| The Alan Parsons Project – Ammonia Avenue Lyrics | 2 years ago |
|
@[inpraiseoffolly:48042] I suggest that you consider dual meanings -- literal and Judeo-Christian -- for the first stanza. As there literally is a sign of light at sunrise, the "sign of light" is not literal, it is the "sign of hope" in contrast to the despairing "darkness" of night. For Jews and Christians, light and darkness can also refer to life with and without God, respectively -- salvation or no salvation. Secondly, unless the stranger is dead, there is literally a sign of life in the stranger's eyes. So, "sign of life" means vitality, that a life includes more than the drudgery to sustain existence. At the end of the song, Ammonia Avenue offers hope to mankind, provides a means for people to do more than to work for survival thereby offer a mean for salvation from despair. To the extent that science and technology can improve life and enable a vital existence beyond mere survival, the whole song is about how Ammonia Avenue is something like a religion as it can provide "yes" to the questions in the first stanza and provide a "ray of hope" to manklind. I also suggest that you get the meaning of the song by replacing the words "Ammonia Avenue" with something like "A Christian Venue". From there you should perceive that context for Ammonia Avenue is not science but that of faith, which is the basis for religion. The short form is that Ammonia Avenue is the belief that science and technology will improve life for all mankind by complementing religion to offer the same potential for hope and salvation from despair that religions promise to provide. |
|
| The Alan Parsons Project – Ammonia Avenue Lyrics | 2 years ago |
|
@[DaveAMKrayoGuy:48040] You are right to coomment on the obviously weak relationship between the album title and the individual tracks except for "Pipeline" and "Ammonia Avenue". From the APP perspective, its now defunct website described the album as, "... focused on the possible misunderstanding of industrial scientific developments from a public perspective and a lack of understanding of the public from a scientific perspective." (hyperlink is in the Wikipedia article on the album) To realize a fuller meaning of the description, one should view the two official music videos for tracks on the album (available on YouTube) -- "Prime Time" and "Don't Answer Me". The videos, are, of course, no help to people who only hear the audio recordings. From the perspective of the self-described album concept, the "Prime Time" video features mannequin-robots whose "prime time" are the moments they transform into humans. (Of course, the male and female types forms can have affectionate relationships during prime time.) The "Don't Answer Me" video is also devoid of human characters and features numerous static comic strip characters from a comic book entitled "The Adventures of Nick and Sugar". The video also has comic strip portrayals of the APP group performers, including Parsons and Woolfson. The relationship to technology may only be the animation techniques used to produce the music video. |
|
| The Alan Parsons Project – Ammonia Avenue Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[Souldeep69:48039] Could you please post the Hebrew characters for "ammon" and/or the source of your definition? I cannot verify your statement about its meaning in any online Hebrew-English dictionary. | |
| The Alan Parsons Project – Ammonia Avenue Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[Gleeba:48038] I agree with you -- "Ammonia Avenue" is beautifully written and brilliantly performed! As a song about faith in something called Ammonia Avenue, it is a hymn glorifying it and Woolfson's appeal for the believers in Ammonia Avenue to respect those with religious faiths. | |
| The Alan Parsons Project – Ammonia Avenue Lyrics | 2 years ago |
|
@[dhaval:48037] While it is true there is conflict between science and religion in our everyday lives, such conflict is absent in the lyrics of "Ammonia Avenue". The song can color our understanding of the conflict, but conflict is not the focus of the song nor its meaning. To agree with you, rather, the "we" in the second verse of the song restrain themselves categorically from criticizing others (the "they"): "And who are we to criticize or scorn the things that they do?" But to understand this does not get to the point of Woolfson''s song. The point of view I am suggesting, is that the subject of the song is more about technology and the application of science, not science itself. The kind of doubts that encompass technology and the application of science go far beyond the notion of Truth that you suggest and ignores totally which faith will strike closer to actual Truths. If you understand the pictures on the both the front and back covers of the "Ammonia Avenue" album, you will get my meaning about what kinds of faiths and doubts Woolfson addresses. Finally, eveybody must disagree with your definition of "faith". It's just not so. Dictionaries have: "faith: the assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition or statement for which there is not complete evidence; belief in general." One can have faith and still have questions. Such a thing is called doubt. The point is that given your definition of faith, there is no reason why Woolfson would write the line "And who are we to criticize or scorn the things that they do?" into this song. In important circumstances, it is actually doubt that allows people of different faiths to not be in any serious conflict. (For example, who actually has enough faith to insist on compliance with every rule stated in the Bible?) |
|
| The Alan Parsons Project – Ammonia Avenue Lyrics | 2 years ago |
|
@[Sirikta:48034] I'm sure Parsons and Woolfson had discussions about the meaning of "Ammonia Avenue", which the latter wrote. However, nobody knows about the depth or quality of the discussions. I agree with you that the song is about faith, and addresses aspects of faiths that are commonly true. However, I disagree that the song is about faith in general, as the lyrics explicitly address people who believe in Ammonia Avenue (the "we") and those who do not (the "they"). The lyrics clearly address the beliefs of the "we". I posted my piece about the meaning of the song, and for someone who knows Alan Parsons, I would value your views on it. |
|
| The Alan Parsons Project – Ammonia Avenue Lyrics | 2 years ago |
|
