| Kansas – Closet Chronicles Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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It's really great to have Howard Hughes remembered and acknowledged. He was the Elon Musk of his day. But you'd never guess it was Hughes just from the lyrics. And even when you look at the lyrics through that lens, it's hard to make sense of all of it, and this site is supposed to be about explaining the lyrics, right? So, except for the line about 42nd floor (which as best I can tell is not literally the case for Hughes' life, but just a rhythmically fitting line indicating someplace lofty and high up), try listening to the song as if it is about Pontius Pilate. The first four verses, thought of as Hughes or Pilate, are straightforward enough. And then a narrator steps in to remark about how in the next three there'd be trouble to find when he ventured into his mind. Musically this change of perspective is signaled also. The crying children recalls Jesus' "suffer the little children." With the verse that starts "Allow me to forget this life," who is talking here? Someone who has held the nation in their hand. If this is supposed to be Hughes talking (or Pilate), then how does the question about why this refugee of the family of man must die make sense? Why is the narrator claiming to hold the nation in his hands (that should be Hughes or Pilate holding the nation), but that means the narrator isn't the refugee. This is one of the spots where it really seems that the narrator is Pilate (talking about Jesus). Want a tasty pun while we're here? Hughes was famous as a pilot. The next verse ("Daydreams filled his night-times") is again straightforwardly the narrator (talking about Hughes or Pilate), but the last verse gets tantalizing and strange again: "I heard the king was dying, I heard the king was dead. And with him died the chronicles that no one ever read. The closet's fully empty now, it's occupied by none I'll draw the drapes, now destiny is done." This brings up the question that no one answers. Why is this song called Closet Chronicles. Hughes never lived in a closet and what secret chronicles would he have written anyway. Also, no one ever called Hughes a "king" even as the richest man in the world; maybe a "king" of Las Vegas. It's worth remembering that Point of Know Return came out in 1977 and Hughes died in 1976. I'll admit it is a stretch, but no one heard that Hughes was doing, only that Hughes was dead. His death was sudden and he'd been living in obscurity for a very long time. Pilate would definitely heard that the king was dying and that the king was dead. And with his closet chronicles (secret gospel) that no one ever read (because it was not written down yet). Why the closet's fully emptied and occupied by none, I can't say. And I know I'm out on a limb here. But "I'll draw the drapes, now destiny is done" reminds me of the tearing of the veil at the death of Jesus. Also, ironically, after Hughes left the Desert Inn, it was discovered that the drapes in his penthouse had never been opened. So, there. An out on a limb idea, but it goes along with the fact that "Portrait (He Knew)" is definitely about Jesus. |
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| Kansas – Portrait (He Knew) Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[findsomepeace:47538] You are writing from the standpoint that accepts the divinity of Jesus. Livgren doubted, and was collaborating with Walsh on the song anyway; they're not just Livgren's lyrics. On his own, he produces the version on Prime Mover, and the lyrics there reflect the kind of changes you say should be here were it about Jesus. The song was written from the standpoint of someone not yet fully a believer. | |
| Kansas – Portrait (He Knew) Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| @[rob1099155:47537] Now explain (1) what this thing is that makes energy freely available, and (2) why you know it, even though Tesla died before he could tell you? | |
| Kansas – Portrait (He Knew) Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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First, this song is written by Livgren and Walsh, with both writing the lyrics. So, we can't really know, unless they clarify for us, who is responsible for what part. This song has never seemed like it's really about Einstein, so it was no surprise to me that Livgren "updated" it on his Prime Mover album to be about Jesus, with some select lines modified. For example, the only change in the lines here ("He had a different idea / A glimpse of the master plan / He could see into the future / A true visionary man") is "the Master knew the Plan." It is obvious that in his later work, Livgren is Protestant-certain he has finally found the truth (or, more exactly, returned to his youthful religion because he felt he found nothing better). Other lines are modified as well, of course. This song was always about Jesus, but under the collaboration with Walsh, who has his share of religious references despite not moving the direction of Livgren and Dave Hope in Kansas, and maybe to avoid "controversy" of being branded Christian rock at the time, they "muted" the fact. All the places that qualify or question the divine truth of Jesus in the first version are "corrected" in the later version. Moreover, Einstein certainly did not know and could not see into the future. He was wrong about quantum physics in his own day and the cosmological constant later. None of this makes sense about Einstein: "And he tried, but before he could tell us he died When he left us the people cried Where was he going to?" In the original, Jesus is just a man, a true visionary man who was trying something new, but not the Son of God yet in Livgren's or Livgren's & Walsh's estimation. In the redo, Livgren plainly makes it that the song is about Jesus. |
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