| The United States of America – The American Metaphysical Circus Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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The first stanza describes a circus setting, reminiscent of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite." A learned doctor performs at a precise time, putting himself in danger for the benefit of viewers. What is "The American Metaphysical Circus"? The mish-mash of ideologies in favor of accruing capital, the dissolution of lasting value for monetary gain and entertainment? Probably. "Metaphysical" probably means "bullshit" in this context -- after all, didn't the Buddha resolve suffering through sitting, seeing reality as it really is, moment-to-moment, to negate desire? Surely the American Metaphysical Circus is the opposite -- a bunch of frivolous bullshit, wrapped up in billions of variations of packaging, all equally unsatisfactory, to stoke desire and keep people hungry for more. Mutant Christianity, individualistic "choice," consumerism, the television, the media, the government, the people's appetites themselves keep it all in place.... Bears in circuses are supposed to be entertaining. But how do they get to be entertaining? Torture, training, caged, crushed. Think of employees for corporations that you know -- are they able to sing from their hearts in their labor? Nah, but they can whistle & fake it if you beat 'em hard enough & they have TV when they get home. Is America for People or for Employers & Customers (produce/consume). What are People, anyway? Yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone in America is insane in their own way. There's no way to have a mind when you've sold it to feed & entertain the children until they get old enough to pawn off their own brains. Bummer. Maybe you'll be a great actor, or a fantastic musician one day! All your dreams will come true! You aren't a boring loser, you're AMERICA and your hair is your choice! Your clothes are your choice! You have a house and a bunch of guitars! A "sycopation of fear" is instituted to support appetites of a subset of customers. Normal, every-day business. If you want to believe something, we will sell it to you. False realities are bought and sold daily -- ideological entrepreneurship. Whatever helps you sleep at night, whatever makes you think you are the image you wish you were. What are the recorders which preserve "the intensity and passion of your screams?" Most art portrays suffering in some form. Songs in the English language are more likely to contain intimations of misery than any other. Where are you going, posting about your feelings & struggles on Facebook? Who uses these fears? Who is profiting from your sorrow? Run back to your television, run back to your digital false reality... the cost of one admission is your mind... |
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| Gorillaz – Faust Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I think it's called Faust after the band Faust, who had a very similar sound (the wah-wah organ & droning pulse probably reminded Albarn of that classic band). That is my guess. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid) Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I think the song is meant literally to be metaphorical flint for the unemployed and underpaid. I personally do not agree with Raving Lunatic, because I think Sufjan identifies with those without jobs -- in fact, I suspect he may be talking about himself. Who hasn't lost their job and felt like shit before? And who in their right mind would not enjoy a large swath of time off from work? I think the sadness and false trying bother the narrator because of the hardworking image he has cultivated for himself. Note that this is only an image -- instead of playing the part of this ridiculous character in self-denial, isn't it more powerful to admit that you don't give a shit, and move on? It is possible to do great work while not buying into the "work is good, rest is bad" mentality that seems to have bulldozed Americans into accepting their corporate/advertising rulers. If you give love (flint) to the unemployed and underpaid, you give them hope and the possibility of creativity (the penniless and underprivileged begin to see themselves as flawed; the unusual/those who find it difficult to hold down a 9-5 begin to see themselves as "insane," etc. When will we have a government that supports the people rather than the employers and those in power? |
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| Brian Eno – Spider and I Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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The final song on the album, and the end of our journey through time, from "before" to "after" science (I claim no objectivity in my assessment of the album's structure). A lullaby. The protagonist is now with "Spider," who appears to be a literal spider. Perhaps reincarnated, perhaps perceiving omnisciently the preciousness of all life, we have passed through death (in the previous song) to a state of absolute peace. The glory of a single knit web, normally hated or ignored by humans, is seen for what it is -- the small, the unseen, the forgotten, the details, the imagination, sleep, dreams, rest, peace, drifting, after science -- I hope we can learn from all of these things when we design our next society. Eno seems hopeful; after all, what are humans except another in a long line of "random," quantum Earth mathematics? |
