Patti Smith & The Doors- their celebration of William Blake’s enduring significance.

Today we launched into The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and especially we began by looking at the ways in which William Blake has become a prophetic figure for the Age of Aquarius in the second half of the Twentieth Century and beyond. It was indeed William Blake who coined the phrase “the New Age” . See this link for programmes on William Blake and the New Age: http://www.davidcayley.com/podcasts/2015/2/7/william-blake-prophet-of-a-new-age

We listened to Patti Smith singing in New York, celebrating her enduring passion for William Blake as a mentor for her life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQiTP707Nu0

And we listened to The Doors in their Marriage of Heaven and Hell inspired song “Break On Through (To the Other Side)” & “End of the Night” with its direct references to Blake’s personal sense of his being a disruptive outsider in the Police State that was England in the last decade of the 18th Century: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCohm_CilUY & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmBErhkoczY

So Blog Topics for this week run something like this: 

1/ CRITICAL  Can you summarize briefly in what ways “The Argument” to The Marriage of Heaven and Hell obliquely enacts themes that will be developed later in The M. of H. and H. I am not asking you to go into the poem any further than focussing on “The Argument” itself.

2/ CREATIVE Write a poem or song that is based on any of Blake’s lines that you find particularly relevant or haunting. Record yourself reading or singing the song and put it into your blog via youtube.

3/ CREATIVE You can of course do number 2 without going the whole hog into a recording session.

4/ CRITICAL Take any of the songs that we explored today (Patti Smith and/or The Doors) and discuss how the song embodies a Blakean insight into human experience that is still relevant today.

5/ CREATIVE/ CRITICAL Create a short digital kit that gives further insight into either Patti Smith or The Door’s fruitful relationship with Blake’s ideas and his creativity.

6/ REMEMBER You are always permitted to create your very own blog topic as long as it has some connection with what we have been doing in the week. ENJOY!!

Here are the Audios for today’s tutorials and lecture: