THE SONGWRITER AS POET:
IAN MCCULLOCH AND THE PRE-RAPHAELITE TRADITION

Kristin F. Smith

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Chapter 11: Maintaining the Creative Flame

     Creativity involves more than working at it and staying true to one's principles. Nor is it enough to work at it and avoid the pitfalls and wrong-turnings of the creative life. Creativity is not something to be 'worked at'. It stands apart from other traits the artist must possess, within the realm of the mystical. The artist draws from within himself, from the force both Rossetti and McCulloch identify as "fire" or "flame". As McCulloch writes:

"Fingers fit to burn
You can't let the fire die
Keep the flames of your desire
Always rising higher...." [IM; Evergreen; EVERGREEN; 1997]

     A few never worry about losing their creative powers. "Well, if this is poetry, it is very easy to write," William Morris remarked cheerfully [Mackail; pg. 52]. Edward Burne-Jones found painting as natural as breathing. For these two men, the creative flame never gave a sputter. Nearly everyone else has to struggle with it. McCulloch writes of this, perhaps, in All My Colours (Zimbo), an enigmatic song from 1981:

"Flying
And I know I'm not coming down
You're trying
But you know you must soon go down
All my colours turn to clouds...." [IM; All My Colours (Zimbo); HEAVEN UP HERE; 1981]

     The chemical possibilities of this should not be overlooked ("That box you gave me burned nicely", reads a subsequent line), but something speaks plaintively of larger themes. "Colours" turning to "clouds" suggests the muting of special attributes and abilities. "Flying", in McCulloch's lexicon, appears on the same page as "creativity", "accomplishment", "power" and "success". He almost invariably uses the image to express something positive. The sadder ambiance here implies awareness of transience, and acknowledgement of the tenuousness of hope. Loss, or potential loss, hangs heavy. Of what, we are not told. The Poet asks:

"What d'you say
When your heart's in pieces...." [IM; All My Colours (Zimbo); HEAVEN UP HERE; 1981]

     We are left with a sense of indefinable sorrow; sorrow perhaps for things yet to come. But the word 'zimbo", repeated over and over like an incantation, conjures thoughts of powerful magic. The song itself becomes a countercharm to whatever dark forces are at work. If it is the creative drive which has "flown away" at the song's conclusion, it is not lost, and it has not gone down.
     Rossetti uses the image of flame turning to cloud to relate his own difficult creative journey:

"Oh! what is this that knows the road I came,
The flame turned cloud, the cloud returned to flame,
The lifted shifted steeps and all the way?--
That draws round me at last this wind-warm space,
And in regenerate rapture turns my face
Upon the devious coverts of dismay?" [DGR; The Monochord; 1870]

     Though the poem is often given a broader interpretation, both Christina and William Michael Rossetti associated it with their brother's creative life. [WMR; FAMILY LETTERS OF CHRISTINA ROSSETTI; 173]. "Draws" is a frequent Rossetti wordplay, referring to his art. Thus read, it becomes an affirmation of the power of the Creative Force, which runs through all life, and from which man's individual spark derives. McCulloch also hints at such a force; perhaps he is calling upon it in All My Colours (Zimbo).

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An Annotated Discography: Works by Echo and the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch, Will Sergeant, Electrafixion and Glide (off-site link)
Echo and the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch and Electrafixion: Album Reviews (off-site link)
The Bunnymen Concert Log: A comprehensive, annotated listing of concert dates, venues and set lists for Echo and the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch and Electrafixion (off-site link)

Bunnymen.info - The (Unofficial) News Source (off-site link, run by Charles Pham)

Aldems' Political Quotations: Apt and Otherwise
BlindFool and Scruffy Dog: Dilettantes-at-Large

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