The Gospel of Lenny Kravitz (repost)
The male on the run.
This is re-presentation of my essential second post.
The title song of Lenny Kravitz album, Mama Said (1991) is lyrically basically a two-part structure.
First are about a dozen guiding aphorisms the character’s mother has spoken such as “Your life is a gift”, “Don't take more than a mouthful” to “Leave those bad boys alone” and in the end, “Love's all that matters.”
The second part is the chorus, one line, repeated three times, once sounding like a shout:
“But I’m always on the run.”
And that’s the dilemma of civilization right there.
Men - we are always on the run.
Self-preservation.
Kravitz was a child of celebrity, went to Beverley Hill High School and was a rock star already before recording this song. What courage - and I mean this- to notice and write about the sensation of feeling Always on the run.
But there’s one more word in the song, that makes it more interesting and complicated.
Kravitz played every instrument on this song, (except the horns, orchestrated to sound like chasing.) Between the 2nd chorus and the 3rd, there is a typical break, with a guitar solo. For the guitar solo, Kravitz hands control of the song over to a compatriot with one word, “Slash.”
And then Slash, the guitarist (of Guns and Roses, and who also went to Beverley Hills High School), rips through a rebellious guitar solo before Kravitz takes the song back (and all the instruments, and some ad lib speaking) and leads it to the finish.
With that one word, Kravitz embodies another of our impulses, to camaraderie.
And so, in the periodic table, Kravitz identifies our better societal impulses, our civilizing impulses, i.e. “Don't take more than a mouthful”, “Love's all that matters”, etc. but identifies the stronger impulse to self-preservation.
Additionally making sure to make room for (male) camaraderie.
Do all men feel on the run?
I do. 100%
Why? That first beating, identified earlier? Or is it something else? I dunno. I am just always on the run.
Is it the same reason Jean-Luc Godard writes about criminals on the lam (always with girl in tow)? I think so.
The system, the ORDER, the patriarchy doesn’t allow for men to stray. And Pierrot, above, sees himself as outside the order, above the order, too special to be contained by law or woman.
In the end, Pierrot purposefully self-destructs, tying dynamite around his painted head lest the character’s story / myth as an untamable individual be ruined.
It should be pointed out that the end of “Mama Said”, the horns return, and no longer sound like chasing, instead they’re celebratory, following the character in bursts, a thrill to see him running. The story of the individual on the lam is powerful.
Aw man, this is so complicated. Self-preservation, self-mythology, camaraderie. These things combine and contradict to create all sorts of crazy responses. Gotta love fiction and song for letting us explore these things.
When it’s expressed in reality, that’s when it’s trouble.
Impulses seen: self-preservation, camaraderie, self-mythology.
Topics to investigate further: woman as outside the system, camaraderie, preening, and everything else.
See you!
Wandered in from another blog.
I'm not an artist, so maybe it's something about the artistic life that makes you think of yourself about being on the run all the time. You have to keep coming up with new stuff all the time, which requires metaphorical motion at least.
But a lot of guys just sit and stagnate. Porn, video games, etc....but also a stable office job. A lot of men are concerned with trying to prevent motion--maintain the patriarchy sure, but also keep a family and household stable enough to allow the kids to launch.
I think the thing is stagnation makes for boring fiction and art. Nothing happens, you have no conflict and no story. (It's like the old joke about Batman--he should go to therapy! But then there'd be no more comic book.) But perhaps that's art *not* imitating life. If life is mostly stable or changing only gradually most of the time, we'll want to read about the interesting bits, the ones where it changes rapidly and stuff happens.