Snakes… 🐍 | 5ive Songs

On the 8th edition of 5ive Songs, we select five songs that are associated with those absolutely terrifying reptiles, snakes 🐍 !

On 5ive Songs, we (I) keep things short and sweet – no extra calories or needless fluff.  There’s a topic, five songs, and a short blurb that doesn’t exceed a paragraph.  Yes, it’s a playlist, but it’s a miniature playlist that shouldn’t take much time to consume.  On this edition of 5IVE SONGS, we select five songs that are associated with those absolutely terrifying reptiles, snakes 🐍!!

1. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, “Leviathan”

Ghosteen • Ghosteen Ltd. • 2019

“We talked it round and round again / Then drove the car down to the sea, the sea / We sat in the cark park for an hour or two / I love my baby and my baby loves me, loves me.” Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds shined brightly on Ghosteen, one of the most gorgeous, haunting, and intriguing albums of 2019.  One of many elite songs worth noting is the chilling, enigmatic “Leviathan.” A leviathan, of course, is a sea serpent 🐍.  This monstrous sea creature referenced is referenced in The Bible. As you might expect, the Biblical connotation is negative. Interestingly, while Cave mentions the sea on “Leviathan,” he never names the serpent itself explicitly.

2. St. Vincent, “Rattlesnake”

St. Vincent • Seven Four Entertainment / Republic • 2014

St. Vincent delivers a unique, ear-catching experience at the onset of St. Vincent with “Rattlesnake” 🐍. The mix of distorted guitars, drums, and synths definitely highlight. The groove itself is utterly electrifying with a degree of pop sensibility – in an alternative sense.  Lyrically, “Rattlesnake” 🐍 is all ‘bread and butter’ with lyrics like, “I see the snake holes dotted in the sand / As if the Seurat painted the Rio Grande / Am I the only one in the only world?”  If that’s too ‘abstract’, perhaps repetitive lyrics like “Running, running, running, rattle behind me…” are more fun and lighthearted.  Of course, there’s nothing really fun and lighthearted about a slithering, poisonous, utterly evil reptile!

3. G-Eazy, “Leviathan”

Ft. Sam Martin

The Beautiful & Damned • RCA • 2017 

“I play no games I‘ve got many names / Wanna swim in the fire, don’t take all day,” Sam Martin sings on the chorus of “Leviathan.” “Leviathan” ranks among the elite cuts from The Beautiful & Damned, the third studio album by G-Eazy. It actually appears on the second disc. Martin, who begins the record with the marvelous chorus, later adds: “Lucifer, Leviathan / He is I, girl, and II am him.” The record is a bop from the jump.  As rock-solid as the flow and rhymes are by G-Eazy (“It’s a monster, it’s not safe here / Run for the hills, but not these hills”), arguably, Martin, as well as the sensational production (Michael Keenan), steals this slithering 🐍 show.

4. Nicki Minaj, “Anaconda”

The Pinkprint • Cash Money • 2014

“Oh my gosh, look at her butt!” Can you reference snakes 🐍 and omit the Nicki Minaj gem, “Anaconda” 🐍? No, you can’t.  “Anaconda,” an absolutely filthy song, is the crème de la crème of the rapper’s 2014 album, The Pinkprint. “Anaconda” 🐍 samples the Sir-Mix-a-Lot classic “Baby Got Back”, exploring animalistic tendencies in regard to SEX. “Anaconda” is horny and raunchy to the nth degree. Minaj not only discusses her own ASSets and private parts, but she also discusses his ‘size’ and how the sex goes down… graphically. “My anaconda 🐍 don’t, my anaconda 🐍 don’t / My anaconda 🐍 don’t want none unless you got buns, hun!”

5. Behemoth, “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel”

The Satanist • Metal Blade • 2014

“I saw the virgin’s c**t spawning forth the snake 🐍 / …I watched disciples twelve, dissolved by flame / Looked down on Son ov God, snuffed in vain…” If you are familiar with Behemoth, it should come as no surprise that “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel” atheistic… worse, satanic. This is the loud, unsettling, hellish opener to the metal collective’s 2014 album, The Satanist. “Blow your trumpets Gabriel! /… Break the bread, and crumb by crumb into the Leviathan’s den…” Just in case you really needed a reminder, the Leviathan 🐍 certainly doesn’t represent celestial things… Behemoth, known for their blasphemy and reversals of things associated with Christianity, show a prime example of reversal in the lyrical excerpt. Biblical references run rampantly on “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel,” but there’s nothing ‘redeeming.’

Snakes… 🐍 | 5ive Songs [Photo Credits: Brent Faulkner, Cash Money, Ghosteen Ltd., Metal Blade, The Musical Hype, Pixabay, RCA]