| Pink Floyd – The Final Cut Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| @[em:35817].bojko25 This song is more involved than it first appears, and it's a shame very few notice it. The persona is not to be confused with Waters, although Waters uses the persona's quite different story to tell his own, giving the song a bunch of meanings. The persona in this story is *the pilot.* The story of the entire album (this is a concept album, and to take in the full experience, all songs need to be within the context of the album's arc). Some songs where the persona could not be identified with *the pilot* were left off the album (e.g. When The Tiger's Broke Free, which was written for The Wall, like other songs in The Final Cut). The Final Cut is supposed to rescue all that was left on the cutting floor of The Wall, recontextualize it, add new material to it and, finally, bare it all. *The pilot* is in fact a character in The Wall. Guess who he is. It's not Pink. Anyway, in the title song, *the pilot* regrets not being able to commit suicide and the author regrets not being able to tell it all like it was, despite his lyricist genius, he thought he lacked the necessary courage. The parallel with his and personal life are there (his divorce being the driving one in this song), but like I said before Waters was a superb-lyricist and this song is not just two or even three-dimensional. | |
| Pink Floyd – The Final Cut Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| @[em:35816].bojko25 This song is more involved than it first appears, and it's a shame very few notice it. The persona is not to be confused with Waters, although Waters uses the persona's quite different story to tell his own, giving the song a bunch of meanings. The persona in this story is *the pilot.* Some songs where the persona could not be identified with *the pilot* were left off the album (When The Tiger's Broke Free, which was written for The Wall, like other songs in The Final Cut). The Final Cut is supposed to rescue all that was left on the cutting floor of The Wall, recontextualize it, add new material to it and, finally, bare it all. In the title song, *the pilot* regrets not being able to commit suicide and the author regrets not being able to tell it all like it was, despite his lyricist genius, he thought he lacked the necessary courage. The parallel with his and personal life are there (his divorce being the driving one in this song), but like I said before Waters was a superb-lyricist and song is not just two or even three-dimensional. | |
| Pink Floyd – The Final Cut Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| @[kauan10708:35815] That's me, a little correction: in the context of the character in the story, The Final Cut is surely suicide. It's in the second meaning of the song, its mirror side, the one about the writer that I think the Final Cut is a metaphor for the definitive version with everything that's behind the wall completely exposed before all to see. The writer regrets that he's failed in achieving this, simply because it would be akin to self-immolation. | |
| Pink Floyd – The Final Cut Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| @[Stryder16:35814] Their interpretations are not wrong, though. When all is said and done, Waters was a superb lyricist. These lyrics fit into the album's arc AND they mirror Waters' personal experiences over his life and his divorce. This song is indeed crystal clear and your contribution reminding everyone that there's a bigger setting where this song is supposed to fit is brilliant. The only part I'm not really sure of is "the final cut" itself. It "sounds" like suicide but I think that's a lyrical device. Waters may be referring to stuff he actually left out of the story. Ultimately, it was up to him to tell it *all* but he didn't have the nerve to tell it in its definitive version. He may be talking about these lyrics, the album, Pink's story, the film, the videos that accompany the songs in that big circle during live performances or just the entire corpus of his work. Like all other writers before him, Waters lied. You can't be a writer if you don't lie so easily in your work that you stop noticing. Waters wanted to escape this and bare it all, but that's an almost super-human feat. | |
| LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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First of all, this song doesn't tell a cohesive story. The lyrics change perspective, person of discourse and rhetorical modes unapologetically. It's a bit surreal, in a sense that it captures bits of a strand of consciousness. Secondly, when I attribute the thoughts and emotions to "Murphy", I'm not necessarily talking about James Murphy, the man, but James Murphy, the character portrayed in All My Friends. They may very well differ drastically, and I strongly believe they differ in key points. That's how it starts We go back to your house You check the charts And start to figure it out This is the birthdate of the idea for a first record. Here we have Murphy's personal vast experience into the music business help him figure out the charts and find the artistic, technical and commercial inspiration to record a successful album right there in the charts. The "you" here may be someone who was there for the beginning, as this makes more sense, but his use of this pronoun is lose throughout all the corpus of his work: "you" in the context of LCD Soundsystem lyrics very often means the singer