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| Brian Eno – Through Hollow Lands (For Harold Budd) Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This instrumental interlude, dedicated to gorgeously melodic minimalist composer Harold Budd, appears to be the passage of death itself. The slow pulse feels like the breath of plants, the passage of seasons, the breath of the Earth.The passage of the Soul from one body to another, the mysterious slow pulse of Eternity (the song fades in as well as out, suggesting infinity). The song is an unusual 5/4+9/4 alternating meter, lending a unique feel of asymmetry to the procession into Nothingness. It is a piece of genuine "ambient" music, a genre with which Eno would be increasingly associated. |
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| Brian Eno – By This River Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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2/2 And yet, in this dreamlike isolated state, the overall mood is that of peace and stillness. Eno & Cluster craft a gorgeous looping melody over which the song is built; a lovely jewel in autumn. |
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| Brian Eno – By This River Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Here we are, stuck by this river..." What a strange way to begin such a beautiful song! The protagonist seems to be reclined at the side of a river, staring up into space. His thoughts appear to be drifting. He has a companion, but still seems alone. He feels "as if on an ocean" (echoing the protagonist of "Julie With..."), forgetful and isolated. His companion speaks "as if from a distance." Even his words appear alien to him, "from another time." Nothing around him seems to make sense in the moment. This feels to me like the flow of time, the slow progression and forgetfulness of age. The silence of approaching death -- I can see perhaps an elderly man, trapped in his thoughts, unable to express himself from within a slowly decaying body. |
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| Brian Eno – Julie With... Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This song continues the relaxed atmosphere of the previous song, moving us further in the direction of stillness with a reduced tempo, languid synths and guitar arpeggios, and no percussion whatsoever. Death seems constantly immanent in this song and the next (as well as the previous one, for the matter). Science gets pretty useless when you're dealing with death, I think. The protagonist of this song is floating idly in the sea with "Julie" of the title, with her "open blouse" flapping in the breeze. Did the protagonist kill Julie, causing the water to become "darker than before?" Or is that just the sunset of their approaching end, as both are seemingly stranded at sea ("now I wonder if we'll be seen here, or if time has left us all alone"). Personally I doubt that Julie is dead. Most likely she & Eno are simply adrift in the open ocean. Eno does not say why, leaving the question open. The overall mood is pensive. Despite impending death at sea, fear, loneliness, at a time of maximum desperation, the music simply records impressions of senses in the location, only once or twice tracking an abstract thought that may pass by. The music and words work together to create a stillness in the face of death, of calm acceptance even, and love. Why panic? Death is nothing to fear -- Eno's perspective undercuts basic mainstream assumptions in the West, yet become ever more urgent day by day (the wretched fuel for the rat race, I think...). The next song, another still, water-based number, continues these themes further. |
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| Brian Eno – Here He Comes Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This is probably my least favorite song on the album "Before or After Science," so it is unlikely that my analysis will transcend that opinion. The musical backing on this track reminds me of the "jam along" presets you can find on most cheap keyboards; "Here He Comes" sounds like the preset for "country" music -- the beat is freakishly consistent and minimal, with total repetition in just about every instrument. The patterns are monotonous and constant, altering only slightly to accomodate basic chord changes. The lyrics, too (and vocal delivery), seem monotonous and cliched in many ways, but also surreal and most likely important to the overall arc of the album as a whole. The title "Here He Comes" strikes me as a very mundane lyric, lazily pilfered from the collective unconsciousness of pop detritus. The same goes for the following: "with his sad blue eyes" -- this cliche seems especially shoehorned -- it extends the expected phrase length in what sounds like a deliberately awkward manner. "floating like a dove" -- yawn. "the deep blue sky" -- this seems intentionally sophomoric, but maybe I'm wrong. The rest of the lyrics are rather surreal and, at some level, disconcerting -- especially in the context of the song's static arrangement and the insertions of poetic banality outlined above. We learn that the boy "tried to vanish to the future