Mechanical Animals · Visual Parallels

[absinthe bunny]

I'm sure there are more of these 'amputeed arm' references:

Image from the Mechanical Animals artwork (indicated is a '15' reference):

Painting 'Hand Of Glory':

Outfit of Ginger Fish I got (Dope Show video / Video Music awards performance / Drum! Magazine and I-D photoshoots):

[Lauren]

From Drawing Restraint 7 (1993, dir Matthew Barney)

[AlcoholicArtist]

Wow good find aren't there other things that Manson used from him?

[Iulian]

Lauren, good find! I also found these:

[Norsefire]

Lilly Allen last night at the Brit Awards @ 2.20



MM The Dope Show MTV awards @ 3.10

I saw the pink army men last night on the brit awards and it reminded me of the pink police men for the Dope Show.

[S.D.]

Drugs are evil. Elvis is evil. Evil is good. Get your name in lights.

Elvis Presley on stage during his 1968 "Comeback", and Marilyn Manson thirty years later during the Rock Is Dead Mechanical Animals live tour. Not the first time Manson has evoked or been compared with Elvis of course, there are numerous parallels, not only the shoot with Manson dressed as The King of Rock N' Roll, or David Lynch's quote comparing the two in The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell. Obviously he is close friends with Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie, I believe she once described him as the most exciting live performer of this generation. High praise when your dad was Elvis.
I always thought the Helnwein shoot for The Golden Age Of Grotesque with the rifle was similar to images of Elvis in the military:-

Right photo courtesy of helnwein.com

[Mary]

Marilyn Manson - S.D.

[S.D.]

I haven't visited one of my favourite topics for a while, there's been some great ideas on the last few pages, thank you for sharing everyone.

I got a book of Polaroid photography, flicking through it I saw this pic of Andy Warhol.

This is interesting, not only because the picture comparison is cool, but also because it made me think about Warhol's influence on Mechanical Animals. There's the commonly known appropriation of "15 minutes", but I also thought about Manson referring to Coma White as a "Just bleeding like a polaroid". A polaroid picture develops automatically within seconds of being taken. The lyrical metaphor was written prior to the mass-influx of digital photography commercially, and so perhaps it was being used to describe how "stars" seem to develop so quickly, reflecting Warhol's sentiment, and the "Disposable" nature of such easily found fame. A fairly simple metaphor I guess, but there's still more to know about Mechanical Animals, and the commentaries within are probably even more applicable to the entertainment world today than when it was recorded, so I like to think further about what Manson was trying to say with it.

Also, focusing on the same period of expression, I love this picture of Marilyn Manson, my father found a copy of it for me years ago and I had it on the wall for ages. It reminds me of another favourite image, the cover art for Iggy Pop's The Idiot:-

I guess it's another slight overlap with the Bowie & Manson topic this week, given it was Bowie who produced and co-wrote The Idiot. In his Bowie biography, Christopher Sandford explains that the cover for The Idiot and Heroes were both inspired by artwork Bowie had seen at Berlin's Brücke-Museum whilst living there.
Also, Twiggy Ramirez has mentioned in interviews that the drums and bass for The Dope Show were basically lifted from Pop's Nightclubbing (also The Idiot), both of which feature as the second track on their respective albums. Oh, and unrelated to this visual parallel, but Manson also said the band tried to evoke the "Heroin Rock" atmosphere of the album whilst recording WOW. I'd say they were successful, it certainly wouldn't sound out of place on The Idiot.

[Lauren]

This screenshot from Blood and Roses (Roger Vadim, 1960) reminds me of one the scenes in the Dope Show music video.

Screenshot via Obscure Hollow.

[Lauren]

By Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, 1993