himself, sometimes this "you" can be extrapolated to the listener, sometimes it's strictly personal to the singer. "You" is a sort of mirror pronoun in Murphy's poetry . And if it's crowded, all the better Because we know we're gonna be up late But if you're worried about the weather Oh, then you picked the wrong place to stay This stanza chronologically comes after the next. Here's Murphy arguing that if the place they're performing is crowed it's a good thing, because then they get to stay up late. Not only because he loves music and his craft, but because he loves the party, and he hates leaving it. The escapist environment of the party, where nothing needs to make sense is where Murphy's soul really belongs and where it finds true meaning. Murphy tells us that in his party, the one he's in charge ad the DJ or the lead singer of LCD Soundystem, (in his idealized version of this party) there's no place for responsibility. The weather is of no relevance and nothing, not even the party itself is at this point. To live the moment is the only meaning (and we'll see variations throughout). You're simply not part of his idealized party if you don't fit with its escapist standards. That's how it starts And so it starts You switch the engine on We set controls for the heart of the sun One of the ways that we show our age And it starts: Murphy gathers the LCD Soundsystem band to perform in parties and small ventures. "Set controls for the heart of the sun" is a reference to Pink Floyd's 1968 Psychedelic piece by the same name, which I'm sure Murphy and the guys sampled for their early performances as small venture entertainers. and being the song truly ancient, he felt this is was a good way to show their age and pay homage to his early parties. His age doesn't show accidentally. Murphy intentionally references Pink Floyd's early piece, nostalgic, but more comfortable in his current age than as an adolescent, now the master of the party. And if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up And I still don't wanna stagger home Then it's the memory of our betters That are keeping us on our feet And even with the party dying and the sun coming up, Murphy still doesn't want to stagger home, driven by the ideal of himself, the memory of himself being capable to stand on his feet that night (or a night similar to that several years ago, it doesn't matter: the sun comes up and reality catches up). Even if old age approaches, even if relationships become stale, even if working for a cause becomes just a job, it is the memory of better times that keeps us going. Even if Murphy is not just a guy who recorded an album playing for a few dozen people and having the time of his life any more, and it's now a job with responsibilities, deadlines, rehearsals and tight schedules, it is the memory that keeps him from crumbling down on his knees. You spend the first five years trying to get with the plan And the next five years trying to be with your friends again Here Murphy speaks of the life of an adult, who spends time in pursue of success early on, only to come to value the past, and what's been left behind more than the success obtained. This song is about time, and how it changes us (and this is reflected on how time changes the song itself as it progresses). Is the big success worth it? What Murphy really wants is to go back and relive the memories that he now metaphorically breathes. He wants to escape with his friends again, whoever or whatever they are. But this is harder to do now than it was before when he had little of everything. He had little but he had everything: he owned the party. Not any more. People have to pay to come. People overprice tickets and resell them. People expecting a big rock concert and the producers deliver one. It's no longer an escape. It's no longer simple and fun. He's up the stage looking down, and what he sees is wrong, but he can't save them or himself. You're talking 45 turns just as fast as you can Yeah, I know it gets tired, but it's better when we pretend I really don't know what the first line is supposed to mean. I won't speculate on it, or the line that follows it. It comes apart The way it does in bad films Except the part Where the moral kicks in And it shatters with a shock. He's old and he's stuck. Time flew too fast. He feels his crisis is cliché, just like the formulaic middle section of a bad film when conflict suddenly breaks in, except he doesn't see the good-ending-with-moral-lesson at the end of his crisis coming at all. Everything fell apart, and it is for good. Though when we're running out of the drugs And the conversation's grinding away I wouldn't trade one stupid decision For another five years of life The party of life is not so exciting any more. All the drugs were tried, and it gets tired. In the party of life these drugs are success, fame, relationships, casual sex, lying, cheating, being a hero, being a douche, being praised, being booed. There's nothing new to talk about, not with us the listeners or with anyone else. It's the ideal party, but its death is as depressing and agonizing as is any other party's. At the desolate scene of spilt drinks, half smoked cigarettes, clothes without an owner, and a pool full of floating garbage, Murphy looks back and reconciles with his mistakes, his stupid decisions. He owns those decisions in absolute terms. They are his and his alone, and this is why he reasons he wouldn't trade them for anything. Whatever path his life took, his own agency took him