Sound and the Fury: The Beat(en) Generation-X

Martinex1: Welcome to a new topic here at Back in the Bronze Age!  We call it Sound and the Fury and we hope you enjoy it!

Music and comics sometimes go hand in hand.   There are music and sound based characters such as Klaw, Dazzler and Songbird; there have been lyrics quoted in comic books; and there have even been records with songs scribed to reference comic events.  Over the next number of months we will explore those examples and much more in Sound and the Fury posts.   And it does not have to be comic related for us to discuss music, albums, bands, soundtracks, instruments, and special sound effects here.  Everything aural will appear under this banner.

To give you an idea of what you can expect - someday you may see something like this:

Or on other days you may run into something like this:

 *The above dancing superheroes are from the russellmarkolson.blogspot.com site.   He has plenty more so check it out.

And frequently you may see album cover examples like these:

In a recent conversation we had been toying with the idea that certain events bring back memories of comic books or conversely a comic brings an occurrence to mind.  We are going to explore that circumstance quite a bit on our blog in various ways.  Today's post will begin to examine the way certain songs influence our memories of specific comics, teams, titles, arcs, or characters.  We are going to experiment with "Comic Sound Tracking."  I hope it will be a fun topic for you all.  

For our inaugural "Comic Sound Tracking" exploration, I want to take a look and listen to The The performing "The Beat(en) Generation"  and how every time I hear this song I think about the X-Men.

I've mentioned The The before and that Matt Johnson evolved as an artist in the band (which often was a one-man band) with albums like Soul Mining, Infected, Mind Bomb and Dusk throughout the 80s and into the 90s.  On 1989's effort Mind Bomb, was the track and single "The Beat(en) Generation"  At the time, Johnson was joined by Johnny Marr from The Smiths on guitar and harmonica, James Eller on bass, and David Palmer on drums.  Their style was traditional but their impact at the time was strong on the college and independent scene.  Check out the song and lyrics below.

The Beat(en) Generation

When you cast your eyes upon the skylines of this ...
Once proud nation
Can you sense the fear and the hatred
Growing in the hearts of it's population?

And our youth, oh youth, are being seduced
By the greedy hands of politics and half truths

The beaten generation, the beaten generation
Reared on a diet of prejudice and misinformation
The beaten generation, the beaten generation
Open your eyes, open your imagination

We're being sedated by the gasoline fumes
And hypnotised by the satellites
Into believing what is good and what is right

You may be worshipping the temples of mammon
Or lost in the prisons of religion
But can you still walk back to happiness
When you've nowhere left to run?

If they send in the special police
To deliver us from liberty and keep us from peace

Then won't the words sit ill upon their tongues
When they tell us justice is being done
That freedom lives in the barrels of a warm gun?

The beaten generation, the beaten generation
Reared on a diet of prejudice and misinformation
The beaten generation, the beaten generation
Open your eyes, open your imagination

Songwriters: MATT JOHNSON

© BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC

Martinex1:  So how does this song relate to the X-Men?   Well, when I first heard the song 28 years ago in my waning college days, despite the political overtones (or perhaps because of those overtones), the Marvel mutants sprung to mind.   Perhaps Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Chris Claremont and the rest had captured in the book a foundational perspective of youth and its question of authority and the status quo that was also mirrored in the song.  In addition, the thematic analysis of racism, prejudice, and authoritarian regimes appeared in both.  And some of the lyrics seemed to actually reflect actions or images within the Uncanny X-Men pages.  The neo-60s style of the video also recalled the era in which the X-Men were created.

Regarding some of the specific lyrics, here are depictions of how I connect the two - the links between the music and the comic scenes:

"When you cast your eyes upon the skylines of this once proud nation..."

"Can you sense the fear and the hatred growing in the hearts of it's population?"

"And our youth, oh youth, are being seduced by the greedy hands of politics and half truths"

"The beaten generation, the beaten generation..."

"Reared on a diet of prejudice and misinformation."

"The beaten generation, the beaten generation..."

"Open your eyes, open your imagination."

"We've been sedated by the gasoline fumes, and hypnotized by the satellites"

"Into believing what is good and what is right"

"...If they send in the special police, to deliver us from liberty and keep us from peace..."

"Can you still walk back to happiness, when you've nowhere left to run?"

"The beaten generation, the beaten generation..."

"Open your eyes, open your imagination!"

Martinex1: So that is my first foray into sound tracking, using an almost literal interpretation of some of the lyrics.   I hope you can see how I made the connection between the two works of art.  In the future, I hope to conduct more of these experiments perhaps in tighter elements of an actual issue. 

I'd like to hear what you think of our recent subject category and about the work of The The coupled with the panels.   How about the song itself - did you like it?   Is it music that was on your play list decades ago?   And please if you have any suggestions for future "sound tracking" your favorite comics or characters - send us a suggestion message at backinthebronzeage@gmail.com.

As always we look forward to your comments.    Cheers!