or the past is no longer here" -- pretty strange stuff to hear in a country song. I would presume that "the boy" felt out of place in the modern Scientific society depicted in "King's Lead Hat," so he "tried to vanish to the future or the past" (ie, Before or After Science), and apparently succeeded, because he is "no longer here." His blue eyes were sad. The boy "rose above reason," implying a transcendence of the tyranny of the King's Lead Hat (if you're not wearing a lead hat, you can float away, apparently). Each verse seems to lose track of itself -- we are told "here he comes," but then in the same sentence we learn that the boy "is no longer here" -- a direct contradiction as far as I can tell. The metric phrase length of each line of verse is disconcerting as well. This poetic dislocation seems to be engineered specifically to make the audience question what they are hearing -- and in doing so, question reason itself. The lyrics and the static music seem like a rebellion against energy itself, and traditional "rational" sense in some ways. The music frustrates and impedes, as if to say, "be patient; relax; don't over-analyze this." Later, the boy "sees us following him all one at a time." Did the boy die? Did he transcend the tyranny of rationalism? Was he the first to reach the next plane, "after Science"? Regardless, the boy's message seems clear and the masses seem to have responded. Personally, I think Eno's lyrics are about embracing death and the serenity of escaping the human condition (or, as it may be, the King's Lead Hat). "Checking out each other's supplies" -- what will you bring with you when you die? Probably not even your mind or your memories; thus, "who will remember him?" No one -- in death, "he" is us. Eno seems to associate tiny bugs and miniscule life with the after-death state of stillness and oneness -- thus, "he" is "no longer alone among the dragonflies." This association will resurface in "Spider and I." |
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| Brian Eno – King's Lead Hat Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This is by far the most verbose and descriptive track on "Before and After Science" -- the album is a conceptual exploration of "Science" vs. "Not-Science" (check out my analysis on its other tracks to see how this song fits [in my mind]). This analysis will likely somehow approximate the form and content of the song as I see it, so I'll warn you now my diction may become a touch vulgar or aggressive. Everything is shiny and in motion. "Turkeys" (ignorant-type humans?) are driving a vehicle recklessly through a city (are they drunk?). The parenthetical asides in the right channel form a commentary, accenting particular details in the scene with additional information or providing a close-up of its imagery. Elsewhere, a ship moves to dock (isn't this bustling? simultaneous activity!) and Eno paraphrases a classic rock tune (splish splash!) to inform us that he is "raking in the cash." The rock quote and cash imagery enhance the atmosphere of decadence in the song. "Cash" could represent human striving -- getting rich (and/or famous) -- to escape the realities of Nature and the facticity of Death. After all, "the biology of purpose keeps my nose above the suface" -- ie, Eno's drive to survive and achieve and create and accrue keeps his mind off of inevitable demise. This is also quite sexual (Heck, the whole fucking *song* is extremely sexual -- pay close attention to the imagery. Dicks, jizz everywhere! More than once while listening to this song alone I've lost track of my hands only to discover them cheerfully autonomous, caressing my own suddenly erect penis. But that's just one aspect of the song -- the vehicle is sexual, the message is meta). "King's Lead Hat" is an anagram for "Talking Heads." The music is certainly Talking Head-esque, but the term "King's Lead Hat" takes on its own meaning as a metaphor for human Scientific masturbation (ugh, what a pretentious-sounding phrase... lemme explain...) -- ie, the human obsession and self-congratulation in our "endeavors" (smug feelings of superiority to Nature) that supposedly allowed us to "transcend" animal behavior. Yeah -- right. Try telling *that* to your partner the next time you're having sex. "King's Lead Hat" is the human impulse to continue being human and to create more humans. "King's Lead Hat put the innocence inside her" (hmm, wonder what that means?). "It will come" is repeated over and over (subtle!) rhythmically. The whole song depends on rhythm. The lyrics themselves are primarily dictated by what sounds cool and flows best -- Eno wants to do his best and have fun doing it. Who doesn't enjoy the King's Lead Hat? It's silly, it's preposterous, it's moronic in its own way -- but silly is fun. Science is the Art of Human Survival. Applied science (in its institutionalized form) searches for more ways to give humanity a leg-up in Nature -- perhaps an advanced form of animal niche-digging. Should we take such a random process seriously? If we do, will we be fooled into madness and perhaps kill ourselves off in hubris (nuclear war, etc. etc.)