| Jackson Browne – Before The Deluge Lyrics | 10 months ago |
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We can all play the 'Death of Author' card in this game but it makes debate a bit moot. Yes all songs will have personal resonances that inform what we take from each one but surely the debate is about trying to understand what the artist was trying to say. I think Don McLean might have said it best in Vincent. But - for what it's worth, knowing what we do about Jackson Browne's convictions on environmental matters, I think it's pretty clear that he's not making comments about personal morality, hedonism, sexual freedom, drug taking or any other social developments you may or may not, individually, approve of. His sole message here is about the greed and apathy about that greed that has seen humanity abuse the environment in which we depend for our survival to the point where it fails to provide that which we need leaving us clinging on to avoid extinction. Perceptive, salient, ahead of his time, plaintive and melancholy - yet another beautiful song by a great, great songwriter. YMMV |
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| Dire Straits – The Man's Too Strong Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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There really are some odd conspiracy theories in some of these explanations! ‘The Man’ is, I’d say fairly obviously, the narrator’s own psyche — the wicked not-so-subconscious that motivates all the wicked things he has done — most of which are entirely metaphorical — and reflect the way the other, guilty, side of the narrator’s psyche haunt him as he wrestles with his conscience. There are, to the best of my knowledge no references to religion or personal faith in any of Knopfler’s songs. As far as I can tell Mark is at least agnostic and possibly an atheist — again I don’t ever recal him offering a single comment or observation about faith in any interview — and I doubt very much that there is any specific religious intent in this song. Moreover as pointed out — he’s English — and one thing we *do not do* as a nation is wear our faith on our sleeves — even those very few who would even protest to religious belief. So even if I’m wrong about Mark’s religious belief I can’t imagine that he would ever express it so overtly and clumsily as suggested. What he is is a song-writer and lyricist of some genius and he is capable of using multiple layers of imagery drawn out from numerous sources within human expression and experience and weave them into his lyrics to express what he wants to say. That’s what poets and artists do. That some of those reference religious imagery is not an indication of faith but of an understanding of, and a need to portray, the confusion that exists in the minds of most us when we consider such things as morality, right and wrong, our mortality and the consequences of our actions. Which, coincidentally, is what the song is about. I think it's best to try not to interpret it literally. |
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