Beelzebub And Lilith (Part VII)
- Mixing-Up The Fluids: Red Crimson And Yellow Dylan
- King Crimson And Yellow Dylan (Part II)
- The Crimson King And The Yellow Jester (Part III)
- King Crimson and the Yellow Jester (Part IV)
- King Crimson And BeelzeBob (Part V)
- The Crimson King And Serpent Lilith (Part VI)
by Larry Fyffe
Beelzebub, the crimson king, over time becomes conflated with Satan; he’s often represented as a symbol of evil by interpreters of the Holy Bible. Satan disguises himself as a snake, and seduces Adam’s once loyal wife Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Simplification be damned, however, and Beelzebub, the grim reaper, becomes more complex – depicted figuratively as a seven-headed dragon, upon which sits his consort, a demiurgic Lilith-like she-devil who seduces human beings:
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour And decked with gold and precious stones and pearls Having a golden cup in her hand Full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication (Revelations 17:4)
Word images irresistible to creative and imaginative artists, including song writers:
There's a woman on my lap, and she's drinking champagne Got white skin, got assassin's eyes I'm looking up into sapphire-tinted skies I'm well dressed, waiting on the last train (Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed)
https://youtu.be/K_NvlvNWgsQ
An easy creative jump it be for an imaginative artist to portray one of the heads of the biblical crimson dragon as representing America, the Promised Land, a new and alluring place to start over.
But there’s bad news, a twist – America turns out to be the New Babylon (with its capital in Washington) that’s been released from the bottomless pit of Hell; the materialistic, not spiritualist, whore returns:
The road that you travel on
Goes to the Babylon Girl with the rose in her hair Starlight in the East And you're finally released You're stranded with nothing to share (Bob Dylan: No Time To Think)
With the benefit of hindsight, the singer/songwriter elaborates on the biblical prophecy below:
And the woman which thou sawest is that great city Which reigneth over the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:18)
Interpreted in earlier biblical times that one head of the red dragon personifies Jerusalem, the capital of Judah whose inhabitants have not fully accepted the mysterious Hebrew God as their one and only commander, a regrettable mistake for which its inhabitants will surely suffer.
Updated in the song lyrics quoted beneath:
Every empire that's enslaved him is gone Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand In bed with nobody, under no one's command He's the neighbourhood bully (Bob Dylan: Neighbourhood Bully)
According to the narrator above, given all the ensuing circumstances, there be a nonZionist space that remains to have sympathy for the Hebrews – given the way they’ve been negatively portrayed by the Gospel of John, and the Book of Revelations in the New Testament.
———
Untold Dylan is published daily (occasionally more often) and details of some of our series of articles can be found at the top of the page. If you would like to write for Untold Dylan please email a copy of your article, or your idea for an article to Tony@schools.co.uk. We also have a Facebook group – just go to Facebook and search for Untold Dylan.