? Eno questions the value of mindless competition and striving -- what's wrong with right now? Where are you? Who are you? Why are you doing what you do? Will the King's Lead Hat poison the wearer? Isn't it too heavy? Won't it eventually fall off? Is there such a thing as too much fun, does it lead to a crash? Maybe Eno thinks it's time for us (as a whole) to grow up. The earth, the universe has its own program and we are just some subroutines. If we acknowledge the limitations of Science (that most venerated of human survival processes), maybe we can get beyond the random nonsense that is human existence and plug into something bigger: God, Infinity, Non-Duality, or whatever. Something is approaching, something is going to happen. Eno nervously counts his fingers (phallic symbols?) and draws bananas (phallic symbol? a link to our primate ancestors?) on bathroom walls. He's just biding time. Nature is the Enemy still -- Nature vs. the King's Lead Hat; thus, the "cycles" of life and death in Nature are "killer hertz" (damn he's clever). But he gets moved anyway -- time is measured by the shirts he wears (fashion? fads? the arbitrary nature of what is popular at any given time?), but time and tide are on his side (another precisely-timed classic rock lyric reference). How could they not be, when he is just a bubble or eddie in the waves themselves? There is nothing wrong with death -- not really. The ocean doesn't suffer, after all. King's Lead Hat is the mother to desire. Desire is the root of all suffering -- the gap between preferred and actual. Suffering begats invention, invention begats progress, and then we'll find something *else* to bitch about. Why not stop the wheels of desire and just be? Is it better to be happy with what you have, or feel like you're missing something? It's all in your head, anyway, and what you have belief in is what your focus attends. The hat is just a guise, you remain present Before and After Science. The final verse depicts further moronic activity of bustling human "progress." Weapons are ready (phallic imagery) and guns purr (phallic imagery). Technology (the satellite) distorts (and shapes) communication. A man attempts to give orders and is not heard -- he seems to be schizophrenic (modecate is an anti-psychotic medication), at least in the eyes of the populace, whose perception is shaped by the King's Lead Hat (which fits over their ears). This alienated man may have something useful to say, but the technology that surrounds him is limiting -- it fragments and commodifies the human experience into (unintentionally) meaningless chatter. A telephone finalizes his defeat (check out Captain Beefheart's "Telephone"). The King's Lead Hat keeps the cycles of desire in motion, with gaps of desire being open and filled. |
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| Brian Eno – Energy Fools the Magician Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This instrumental bridge is crucial to introducing the softer, more relaxed themes that will appear on side 2, providing relief from the fast pace we have witnessed so far. Magicians -- in Eno's lexicon -- are scientists. Energy is the driving force of the universe -- matter is energy, energy is matter, etc. The scientific observer is fooled by appearances into believing himself a limited entity, when he is in fact part and parcel of Infinity. I think this song is a worldess painting of the allure of Science to humanity. This song fades out into "King's Lead Hat," where we will hear all about the pinnacle of glory and absurdity in Scientific thought. (An aside: many songs on "Before and After Science" are introduced through fade-ins, and most songs end by fading out. This technique seems to imply endlessness; the songs are cyclic at core, like video game BGM. Eno is presenting us with snapshots of human history -- each song is a fragment of The Long Now, it seems, and he fades us out and in to avoid severing the internal continuity of each Moment). |
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| Brian Eno – Kurt's Rejoinder Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This one is going to be difficult, because I'm not really familiar with Kurt Schwitter's work. My best guess is that this is about Art and it's witty rejoinder to the pretentions of modern Science (it's effects and origins having already been explored in the previous two songs) -- Kurt's Rejoinder is a criticism through example, using nonsense to point to the plasticity, irrationality, and paradoxical nature of Truth. From what I can tell from reading Wikipedia, Kurt Schwitters (and his sound-poem, The Ursonate) represent sound-in-itself and the joy of an unrestrained imagination. A fluidlike (water is the key element in "Before and After Science") contrast and a keen rejoinder to the (metal) rigidity of Science depicted in "No One Receiving" and its absurd permutations which evolved in "Backwater." I don't think close reading of the song tells us much in a literal sense. The feel is more important, and the immediacy of uncategorizable experience in a liberated present. It's a dance -- it's purpose is pure motion -- hence the listing of various "popular" dances in the coda. Kurt's Rejoinder is to have fun and to be present. Don't worry about it. |
