Easter Blues ~OO~

Easter is a time to Passover the chocolate rabbits and devour their ears while facing East.

I have never seen the appeal of Easter.  Christmas celebrates the birth of a Jewish rabbi and Easter celebrates his execution and the subsequent graverobbers. This is kinky, gothic stuff…

“The stolen body hypothesis posits that the body of Jesus Christ was stolen from his burial place. His tomb was found empty not because he was resurrected, but because the body had been hidden somewhere else by the apostles or unknown persons. Both the stolen body hypothesis and the debate over it presume the basic historicity of the gospel accounts of the tomb discovery. The stolen body hypothesis finds the idea that the body was not in the tomb plausible – such a claim could be checked if early Christians made it – but considers it more likely that early Christians had been misled into believing the resurrection by the theft of Jesus’s body.”

Easter Theme Music https://youtu.be/1wfamPW3Eaw?list=RD1wfamPW3Eaw&t=21
Tom Waits – Chocolate Jesus

“Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time!”

― George Carlin

https://youtu.be/wRojpaiWICg?list=RDwRojpaiWICg
Monte Easter – Weekend Blues

“Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex.”

https://youtu.be/YUVmqtCxdUY?list=RDYUVmqtCxdUY&t=23
TOM WAITS – Chocolate Jesus @ Letterman

The word Easter does not appear to necessarily be derived from Ishtar, but from the German Eostre, the goddess of the dawn—a bringer of light.  Ishtar doesn’t seem to be connected to eggs in any explicit way.

For many Christians, Easter is about resurrection and religious myth. The primary sources of details about Jesus are the Gospels. Roman records provide less information – there is no extant contemporary record of the execution of Jesus, for example, not that such a thing would be expected, and thus no details about what was done with the body afterward. As such, accounts of the days between Jesus’s execution and the discovery of the empty tomb are almost exclusively based on the Gospel accounts and knowledge of society at the time, and it is difficult to say more than scenarios such as the stolen body hypothesis may be “plausible” or “unlikely,” rather than “proven” or “disproven”.^[1]“

https://youtu.be/8OG8Fjv42nM?list=RD8OG8Fjv42nM
otis taylor –

Resurrection Blues

“All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.”

― Edgar Allan Poe

https://youtu.be/S788gj9vdp0?list=RDS788gj9vdp0
Elmore James – The Sky Is Crying

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

https://youtu.be/6s9M-52fRGU?list=RD6s9M-52fRGU
The Sky Is Crying- Stevie Ray Vaughan

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/beyond-ishtar-the-tradition-of-eggs-at-easter/

More notions about Easter:

https://youtu.be/907–C40A7Q
Easter Blues Take #2

Hinduism makes a connection between the content of the egg and the structure of the universe: for example, the shell represents the heavens, the white the air, and the yolk the earth. The Chandogya Upanishads describes the act of creation in terms of the breaking of an egg:

https://youtu.be/BZRIB9AXC_4 John Coltrane Greatest Hits – [00:00] – Blue Train [10:49] – Equinox
[19:22] – In A Sentimental Mood [23:42] – Naima  [27:10] – Blue Train [37:59] – Equinox
[46:32] – In A Sentimental Mood [50:52] – Naima  [54:20] – Blue Train [01:05:09] – Equinox [01:15:04] – Equinox

The Sun is Brahma—this is the teaching. A further explanation thereof (is as follows). In the beginning this world was merely non-being. It was existent. It developed. It turned into an egg. It lay for the period of a year. It was split asunder. One of the two egg-shell parts became silver, one gold. That which was of silver is this earth. That which was of gold is the sky … Now what was born therefrom is yonder sun (1).

https://youtu.be/Ot2Z9lrzGJo
Easter Sunday Blues

“According to this version of the stolen body hypothesis, some of the disciples stole away Jesus’s body. Potential reasons include wishing to bury Jesus themselves; believing that Jesus would soon return and wanting his body in their possession; a “pious deceit” to restore Jesus’s good name after being crucified as a criminal; or an outright plot to fake a resurrection.^[3] In the pious deceit theory, the proposed motive is that if people believed God had taken Jesus’s body up to heaven, this would “prove” Jesus was a true holy man and vindicate his name.^[3] The “faked resurrection” theory is the only scenario discussed in the gospels, although Matthew brings it up solely to refute it and claim that the tale was a concoction of Jerusalem’s high priests. According to proponents of this theory, the fact that Matthew raises the issue makes it likely that such an anti-Christian narrative already existed at the time. Jesus’s entourage may have been at least as many as seventy (the Seventy Disciples), so it is not improbable according to proponents that at least one or two of them might have been willing to undertake such a plot.^[3] This theory also obviates the need for a miraculous resurrection.”

