I always pictured this song from the perspective of a Gordon Gekko or Patrick Bateman kind of character. It seems very appropriate considering the context of when this was recorded, when neoliberalism was rapidly emerging as the dominant American ideology. Money is power and affords the ultra-rich with almost unbridled domination of the weak, whether physically or psychologically. I agree there are strong themes of prostitution, but as always with early Swans the ambiguity of whether it's literal prostitution or simply the average employer-employee relationship, or even customer-employee relationship, seems to be the point. I always found the morphing between "you're a servant" and "you deserve it" to be a stroke of genius.
The live version captured on 'Public Castration is A Good Idea' has an even more interesting metamorphosis between the two phrases where you can't even tell which one he's saying after awhile. I adore the album version too, but the best version is the oddly rare Money Is Flesh #1 that AFAIK only appeared on the original CD and LP presses. All the subsequent versions contain the #2 version, so chances are that's the one you've heard. Seek out the original version on YouTube, you're in for a treat.
(Also, @Cynothoglys where are you? I always enjoyed reading your submissions on here but it says you've not left a comment in 11 years. You were one of the few people on here who ever contributed anything enlightening.)
(Also, @Cynothoglys where are you? I always enjoyed reading your submissions on here but it says you've not left a comment in 11 years. You were one of the few people on here who ever contributed anything enlightening.)
@BitterLake I wanted to clarify that when I said "the album version" I was referring to Greed/Holy Money which the vast majority of people will encounter before hearing the isolated two albums as originally released. For a long time I was under the impression that the compilation was exhaustive, but there are differences... aside from omitting the original version of "Money is Flesh", it also omits the original version of "Fool" and IIRC the version of "Holy Money" is derived from the single instead of the one found on the "Holy Money" LP. Confusing indeed!...
@BitterLake I wanted to clarify that when I said "the album version" I was referring to Greed/Holy Money which the vast majority of people will encounter before hearing the isolated two albums as originally released. For a long time I was under the impression that the compilation was exhaustive, but there are differences... aside from omitting the original version of "Money is Flesh", it also omits the original version of "Fool" and IIRC the version of "Holy Money" is derived from the single instead of the one found on the "Holy Money" LP. Confusing indeed!
I always pictured this song from the perspective of a Gordon Gekko or Patrick Bateman kind of character. It seems very appropriate considering the context of when this was recorded, when neoliberalism was rapidly emerging as the dominant American ideology. Money is power and affords the ultra-rich with almost unbridled domination of the weak, whether physically or psychologically. I agree there are strong themes of prostitution, but as always with early Swans the ambiguity of whether it's literal prostitution or simply the average employer-employee relationship, or even customer-employee relationship, seems to be the point. I always found the morphing between "you're a servant" and "you deserve it" to be a stroke of genius.
The live version captured on 'Public Castration is A Good Idea' has an even more interesting metamorphosis between the two phrases where you can't even tell which one he's saying after awhile. I adore the album version too, but the best version is the oddly rare Money Is Flesh #1 that AFAIK only appeared on the original CD and LP presses. All the subsequent versions contain the #2 version, so chances are that's the one you've heard. Seek out the original version on YouTube, you're in for a treat.
(Also, @Cynothoglys where are you? I always enjoyed reading your submissions on here but it says you've not left a comment in 11 years. You were one of the few people on here who ever contributed anything enlightening.)
(Also, @Cynothoglys where are you? I always enjoyed reading your submissions on here but it says you've not left a comment in 11 years. You were one of the few people on here who ever contributed anything enlightening.)
@BitterLake I wanted to clarify that when I said "the album version" I was referring to Greed/Holy Money which the vast majority of people will encounter before hearing the isolated two albums as originally released. For a long time I was under the impression that the compilation was exhaustive, but there are differences... aside from omitting the original version of "Money is Flesh", it also omits the original version of "Fool" and IIRC the version of "Holy Money" is derived from the single instead of the one found on the "Holy Money" LP. Confusing indeed!...
@BitterLake I wanted to clarify that when I said "the album version" I was referring to Greed/Holy Money which the vast majority of people will encounter before hearing the isolated two albums as originally released. For a long time I was under the impression that the compilation was exhaustive, but there are differences... aside from omitting the original version of "Money is Flesh", it also omits the original version of "Fool" and IIRC the version of "Holy Money" is derived from the single instead of the one found on the "Holy Money" LP. Confusing indeed!