| Elton John – Bennie And The Jets Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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@[skrouse:27181] Right on! And don't forget The Farmer in the Dell. What was he doing in the dell? Making meth! That's why he was in the dell, away from prying eyes. And who doesn't know that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is about opium crystals, concentrated from the star of the orient, the poppy! It is well known that addicts strung out on opium adopt a blank stare into the nighttime sky. The stars become blurred. "Like a diamond in the sky" indeed. London Bridge is Falling Down? What do you suppose they were doing under the bridge? Drugs! The song is about how society is "falling down, falling down" because of drugs. That's why we have to "take the key and lock her up"; i.e., pass more drug laws. And the Alphabet Song? A is for amphetimine, B is for barbituates, C is for crack, D is for dust (as in angel dust)... Well, I could go on, but the point is there isn't an addictive drug known to man that doesn't start with one of those 26 letters. Why look to the obvious meaning of the lyrics, the intent of the author, and responsible principles of interpretation when we can import our own lazy meaning into the lyrics and deconstruct them without any regard to history, truth, meaning, or research. |
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| Jethro Tull – Locomotive Breath Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| @[Fuzzbean:27146] I'm not sure if your comment is serious or merely provocative. Presuming the former, I would reply thus: the point of interpretation is to uncover the author's intent, not to reveal our own. If one applies your "logic" to your own statement then what you say or think is irrelevant to what you wrote; i.e., your statement commits intellectual suicide. To say it a different way, not only is what you say not true, it cannot be true because in logical categories your statement is formally false. | |
| Jethro Tull – Locomotive Breath Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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I am absolutely astounded at the amount of intellectually lazy and unwarranted creative license being taking by many in interpreting these lyrics. Proper exegesis of any text, song lyrics included, requires uncovering the author's intent, not importing one's own into the text. Ian Anderson, the song's author, has stated publicly that "Old Charlie" is God and that the train symbolizes the unstoppable movement of earth's population growth. That is enough to eliminate 90% of the speculative comments in this thread regarding the lyrics. The context given by Anderson should constrain our interpretation. The general rule of exegesis is that "text without context is pretext." Context matters and cannot be disregarded. With that background, I will offer a more rational and bounded interpretation, which I dare not be dogmatic about. Man is likely the "all time loser" because he is clearly the one "running headlong to his death," the one feeling "the piston scraping" and the "steam breaking on his brow." The "handle" is likely the throttle control of the locomotive, which God, "Old Charlie", has Himself has removed. This is likely due to God's command to His children to "be fruitful and multiply" which occurs in the first chapter of Genesis, the 28th verse, or as Anderson puts it in "Gideon's Bible, open at Page One." Inasmuch as procreation is the source of the problem for Anderson, we can reasonably expect variety of reference to the act: e.g., "He sees his children jumping off at the stations one by one."; "His woman and his best friend in bed and having fun." Even the phrase "And the all-time winner has got him by the balls" has sexual overtones as well as mechanical ones -- locomotive boilers are regulated by a mechanism known as a "centrifugal regulator" comprising two balls on a swing arm assembly. The higher the steam output, the wider circle the balls make when they spin. In fact, the phrase "balls to the walls" is actually a reference to the maximum position of the centrifugal regulator at full speed. There are other elements that may be interpreted within the context of Biblical creation. However, in my opinion, our interpretations should tread lightly for a variety of reasons. First of all, song lyrics are typically parabolic not allegorical. In an allegory, every element has reference to another. However, a parable is less wooden. While the main elements have direct references, other elements are often provided in order to weave the main elements of the story together and because "they sound right;" i.e., fit the meter and rhyme scheme. Indeed, and based on many interviews of many songwriters, the songwriter himself may not understand or clearly intend every reference to every element in his own song. So, although we understand that it is man who "hears the silence howling," the precise meaning of the phrase remains less well defined, besides the general irony, contradiction, or befuddlement of a world not knowing how to staunch population growth. Likewise, it is difficult to fix an exact meaning to the phrase "He sees his children jumping off at the stations one by one." beyond a general reference to the peril of man's progeny due to population growth. From the context, man must be the one who "catches angels as they fall." But what exactly this means is speculative. It could refer to Revelation 12.1-12 which refers to fallen angels and havoc they create for man on earth in its last days. This would have the advantage of weaving together the Biblical theme with earthly man's demise in the eschaton. It would also have the advantage of connecting the dots between the first and last books of the Bible (Genesis and Revelation, respectively) with the idea that the command to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis) now has met its end in the destruction of the present world order (Revelation). |
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