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| Brian Eno – Backwater Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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Okay, this analysis is going to be a total potshot, but I think the general impression I have is accurate. I owe a bit to thezpn. "Backwater" connotes rustic ignorance and rural unsophistication. It also connotes a lack of motion and a separation from the mainstream. The denizens are having fun, but they are sort of tumbling around in a comedy of error. Motion becomes stagnant (first "sailing," then "drifting," and finally merely "floating"), and Eno and his raftmates are up a creek without a paddle, I guess. They have nothing to do and are lost. There is no food (sausage) and possibly no sexual activity either (not a sausage to do [?]). This seems like a metaphor for pre-scientific society -- we are no longer in the alienated "metal days" of the first track, but this backwater ignorance is hardly any better. One of Eno's raftmates dips her hand into waters known to be deadly, and it is implied in the next verse that she does indeed lose her life (6 becomes 5). Idiot. It seems like the rest of the raftmates create aimless conversation to escape the dire situation at hand -- perhaps a metaphor for mankind's desperate attempts at scientific innovation to escape the menace of untamed Nature. Aimless chat spurs escape (perhaps into a prototype of Scientific thought, to flee the mindless wilderness). Thus the next few verses seem to be entirely nonsense, but taken quite seriously by the conversants. If I had to break down the "nonsense" bit, I would guess that Eno is showing us the exchange of information that leads to Scientific progress: objects and ideas are traded and modified by various entities, finally culminating in the last narrative twist to focus on the female progeny of a "Turkish guru" (perhaps Eno's term for a scientist -- Eno seems to distrust Science on some level, or desire to move past it or at least bring it down a few pegs, comparing it to mysticism, magic, or some sort of transient fad rather than the current popular opinion that Science and its Method is the end-all be-all because it has given us our current technologies [although it still has yet to catch up with Nature, our own brains, our own hearts and bodies and sense of being]). The twists and turns of the exchange are recorded with mock-scientific detail and are intentionally ridiculous. We aren't able to see *why* any of this is important as it appears to be to the characters in the song. Thus Eno puts us in the position of aliens observing human history from a distance (as he did with the car [?] in "No One Receiving"). The culture remains mixed up to the end -- "slated for becoming divine" juxtaposes boilerplate bureaucratic language with notions of divinity. She gains some sort of sway over Scientific thought (she learns to "split and define"), but Eno immediately dismisses the importance of this concept, because "the logistics and heuristics of the mystics" simply don't hold up (as I stated before, I think Eno equates hardline Science with a sort of modern, culturally-accepted Mysticism). Basically, humanity achieved Scientific reasoning to escape his backwater origins, and began to classify and organize reality along his own lines of thought -- but Eno reminds us that our minds, being part of Nature, "rarely move in a line." Abstraction and conceptualization are castles of sand. Eno urges us to "abandon such ballistics [a Science of the relatively unpredictable motion of flight] and resign to be trapped on a leaf in a vine." To Eno's thinking, this acceptance is "much more realistic" -- thus he appears to dismiss the arrogance of Science touted as "truth" because the human mind is simply a product of Nature, so the search for dominion and mastery is a pointless one. Everything returns to silence, eventually, and this is important to Eno. |
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| Brian Eno – No One Receiving Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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The song opens with Eno piloting some sort of metal craft (most likely a car) through the countryside as night approaches. The sense of isolation is palpable. The metal seems to isolate him from his environment or his own life -- the days themselves have become "metal," and the "ways" of his existence are also "metal." Man contructed machines of metal, and the metal became his master, it seems. Technology and the wonders of science lead to the restriction of our imagination -- "hard facts" and pre-mapped pathways predetermine humanity's responses as processes and minds become streamlined to fit the demands of a fast-paced and relentless culture. Eno prophesies a future where we return "back to silence" from our current "metal" state. Inaction, being (rather than becoming), and calm acceptance without analysis may once again hold sway. Images of twilight (purple sky) and transition (day being left behind, approaching night) abound in the song, representing the endless cycles of life and death that humanity is a part of (but pretends to have escaped via his transient "metal ways"). The last original couplet is important -- everyone is talking in our "blue future" (the alienated present), but no one is receiving; the radio waves echo into nothing because everyone is too busy creating, generating, ejaculating, to stop and listen, receive, accept, take in, be passive, be responsive, or just be (and yes, I am aware of the masculine/feminine connotations of the two opposites; this duality is key throughout the album, I think). As the first song on "Before and After Science," this song establishes the alienated present -- the current era of Science. Eno prefers imagination and the unplanned, uncontrolled creative impulse -- he knows that everything we observe and think is just another wave an endless ocean. |
