THE DEAD FLAG BLUES
If there was one song that stayed with me as a constant inspiration throughout the years it for sure is Godspeed You! Black Emperor's undying ethereal swan song to western civilization titled "The Dead Flag Blues". Many attempts on my end failed to create something that could hold its weight against the beautiful words Efrim Menuck wrote all those years ago and so the idea to visualize it did rest uneasy in the back of my mind for a very, very long time.
With this series I took a foray into the unknown, using AI image generation to visualize the poem at the beginning of the song and have the setting be an americana inspired one but with apocalyptic undertones that will become more and more apparent the further down the story we go. All captured in a photojournalistic and documentary photography style via advanced prompting.
We start with the legendary: "The car is on fire and there is no driver at the wheel."
The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides. And a dark wind blows
The government is corrupt
And we're on so many drugs with the radio on and the curtains drawn
And we're on so many drugs with the radio on and the curtains drawn
We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death
And the machine is bleeding to death
The sun has fallen down and the billboards are all leering
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles
The buildings tumbled in on themselves
Mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble
And pulled out their hair
And pulled out their hair
The skyline was beautiful on fire
All twisted metal stretching upwards everything washed in a thin orange haze
All twisted metal stretching upwards everything washed in a thin orange haze
I said: "kiss me, you're beautiful - these are truly the last days"
You grabbed my hand and we fell into it
Like a daydream or a fever
Like a daydream or a fever
We woke up one morning and fell a little further down -
For sure it's the valley of death
For sure it's the valley of death
The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows
The government is corrupt and we're on so many drugs
With the radio on and the curtains drawn
With the radio on and the curtains drawn
We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine and the machine is bleeding to death
The sun has fallen down and the billboards are all leering
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles
It went like this:
The buildings tumbled in on themselves
Mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble and pulled out their hair
Mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble and pulled out their hair
The skyline was beautiful on fire
All twisted metal stretching upwards everything washed in a thin orange haze
All twisted metal stretching upwards everything washed in a thin orange haze
I said: "kiss me, you're beautiful - these are truly the last days"
You grabbed my hand and we fell into it like a daydream or a fever
We woke up one morning and fell a little further down - for sure it's the valley of death
I open up my wallet and it's full of blood
The Dead Flag Blues by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
