submissions
| The Moody Blues – Nights In White Satin Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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@[grouping:3443] Actually, it does represet "Kinights in White Satin". or at least the cover artist thought it had that double-meaning. Most poetry does. Its called metaphor. If you look at the cover for Days of Future Past in the upper left-hand corner is a picture of a knight charging with a lance on a horse.
As a child, this was a very powerful image. As I heard this song, I never knew the "Nights in White Satin" romantic analogy. But the white knights never reaching the end is a perfectly complete poetic and meaningful meaning to the song. And I would bet Hayward and Pinder knew that. After all, according to the cover artist they carefully approved and chose the imagery for all their early album covers. They put the Knight in there for a reason.... |
submissions
| Kansas – Point of Know Return Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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This is a really fantastic song! The more I listen to it the more I appreciate it. Its simply about the spiritual journey. That can be in real life, or dreams, or as a soldier, or through death, etc. It really doesnt matter what that journey is to you. Its to me really about the personal spiritual hero-journey inside.....the one Joesph Campbell the late mythologist described. In that journey you travel inside yourself and face your most terrible monsters, and unguided plunge into the unconscious of the self and there face the truth of your life. You then learn the real bliss of your own life and what you were meant to be and return. Its a point of "know" return, much like the Buddha. When you go past the point you cant return to the dark or clouded view of your life ever again as you have awakened. Its a very Eastern Religious type of experience. It doesnt take much to imagine Kansas exploring various themes in their music related to the Monomyth or hero's journey. But they simply talked about that journey very well with very strong metaphors here. |
submissions
| Kansas – Carry on Wayward Son Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Beautiful lyrical words. Poetic. Like all poetry, its full of both subjective and objective interpretation. As a 10 year old hearing this in the 70's I had no idea what this song meant. But the theme "wayward son" seemed to be enough. What is a wayward son but a young man looking for meaning? Right? I still feel thats what a lot of Kansas' music is about....a spiritual search. It doesnt matter what that search is about. What matters is that a lot of young people in the 1960's and 70's were on some deeper spiritual search for meaning beyond being mindless modern corporate stools. Joseph Campbell explains all this best, in terms of the "Hero's Journey" or monomyth. Basically all people inside seek to find spiritual meaning inside. Its an inner journey, not an outward one. At the end of the journey, as Buddhism teaches us, you embrace your life in a much deeper way. And you appreciate your life and have complete peace and joy. I think Kansas doesnt have a monopoly on this message. Its in a lot of music from that period. But their music seems to sing more directly about that spiritual search. |
submissions
| Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Robert Plant said the following about this songs lyrics "...was some cynical aside about a woman getting everything she wanted all the time without giving back any thought or consideration. The first line begins with that cynical sweep of the hand ... and it softened up after that".
I think its clear Stairway to Heaven was about a woman who uses her money to get what she wants in life. Buying a way to heaven is very much an American view of religion, as well, and Im sure after their American tour they saw a lot of this strange view of religion in the states. We also know that this was Page's song and creation, and Plant was doing some very fast overlay of lyrics onto his rifts. As in all poetry, there is some subliminal ideas that come out in the lyrics representing pagan or mystical British ideas. Im sure their time in Snowdonia in Wales had an impact as did various literature Plant was reading at the time related to history, etc. But I think as listeners, though we are free to interpret someone's art and overlay our own ideas.....its still fascinating to find a few facts of what the artist's original ideas were for the music. Knowing that Plant was writing about some woman he had likely met, who was using her money and wealth to buy her own happiness, makes more sense to me. Layering some softer meaning and symbols like "May Queen" just adds more to both the female persona, rejection of her greed and motivation, but also some rebellious nature to the message of the modern world and money and its failure to provide the things it promises to provide. That makes the song sort of a morality tale or message or warning about wealth and greed in the modern world, and that all that glitters is truly not gold. |
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