emilym

Last night, my favorite album Black Sabbath’s Vol. 4 came up on my ipod—I keep it on the Shuffle Albums setting most of the time.  Anyway, as the closing song “Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes” played I thought of Whitman’s “Song of Myself.”  Here are the lyrics and a chance to listen on YouTube:

Well I don’t want no jesus freak to tell me what it’s all about
No black magician telling me to cast them all out
Don’t believe in violence, I don’t even believe in peace
I’ve opened the door now my mind’s been released

Well I don’t want no preacher telling me about the god in the sky
No I don’t want no one to tell me where I’m gonna go when I die
I wanna live my life, I don’t want people telling me what to do
I just believe in myself, ’cause no one else is true

Every day just comes and goes
Life is one big overdose
People try to rule the nation
I can’t see through their frustration

People riding their real paces
keep on running their rat races
behind each flower grows a weed
in their world of make-believe

So believe what I tell you, it’s the only way to fight in the end
Just believe in yourself, you know you really shouldn’t have to pretend
don’t let those empty people try and interfere with your mind
Just live your life and leave them all behind

In general, I was struck by the singer/speaker’s desire to be an independent individual, his unwillingness to listen to “Jesus freaks” (Black Sabbath) or preachers, and his aspirations to show others how to be independent.  All of these traits are elements of Whitman’s “Song of Myself.”

Among many adjectives, Whitman is certainly independent.  He knows he is creating something completely original in a completely original way—a new kind of poem to fit his subject.  Fully aware of his break from tradition, Whitman writes, “I have heard what the talkers were talking….the talk of the beginning and the end,/But I do not talk of the beginning or the end” (30-31).  If he isn’t talking about the beginning or the end, he must be talking about the here and now—about a fully human experience.  The speaker in Whitman’s “Song” is tired of hearing “what it’s all about,” (Black Sabbath) so he is going to talk/write about the human experience, the wonderful as well as the terrible.  The freedom to discuss the here and now is one the band Black Sabbath enjoys as well:  “I’ve opened the door now my mind’s been released.”  This freedom occurs only after turning away from the preachers (“Jesus freaks”) who insist on speaking of the “beginning or the end” (Whitman 30). This is a freedom that will allow the poet and the band to explore their own beliefs and encourage others to make up their own minds.

As Walt Whitman and Black Sabbath both exhibit independence in their works, they also put forth their speakers’ beliefs.  The poet and the band display much faith in themselves.  Whitman writes, “I believe in you my soul…. the other I am must not abase itself to you,/And you must not be abased to the other” (73-74).  Whitman believes in himself—body (“the other I”) and soul.

Black Sabbath takes their speaker’s independence even further in his belief:  “I just believe in myself, ’cause no one else is true.”  Whereas the band’s speaker in “Under the Sun” only believes in himself, Whitman’s speaker believes in himself and God:  “I hear and behold God in every object, yet I understand God not in the least,/Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself” (1273-74).  In this sense, the speaker openly expresses his shortcomings as well as his faith.

Because both speakers illustrate faith in themselves, they seem—and are—egotistical.  However, while they are egotistical, the speakers also display a desire to lead others in their teaching—showing others how to be egotistical and fiercely independent.  Whitman doesn’t hide his speaker’s egotism; he writes, “I know perfectly well my own egotism,/And know my omnivorous words, and cannot say any less,/And would fetch you whoever you are flush with myself” (1076-79).  In other words, the speaker openly admits to being an egotist, but also invites others to join him.  This is similar to Black Sabbath’s final stanza in “Under the Sun:”

So believe what I tell you, it’s the only way to fight in the end
Just believe in yourself, you know you really shouldn’t have to pretend
don’t let those empty people try and interfere with your mind
Just live your life and leave them all behind (Black Sabbath).

The entire stanza is devoted to instructing others to be free like the speaker, whose “mind’s been released” (Black Sabbath).  In both cases, the goal of the speaker is to provide the listeners/readers with the strength to make up their own minds.

In short, Walt Whitman and Black Sabbath write of independent thinkers who seek to help their audiences be independent too.  They both have earth shattering views of God and religion, are egotistic and know it, and willing to show others the way.