In the beginning

Man created God;
and in the image of Man
created he him.

2 And Man gave unto God a multitude of
names, that he might be Lord of all
the earth when it was suited to Man

3 And on the seven millionth
day Man rested and did lean
heavily on his God and saw that
it was good.

4 And Man formed Aqualung of
the dust of the ground, and a
host of others likened unto his kind.

5 And these lesser men were cast into the
void; And some were burned, and some were
put apart from their kind.

6 And Man became the God that he had
created and with his miracles did
rule over all the earth.

7 But as all these things
came to pass, the Spirit that did
cause man to create his God
lived on within all men: even
within Aqualung.

8 And man saw it not.

9 But for Christ’s sake he’d
better start looking.

© Ian Anderson 1971

Sunday.  Yesterday afternoon I browsed at Batavia’s Kiss The Sky vinyl shop.  The shop was busy.  It was Saturday afternoon.  For twenty minutes I enjoyed the art of album covers, outrageous expressions of form, color, and meaning.  Everything from Taylor Swift to Jethro Tull.  I couldn’t shake the thought that album covers express celebration and criticism of life-as-we-know-it. A album cover is an appetizer if you will.  The full course is what you get upon purchase of the record. The diamond tip needle mediates faithfully a vocalist’s voice, and attending instruments.  Music, wonderful music!  Is anything more needed?  Really!  I wonder if Homer’s Iliad was recited to music?

These lines, prose approaching poetry, were taken from the Aqualung album cover by Jethro Tull.  Jethro Tull was a British rock band from the late 1970’s.  Ian Anderson was the leading vocalist.  Anderson certainly demonstrates his gift for observation, and for truth telling in his parody of the introduction to the Genesis creation story.

This alternate creation story is a pull-back of a stage curtain to reveal actions that produce the effects.  Perhaps this could be your point of view if you are ready to make good use of it!  God as man’s employee, or better a board of directors (many names) to control the entire earth, subject to man’s desire.  Then Aqualung is created, a creature, a prototype formed by man rather than God.  This a rif on our founding myth.

The concluding note is of man blind to what he has done/created.

And Christ?  An appeal for humanity to open its eyes.

The header photo is of Jethro Tull, Hamburg 1973.