| Rush – Superconductor Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This song is about mass media (especially contemporary movies/tv/music). Things are created to pull at your heartstrings and make you like/dislike them without any thought. This idea is nothing new, but it goes one step farther! The superconductor basks in your applause, and even he starts to 'believe it' 'The role becomes the actor' - the people involved in spinning a web of illusory/deceitful media begin to believe in their fictional world, and reject the reality the rest of us live in. If you've ever wondered why all the "famous" musicians/actors/directors seem to all date other famous musicians/actors/directors, this is your answer. |
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| Porcupine Tree – Anesthetize Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Ooh, interesting connection. Now I'm gonna have to start looking for Fellini references in all of Steven's material...hahah | |
| Rush – Force Ten Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Very good analysis. It's also worth noting that all the verses are talking about extremes (vain and smart / humble and dumb, hearts on our sleeves / skin as thick as thieves' etc). One perspective in the song is saying "we can pursue these extremes/absolutes" Another perspective in the song is saying "hold your fire" - stop to look in, out and around - take it all in. The album has an overall theme of peace and stability - "rising and falling like empires" contrasts that. |
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| Rush – Digital Man Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I like this idea a lot, actually. The digital man is the analog kid - all grown up and looking at life through a different lens. The analog kid sees the world in 'analog' terms - every possibility is before him, and he can't wait to go out and explore it all (similar idea to 'Circumstances'). The digital man notices 'scraps' of things, here and there. Everything is 'subdivided and synthetic'. In the same way a digital signal represents an analog (real-world) signal by subdividing it and losing information. So, in some sense, it's making an analogy between digital/analog signals and "maturity in an industrialized world": when you go from kid to man, you take on a more focused perspective (of isolated things rather than ranges of possibility). It's also probably inspired by audio engineering concepts that were becoming widespread when Signals was created (analog vs digital audio, debates about purity of sound, tube amps etc etc). |
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| Rush – Natural Science Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The song has three subsections (beginning of the universe, the time of man, the uncertain future and the end results). In the beginning, life emerges from a frothing tide. It begins to form its own patterns, losing track of the complexity that it spawned from. We make a 'quantum leap' to the time of man: ideas like the Big Bang, mysticism/theology, computers, machinery - all human constructs build on top of what was once just tidal pools. We fashion "our world" in "our image", so that we can't see what is really in control: nature. The conclusion offers up 'the moral of the story' - Ultimately, our species will end and be recycled into nature with the tide, as part of a larger pattern. We can't stop it, because we can't supercede nature. In the mean time, we should pursue science/knowledge in a way that's harmonious with nature (rather than trying to fighting it, effectively running into a brick wall). Art should follow the same path - rather than serving human ends ("market campaigns") which are constructed on top of nature, it should be 'expression', i.e. intimately connected with the human experience. Very similar to "Hemispheres" - an ethos for whole-brain thinking. Science and art in harmony with nature. |
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| Rush – Grand Designs Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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This song is about 'thinking outside the box', being ambitious and breaking through the inertia of the world around us to experience or create something authentic. There's also subtext about the 'two-dimension scheme' - the cliche of swimming with or against the stream. In the end, someone with real ambition and action "breaks the surface tension" (transcends the dichotomy of culture vs counterculture). If Power Windows is about 'expressions of power', Grand Designs is about the power of creative expression. |
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| Porcupine Tree – The Blind House Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| By "hormones stall" it might be referring to how sex abusers (or the abused) are stuck in a hormone-fuelled adolescent phase, and never 'grow out of it'. They remain bound by their basic instincts ("dogs will crawl" is a nicer way of saying "dogs will hunt") forever. | |
| King Crimson – Frame by Frame Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I take this to be sort of like Tool's "Lateralus" - It's about how someone is proceeding 'frame by frame' (in the small scale) with their analysis of something. They "drown" in their analysis, doubting themselves (by numbers, or predictably). It's kinda what happens when you hear an 80s Crimson song for the first time and get absolutely lost trying to figure it out according to simpler musical conventions. Woah. |
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| Taylor Swift – Red Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Red is a song by King Crimson | |
| Rush – The Big Money Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Power Windows is all about 'manifestations of power' (atom bombs, endurance in marathons, nationalism/nations etc). In this case, the song is about the 'push and pull' created by money. It makes opportunities and takes them away. For better or worse, money is one of the primary expressions of power in the world. The song doesn't have to be saying anything specific about 1980s materialism or anybody's country - it's telling you "what money is like" no matter who you are or where you live. |
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