Doctor Benway

This is the second of a series of 14 short posts which illustrate the tracks from the forthcoming album The Mint Hotel. The songs on the album are inspired by the 'Beat' generation of writers, artists and revolutionaries working from the 1950s to the early 1970s, providing an alternative view of the 'wholesome' American society advertisers and politicians wanted you to see. Each post features a piece of artwork related to the song, created using Artificial Intelligence software; and also an explanation of the inspiration for that song.

Dr. Benway from William Burroughs’ The Naked Lunch is a corrupt practitioner, junkie and all-round psychopath, quite literally getting away with murder. His methods are deliberately dangerous, morally unsound and medically inept. Yet he leads the high life, safe in his status as ‘the Good Doctor’ an emblem of the corrupted elite in American society in the 1960s. Women flock to him and in this song Benway has clearly drugged a willing victim into submission before having his way with her. She pleads that she loves him but will she feel the same in the morning?

Vocals by Sula Mae.