Invocation Of My Demon Brother (1969)

An 11 minute film directed, edited and photographed by Kenneth Anger in 1969. The music was composed by Mick Jagger. It was filmed in San Francisco at the Straight theater and the (former) Russian Embassy. According to Kenneth Anger, the film was assembled from scraps of the first version of Lucifer Rising.

Music - Mick Jagger

Speed Hacker - Wand bearer
Kenneth Anger - Magus
Lenore Kandel- Deaconess
William Kandel - Deacon
Van Leuven - Acolyte
Harvey Bialy & Timotha Bially - Brother and Sister of the Rainbow
Anton LaVey - His Satanic Majesty
Bobby Beausoleil - Lucifer

Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) is the eighth of Anger’s nine extant short films, which are collectively titled The Magick Lantern Cycle (1947–1980). Not one of Kenneth Anger’s best-known works, Invocation has come to be eclipsed by the earlier pieces, Fireworks (1947) and Scorpio Rising (1963), in the pantheon of American avant-garde films that are regularly revived by film societies and universities. In this essay, I will show that it remains one of Kenneth Anger’s richest works, in terms of its use of symbol and ritual, and is a title that deserves greater critical recognition than it has been afforded in recent years.

Perhaps the single strongest influence on Kenneth Anger, evident from both films and interviews, has been that of the English occultist Aleister Crowley (1875–1947). Crowley coined the term magick to refer to the system of occult beliefs that he propounded and to distinguish them from traditional systems of magic. Crowley’s most significant contributions to early 20th century occultism were the integration of Nietzschean thought along with principles derived from the budding science of psychology. He defined magick as “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with the Will”, and argued that every intentional act is a magickal act. The religious doctrine that he developed, known as the “Holy Law of Thelema”, centres on his maxim, “Do what thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law”.

Deborah Allison 2005

Kenneth Anger: "...Anyway, I took those various scraps with me when I came to London and added new material from the Hyde Park concert, from Marianne Faithfull and all my new friends. I showed it to Mick Jagger and he added a soundtrack from a new Moog synthesiser he was experimenting with - he just gave it to me. I think that's rather unusual."

Jagger Remembers (1995)

JANN WENNER: Let’s start with “Sympathy for the Devil.”
MICK JAGGER: I think that was taken from an old idea of [Charles] Baudelaire’s, I think, but I could be wrong. Sometimes when I look at my Baudelaire books, I can’t see it in there. But it was an idea I got from French writing. And I just took a couple of lines and expanded on it. I wrote it as sort of like a Bob Dylan song. And you can see it in this movie Godard shot called “Sympathy for the Devil” [originally titled “One Plus One”,] which is very fortuitous, because Godard wanted to do a film of us in the studio. I mean, it would never happen now, to get someone as interesting as Godard. And stuffy. We just happened to be recording that song. We could have been recording “My Obsession.” But it was “Sympathy for the Devil,” and it became the track that we used.

WENNER: You wrote that song.
JAGGER: Uh-huh.

WENNER: So that’s a wholly Mick Jagger song.
JAGGER: Uh-huh. I mean, Keith suggested that we do it in another rhythm, so that’s how bands help you.

WENNER: Were you trying to put out a specific philosophical message here? You know, you’re singing, “Just as every cop is a criminal and all the sinners saints”...
JAGGER: Yeah, there’s all these attractions of opposites and turning things upside down.

WENNER: When you were writing it, did you conceive of it as this grand work?
JAGGER: I knew it was something good, ‘cause I would just keep banging away at it until the fucking band recorded it.

WENNER: There was resistance to it?
JAGGER: No, there wasn’t any resistance. It was just that I knew that I wanted to do it and get it down. And I hadn’t written a lot of songs on my own, so you have to teach it. When you write songs, you have to like them yourself first, but then you have to make everyone else like them, because you can force them to play it, but you can’t force them to like it. And if they like it, they’ll do a much better job than if they’re just playing ‘cause they feel they’re obligated.

WENNER: They get inspired.
JAGGER: And then you get inspired, and that’s what being in a band’s about rather than hiring people. But I knew it was a good song. You just have this feeling. It had its poetic beginning, and then it had historic references and then philosophical jottings and so on. It’s all very well to write that in verse, but to make it into a pop song is something different. Especially in England – you’re skewered on the altar of pop culture if you become pretentious.

WENNER: The song has a very strong opening: “Please allow me to introduce myself.” And then it’s this Everyman figure in history who keeps appearing from the beginning of civilization.
JAGGER: Yeah, it’s a very long historical figure – the figures of evil and figures of good – so it is a tremendously long trail he’s made as personified in this piece.

WENNER: What else makes this song so powerful?
JAGGER: It has a very hypnotic groove, a samba, which has a tremendous hypnotic power, rather like good dance music. It doesn’t speed up or slow down. It keeps this constant groove. Plus, the actual samba rhythm is a great one to sing on, but it’s also got some other suggestions in it, an undercurrent of being primitive – because it is a primitive African, South American, Afro-whatever-you-call-that rhythm. So to white people, it has a very sinister thing about it. But forgetting the cultural colors, it is a very good vehicle for producing a powerful piece. It becomes less pretentious because it’s a very unpretentious groove. If it had been done as a ballad, it wouldn’t have been as good.

WENNER: Obviously, Altamont gave it a whole other resonance.
JAGGER: Yeah, Altamont is much later than the song, isn’t it? I know what you’re saying, but I’m just stuck in my periods, because you were asking me what I was doing, and I was in my study in Chester Square.

WENNER: After Altamont, did you shy away from performing that song?
JAGGER: Yeah, probably, for a bit.

