Saturday, July 4, 2009

Milton Metal

Recently watching Anvil!, a documentary about a Canadian metal band who never made it big, confirmed something I've thought for years. The biggest omission in the volume on Milton in Popular Culture--and maybe in all of the tedious brouhaha over whether/why Milton is still culturally relevant--is metal. Check out the lyrics from Anvil's "666":

I'd rather be a king below than a servant above
I'd rather be free and hate than a prisoner of love
You heard my warning but you didn't, didn't, didn't learn.

The thread of cultural influence would be interesting to follow (Milton-->Blake-->[???]--->death metal-->Trapper Keeper designers, etc.).

N.B.: I cut-and-pasted the lyrics from a youtube comment; I make no claims of accuracy.