Tag Archives: satan

The Best Occult Imagery at NAMM 2016

I’m at the NAMM 2016 Show this week, which is the National Association of Music Merchants, it’s where musical instrument companies, music dealers, recording equipment companies, etc… all get together to show off their latest and greatest stuff. It’s in Anaheim, California right next to Disneyland, and 140,000 musicians, gearheads, salespeople, and techies from all over the world converge and take over this Orange County city and it’s long hair, dye jobs, tattoo sleeves, and leather jackets as far as the eye can see.

One of the most fun things about the conference is that guitar companies will bring their most outrageous guitars, instruments not that don’t sell that much, maybe, but are showcases for the huge amount of talent that their best craftsmen have. These guys and gals can make unbelievably beautiful instruments and it is terribly exciting to see the most well-crafted and gorgeous instruments ever made.

The occult and rock n’ roll have been linked since Robert Johnson sold his soul at the crossroads and themes of horror have run through the music from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins to Alice Cooper to Marilyn Manson and in the modern era with Ghost. Skulls have always been a popular symbol for high testosterone males. In the old days, it was a symbol for all the people that they had defeated in battle, today it represents the aggressive style and fearlessness in the face of mortality that rock n’ roll music has long stood for. But the devil, the Illuminati, and horror movies were all well represented today and here are some of the most fantastic guitars and accessories with occult imagery that I’ve seen at the NAMM 2016 Show so far!

1 – Making a Deal with the Devil: The Musicians Who Sold Their Souls to Satan

Across the ages, musicians have purportedly made a deal with the devil to be able to more masterfully compose and/or play their instruments. Today’s episode explores this idea, and Mike and Wendy discuss what things they consider worthy of a deal with the devil.

Mike and Wendy then dip into famous cases of making a deal with the Devil.  Musicians like Giuseppe Tartini who was born in 1692, his work is still popular, particularly his work, “The Devil’s Trill”, which was said to be inspired by a dream that he had that he was the Devil’s servant. It has been covered by Itzhak Perlman and a version by Vanessa Mae has over ten million hits on YouTube.

Niccolo Paganini is probably the first great example of legendary musicians who make a pact with Lucifer. He was said to be able to do supernatural things like sight-read music incredibly. His solos were notoriously difficult to play and his effect on audiences was said to be hypnotic and supernatural, like he was possessing the crowd.

The most famous American story of making a deal with the Devil is Robert Johnson, who died of poisoning at 27 years old and wrote the immortal blues classic, “Crossroads”. The Crossroads is a place in Mississippi that blues aficionados come to visit, that it is rumored where Johnson met the devil to sign the contract for his soul. They made a movie about it in the 80s called Crossroads starring The Karate Kid himself, Ralph Macchio. Johnson also wrote other songs like “Me and The Devil” and had a superstitious and dark vein in his music.

Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin also had rumors of Satan worship. Jimmy Page is a known occultist and bought Aleister Crowley’s house in Scotland (We’ll cover Crowley extensively sometime because he figures into the lives of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, he’s in a Top Ten UK single in the 1970’s, and he’s even on the cover of Sgt. Pepper, he was an emblem of the rock n’ roll generation and we’ll get into him when the time comes!) They coveredRobert Johnson’s “Travelin’ Riverside Blues” and their were rumors that Led Zeppelin signed a pact in their own blood.

Speak of the devil, the Church of Satan was founded by a musician. Anton LaVey was an organist that would often entertain by playing Jazz and Pop standards. Modern Satanists aren’t really occultists as much as they just use the imagery in their marketing, like Marilyn Manson’s shocking Christians in the late 90s or Mötley Crüe’s crossdressing Satanism in the early 80s (before they went with the biker look, there were pentagrams all over their albums, Shout At The Devil and Theatre of Pain).

Links about making a Deal With The Devil:

Listverse – “10 People Who Sold Their Soul To The Devil”

Crossroads movie Guitar Duel (Steve Vai vs. Ralph Macchio) [YOUTUBE LINK]

Vannesa Mae – “The Devil’s Trill” [YOUTUBE LINK]

Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding Blog – “Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in Rosedale, Mississippi”

The Human Marvels – Niccolo Paganini – The Devil’s Violinist”

Featured Song: Ol’ Scratch Blues

Lyrics:

Enjoy your time now,
enjoy it while you can,
you signed that paper,
you signed it with your hand.

And when you die,
you’re gonna fry,
for nothing but a lie.

The fortune and the fame,
and the ladies too,
But can you see that old black dog,
coming after you.

Enjoy your time now,
enjoy it while you can,
you signed that paper,
you signed it with your hand.

And when you die,
you’re gonna fry,
for nothing but a lie.

And when you die,
you’re gonna fry,
for nothing but a lie.

Nothing but a lie.