his creation. His drawings were made on metal plates
which could not stretch or shrink by the smallest fraction of an inch. He worked with hardened tools,
sharpened to finest points, and when he struck a center or drew a line, it was done under a microscope."
Curiously, engravings on metal plates were the basis for an early 'photograph' machine
used in printing known as a rotogravure.
And here we see Ringo looking through a looking glass, which isn't a microscope, but hey, it's close.
So Ringo could represent 'the father' Burroughs.
Then we have the son, William, whose biography seems to be possibly the motherload of inspiration
for dozens of Faul songs, such as "Back Seat of My Car" and "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey".
John Lennon too, seems to have taken inspiration from this fellow, and the line about "Joan"
in Maxwell's Silver Hammer might easily refer to Burrough's common law wife.
"Ticket to Ride" could be a reference to "The Ticket That Exploded", and "Yer Blues" a
reference to Burrough's drug addictions.
Reading the wikipedia bio is like a Rosetta Stone of rock references, and I suggest it highly.
Then we have the son of the son, William S. Burroughs, Jr., who spent time in a mental institution
and may be the inspiration for such Faul numbers as "Mr. Bellamy".
The father, the son, and the - uh - unholy ghost, you might say. Or not.
But this is a diversion, so I'll veer back into the direction I was going, if I can just stop being
so terribly impressed with this Harrison video, and everything that's in it.