(in no particular order, because I gotta give myself some limits as a superfan, for fuck’s sake)
- Cars (examples: “Mustang Ford” by John’s Children, “Metal Guru” by T. Rex, “Get It On [Bang a Gong]” by T. Rex, “Hot Rod Mama” by John’s Children, “Black and White Incident”, “Buick McKane”, “Jeepster”…)
- Swans, Doves, Birds (examples: “Ride a White Swan”, “The Beginning of Doves”…
- Mystics and Wizards (examples: “Cat Black”, “Messin With the Mystic”…)
- Paganism (examples: “Ride a White Swam”…)
- Fairie1 races (examples: “On Ince Rock”, Dwarvish Trumpet Blues” by Tyrannosaurus Rex, “Sally Was an Angel”, “She Was Born to Be My Unicorn”…)
- Entheogens and recreational drugs (examples: “Jasmine Forty-Nine”, “Hippy Gumbo” by John’s Children…)
- Magical items and places (“Rings of Fortune”, “The Beginning of Doves”, “Stones of Avalon”, “Misty Mist”, “Eastern Spell”…)
- Dance (examples: “One Inch Rock”, “Cosmic Dancer”)
- Mythology (examples: “Dandy In the Underworld”)
This was actually a much harder post to make than I thought it would be. Especially thinking of examples. I’ve been a fan of his music for about twenty years, so I tend to take a lot of these lyrics for granted —yes, I acknowledge the common themes, but analysing the music for common themes is different from absorbing it and immersing oneself in the real meaning of the what’s being said without really giving undue attention to the literal words that make up the references. I basically had to take some time to temporarily unlearn my experiences of his music after two decades of cultivation to see what nubs and non-fans see.
1: I’m using the term “fairie” here very generally, to encompass similar spirits and entities, including elves and dwarves, nymphs, etc….