Eostre

The naming of the celebration as “Easter” seems to go back to the name of a pre-Christian goddess in England, Eostre, who was celebrated at beginning of spring. The only reference to this goddess comes from the writings of the Venerable Bede, a British monk who lived in the late seventh and early eighth century

https://youtu.be/4UPpIg6dpTA?list=RD4UPpIg6dpTA
Almost Easter Blues

The feast day of Easter was first a pagan holiday of renewal and rebirth. Honored in the early spring, it praised the pagan goddess of fertility and spring known as ‘Ostara’, ‘Eastre’ or ‘Eostre’. The word “Easter” finds its etymology from the goddess’s name.

https://youtu.be/ccTOop-xQHs
Easter Blues – Guitar Shorty

“Later works suggesting this include some of the “form critics” and the predecessors in Germany. One early example is Hermann Samuel Reimarus, who wrote in the 1700s. According to Reimarus, Jesus himself never imagined a religion like Christianity, and both he and his followers had been revolutionaries working for an earthly Kingdom of God after an overthrow of Roman rule. After Jesus’s death, his devastated followers who had expected important roles in a coming government still wished to wield power, and transformed Jesus’s political message into a spiritual one. In order for the switch in focus to work, they stole the body and left an empty tomb so that they could be respected leaders of a new religion, chosen by a resurrected prophet.^[6“

“The Germanic folk, known as the Teutons, worshiped pagan gods and goddesses and it’s believed that the origin of the Easter Bunny, hares and eggs can be dated back to the 13th century in Germany. Due to its prolific breeding tendencies, the rabbit became a symbol for Eostra. Eggs on the other hand were used as fertility symbols since antiquity. Originating among German Lutherans, the “Easter Hare” originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behavior at the start of the season of Eastertide. As a result, the Easter Bunny would come, just as Santa Claus would, bearing baskets filled with candy, chocolate, colored eggs, and such for the children.”

https://youtu.be/N5pHz0AbeZQ
Mississippi John Hurt – Candyman

“Grave-robbing was a known problem in 1st century Judaea; the famous Nazareth Inscription details an edict of Caesar that mandates capital punishment for meddling with tombs. Several other pieces of evidence exist as well, such as a decree of Emperor Septimius Severus reasserting the existing law, implying that its violation continued to be a problem in the 2nd century AD.^[9] It is thus possible that Jesus’s body was taken by graverobbers. ”

“The holiday commonly known as Easter, in spite of obvious differences, derives from the Jewish festivity the Torah calls “Pesach”, also known as “Passover”, an eight days-long celebration of the ancient Israelites liberation from Egyptian bondage and their subsequent exodus.

Easter as a celebration goes back much further than the Saxons and some say it evens goes as far back as the Sumerians and the legend of Damuzi (or Tammuz) and Ishtar (or Inanna). The legend known as ‘The Descent of Inanna’ was found inscribed on a 4,100 year old clay tablet. As Tammuz dies, Ishtar follows him into the underworld where she gets judged, killed and is hung on display. Meanwhile the earth goes into decline with crops failing, animals stop reproducing.

A lot of the information in this video comes from the brilliant article by Joanna Gillian from Ancient Origins and you can read this now at https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths... for more detailed information. ”

What day is pagan Easter?

https://youtu.be/9Zyr0IDaRXQ?list=RD9Zyr0IDaRXQ
Equinox · John Coltrane Coltrane’s Sound
℗ 1964 Atlantic Recording Drums: Elvin Jones
Tenor Saxophone: John Coltrane
Piano: McCoy Tyner Producer: Nesuhi Ertegun
Bass Guitar: Steve Davis Engineer: Tom Dowd
Writer: John Coltrane

It falls on the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox making it a celebration of the seasons, a concept rooted in paganism.