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| Gentle Giant – In a Glass House Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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The album "In a Glass House" consists of a series of vignettes depicting people that find themselves living in fragile situations -- their mental states are at a point of change or decision, or under pressure somehow from some sort of high-pressure or alien environment. Thus, "The Runaway" is about a man living on the run, "Inmate's Lullaby" is about a mental patient, "Way of Life" is about reaching a turning/decision point in a romantic relationship, "Experience" is about the dissolution of childhood ignorance and the transition into adulthood, and "A Reunion" is about an unexpected meeting with someone from the past. "In a Glass House," the title track, is the most abstract and general. The song seems to literally depict a man living in a glass house as a metaphor for the mind itself. I'll do a line-by-line analysis to see how this metaphor works. "Looking through a window" suggests perception itself -- looking out into the world from your personal viewpoint (the eyes? the "lens" of your own personal reality?). "You're sure you're really seeing what is meant to be" is a double meaning -- it could be a question (are you sure your personal definitions of reality are correct?) or a statement that the protagonist is convinced that his perceptions are "truth." Suddenly the glass of our "window" outside becomes a mirror: your perceptions of the "outside world" are really just a reflection of yourself (what you see outside the window is something you have "conspire[d]," an "imagine I desire." Thus we establish that everything you are inside AND outside is a reflection of yourself -- you are trapped in the glass house of your mind, and even looking outside you can't be sure you're "seeing what is meant to be." "Standing on the ice believing all I'm searching for" -- you are balanced in a fragile, brittle situation, believing that the concepts your mind has formed are legitimate, and they spur you on a (needless) search for (illusory) satisfaction. The upshot is that you are just seeing reflections and illusions of your own psyche -- this is the very nature of suffering and seeking (as posited by non-duality). "Close your cloudy eyes and chase all that you did before" -- "cloudy eyes" surely means that your perceptions are flawed or somehow incomplete. "Chase all that you did before" is the continuous and repetitive pursuit of a mental illusion. The protagonist is lost in a maze of his own creation. "Living in a glass house shielding all that's meant for me" brings to mind the man's fragile mental accomodations. The home both protects and divides; "all that's meant for me" is both protected by the (fragile) walls and "shielded" from him (the outside world that is his birthright is not accessible because of his mental barrier). "Can you clear the shade" is the first indication that we may need to remove the blinkers from our eyes and perhaps escape the self-imposed mental prison. Light and darkness form the basis of the song's imagery. As night falls, the glass house becomes dark. The reflections and illusions of the mind have become distressing and unclear -- the protagonist is now in a shroud of his own mental construction. The glass house is no longer inviting without the light of day. The protagonist questions his perceptions for the first time -- "dark is gleaming -- or am I dreaming?" He realizes that what he sees may not be "what is." "Running everywhere" -- he attempts to escape the glass house now that it has become a burden to him. "Seeing clearly when I dare" -- his perceptions are still flickering and partial and temporary. "Is it today or is it your way" is a tough line for me, but I think it may be asking if "today" is really an objective existence or if it is only a reflection of one's one "ways." "And the moon must fall" -- night is ending, the cycle keeps spinning. Things are constantly in motion and the interplay of light on the glass house of your mind causes the shadows and colorations to change in time. "Inspiration waits for your call to get a silhouette" -- the creativity of your mind comes when you develop a consciousness of your own being/awareness. The light shining into your mind can create your "shadow" in reality in the form of your works or your art. "The call to get a silhouette" is the pull for a realization of your reality and your true place in the world around you -- and hence the cessation of suffering and narcissistic ego/fear. "Narrow the field aim in any direction" -- throwing stones, presumably. The struggle still continues after the protagonist realizes the fragility of his glass confines. He attempts to break out -- but this is still an ignorant perspective, because one does not just "escape" one's own mind. "Do what I feel just to see my reflection" -- experimentation and possible narcissism. The protagonist