Pennington, John

English

St. Norbert College

North Wind: A Journal of George MacDonald StudiesVolume 25 Article 101-1-2006George MacDonald as Rock Star?John PenningtonFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.snc.edu/northwindThis Notes and Queries is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Digital Commons @ St. Norbert College. It has been accepted forinclusion in North Wind: A Journal of George MacDonald Studies by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ St. Norbert College. For moreinformation, please contact sarah.titus@snc.edu.Recommended CitationPennington, John (2006) "George MacDonald as Rock Star?," North Wind: A Journal of George MacDonald Studies: Vol. 25 , Article 10.Available at: http://digitalcommons.snc.edu/northwind/vol25/iss1/10N&QGeorge MacDonald as Rock Star?John Penningtone all remember the chapter “Nanny’s Dream” from At the Back ofthe North Wind: Nanny finds herself inside the moon where shelooks at “such lots of stars, all so big, and shining as hard as everthey could!”  Diamond tells her that “the little girl-angels had been polishingthem,” which prompts Nanny to state: “What nonsense you do talk!”Maybe I am talking a bit of nonsense equating MacDonald to a rock star.But there is one rock star who aligns himself with MacDonald, findinginspiration for his music in the Victorian writer.  So maybe MacDonald is arock star after all!Mike Scott, the leader of the Scottish band The Waterboys, has beenchanneling MacDonald’s spirit into his music for years.  In its 2003 albumUniversal Hall, The Waterboys sing in this library I could lose myselftransports, gateways on every shelfdark words, bright words or ice and fireas if an angel did descend and use the writer as a penfor here are “avalon of the heart”“flight into freedom”macdonald’s “lilith” and  “fantastes” [sic]lewis’s “perelandra”The refrain of the song is the following: “ i sacrifice my power on the altar ofyour love / that it may be born again on another world.” The song also usesthe images of the stairs and tower, which is most certainly a homage toMacDonald.In a 1998 interview in Waves, Scott talks about his influences,particularly MacDonald and C. S. Lewis.  When Scott discloses that he is agreat fan of Lewis’s The Great Divorce, the interviewer mentions theimportance of MacDonald to that work.  “I’d read George MacDonald longbefore,” says Scott.  “Phantastes was my first one I read in 1983.  Iremember reading it in the Portobello Hotel in London.”  Scott’s discoveringof MacDonald should remind us of Lewis’s first foray into Phantastes, whichhe claims baptized his imagination.  Scott seems to be following in Lewis’sfootsteps.The Waterboys’ most obvious indebtedness to MacDonald can be foundWin its 1990 album Room to Roam, which is named after a MacDonald poemfound in Phantastes and Lilith. In the song “Room to Roam,” Scott modifiesMacDonald’s lyrics to read as follows:You go yoursand I’ll go minethe many ways we wendMany daysand many waysending in one endMany a wrongand its curing songMany a roadand many an innRefrainRoom to roambut only one homefor all the word to winYou go yours and I’ll go mineand the many many ways we’ll wendMany daysand many waysending in one endMacDonald’s poem appears in Chapter XLII: “I Sleep the Sleep” in Lilith,where Vane tells us that heheard every word she sang, but could keep only this:—Many a wrong, and its curing song;Many a road, and many an inn;Room to roam, but only one homeFor all the world to win!”And I thought I had heard the song before.Maybe The Waterboys’ Mike Scott is a disciple of Anodos and Vane,those two wanderers that MacDonald gives plenty of narrative room for themto roam.Note: in Poetical Works: Volume II MacDonald has a poem entitled “Room toRoam,” but it is quite different from the Phantastes and Lilith one:STRAIT is the path?  He means we must not roam?Notes and Queries | 125Yes; but the strait path leads into a boundless home.Works Cited“Mike Scott Talks about the Writer C. S. Lewis to Stuart Bailie.”  WavesWinter 1998.<http.www.mikescottwaterboys.com/mikescottwaterboys/Archive.>MacDonald, George.  At the Back of the North Wind. Whitehorn, CA:Johannesen, 2002.—. Lilith. Whitehorn, CA: Johannesen, 2001.—.  Phantastes. Whitehorn, CA: Johannesen, 2000.—.  Poetical Works: Volume II. Whitehorn, CA: Johannesen, 1996.The Waterboys.  Room to Roam. Chrysalis, 1990.—.  Universal Hall. Puck Records, 2003.“I felt two large, soft arms thrown round me from behind” Phantastes. 1905 ed. Dover. Illustrated by Arthur Hughes.126 | Notes and Queries

George MacDonald as Rock Star?

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George MacDonald as Rock Star?

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