"Ammonia Avenue" is the title track of an album described on the APP's defunct website as: "... focused on the possible misunderstanding of industrial scientific developments from a public perspective and a lack of understanding of the public from a scientific perspective." It is a well-known that Ammonia Avenue is the name of a street at a chemical plant in England the lyricist, Eric Woolfson, toured at the invitation of the owning company’s chief executive. According to the Wikipedia article on Billingham Manufacturing, ammonia produced by the facility is vital to the UK because the chemical is used domestically to produce fertilizer for the nation's farms. At the time the song was composed, Billingham was one of the largest ammonia producing sites in the world, if not the largest. The opening verse provides both literal and metaphorical images of the Billingham plant. The plant is so large that it blocks the horizon, so viewed from the west, it is still dark when the sun begins to rise. The "strangers eyes" seen across the waters are lights on the plant's equipment viewed from the River Tees that flows passed the plant site. Jewish and Christian metaphors form alternative spiritual images -- "sign of light" is hope; "darkness" is despair; "sign of life" is vitality. Here, Woolfson illustrates the contradictory nature of Ammonia Avenue, as it blocks the sunrise yet offers hope, and it appears lifeless, yet offers a richer livelihood for people (freedom from hunger) beyond mere survival. Probably, the most telling clue for the song’s meaning is to replace the song title within Woolfson’s lyrics to something like “A Christian Venue”. By doing so, the lyrics express that for the folks referred to as “we”, Ammonia Avenue provides them the same sense of hope and salvation a religion promises. Key to the meaning is the explicit reference to Matthew 7:7-8: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” The New Testament passage addresses people who seek God’s help, and the Christian doctrine (Augustine) based on these verses says that prayer is: "Asking, is that we may get healthiness of soul that we may be able to fulfill the things commanded us [by God]; seeking, pertains to the discovery of the truth. But when any has found the true way, he will then come into actual possession, which however is only opened to him that knocks." In the lyrics, for the materialist "we", the analogy is that, “For we shall seek and we shall find / Ammonia Avenue” is that seeking Ammonia Avenue is to ask for a chemical needed by people for the betterment of living, and the chemical will be provided for the betterment of civilization. Specifically, “finding Ammonia Avenue” is not merely done to acquire ammonia but that “finding it” has higher meanings for civilization – as the fifth verse asserts Ammonia Avenue has the "rhyme" and "reason" to provide people hope and save them from despair (i.e., from “living his life in vain”), and the sixth verse declares what “justifies the right in all we do”, i.e., their a way of life., is to build Ammonia Avenue (presumably, a successfully operating plant). The last verse declares that the justification has been achieved at great cost – “stone by stone” built high just as how the chemical plant was constructed. So, what is this Ammonia Avenue, beyond being a portion of a chemical plant in England? Verse three makes clear Ammonia Avenue is a belief, and verse four states the belief has been articulated in words. Suggestions that Ammonia Avenue is a symbol for environmental catastrophe miss these points. Furthermore, the avenue being a symbol for science and technology doesn’t go far enough, as both are based on reason (e.g., natural laws and causes rather than the supernatural, though the reliability of machines does involve a kind of faith). Thus, it appears Ammonia Avenue is the newer faith that science and technology will solve civilization’s major problems. Such a faith promotes hope and a salvation from despair (the “sign of light” and “darkness”, respectively, in the first verse), and vitality (the “sign of life” in the first verse); and, also, affects culture in ways religions do, as Woolfson specifically addresses doubters of the faith addressed as “they” in the lyrics. The “we” of the Ammonia Avenue faith is to leave the “they” doubters alone, as verse two questions why doubters should be criticized and the lyrics repeat, “And those who came at first to scoff, remained behind to pray”. Importantly, though the lyrics make no mention about whether or not Ammonia Avenue and religion are incompatible faiths, some compatibility is implied because those doubters who remained behind to pray will also benefit from Ammonia Avenue and, perhaps, be convinced to adopt the new faith. Overall, the song for the “we” is essentially a hymn, as in the last verse, Ammonia Avenue is characterized as a successful new faith. The “we” use Christian images (e.g., “sun”, “shining light”, “darkness”, “waters”) for Ammonia Avenue and declare it has joined religions in giving hope as a guiding light to humankind. To the extent human civilization essentially depends on science and technology advances to provide for the near- and long-term survival and welfare of people, the album cover displays a picture for the new faith, infrastructure seen on Ammonia Avenue, just as an orthodox Christian church would display an icon. As polluting and unnatural as it appears, and ammonia is used to produce explosive munitions, Ammonia Avenue is glorified, as it must, because as a way of life, the ”we” accomplish their mission only if they succeed. However, the full meaning of the song is incomplete without addressing the album’s back cover that is a picture of a group of researchers standing in a lab working, though each is bent over with their face stuck into a mound of dirt in a tray. These experts at work refer to the “blind” in the third verse: “Are we blind to the truth or a sign to believe in? / Only the wise will know”. Given the picture, the answer to the question will often be "yes", a humble admission that the “we” are so obviously fallible, in part, maybe because there are many alternative solutions to address human needs. In this manner, Woolfson seems to suggest that the ”we” are wise not to reject the views of the “they” or, rather, be open to the views of others. After all, with the technical experts figuratively working with their heads stuck in a pile of dirt, civilization needs all the wise help it can get to guide them. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.