follows impulses in order to map the territory and figure out a plan of approach, or simply revels in the achievement of his own whims. "Any turn I know / Disappearing everywhere I go" -- while exploring his mental home he discovers that his reflection vanishes depending on his position. Thus the self is beginning to be seen through as having no real substance outside of what one perceives to be "me" in thought. "I look to you for what to do" -- I'm guessing here, but it sounds like the protagonist consults nature itself, it seems, now that he sees the fallacy and illusion-colored blinkers of his own intentions. "The glass house is meant for me and... is never mine" -- his mind is an appearance only to him, but he does not "own" it. The mind functions on its own terms and the glass house is impartial in the way it changes and manipulates the light from outside. The crisis that "MY mind is not correct! My perceptions are just illusions" vanishes because the situation is no longer personal. The mind generates perceptions and thoughts of its own accord and there is no need to fight nature -- in fact, it is not even possible, because the mind is a product (a subroutine) of nature itself. The protagonist has now moved from total ignorance ---> seeing that his mind is just one limited perspective and panicking, trying to rectify what he sees as a failure ---> acceptance of who he is and relaxing into maturity. The line "And any time is never mine" is the culmination of the song -- the rest repeats earlier stanzas, adding a cyclical connotation to the search/discovery of one's nature. The motion remains constant even after supposed "enlightenment," but now it may be colored more positively. For instance, "narrow the field" and "do what I feel" may be seen as activities that are done in a positive or playful light rather than the earlier, desperate search for (illusory) "truth" or "freedom" from the mind. The song closes with an urge for the "call to get a silhouette" -- to puruse one's art or work in a constructive context, to see the shadow one's existence casts on the world in particular lights of day, filtered through the mental "glass house." |
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| The Residents – Give it to Someone Else Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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A guy wants to give someone a porno mag and/or some kind of sex toy and then secretly watch them masturbate. "Slapping skin" is probably similar to "fap." |
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| The Residents – Booker Tease Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I know, I know, it's an instrumental, but this song has a meaning, and it's a rhythmic in-joke. "The Booker Tease" I assume is a reference to the R&G group Booker T. & the M.G.'s, who (based on my skimming of Wikipedia) seemed to specialize in tight rock instrumentals. The "joke" is that the downbeat of "The Booker Tease" seems to shift by one beat between the two sections, fooling your brain in the process (the "tease" of the title). The song actually begins with a pickup beat in the guitar, tricking you into placing the "one" there. When the "chorus" arrives, the downbeat is revealed to be with the bass drum beat from the rhythm box. Subtle, obscure, and goofy musical humor. Fortunately, the music is better than the joke. |
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| The Residents – Walter Westinghouse Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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These are some pretty impenetrable lyrics, but here's my take. The whispering voices that open the song sound like gossiping neighbors discussing some sort of local scandal. The music has a bouncy, folk-like character that suggests a happy-go-lucky "country boy" -- Walter Westinghouse of the title. I read this song as a sort of dramatic study of rural social life and the treatment of homosexuality and marriage in Southern culture; specifically, it's about a man's excellent gay relationship contrasted with his terrible married life, and the paranoid whispering of the neighbors spreading rumors about this double life, which Walter himself doesn't mind or doesn't notice. Maybe I'm wrong, but given the fact that at least one Residents is gay and they all grew up in the South (Louisiana and one from Texas) it seems plausible. Perhaps I'm wrong, but here's my take: Walter visits town ("went to town" literally) and "finds a friend" -- ie, has sex with another man ("went to town" figuratively). The phrase "peeling ceiling wax" sounds like a euphemism for something. "Love me tender love me sweet" is an Elvis reference and is Walter romancing his male lover. "Love me like I love my feet" seems to add a foot fetish flavor to the interaction. "sit me down with Ezra pound" = an intellectual connection between the two men; a sharing of common ground and experience "but don't forget to eat" = but don't neglect sex/physicality "country boy" = Walter Westinghouse himself "cook a carrot" = get an erection "or a cake" = probably another sexual euphemism "the feelings of a friend are hard to fake" = true sexual pleasure and true rapport/friendship are not to be falsified; their relationship is consummate, honest, open, and true Walter, in the "April leaves" quatrian, is