| Pink Floyd – Careful with That Axe, Eugene Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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An axe murderer claiming their latest victim... played out through music. The first part is where he's sneaking around... muttering gibberish but generally keeping quiet... then the adrenaline builds up as he gets closer to the victim... then eventually, once they're within reach, he takes to them with his trusty axe :-). Then we hear the scream of the victim as they realise what's coming to them. That's where the band kicks in and it all goes ballistic... as killer and victim flail around wildly. Then it starts to go quiet... as the victim's life slowly leaves them and then everything slowly fades out.... They did something very similar when they played 'Cymbaline' live in the late '60s, with the sounds of footsteps walking around the venue. I think 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene', is actually supposed to be phrase the killer says to the victim just before he kills them... like it's his catchphrase he uses before each killing. And only Roger Waters could create such a violent, depraved character and then call him Eugene :-). |
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| Pink Floyd – Dogs Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I've always considered 'Animals' to be one of their weaker albums... it's basically an album full of rejected material from 'Wish You Were Here'. 'Dogs' and 'Sheep' originally had different titles and were originally intended to be part of that album. The whole 'Animal Farm' concept thing didn't come in until later, and it always seemed to me to be a fairly half hearted attempt to make a bunch of unrelated songs look like they fit together... and it doesn't really come off, for me. Anyway, Dogs was written at around the same time as 'Have A Cigar' off 'Wish You Were Here', and is basically about the same thing - greedy, hollow, upper level management types who care only about money nothing else. And they will happily lie, steal, cheat and betray their colleagues in order to get what they want. I love how, at the start of the song, the 'suit' is portrayed as this ultra cool character who's in complete control of his life, but as the song progresses it's revealed that he's actually really insecure and not very happy.... until eventually he dies a fairly unhappy man. I love the line 'who was found dead on the phone'... I think it's hilarious, that black sense of humour that runs through 90% of Pink Floyd's stuff but no one seems to pick up on. When you've heard of all the studies of management executives going to see specialists to manage their stress levels, and the high rate of heart attack and related afflictions in people in the corporate world... I mean, if their job is that bad, why not quit and do something else? But it's that fear of being perceived as a failure if they're not wearing an expensive suit and pulling in a six figure salary. That need to somehow elevate themselves above the unwashed masses... as if they need that prestige to convince themselves that they're worthwhile people. I think it's funny... these people work themselves to death for a coporation that's only going to turf them out on their arse the minute they hit retirement age. And yet this type of work is still considered to be the epitome of vocational choices in the Western world. Now that's Orwellian :-). And although I think the album doesn't quite work as whole, I should point out that this is one of my favourite Floyd songs... it's bloody fantastic. |
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| Pink Floyd – High Hopes Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This song is about growing older, and never quite being at peace with your place in the world. About how you're never able to achieve all your desires and ambitions, and how as a kid you somehow envisaged your life being better than how it turned out to be. Even the things that turn out right are never what you expect them to be. One of many Floyd songs that refer to the loss of childhood innocence, and life never being as much fun as an adult as it was as a kid. I think the lyrics do deliberately parallel the Floyd's career ('the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world' is the superstardom which was thrust upon them after the runaway success of 'Dark Side Of The Moon'), but I think the song as a whole is much broader than that. Either way, this is probably my favourite Pink Floyd song. |
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| Pink Floyd – Learning to Fly Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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It *is* about Gilmour learning how to fly a plane... he's said so himself. He was scared shitless about doing it at first... but eventually he worked up the courage to give it a shot... and once he'd actually done it he thought it was one of the most amazing experiences he's ever felt. So it's about flying, but it's more about having the strength to go out and do the things you really want to do... even if you think you're doomed to failure. Just get out there and try. An incredibly uplifting, optimistic song, despite the tacky 80s production. And I think it might have also partially been written as a reference to Gilmour's newly inherited position as leader of Pink Floyd - about how he wanted to keep Pink Floyd going but he had no idea about how he was actually going to do it... the lyrics could be a metaphor for so many things... |
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