submissions
| Menomena – Ghostship Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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Ok so, the song claims to be an analogy, and I believe the analogy must be to the ghost ship that some of the lyrics and the title refer to (because I see nothing else solid to go off of). If the analogy is to a ghost ship, a ship lost at sea with its crew, then we need to figure what in the song is being compared to the ghost ship, and what is the ghost ship. This proves to be a giant problem because I think the song purposefully fails to resolve that detail to be one or even a small collection of things. The lyrics from Majesty/Her Majesty... to ...doublespeak all can be interpreted to be about the ghost ship: Her Majesty being the ship and the later lines being about people wondering what happened to it, whispering about it, wondering if it is ok to talk about the men on it who are probably dead or about those they left behind. After these lines get to the speaker's feeling that we are "counting sheep." so trying to fall asleep, or trying to ignore what is going on, trying to feel like everything is ok, like is spoken about in the first lines about the ghost ship. Then the line "we're in over our heads" continues to further this idea that things are not ok in what is presumably at this point an intimate relationship between two people. And then the line that makes things go weird: "This analogy only works when I bow and call you..." and then it loops. Presumably, Majesty is the actual word that follows for the first time round as it loops and not just a coincidence. Working on this assumption, at this point in the song the other person in the relationship is now the ghost ship, not the relationship as a whole. They are separated by an ocean, cannot know how the other feels, and mistrust brews in this situation (doublespeak). Perhaps the analogy is a lot more literal in this second time round. Perhaps the speaker and their partner are actually far away, which for me introduces a nice subtle pun brought about in the final line of loop 2 by the fact that the line ends earlier. "This analogy only works when I bow and call you" could be interpreted as giving in and literally making a phone call. Bow being used not as a physical action but as an emotional and spiritual one. If this analogy only works when the speaker calls, can we interpret the attempt at connecting to each other as the thing that separates the two? Or is the analogy itself an metaphor for connection? Does counting sheep allude to sleeping with someone in this second loop, or the first, or both? I freaking love how many subtelties and interpretations there are in this song and it is also musically beautiful. |
submissions
| Menomena – Ghostship Lyrics
| 7 years ago
|
|
@[ahab3:27525] I believe it is in 7/8 because of the tempo of it we can interpret it to be in eights notes not quarter notes. Also yes it is amazing. |
submissions
| Menomena – Ghostship Lyrics
| 7 years ago
|
|
@[ahab3:27524] I think it is either in 7/4 or it varies between 4/4 and 3/4 depending on how you notate and think about it. because it does 4, 3, 3, 4, 4, 3, 7 if you pay attention to the instrumental. I think it probably would best be interpreted as 7/4 because of the last measure in the pattern, and because of the section after the lyrics. Also yes it is amazing. |
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