shown to be a generally carefree person; he knows that one's own limited intentions generally have no bearing on what was actually does in life. He accepts this and lives life unfettered by the constraits of conservative Southern culture. The next quatrain ("now his December...") adds to the characterization of Walter as someone in tune with nature. He lives in the present and enjoys life and neglects adult responsibilities. "he buys the bacon" = he is the head of the family; the breadwinner The "achin" in his heart comes from his broken and dissatisfying relationship with his shrewish wife Wanda. "Overcoats" and "Quaker Oats" sound like daily drudgeries that constrain him. He wants to be free from the 9-5 life. His wife is engaged with the obnoxious, backward society that Walter ignores; her interactions with another man lead her to ranting and cursing when she was most likely the one at fault in the first place. "I took the tongue of Philip Jung and left it in the lake" = Wanda is a vengeful and vindictive woman; she never lets anyone speak (metaphorically cutting out their tongues) "I fear that you had lost your way" = Walter thinks she is needlessly confrontational; he thinks she ought to evaluate her own character rather than relentlessly blaming and hurting others Wanda doesn't even hear Walter; she just keeps going on about how Philip wouldn't allow her to do something. We see that Philip doesn't trust Wanda ("your trust is like a crust, too brittle and too thin") so he didn't allow her to "bake" anything but "scrambled eggs" (I don't know what this means, but it seems to be a euphemism, sexual or not. Regardless, it is clear that Philip denies Wanda permission to do something because of her terrible attitude/demeanor/character -- she's unreliable and horrid). Wanda doesn't realize that she is the one to blame because she is incapable of seeing things in any way other than her own. Instead of paying attention at all to what Philip says, she immediately lashes out at him with an abrasive and needless insult ("you're full of nigger nuts and look like Rin-Tin-Tin"), making the situation worse. Walter laments in a Shakespearian aside to the audience: "Is common ground not ever found but flees from dad to son?" He wonders if true communication is possible and if we can ever see past our limited perceptions to the truth of our unity and commonality as living beings. "Flees from dad to son" references the way that successive generations continue to be torn apart by a gap in communication ability, ie, the generation gap as a metaphor for lack of communication. Wanda represents this ignorance and narcissism. Wanda doesn't notice Walter's insightful aside and just keeps ranting, boring Walter with further details about how she screamed insults at Philip. Finally, Walter has enough; he interrupts her to drive a point home because he's had enough: "Eat exuding oinks upon and bleed decrepit broken bones at caustic spells of hell." I have no idea what this means, but its delivery and context seme to suggest a sinister significance. Walter finally lashes out at his wife, it seems, laying bare his feelings perhaps. Possibly they fight. Possibly he reveals his homosexual affairs. Possibly violence occurs in the form of blows, making Walter an ambiguous character (insightful in some ways, happy-go-lucky, but ultimately violent and misguided if we are to interpret this phrase as implying domestic abuse against his wife, pummeling her to shut her up about her whining and nagging). They both chant together, though, so perhaps "common ground" is found after all, but the common ground turns out to be hatred and violence. It seems likely that The Residents would conclude that humanity in general has the capacity to be flawed, ambiguous, arbitrary, violent, and ignorant, but also insightful and free. The ending lyric completes Wanda's interrupted couplet from earlier ("shoe... true") and summarizes Walter's character: he realizes when something is ended "he sees the treads of worn out threads") and moves on. He doesn't let things stick around and bother him. If we assume that he beat up his wife, we could assume that he doesn't really accept responsbility for his violence; he shrugs it off and carries on in his ignorant life smiling. If it was NOT violence that Walter committed, but rather some sort of insight conveyed to his wife (non-violent conncetion), then we have a more positive skew. Walter just does what he does: the concept-free "mindfulness" of non-duality. "And calls his color true" = Walter, faults and all, is at very least honest and a real human being. He isn't trapped by the restrictions and judgments of the whispering society that scrutinizes him from the shadows. Personally I prefer to think that Walter is not a violent man, but who knows. The text is much too ambiguous to generate a conclusion, and since this is The Residents we're talking about, I'm sure that's exactly as they intended. Who knows? I could be way off. But the emotional arc and the "characterization" through allusive wordplay definitely paint a picture; like seeing the frame or outline of a story that can be filled in with whatever your mind associates. Excellent text; the music is a bit weak, but it works and is refreshingly original in its own way. |
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