Walk the Moon's "i want! i want!" album cover
The Cincinnati indie rock band, Walk the Moon, released their debut album, “i want! i want!”, in November of 2010. An engraving William Blake included in his 18-piece compilation called For the Children: The Gates of Paradise inspired the title of the album. For the Children: The Gates of Paradise is a series of tiny engravings that chronicle the life of man—from birth to death—including events such as interactions with the fire and earth and the natural human feelings of fear and desire. The album’s namesake, “I Want! I Want!” is a 6cm by 5cm engraving in which a figure wearing a wide hat stands at the foot of a slender ladder that is propped against a crescent moon. The man wearing the hat is not looking up at, the moon smiling its Cheshire cat smile, but at the starry background and/or a couple who stands behind him, embracing one another, seemingly oblivious to his astounding yet dangerously disastrous ambition.
On the “i want! i want!” album there is a song entitled “Want! I Want!” and a song entitled “William Blake”. The two songs share the same lyrics, which describes the adolescent desires of a 17-year-old boy and alludes to sexual encounters and the shedding of innocence, however “William Blake” is more upbeat with a faster tempo and a strange, chipmunk distortion. While the distortion of the instruments and vocals adds emphasis to the lines outlining how strange “feigning innocence” is or the sounds of his love are, one could argue there isn’t a point to the distortion at all. I would assume the band was trying to fill space on their album, and wanted to try out song editing, granted that this was their first album and it was self-produced. However, the story woven in the lyrics of “William Blake” add commentary to the “I Want! I Want!” engraving in the form of Walk the Moon’s interpretation of the image.
Engraving of "I Want! I Want!" from William Blake's "For the Children: The Gates of Paradise"
The song is about love and the desire of every aspect of love, regardless of how “strange” or risky. It was the close scrutinizing of the song lyrics that brought out an essential detail of the engraving that is easily missed amongst the backdrop of mystical space and the absurd, impossible idea of climbing a flimsy ladder to the moon. The man at the base of the ladder is looking at what he desires, or wants, the most, and it’s not the moon. His head is turned, and you can’t see his face, but it is clear to see that he is either looking at the starry sky or toward the embracing couple standing behind him. At the observation of this essential component of the piece, one can see now that Blake was juxtaposing the desire of romantic relationships (and often times the feeling of how unattainable that is and how lonely someone can be when single) to the impossible idea of climbing to the moon—which is obviously a disaster waiting to happen, but a symbol of dreaming big and wanting all of what the vast universe can offer. In the Walk the Moon song, William Blake is not only a symbol of ambition and the zest of human desires, but an inspiration and also a model of how to present common, everyday experiences and feelings through a creative medium.
Somewhat incorrect lyrics can be found on the “William Blake” youtube video linked above.
I really like the way you point out the “disastrous ambition” of the man in Blake’s carving who wants to climb to the moon. At first glance, I did not consider the possibly horrific consequences of his mission but now that ladder is starting to look pretty rickety. This carving really shows a lot even though it is fairly simple. For instance, I can look at it and see the man, sights set on the moon, not looking back. I can look at it again and see him turned towards the lovers or the starts, as you suggest. Also, I can see the woman, caught up in a loving embrace. But can I also see her hand stretched out toward the man climbing the ladder, as if she means to stop him, but the other man holds her back. It’ s so cool how we can see understand so many different scenarios from this one carving.
This band is a groovy band. I’m glad you introduced me to them. Your assumption that Walk The Moon was trying to ‘fill up space’ on their album confuses me. Why are you assuming that? What makes you think that distorting songs are just for the purpose of making an album the proper length? I would argue that musical artists have put similar songs on their albums – and not just to fill up said ‘space’. The Rolling Stones have a song “Honky Tonk Woman” and released right before that is “Country Honk” – the same lyrics and same chord procession but one is classic rock and the other is country western. Charlie Daniels on his Greatest Hits album has one serious song and then a parody of that serious song: “Uneasy Rider”;”Uneasy Rider 88″. It gives the audience a different perspective on how the artist approached their own work not only to provide different meaning but to also do justice to the artist who created the song.
I was intrigued by your analysis of Blake in this Walk the Moon song. I also like that you used Walk the Moon because I’m from Cincinnati so i thought that was cool! But yeah, I like how rather than using Blake’s poetic style, you discuss one of the engravings from “For The Children: From The Gates of Paradise.” I thought the engraving itself was very cool. Katherine captures basically what i’d say about the engraving, in that it can be interpreted in numerous ways, but i think that your connection of “William Blake” to the engraving is explained very well. I like your explanation of love as “risky” and “strange” and even “impossible,” and the way you connect that to the picture was very interesting to me. Super-sweet analysis.
@Mary, I was saying that I didn’t really see much of a point to feature a track on the album that was a distorted version of a song featured on the album, not discrediting the existence or meaning of distorted songs. I figured they were either filling up space, or practicing song editing (because the album was self-produced and it’s fun to play around with things like that). When you visit their official website, “William Blake” isn’t even offered as a track you can listen to and is omitted, but when you buy the album, it comes with the 11th “William Blake” track. Who knows why they made/included the song on their album. I was merely hypothesizing, and it’s easy to see why I would conclude that the song doesn’t seem too important to the band itself (especially when you compare “William Blake” to the other great songs on their album).
Dear Lynea,
As the other Joe says, what a super-sweet analysis—of both the song and the Blake engraving! What I’d really like to know, though, is what line(s) from the song made you look differently at the engraving. And where and how does the engraving function as part of the album art? Why do you think the band wanted to reference Blake—why not just sing the song (since I don’t think they directly quote any lyrics in it, do they?)
And while I get Mary’s point about why bands might want to offer alternative versions of songs on their albums, the Chipmunk version drove me crazy. But, otherwise, as she says, WtheM seems ” a groovy band.”
Nice work!
~jh