| Steely Dan – Reelin' In The Years Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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Come on guys! cbeatley is the only one who's got it right. Fagan is singing about his girlfriend Dorothy White - the one who was caught up in a pot bust the weekend she visited Fagan at Bard's college in Annandale New York [...the weekend at the college didn't turn out like you planned. It's the same story he wrote about in "My old school." She's also the one he was dating since she was 17 [...You been tellin' me you're a genius Since you were seventeen]. And she's the one who went with him to Hollywood in 1972 when Fagan and Becker went out there to make music [...The trip we made to Hollywood Is etched upon my mind]. How could it be any clearer? What is it about this that you guys don't get? |
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| The Doors – The End Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Not true. | |
| The Doors – The End Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Oh, and by the way, The Blue Bus was the street name for blue 10 mg tabs of Numorphan - a very synthetic Opiate very popular at the time. When Morrison was singing "meet me at the back of the Blue Bus" and "Driver where you taking us", he was talking about tripping with his girl while high on Numorphan. | |
| The Doors – The End Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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"Wrong, wrong and wrong!" You talk about the western "Indian" tradition - I assume you're talking about the Indians of the American Southwest - and then you totally miss what the "Summer Rain" represents to them? Renewal, Earth's living beings awakening from the winter sleep, the Gods blessing the fields for planting. At least that's what it means to the Indians. To Morrison, it meant something more generally spiritual - more existential. People being alienated from themselves, from the true meaning of life, from spirituality, from the Divine perhaps. And the Summer Rain represents salvation - spiritual salvation - from the spiritual death - the insanity - that most so many people in our culture labor in |
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| The Doors – The End Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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He wasn't writing about the "Greek tale" Oedipus Rex - he was writing about - and acting out on stage - the actual Freudian Oedipal complex - the subconscious desire to murder your father and rape your mother. If that's all you get out of listening to that passage of the song - that "he's singing about an old Greek tragedy" rather than something real, something hidden deep deep down inside your own subconscious - then you're really missing out on what Morrison was all about... |
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| The Doors – The End Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Continuing my previous post, some more thoughts... The lyric "weird scenes inside the gold mine" has always struck me as a bit jarring and out of place, stuck in the middle of the highway-snake-lake lines. I thought perhaps it represented having a weird acid trip deep in some mine, and maybe being a reference to the gold mines out west (the gold rush in California). But it just occurred to me that this line could actually be a reference to what the entire song is really about - the "mine" could actually be a reference Morrison's own mind, or perhaps his subconscious, and the "weird scenes" are the visualizations he sees during a drug trip or deep meditation, that make up the rest of the lyrics of the song. This is a real phenomena - a stream of images that seem to arise from nowhere but actually arise from the subconscious when one meditates, or when goes deeply into the "beta-wave" state half-way between awake and asleep. This state can be attained and maintained for a long period of time in deep meditation, and is characterized by on-going random visualizations of the sort depicted in the song. This state can also be induced by drug use, particularly opiates. I think, in this one lyric, Morrison may have simply been referring to the origin of everything else that's in the song - images that he experienced while using drugs or in deep meditation. Another thought - "Wandering in a wilderness of pain, and all your children are insane - waiting for the summer rain" I think is also a very important phrase for understanding the theme(s) of the song. In much of the world, the arid American southwest for example, the summer rain is literally the source of life, essential for survival during the summer months, and for irrigation of what crops can be grown in such arid climates. This is a great metaphor for the primary theme of existentialism - the wilderness of pain representing the absence of, and search for, meaning in ones life. The existential dilemma - pain - of someone who feels "cut off" from God, or spirituality, or meaning. In this light, the insane children wandering in the wilderness of pain represents someone living a life devoid of meaning or understanding or faith - a literal existential "wilderness" - waiting for the summer rain which represents some sort of spiritual or existential salvation - a "revelation" or understanding about God, or the meaning of life; a reason for being, some purpose to live for or have faith in - a glimpse of what it's all about. This is the central theme of existential philosophy and this passage expresses it perfectly. |
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| The Doors – The End Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Free333, Lots of interesting ideas about the song's meaning, but I'm afraid I just can't agree. Having been there - I saw the Doors perform, and was very involved in the culture of the time - believe me, Jim Morrison's lyrics were inspired by much deeper psychological/metaphysical themes than simply trying to talk a girl into moving west with him. Also, Morrison was enamored with psycho-philosophical writers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and C.G. Jung (the father of Archetypal psychology - look it up) - read some of their work and you'll have a much better insight into the kinds of themes that drove Jim Morrison, and the imagery in his lyrics. This song is essentially a deeply introspective "free-association" monologue, wherein he verbalizes his innermost, very deep, feelings, impulses, spontaneous visualizations - sort of like an on-stage cathartic therapy session, probably assisted by a variety of dream inductive or hallucinogenic drugs. As with many brilliant artists, Morrison had a very self-destructive side - witness his alcoholism, drug abuse, and the manner of his death, The beginning and end of the song clearly relate to suicide and the release death provides - "of everything that stands, the end - no safety or surprise, the end....picture what will be, so limitless and free... the end of nights we tried to die, etc" The middle of the song is more an exploration of a variety of themes - wilderness of pain, danger on the edge of town, madness, incest, ancient symbology ("ride the highway west" - where the sun sets - another representation of death. Also, the highway bcomes the snake (he's old) leading to the "ancient lake" - powerful metaphors in many cultures and in psychology, in this case the snake leading to the ancient lake probably refers to the path to or through - what? What might the "ancient lake" mean? The womb, perhaps? Or maybe something more primeval?) . The Blue Bus, by the way, was the street name for blue 10 mg tabs of Numorphan, a highly euphoric synthetic opiate - so powerful as a euphoric (it was THE MOST sought after prescription pill by heroin abusers) that it was taken off the market in the 1970's. As popular as numorphan was in the LA drug culture, Morrison was certainly familiar with it, and "meet me at the back of the Blue Bus" is most likely a very evocative allusion to taking the drug together with a partner in order for both to share the experience. "Driver where you takin' us" is a similar allusion to the introspective, exploratory nature of the opiate high, and "the blue bus is calling us" certainly looks like a clear reference to the highly addictive nature - the "call" - of the drug. Get yourself some good opium to smoke and you'll gain a very good understand of what I'm referring to - and what Morrison was really talking about. I'd also suggest reading Jung's "Memories, Dreams and Reflections" for a better understanding of the nature of psychological archetypes and Morrison's deeply introspective visualizations. |
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| The Doors – The End Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Whoops - my cut and paste from Wikipedia was deleted - basically is says "Blue Bus" refers either to the Blue Bus liine to Santa Monica (also mentioned earlier in this thread) or to a tour by Meher Baba in the `30's called called the "Blue Bus" tour. As I said, this idea (the Meher Baba connection) strikes me as completely moronic - this song is far too deep and dark to have anything to do with Meher Baba. And "meeting" your lover at the "Back of the Blue Bus" is a perfect metaphor for taking some barbs with friends or a lover, getting yourselves into an altered consciousness, then making love, or simply interacting of a different level.... | |
| The Doors – The End Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| "Meet me at the back of the Blue Bus" - I've heard and read so much speculation on this line. Wykpedia says I think this is pure BS written by someone who had no connection with the `60's drug culture. Back then, "Blue Bus" referred to a blue 10 mg numorphan - its effect was similar to Vicodin. Given the overall tone of the song, the other concepts make no sense at all. Meher Baba?? Give me a break.... | |
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