WENNER: It stigmatized the song in a way?
JAGGER: Yeah. Because it became so involved with [Altamont] – sort of journalistically and so on. There were other things going on with it apart from Altamont.

WENNER: Was it the black-magic thing?
JAGGER: Yeah. And that’s not really what I meant. My whole thing of this song was not black magic and all this silly nonsense – like Megadeth or whatever else came afterward. It was different than that. We had played around with that imagery before – which is “Satanic Majesties” – but it wasn’t really put into words.

WENNER: After the concert itself, when it became apparent that somebody got killed, how did you feel?
JAGGER: Well, awful. I mean, just awful. You feel a responsibility. How could it all have been so silly and wrong? But I didn’t think of these things that you guys thought of, you in the press: this great loss of innocence, this cathartic end of the era.... I didn’t think of any of that. That particular burden didn’t weigh on my mind. It was more how awful it was to have had this experience and how awful it was for someone to get killed and how sad it was for his family and how dreadfully the Hell’s Angels behaved.

WENNER: Did it cause you to back off that kind of satanic imagery?
JAGGER: The satanic-imagery stuff was very overplayed [by journalists]. We didn’t want to really go down that road. And I felt that song was enough. You didn’t want to make a career out of it. But bands did that – Jimmy Page, for instance.

WENNER: Big Aleister Crowley...
JAGGER: I knew lots of people that were into Aleister Crowley. What I’m saying is, it wasn’t what I meant by the song “Sympathy for the Devil.” If you read it, it’s not about black magic, per se.

Have mercy!

Eugene McDaniels "Jagger The Dagger"

Jagger doing the devil dance
Just a victim of circumstance
Jagger wheeling the rolling stone
He and the devil know he’s all alone
Jagger lived in the world a while
Now he’s learning the devil’s style
Jagger playing a heavy game
Free from guilt and he’s free from shame
Jagger sucking the source of life
Slashing the pig with a horny knife
Jagger merging the sexes now
Just stand back and he’ll show you how
Jagger’s organ will play the tune
He will watch the havens open soon
Jagger doing the devil dance
Just a victim of circumstance

Kenneth Anger..I read an interview with him the other day..heard he put a spell on certain folks ....cursed them.....

I wonder how he makes a living...so famous yet so underground.....sure he wrote and sold quite a few books but still.....how do such obscure artists survive? doubtful that he has a normal 9 to 5 job somehwere............especially at his age...

Led Zeppelin were also deep into Crowley....at least Jimmy Page was and lived in his house for a while.

a while ago Jigga used to hint at Crowley too but in subtle ways....like wearing a shirt with the Do What Thou Wilt slogan of Crowley.

thats part of the reason why some folks think Jigga is evil

but hey he made the reasonable doubt album so it´s all good

so .....do yall know how folks like Kenneth Anger pay their bills?

do his rich and famous and younger fans support folks like him financially?

i like the sexxxy aspects of the occult

I believe thats why most folks get into the occult

its all about poohnani short term and long term

but also about that cheddar

but mostly sex

I aint hatin tho

The Dramatics ‎~ A Dramatic Experience (1973)

original album cover (1983)

Vince Neil: Some people said we were Satanic and angry. We always thought that was funny, but we were like, ‘Hey, if it gets us attention let’s go with that.’ We were so starved for stardom that we were willing to do whatever it took. But there was no anger at all. We were just having fun.

Daryl Hall interview (2009)

Kevin Barnes: Around the time of Sacred Songs, I saw that you were very interested in the writing of the mystic Aleister Crowley?
Daryl Hall: Yeah, I was sort of in that period of time in my life where I was looking around. I grew up in a very, I don't know—I think I have a metaphysical attitude towards the world. Everybody wants to try and formulate opinions on what's going on around them, and what's the nature of reality. And I got pretty involved in all that stuff. I learned a lot from it. And through that I went to other things. I think some of my lyrics reflected what I was thinking about at the time or what I was reading, and I've used that as a part of my general philosophy of life.

Kevin: What do you think it is about that specific man that has attracted so many musicians like Jimmy Page and David Bowie and myself? I've also done some research on him; he seems like a pretty fascinating character.
Daryl: Oh, he influenced you too?

Kevin: Yeah, to some degree.
Daryl: Oh, so you know what I'm talking about.

Kevin: Yeah, I'm just sort of attracted to—
Daryl: Because a lot of people don't. A lot of people misunderstand what that fella's all about. He had a very unique way of looking at things. I think he borrowed from a lot of people, like everybody does, and he created an interesting philosophy, which is flawed, but at the same time has power and, I think, has a lot of use in your life. I think it's an interesting point of view. That's the best way I can put it. I think it has a special resonance to a creative person who doesn't have a chained brain, someone who thinks in broad strokes and thinks alternatively. I think that his philosophy has appeal to that mode of thinking.

Around 1974, I graduated into the occult, and spent a sold six or seven years immersed in the Kabala and the Chaldean, Celtic, and Druidic traditions … I also became fascinated with Aleister Crowley, the nineteenth-century magician who shared these beliefs. - Daryl Hall to Timothy White (1987)

Boogiemonsters ~ Mark Of The Beast (1994)

The Police ~ Friends (1980)

Siouxsie & The Banshees ~ Voodoo Dolly (1981)

Screamin Jay Hawkins ~ I Put A Spell On You (1956)

Daryl Hall ~ Without Tears (1980)

Michael Aquino, Sammy Davis Jr., Anton LaVey

Track #5

Boogiemonsters ~ Mark Of The Beast (1994)

K-Rino ~ The Sorcerer’s Den (2010)

The Jacksons ~ Art Of Madness (1989)

The Jacksons ~ Torture (1984)

Jackson 5 The Boogie Man (1973)