Read time 2 minutes. Lenore: Black No. 1 is a stand alone article in our ongoing Goth Zen series.
Type O Negative’s iconic song Black No. 1 idolizes and mocks in the same breath. Steeped in goth culture, lead singer Peter Steele sounds in love.
But perhaps, deep down, he knows he can never have her.
So he teases and jeers—“She likes the dark. She’s in love with herself.”
Is it worship or warning—
deflection or projection?
Her confidence unnerves him.
He’d rather see her fractured.
He calls her Little Miss Scare-All.
We’ll call her Lenore.
And she’s unreachable—because she’s not pretending.
Steele’s intimacy is voyeurism.
He orbits her—but he’s not in her world.
Lenore is unfazed by his gaze.
She knows.
His mockery is worship
He can’t look away
He’s a mirage
When Lenore looks in the mirror—
she sees what he sees
and sees through that illusion as well.
His gloves come off.
The jab comes in—
“dressed for an erotic funeral?”
Who died? (Her ego, that’s who.)
Lenore flirts with paradox
Then plays both sides.
Awareness in costume
Consciousness at play
She’s not flirting with death—she’s accessorizing with it.
Mirror-calm, dark-bright, sharp outlines.
It’s not a contradiction.
It’s her power.
Black, black, black, black number one.
“Yeah, you wanna go out ’cause it’s raining and blowing.
You can’t go out ’cause your roots are showing.”
To him it’s vanity—as if she’s ashamed to be seen.
Here’s the kicker—it’s not concealer.
Lenore rescores the song:
You can sing about me, but you’ll never find me.
What’s more, you’ll never define me.
There’s a line
between illusion
and the infinite
between what is alive
and what is performing it
Lenore’s not hiding her roots
she’s drawing that line more clearly
She won’t be grounded and defined.
As for the rest of us—she’s not so sure.
“Black, black, black, black number one.”
The deeper the black, the clearer the outline.
(For our sake, not hers.)
“Well, when I called her evil she just laughed.”
Was she being mischievous?
Or when Steele projects evil, does Lenore project freedom?
So will she trick or will she treat?
Of course she will.
Just not for you.
Happy Halloween, baby.
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