| The Flaming Lips – Race for the Prize Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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It has been a while since anyone commented on this, I am sorry to say you are all off. The first three songs on here are about the creation, and explosion of the atomic bomb. The scientists they are speaking of are the dudes involved in the Manhatten Project. The atomic scientists even have a publication called "The Atomic Bulletin" , this is where the doomsday clock comes from. Anyways..."Race for the Prize" pretty much chronicles the creation of the bomb while "Spoonful Weighs a Ton" is totally obvious in its imagery of nuclear power. And though they were sad (they were sad they created such a destructive force) They rescued everyone (ended the war) They lifted up the sun (the atom bomb had the power of the sun) A spoonful weighs a ton (atomic warheads are super small with enormous power) Giving more than they had The process had begun (allusion to tremendous pressure and sacrifice that was a result of the project including radiation exposure to the scientists) A million came from one The limits now were none Being drunk on their plan, they lifted up the sun (obvious allusion to atomic explosion) The last song in the trilogy is "The Spark That Bled". To anyone who has studied the Hiroshima/Nagasaki incidents the lyrics pretty much describe someone who is on the outside peripheral of the explosion. I accidentally touched my head And noticed that I had been bleeding For how long I didn't know (Everything happened in a flash and survivor accounts are just like this, there was a flash and nobody even knew what the f happened) What was this, I thought, that struck me? What kind of weapons have they got? The softest bullet ever shot (totally obvious....a single bomb dropped from one plane, slowly making its way down to the ground) The rest of the song goes on to allude to the end of the war and even the "atom- mania" that swept the nation in the late 1940s/1950s even using phrases such as "chain reaction". The end simply says that "in reality, there was no reaction" which if you have ever read the book "Hiroshima" pretty much sums it up. Additionally, if you are really not convinced by now, listen closley to the beginning and ending of the song as it pitter/patters in the sound of a Geiger Counter, which is a tool used to measure radiation. The rest of the album, I don't know if any of that is in reference to the atomic bomb, but it seems like it might be more about the world shifting under foot. |
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