First of all, I don't know if any of you have ever actually tried to find an examination of rock and roll and the occult that DOESN'T reach the conclusion that the Beatles want you to rape and murder in the name Satan, but let me tell you that it is by no means an easy task.
However, after wading through several pages worth of people trying to convince me that Satanists, the British military, and record companies were all banding together to wage a war on judeo-christian values, I finally managed to come upon what I think is a pretty unbiased and informative paper on the topic.
Firstly, did you know that when people say rock and roll can trace its' roots back to African tribal music it's actually more specifically tracing its' roots back to the kind of music played to honor various tribal and voodoo gods? So in short, rock and roll actually owes its' very beginnings to the occult.
However, after that admittedly impressive first introduction the otherworldy influence took a mulligan from the rock scene as men like Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley came into prominence (though while the devil himself may have been on break, the perennial party poopers on the right were always keen to try and bring old scratch back into the picture.) but came back again in the sixties with your friend and mine Aleister Crowley making an appearance on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album.
However, it wasn't until the seventies that the "Rock 'n' Roll= Satan" train really started to get rolling. The first major (and public) link between the two forces came with the alliance of Kenneth Anger and Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, an interest in the occult that was fostered in the stones by self proclaimed spell caster named Anita Pallenberg and carried over into songs like "Sympathy for the Devil."
And for those not content with a history lesson, the paper goes on to advance a variety of reasons as to why popular musicians seem so eager to incorporate occult themes into their work. And while he advances a variety of theories that are all at least partially correct, I personally think the theory that it is merely a reflection and reaction to society of the time that carries the most weight.
As was stated earlier, the first really overt link between the occult and rock came in the seventies, a period in time when Occult films like "The Omen" and "The Exorcist" were gaining particular prominence. This trend continued in the eighties where more "extreme" bands with occult influenced like Iron Maiden could be considered comprable in style to more graphic occult films like "House by the Cemetery" or "The Evil Dead."
When considered in this context, it seems fair to say that when one wants to consider the link between the occult and rock 'n' roll, one should really look no further than the societal context of the piece in reference to its' time of release because that very arguably seems to be the most decisive factor. And now that this opinion has been advanced over the internet, I'm sure even the staunchest opponents of the occult and rock 'n' roll will be sure to give it a read and lay down their arms so we can move on into a new age of peaceful coexistence.
....But, you know, I'm sure we gotta give it a few days to sink in.
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