I didn't want to bump the spider thread but I noticed the lyrics to the Dead Can Dance song under your post. My friend and I have wondered for a while ~ who is John Francis Dooley? It is an awesome song.

FIRST!

i thought this was gonna be a lammastide appreciation thread...

ABSOLUTELY ~ appreciation for Lammastide and cborgman is FIRST!!! I will be second. Here is appreciation for Lammastide!!!

bratchildsfriend said:

wow, you are too sweet. i jack the thread, and you roll with it. you are too sweet.

I'm terrible flattered: First an Org Gay Mafia vs. Team Bad war over me, now this!

As for the Dooley reference, I've been trying to find this out for a long time. "Ulysses" is probably my favorite DCD song, but the name seems completely made up. I've done some reading up on imagery related to the song, and I've found a few disjointed things. Give me a sec...

We had looked around for information and came up with little also. Have you seen the Dead Can Dance videos? They are extraordinary! I completely love their music.

I’m hardly an expert on such things, but here goes…

The song seems to be an amalgamation of several inspirations.

According to one source I found, Dooley is a moderately common Irish surname meaning "dark hero" or "hero with dark skis," but as far as I can tell, John Francis is a made-up character. Perhaps DCD’s Brenden Kelly and Lisa Gerard – both students of ancient European culture, esoterica and religious imagery – picked a name that suggests a solid Celtic heritage yet is decidedly Christian.

There are any number of ancient European legends of people who have slept for supernatural periods of time, promised to one-day return, usually in service to God and country -- Germany’s Lohengrin or Rip Van Winkle, England’s King Arthur, Ireland’s Bran, Turkey’s Seven Sleepers of Ephesus among them. I think Perry and Gerard used this tradition as inspiration.

Taking it a bit further, the choice of the song’s title and its imagery seem to marry Homer’s theme of Ulysses’ heroic voyage to notions of Gnostic enlightenment:

The notion of “embracing the light” and returning to our unmasked glory after a long period of spiritual slumber is central to Gnostic doctrine: In a nutshell, Gnostics teach that the Supreme God and humankind once were spiritually in sync, and that humans, who were the second-highest creations under a class of beings called “archons” or “aeons,” fell under the trickery of a jealous subservient creator god, the Demierge, and his army of angels followers, who tried to overthrow the Supreme God in a heavenly war and taught us we are born into sin. First Lucifer (whose name actually means light) and later Jesus sacrificed themselves to show humankind the truth (which Gnostics call light) that will rekindle our divinity. These beings would be the scapegoats referred to in the song.

I’ve never been able to find anything on an Isle of Ken… and I can’t even piece anything together. The English etymology of the name is “royal oath”; the Irish is “handsome. So go figure.

Further weight toward a Gnostic explanation of the song might be given with the fact that it accompanies another song called “Song of Sophia,” the ancient female Gnostic aeon of wisdom. Also both songs appear on an album called “The Serpent’s Egg, ” a direct lift from Gnostic iconography: The serpent is revered as a symbol of Lucifer, light, godly wisdom; and the egg is a symbol of the soul, the earth, the universe.

It’s also totally possible that DCD just wanted to write a song that evoked an overall mythical feel with no pointed, detailed meaning. Lisa has mentioned that in numerous other songs, where her dialect seems to be some ancient unknown language, she’s altogether making it up phonetically as she goes along!

Either way, the song is beautiful and evocative.

I've never seen DCD's videos, but I really want to. I'm sure they're gorgeous!

Thank you so much for the thought provoking and interesting response. It makes a lot of sense ~ at least to the areas that are addressed in your response. I have just played some Dead can Dance for another orger and was telling him about the sense of the music creating an image in your mind in your mind even though Lisa is singing in her "ancient language". He understood immediately and the song we were listening to provoked a vision of lightning and thunderstorms out in a wild and deserted place. This is one of many things I love about their music ~ it is a rich wealth of treasure waitng to be uncovered by the listener as well as a weaving of their voices, instruments, presentation and symbolism. It is so sad they are no longer together. Have you ever had the chance to see them live?

bratchildsfriend said:

About a year before their split, they performed in the Cleveland area. I have no idea why, but I opted not to go. I know that'll be one of my major regrets in life.

Don't know much bout Dead can Dance, but Lammastide sure gets my appreciation !
For he's got this powerfull shyness
[This message was edited Wed Aug 6 8:59:44 PDT 2003 by Fhunkin]