I've long thought that "Bitches Crystal" is one of the best tracks on Emerson Lake & Palmer's 1971 LP Tarkus. It has the familiar ELP formula, with a brisk tempo, a genre-bending piano solo, cool washes of synthesizer and interesting lyrics. It's hard to forget a line like "Heretic priestess dwells on the weakness she sees."
Heady stuff. But there are several issues here. First of all, the title: is there an apostrophe missing? Shouldn't the title be Bitch's Crystal or Bitches' Crystal?
And, as with Karn Evil 9, we face the old problem: what do the lyrics (written by Greg Lake) mean - if anything?
Bitches crystal notes how you twist all the lines
Fortune teller, future seller of time
Chorus:
Tortured spirits cry
Fear is in their eyes
Ghostly images die
Witch's potion mixed in the ocean of tears
Mystical powers emerge from the towers of fear
[Chorus]
Evil learning, people burning
Savage blasting, no one lasting
Witchcraft, sadness, madness turn in their minds
Ritual killings that swear in the [shillings?] to beGroping for meaning, it occurred to me that the lyrics could be describing television. The bitch’s crystal is your television set. The song describes the programs shown thereon. When you turn off the set, “ghostly images die.”
Heretic priestess dwells on the weakness she sees
[Chorus]
But this is tortured reasoning. We must accept the possibility that the lyrics have no deeper meaning. Perhaps this is just a song about a witch looking into her crystal ball, the spells she casts, and the images she sees. Or perhaps these are merely clever phrases strung together in free association, a loosely connected series of cool-sounding words that rhyme and fit the song's cadence, like some Moody Blues tunes.
That may be how the song actually came to be. But I have imagined a scenario that is much more satisfying. It's an extension of an experience I had some years ago at a late-night street fair in Las Vegas.
It was well after midnight, and the crowd was thinning out. The only street performer that interested me was a woman dressed like a gypsy, standing beside a cleverly painted gypsy wagon. She was darkly handsome, and looked haughty and cruel, and rather dangerous as well. Inside the wagon, I could see a small table and two chairs. Stay away, my inner voice told me.
But had I entered that wagon, what might the fortune teller have seen in her bitch's crystal? She would be a heretic priestess that dwells on the weakness she sees. Her words would be dark and disturbing, foretelling suffering and a frustrated life of thwarted plans which never come to fruition. In her crystal ball tortured spirits cry, fear in their eyes. Then the ghostly images die, and darkness overcomes me. I awake in an alley, with my watch and wallet missing and a pounding headache from the witch's potion (mixed in an ocean of tears) she slipped into my drink. Before the sun comes up, I stagger home and write the lyrics to Bitches Crystal.
There is in fact a gypsy fortune teller in Las Vegas on Fremont Street. I never went into the wagon, so most of this never happened. If you don't like this fevered fantasy, I challenge you to submit a better one.
Further Reading:
I wondered myself too (for decades now).
ReplyDeleteUntil recently I saw a French TV-series "Meurtres à ..." where one episode took place in Bitche, France: a major site where crystal is being produced.
Not that this has been any help in understanding the lyrics though ;-)
One great advantage of not being a native English speaker, is that you dont't really pay a lot of attention to the lyrics, but merely to the music itself. Once I try to understand the lyrics, I often get disappointed: is that all it's about? Not a big deal however. Haha.
Have a nice day,
Cor
Thank you, Cor. I just noticed this.
ReplyDeleteI've always interpreted this song as the deception and evil that surrounds mystic and supernatural beliefs. The "bitch" being the woman with the crystal ball. She's twisting the lines (making false presumptions) for her own profit "future seller of time". People succumb to mystical beliefs out of fear of death or bad omens "Mystical powers emerge from the towers of fear".
ReplyDeleteThe flip side of this fear is fear of witches "Evil learning, people burning
Savage casting, no one lasting" which lead to the burning of witches.
I can't speak to every phrase in this song, but that's been my take.
And finally:
noun
plural noun: bitches
So I think the song applies to a group, not an individual.
My 2 cents.
Well said. It’s a great song, whatever the lyrics mean. Maybe it doesn’t really matter.
ReplyDeleteYou know I just ran into this song after having the album on and off over the years and this a track I just put in my 8-track player to play the 8-track version I still have to check out while I was doing some housework. In the background caught some of the lyrics but never paid attention to them before. Whatever it means as some mentioned : witchcraft producing evil spells, crystal meth drug production in foreign countries Whatever it means witchcraft,producing evil spells, crystal meth drug production in foreign countries or alluding to many being slaves to media whether television then and computer Android Smart phone screens now with immoral and evil actions and words depicted they all can defile the body and soul. Thus commentary and warning perhaps 🙏
ReplyDelete