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In this episode of Weird Studies, an improvised analysis of two pop songs -- Nina Simone\'s version of James Shelton\'s "Lilac Wine" and Ghostface Killah\'s visionary "Underwater" -- becomes the occasion for a deep dive to the weird wellspring of artistic creation. In trying to understand these songs and why they love them so much, your hosts touch on themes such as necromancy, decadence, liebestod, visionary experience, the Muslim image of paradise, the necessity of rifts, Norman Mailer\'s concept of "dream life," and the magical operation that is sampling.

Header image: Boris Kasimov, Wikimedia Commons

REFERENCES

James Shelton, "Lilac Wine"
\\nNina Simone, "Lilac Wine" from the album WIld is the Wind (1966)
\\nGhostface Killah, "Underwater, from the album Fishscale (2006)
\\nMF Doom, "Orange Blossoms," from the album Special Herbs, Volume 4, 5 & 6
\\nRichard Strauss, [Salome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salome(opera))_
\\nWeird Studies, episode 25: David Cronenberg\'s Naked Lunch
\\nC. G. Jung\'s practice of active imagination
\\nJF Martel, Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice
\\nThomas Mann, Death in Venice
\\nPaul Horn, Visions
\\nAlexander Mackendrick (dir.), The Sweet Smell of Success
\\nLes Baxter, American composer
\\nLes Baxter, "Papagayo"
\\nDebussy, [Nocturnes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnes(Debussy))_
\\nRebecca Leydon, music scholar
\\nWeird Studies episodes 73 and 74, on C. G. Jung\'s aesthetic vision
\\nAlexander Courage, Theme from Star Trek ("Where No Man Has Gone Before")
\\nRichard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
\\nNorman Mailer, \\u201cSuperman Comes to the Supermarket"
\\nJames Joyce, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake