The Man with the X-Ray Eyes

No comments yet?

This song always makes me laugh. I love the lyrics. Don't ask me to interpret them, though.

It could have been inspired by the 1960's sci-fi movie "X - The Man With The X-Ray" eyes, starring Ray Milland and, yes, Don Rickles.

Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0meFpOvSQE

I'm not certain about this one but this song made me think of the poem Ozymandius by PB Shelly. To me it's somewhat about the power of nuclear weapons and modern hubris much like Ozymandius.

It's almost as if our narrator has seen into the past with xray eyes and like PB Shelly sitting at the foot of Ozymandius our narrator perceives the futility of great empires and himself (his own demise).

I think at the end this is a frightening, unsettling, moment and he wish he had never seen what poor PB Shelly had seen.

Anyway I love the song and poetry of it.

I could be very wrong about this... Here's the original PB Shelly poem I'm referencing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias

I'm not certain about this one but this song made me think of the poem Ozymandius by PB Shelly. To me it's somewhat about the power of nuclear weapons and modern hubris much like Ozymandius.

It's almost as if our narrator has seen into the past with xray eyes and like PB Shelly sitting at the foot of Ozymandius our narrator perceives the futility of great empires and himself (his own demise).

I think at the end this is a frightening, unsettling, moment and he wish he had never seen what poor PB Shelly had seen.

Anyway I love the song and poetry of it.

I could be very wrong about this... Here's the original PB Shelly poem I'm referencing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias

No, I think you're right. The lyrics do specifically mention "Shelley's shoes," so the metaphor of Ozymandia's statue's giant feet is definitely applicable.

And on the nuclear theme, I think the point is that unlike the ancient Ozymandias, who was forgotten through time, the modern Ozzy (I am SO sick of typing the name) is destroyed much more quickly because of nuclear weapons.

I think you're right about the Ozy reference in that one line, but this song is more directly about the Roger Corman film "X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes," in which a scientist gives himself x-ray vision, which gradually deteriorates until he can't see normally any more, driving him crazy. Xavier (the title character) literally ends up tearing out his own eyes.

Chocolate Power is so crisp. What?

The live version and the Mask version sound completely different. I don’t know which I love more