The number of the beast

Post 666

This is my 666th post.

It should be something creepy or evil shouldn’t it.  What actually sprung to mind though  was growing up in conservative white South Africa in the eighties and there being a general hysteria about the number.

From those ridiculous eighties Pentecostal preachers howling and wailing about the number of the beast to searching Iron Maiden album covers for secret 666 markings  it was a number that was just often there in popular culture.

Kids would joke about it,  bushy bearded racist Afrikaner pastors would warn against it and eighties horror films featured it heavily.  If you’ve seen the omen you will surely recall the head shaving bit where the numbers are revealed.

In school I recall sitting through lessons where we were made quite aware of the dangers of all things modern and particularly anything relating to Iron Maiden and quite specifically ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by Led Zepplin which, if our teacher was to be believed,  would inevitably lead you to all manner of beastly activities including masturbation, smoking marijuana and fornication.

Makes me realise that we really have not come that far as a species when we pay such heed to superstitious nonsense though ‘Stairway’ does remain one of my favourite tracks to this day.

Happy Friday 🙂

 

Author: Michael

Husband, dad,(ex)programmer, comic collector and proud Yorkshireman. I have no idea why im here or why im writing but i rather enjoy it. no great fan of punctuation;

16 thoughts on “The number of the beast”

  1. Brings back memories. In the 80’s I was listening to Black Sabbath and playing Dungeons & Dragons. My mom was certain I was lost to the dark arts.

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  2. I’m grateful another child of the 80s like myself, and one from another hemisphere, no less, has come safely through the culture wars and lived to fight for the side of tolerance and right. Ahem… Err… right being politically left, that is!

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  4. Ah, “Stairway to Heaven” happens to be, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest musical works of the 20th century. No wonder I turned out the way I did!

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  6. I remember seeing videos on YouTube where they would play those songs backwards and decipher all manner of satanic messages 😂 stairway to heaven never gets old.

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  7. Oh yeah one of the songs I think the house by The Beatles if you play backwards they said it’s said decided to smoke marijuana. Or maybe it was by Queen I don’t remember. Such hilarious hysteria

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  10. South Africa was heavily influenced by America in the 80s all of our television was America all of our music was America. We couldn’t get anything British over there because there was a equity artist ban on exporting anything to South Africa so mostly we just got the same as you got just six months later.

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