| Steely Dan – Jack of Speed Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| @[thedurable1:40235] Yes. Well done. Thank you. | |
| Jethro Tull – Baker St. Muse Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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@[JT1968:39210] Yes I think you're onto it. I wonder though if part of it is his imagining what it's like to be part of that world... to be a street performer scraping by, ignored by women, subject to all the mess and pain of Baker street. He, the narrator is temporarily living a dual existence imagining a scenario where he ended up living the Baker street life instead of the one he is in. You could interpret this in lines like "You" (the blind Baker street busker flutist mentioned in a preceding line) "can call me" (Ian Anderson picturing his alternate timeline if you will) "on another line." Or more clearly later in the song: "I tried to catch my eye but I looked the other way"; so while wondering what it would be like to encounter this alternate poor/failed self in his world of Baker street suffering, he, the actual Ian, pictures himself trying to make eye contact with his other self. We can't be sure if Ian is trying to make eye contact with the alternate blind street performer self or vice versa or be sure who looks away... implying that the narrator himself for a moment doesn't know who is who. Even if what I've laid out isn't quite right, the song is, as you say, clearly self-effacing. The narrator insists his is just a Baker street muse and only someday might be the successful, revered, minstrel in the gallery. Ian sees himself here, in this mood anyway, as a modest, insignificant performer. But if I'm onto something, this imagining of various possibilities, various selves and switching perspectives-- all while commenting on his doing so even as he does it, is, well, undeniably not normal. Who the fuck writes lyrics like that?! Someone exceptional, someone brilliant-- a truly creative person I would say. |
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