As a celebration of this strange history, we provide Easter music:

https://youtu.be/PGHKrs7328U
Otis Taylor-Feat-JoeCocker performs “Hey Joe”
made famous by Jimi Hendrix. Written by Billy Roberts

https://youtu.be/4l5IdDb2Xxs?list=RD4l5IdDb2Xxs
The Sky Is Crying · Albert King Stax Classics ℗ 1969 Stax Records Released on: 2017-05-19 Producer: Al Jackson Jr. Composers Lyricists: Elmore James Morgan Robinson

“I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist.”

― Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959

https://youtu.be/5Yivyp-zbkM?t=3
Jimi Hendrix Hey Joe

https://youtu.be/voH11xV4AKI?list=RDvoH11xV4AKI
Hurricane (Live on PBS, 1975)

https://youtu.be/5nbG52D_SGs?list=RD5nbG52D_SGs&t=4
I Shall Be Free

https://youtu.be/Ytd8f_XB5nU
Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell I Shall Be Free

https://youtu.be/HQojgTmmnMQ?list=RDHQojgTmmnMQ
Bob Dylan – I Shall Be Free No. 77 (Unreleased, Rare, 1964)
This much longer variation of “I Shall Be Free No. 10” was recorded by Bob Dylan in late 1964, after the release of “Another Side of Bob Dylan” in August. Its more experimental flavor a la weirder lyrics, at times atonal harmonica, and strumming variations seem to prefigure and provide a missing link between “Another Side” and the following year’s breakthrough “Bringing It All Back Home.”

Instead of Rabbits or Chickens, perhaps Easter is about Roosters…

https://youtu.be/Z3JPFa9up9w?list=RDYUVmqtCxdUY&t=17
Rolling Stones withTom Waits “Little Red Rooster”
from T pit @Oracle Arena Oakland, CA 5,5,2013

https://youtu.be/mvikf1gzrVQ?list=RDmvikf1gzrVQ
Little Red Rooster · Sam Cooke Night Beat ℗ Originally released: 1963-09-12
Producer: Hugo & Luigi Engineer: Dave Hassinger Conductor: Rene Hall
Associated Performer: Clif White Composer, Lyricist: Willie Dixon Piano: Raymond Johnson
Organ: Billy Preston Bass Guitar: Clifford A. Hils Drums: Hal Blaine Drums: Edward J. Hall

https://youtu.be/w57Xn1NVZx8?list=RDw57Xn1NVZx8
The DOORS & ALBERT KING – Little Red Rooster  Live At Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada 06-06-1970

https://youtu.be/6Vr-DR5HdKw?list=RD6Vr-DR5HdKw
Howlin’ Wolf – Little Red Rooster
WRITERS Willie Dixon

https://youtu.be/SW4FE8WkvuM?list=RDSW4FE8WkvuM
Willie Dixon-The Little Red Rooster Johnny Jones on piano, Willie Dixon on double bass, Sam Lay on drums, and possibly Jimmy Rogers on guitar. “The Red Rooster”, backed with “Shake for Me”, was recorded during the same session, Chess Records in October 1961.

https://youtu.be/d0_8_6n-UEA?list=RDd0_8_6n-UEA
Little Red Rooster , Junior Wells

I hope this provides some critical perspectives on Easter.

Religion

“The problem with writing about religion is that you run the risk of offending sincerely religious people, and then they come after you with machetes.”

― Dave Barry

https://youtu.be/JuHlSTaPeak?list=RDJuHlSTaPeak
The Sky Is Crying · Sonny Boy Williamson Keep It To Ourselves

https://youtu.be/OfqwwLRm2JE?list=RDOfqwwLRm2JE
Guitar Shorty, Easter blues

https://youtu.be/4UPpIg6dpTA?list=RD4UPpIg6dpTA
Almost Easter Blues · Black Magic Johnson Food for Thought

https://youtu.be/S4jc1TzwQ6E
The Chocolate Dandies Bobby Stark (tp) Jimmy Harrison (tb) Benny Carter (as,cl)
Coleman Hawkins (ts) Horace Henderson (p) Benny Jackson (g) John Kirby (brass-b)
New York, October 10, 1930

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