I feel the Third Eye Blind songs I Want You and 1000 Julys are examples of this. In 1000 Julys, a more highly charged sexual song, he screams "'cause I'm a vampire y'all, we toast the blood of our enemies, you're still scaring me no...". Since the song is more about sex than affective love (though some of that's in there), the vampire imagery is more aggressive and asserting (as if to say here I am, in all my masculinity to come and conquer!).
Among I Want You's lyrics of graveyards, dancing, and prayer candle burning through the night (note: Stephan Jenkins says he's atheist), he repeatedly challenges the woman he's singing to: "I want you, send me all your vampires!" The vampire imagery here is more affective since he appears willing to take on the vampires to be with her. Despite the people in the grave that he says "Jesus couldn't save", he still talks about having a soul that's deeper than bones, the candle, and having her giving him hope through the night (much like we might argue love gives us hope through life, which might be considered a "night").
Third Eye Blinds Jenkins also produced Vanessa Carlton's Harmonium while he was dating her (I think it was right around the time they broke up) and one of the tracks, titled Half a Week Before the Winter, has a reference of unicorns running high ("powerful with coats of white, I turn to look but burn my eyes) and vampires growing tired ("the coats of white all turn to red, my heart burns with desire"). It'd be interesting if the song was about how SJ made her feel, but supposedly it was actually about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and her wanting to make a statement about the music industry (the vampires) sucking the good out of what's pure and true.
Well I don't expect to be taken seriously now that you know the type of stuff on my playlist, but it's fun to think about. I myself like vampires because of their strong folk-religious heritage and the metaphors of wood and water, as the wood of the stake conquers evil as much as the wood of the cross declares itself conqueror of misery and sin (I forget who made the wood metaphor—I must credit you!). The holy water burns the vampires is the same water that washes us clean and sends us out into the world.
The castles vampires live in reminds me of Saint Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle (!) as our journey through a castle of many vermin and serpents (at least those in the outer rooms) toward the God found in the innermost room mirrors the frightened guest navigating through a mysterious and treacherous castle looking for a way out. However in Teresa's castle, the only way out is in. Alternatively, the vampire castle could represent a person navigating through the Jungian shadow side, in which case the only way out would also be through (i.e. facing the unconscious).
I can probably also use a vampire metaphor to describe my four year limerant experience (wow another topic for another day, i.e. what's limerence?!) in the sense that said "vampire" was as much as an adrenaline rush as a blood-life sucker. Since it was an unrequited love experience (there's the whole forbidden thing), there was the dual attraction of both being high but also knowing the cost of that high.
Case in point, I feel that blend of religion and sexuality is what makes them attractive for so many people.
Vampires...how about them?
Third Eye Blinds Jenkins also produced Vanessa Carlton's Harmonium while he was dating her (I think it was right around the time they broke up) and one of the tracks, titled Half a Week Before the Winter, has a reference of unicorns running high ("powerful with coats of white, I turn to look but burn my eyes) and vampires growing tired ("the coats of white all turn to red, my heart burns with desire"). It'd be interesting if the song was about how SJ made her feel, but supposedly it was actually about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and her wanting to make a statement about the music industry (the vampires) sucking the good out of what's pure and true.
Well I don't expect to be taken seriously now that you know the type of stuff on my playlist, but it's fun to think about. I myself like vampires because of their strong folk-religious heritage and the metaphors of wood and water, as the wood of the stake conquers evil as much as the wood of the cross declares itself conqueror of misery and sin (I forget who made the wood metaphor—I must credit you!). The holy water burns the vampires is the same water that washes us clean and sends us out into the world.The castles vampires live in reminds me of Saint Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle (!) as our journey through a castle of many vermin and serpents (at least those in the outer rooms) toward the God found in the innermost room mirrors the frightened guest navigating through a mysterious and treacherous castle looking for a way out. However in Teresa's castle, the only way out is in. Alternatively, the vampire castle could represent a person navigating through the Jungian shadow side, in which case the only way out would also be through (i.e. facing the unconscious).
I can probably also use a vampire metaphor to describe my four year limerant experience (wow another topic for another day, i.e. what's limerence?!) in the sense that said "vampire" was as much as an adrenaline rush as a blood-life sucker. Since it was an unrequited love experience (there's the whole forbidden thing), there was the dual attraction of both being high but also knowing the cost of that high.
Case in point, I feel that blend of religion and sexuality is what makes them attractive for so many people.
Vampires...how about them?
Photo Credit: Opening Credits of a Certain Vampire TV series...
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