I always love interesting album art. I collect pictures of all of the different albums I listen to, and admire the art in them. The following is the album art from King Crimson's album, "In the Wake of Poseidon", released in 1970. The album art is a painting by Tammo De Jongh, called "The 12 Faces of Humankind", or "The 12 Archetypes". The idea behind the work is the following: The artist believes that there are four elements that make up this world: air, fire, earth and water. And, each of these 12 archetypes is made of a combination of two of these elements. The 12 archetypes and their respective elements are:
- The Fool (fire and water)
- The Actress (water and fire)
- The Observer (air and earth)
- The Old Woman (earth and air)
- The Warrior (fire and earth)
- The Slave (earth and fire)
- The Child (water and air)
- The Patriarch (air and water)
- The Logician (air and fire)
- The Joker (fire and air)
- The Enchantress (water and earth)
- Mother Nature (earth and water)
[Note that the order in which the two elements are listed is important.]
Below is a picture of the painting:
You can identify each character and see a bigger version of each individual here:
Now that I'm done explaining the art, I'd like to say why I like it very much. First off, it's very easy to relate to. I believe that everyone passes through these 12 archetypes during their lifetime, and we choose the one that we are most comfortable in. Second is the elements: thinking about the relation of each character to their elements opens up worlds of beauty for me. Third is the colors: I love the combinations and different shadings of all of the colors in the painting. Fourth and last for now is the album itself by King Crimson, especially the eponymous track, "In the Wake of Poseidon." The elements and characters make an appearance in the lyrics, though not under the same names. Below are the lyrics, written by Peter Sinfield:
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IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON:
Plato's spawn cold ivyed eyes
Snare truth in bone and globe.
Harlequins coin pointless games
Sneer jokes in parrot's robe.
Two women weep, dame scarlet screen
Sheds sudden theatre rain,
Whilst dark in dream the midnight queen
Knows every human pain.
In air, fire, earth and water
World on the scales.
Air, fire, earth and water
Balance of change
World on the scales
On the scales.
Bishop's kings spin judgement's blade
Scratch "faith" on nameless graves.
Harvest hags hoard ash and sand
Rack rope and chain for slaves
Who fireside fear fermented words
Then rear to spoil the feast;
Whilst in the aisle the mad man smiles
To him it matters least.
Heroes hands drain stones for blood
To whet the scaling knife.
Magi blind with visions light
Net death in dread of life.
Their children kneel in Jesus 'til
They learn the price of nail;
Whilst all around our Mother Earth
Waits balanced on the scales.
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The lyrics are abstract in some points, amazing in others. I hope you do enjoy them. And please forgive me if this is different from my regular posts; I just felt like writing this today when I saw a status update with the word 'madman' in it today on Facebook, so I instantly remembered this line from the lyrics:
"Whilst in the aisle, the mad man smiles. To him it matters least."
Anyways, I'm working on a new poem that I'll share with you soon... I'm also working on finding a word or phrase that you (yes you, blog readers), would use to identify each other around the Internet. I know it's only something like twenty people at best who have seen my blog, but it's still fun. You know, just like a small secret that we share together. If you've got any suggestions, please post them in the comments section. Meanwhile, I'll be thinking. Let's hope for the best.
God bless.
(:
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