| Tom Petty – Learning to Fly Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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"Well some say life will beat you down" should be, "The sensory life will beat you down." The song is about rising above the baser world and how no matter how hard you try there will always be times when you sink back down into it. |
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| Rush – Prime Mover Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Forgot to include that a "prime mover," in addition to the usual philosophical meanings, is also used to describe a machine that converts natural energy into useful work. For example, the engine in a car is the "prime mover" for the car and the massive turbines in the Hoover Dam are the "prime movers" for electricity generators that power millions of homes and businesses. This seems to support the idea that the song is about taking that initial impetus, that "point of ignition" and transforming it into something useful. | |
| Rush – Prime Mover Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I have to admit that I just don't see the supposed connection to child-rearing that others do. But maybe that's simply because I don't have children. I've always thought that this song almost belonged more on "Roll the Bones" than on "Hold Your Fire," though both albums have similar themes ("Roll the Bones" on the need to take a risk and "Hold Your Fire" on the need to stay motivated) which would make some thematic overlap understandable. To me, this song is about holding onto one's drive and pushing through from start (the point of ignition) through the finish (the final drive) and to accept whatever it may bring (rational responses force a change of plans). I also absolutely love the dual meaning in what, to me, are the two key phrases in the song: "The point of the journey is not to arrive." "The point of departure is not to return." Read one way those can be taken as cautions that we shouldn't see the journey as merely something that we have to go through to get to the destination (that is to say, arriving isn't the point of the journey) or that the point of leaving is to take in something new and different rather than just to let us come home and be thankful for the comfort and familiarity of our home. Read another way, these are much more forceful statements. The first can be taken as "never arriving is the entire point of a journey," suggesting that the whole point of life is to seek journeys, not destinations; that we should "thrill to be alive." The second admonishes us not to come back home; it tells us that never returning is the whole point of departure. When we leave, we should leave and not be wedded to the idea of returning home; the whole point is to keep moving and keep discovering. I've always preferred the second reading. |
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| Rush – Cut To The Chase Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Neil Peart commented in his book, "Traveling Music" that, "Genius is the fire that lights itself." I've always been of the opinion that this song is about the nature of genius and its tendency to perpetually seek motion. I don't see the song as being about the tension between an unknowable "greater good" and one's own interest, but rather as a description of how genius and action are inextricably tied. I hear echoes of "Mission" in these lyrics. "Obsession has to have action / Pride turns on the drive." |
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| Rush – You Bet Your Life Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Have to say that I disagree with Katsuni. It's just flat bad statistics to say that, "each time you take a chance, the law of averages creeps closer." If the events are independent, then no matter how many times you win, the risk of losing never changes. If you flip a fair coin 10 times and it comes up heads each time, the 11th flip is still only 50% likely to be tails; the chances for tails don't aggregate. As for the meaning, I think they're pointing out that you're risking your life no matter what you do. Even if you play it "safe" the whole time, you're still risking your life. "You name the game, the stakes are the same." Every single time you make a decision you're betting your life. If you're betting your life every time you do anything, then you might as well make that bet be worth something. The point as I see it is that, since the risk remains the same regardless of our choices, we should go ahead and make the ambitious choices. They're saying that you _don't_ get to avoid "risks", but that _everything_ is a risk, so you might as well make the bet worthwhile. I see this theme of everything being a risk reflected in the contradictory listing of types of people" anarchist reactionary running-dog revisionist hindu muslim catholic creation/evolutionist rational romantic mystic cynical idealist minimal expressionist post-modern neo-symbolist armchair rocket scientist graffiti existentialist deconstruction primitive performance photo-realist be-bop or a one-drop or a hip-hop lite-pop-metallist gold adult contemporary urban country capitalist The list includes all types, reactionaries, revisionists, creationists, evolutionists, etc. No matter which end of the spectrum you're on, no matter what you believe, no matter what you do, no matter how "safe" you try to be, not matter how many "risks" you attempt to avoid, the stakes are the same, you're betting your life. Since you're betting your life no matter what, at least bet it on something worthwhile; not on just trying to maintain the illusion of "safety". |
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