Satori: The Plague

"The Plague"  is a real unicorn of a song.  It is a punk-rap song in a Medieval setting that alternates time signature as it propels in to a bridge that is full-on evil clown music. It should've been a hit, right?  Some folks will never get past the very harsh sound, but there is a deep dark meaning underneath the cacaphony. 

When it came out, some folks thought that it was about the AIDS crisis, but it was bigger.  "The Plague" is a story about a disease that comes and catches a whole population off guard.  Like the Black Death that inspired it, this plague is big that you have to confront it, because "The Plague" is the fear of death itself. 

When I was a freshman in college, I read Albert Camus' The Plague, and the story certainly resonated with me.  Camus' novel is about the human condition.  How does one confront a plague that kills with no rhyme or reason?  Camus' novel spends a lot of time with his absurd heroes- people who in the face of the plague persist in their humanity.  The hero never "succeeds", but fight on anyway.  This is Camus' absurd hero, and it might seem like an oxymoron, but he seems to admire his absurd heroes. 

So if the plague is our own fear of death, the song illustrates how not to confront it.  Hiding doesn't work, because it's already inside of you.  There are no heroes in the song. No anti-heroes either, I suppose. Just people who haven't confronted their fear of death. 

The music goes a long way to create a sense of dread and disjointed-ness.  The structure is very strange. There is only one chorus with singing on it.  The song has four different time signatures. And yet, it is musically coherent.  

Nobody saw when it came to town

It crawled through the sewers and the underground

Rose out of the shadows while your shades were down

Entered the houses without a sound

Open your eyes.

A voice was heard but no one turned their heads

Thinking it might be someone else instead

Gathering strength while your eyes were closed

And when you opened them up, you were already dead

Are you paralyzed?

Don't look out the window 'cause you don't want to see

A face that it wears from a memory

You can't wish it away, and you can't wake up

Your heart feels a tremor, but it won't let you scream

Here comes the plague

Here comes the plague

Recognize the face now the mask is gone.

Here comes the plague

Here comes the plague

Recognize the face now the mask is gone.

You knew it once crawling out of your cave

You built your castle and you thought you were safe

You hid in your tower and you played your games

And you thought it returned, but it never escaped

Now eat your poison

The messenger arrives, but you already know

You're losing the battle and it's coming in slow

The fear penetrates, but you can't let it show

You got nowhere to run to, nowhere to go

Don't let her voice in

The queen arrives, she seems distressed

The look in her eyes, you can't even guess

You don't even notice the blood on her dress

But you scream at the air, when you see the rest

It takes you back to a time when the rumors were real

And it always was true what they said about you

When you hid in the corner away from the beast

That recognized your face

And you knew you were guilty of whatever you did

When no one was watching you,

But someone always is watching you watching you

And that's the way it felt, but you did it anyway,

And you did it anyway, and you did it anyway

And there's no going back to your wishing wells

Back  to your carnivals

Back to your fairy tales

Back to you merry go

Back to you wishing wells

Back to your carnivals

Back to your fairy tales

Back to your merry go round round round