there. Oh, you drop the first ten years just as fast as you can And the next ten people who are trying to be polite Now the first 10 years are recounted in an interview, and they are summarized as much as possible, dropped quickly and unceremoniously, the same as you do with people trying to be polite when you're in a hurry and not in the mood. He's a famous person, having to give tedious interviews and being approached by people whose job is to try to be polite is part of the deal. When you're blowing eighty-five days in the middle of France Yeah, I know it gets tired, only where are your friends tonight? And with that job comes the ability to spend large amounts of money and just "escape" it all to the middle of France, but sight seeing luxurious palaces is not true escape. To Murphy, to escape has a different meaning. He escapes futility and the lack of actual meaning that any life plan has, He escapes into the present, not into luxury. So what's the point of blowing 85 days in the middle of France if it's just part of your job description as celebrity anyway? Where is the real escape, the one that brings meaning to everything? How and when the party became so lame? Where are all his friends? These friends are not necessarily people, but the stuff around which Murphy feels at home. Some may be people, some may be hotdog stands, late night tall glasses of coffee while staring out of his apartment window, these are all of Murphy's friends, and no number of palaces and vineyards in France can replace them, because they are the members of the party of his life. He can now make a clear distinction between the fake party, the concerts, the celebrity status, and the ideal party, the one he can still have with his friends, no matter how hard it is to keep it up, because he can count on the memories of his better. And to tell the truth Oh, this could be the last time So here we go Like a sales force into the night He announces "here we go" once more, but this is not the first time any more, in fact this may very well be the last. And this idea prompts him to think about it. What if it is the last time? Well, it can be his last time as a rock star, but not the end of the party. And if I made a fool, if I made a fool, if I made a fool On the road, there's always this I'm not sure what the first line means, so I can't comment on it or the second line And if I'm sued into submission I can still come home to this If he's sued by the studios into submitting and continue the schedule, he's fine as long as he can come back to his friends.bound by forces beyond his control, he can still escape, he can still rely on the memories of his better to stand up and do what he thinks is worth it. And with a face like a dad and a laughable stand You can sleep on the plane or review what you said Self conscious of his age, Murphy mentions he has a "face like a dad and a laughable stand". He reflects whether he should sleep or review the interview where he dropped the last 10 years just as fast as he could. When you're drunk and the kids look impossibly tan You think over and over, "hey, I'm finally dead." I have a very particular interpretation of this line, I don't know why, but it also rang like this to me: The you now is actually us the listeners, going through the same crisis as Murphy: times go by and you lose track of your values, but in this "scene" he describes, we're drunk watching our children and they look "impossibly tan" fostering a steadily growing suspicion in your head that the kids are not yours.. Your blood dies with you and your world is FUBAR, and you feel so disconnected from reality in that drunken moment that you become certain you are finally dead. And it doesn't come much as shock. More like an amusing surprise: "hey, I'm finally dead" Oh, if the trip and the plan come apart in your hand You can turn it on yourself, you ridiculous clown Now Murphy is being 100% sincere about his craft. He's anxious about the next LCD Soundsystem gig, what if it all falls apart, what if band members break up, but he realizes he's a ridiculous clown for thinking such things because he can plug in all the sequencers himself and perform the show alone. He's mainly a clown and a prop in a band which is ultimately a just a cover of Murphy's solo work in a studio. He fronts it as if he was a rock star, but he feels like just a ridiculous clown playing a ridiculous part in a ridiculous circus. He's a prop who sings. You'll forget what you meant when you read what you said And yeah we knew you were tired, but then Where are your friends tonight? Where are your friends tonight? Where are your friends tonight? If I could see all my friends tonight If I could see all my friends tonight If I could see all my friends tonight If I could see all my friends tonight And now that the interview is printed, he doesn't remember what he meant when he reads it. He was tired, and he's been tired for too long, and he desperately needs his "friends". Murphy leaves us the listeners in doubt as whether his life is a shadow of a 70s party or if it's the other way around, and the 70s party is a shadow of his life. |
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| King Crimson – Cirkus Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| an actual poet was the author of these and many other king crimson lyrics. not any of the musicans, a real poet they had in their ranks just to write them lyrics. no easy answers here :p | |
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