Back in N.Y.C.

I think the part at the end about shaving Rael's "fluffy heart" is the hardest metaphor/symbol to understand on the album. Everyone seems to have different interpretations of what it means. Personally, I think hair represents emotions, and shaving it would mean getting rid of emotion, becoming harder and tougher and cooler. (I relate this to a scene in the movie Pink Floyd: The Wall, which is entirely different concept album, where the main character shaves off all the hair on his body.) I think Rael needed to become tougher to survive in New York City, and that this incident happens after he is released from the Pontiac, so I naturally assume that the reformatory made him this way. Another interpretation of mine that's similar is that the shaving is preparing him for living in an extroverted world- New York is an extremely extroverted city, in my opinion, and it's not really the right place for an introvert to survive (I know my soul would die if I lived there). I think that despite Rael's bragging about being a tough kid, he is really a sort of quiet, introverted person who doesn't like attention (in the first song he yells at women for staring at him, and later in the story for Chamber of 32 Doors, he immediately runs off to a quiet corner of the room after the people notice him). So all in all, the shaving of the heart represents a survival mechanism. I have no clue what the porcupine could possibly mean, though... I don't think it's supposed to be a real porcupine...

Anyway, the rest of the song provides some much-needed backstory on this character, and I think makes him more sympathetic. It's a useful song in terms of the story, but I don't really like listening to it because the music doesn't seem to fit the lyrics until the end.

I'm mostly interested in the phrase "progressive hypocrites" since it's probably the only soluble line in the whole album. I suppose there are white progressives (like the Meathead in All in the Family) who try to understand PR youth like Rael, but the "hypocrites" part isn't so obvious. Maybe being white, middle-class and aloof, Rael doesn't relate to them (as minorarities tended not to relate to the Meathead) thus he thinks them hypocritical.

The meaning of the verses are quite simple: are all memories of Rael's life in New York. I think the most interesting part of the song is the chorus and the porcupine's part. In my opinion the act of shaving his heart means that Rael tries to leave his emotion behind him in order to get accepted by his gang (for this he obtain the name of "electric razor"). The porcupine, who is a animal with spikes which doesn't let others attacking him, is a symbol of Rael's need of protection, which is archieved with the absence of emotions. Although, Rael is not satisfied of his new situation: in the chorus a voice repeat "No" at the line "when your fluffy heart is ready to rape", and in my opinion the meaning is that he feels this situation like a rape for himself, becouse he can't live without feelings. I think this song is deeply connected with the needing to find a group and adfirming himself in it, and it's the reason I love it so much.

One more thing: I don't think Rael had never burnt something or raped someone like parberoo said. The rape mentioned in the chorus is, as I said before, only a metaphore, and the part "When I take out my bottle, filled up high with gasoline, You can tell by the night fires where Rael has been, has been." is referred with the habit of Rael of writing his name on the wall with a spray bottle, to make know his name (very poetic, in a strange way). There is a verse with almost the same words in the first song of the album.

7/8 time. That is all.

After living with the Lamb since its release all those years ago, I have only recently listened to it again and given it some deeper thought. It is an incredible piece of work by any standards and holds up today extremely well. The music , concept, story and lyrics all work together to produce a musical which, for me, is up there with Sondheim.

And there is so much conjecture about meanings etc - the wonders of the internet ! So much love of this album, and very creative responses from fans from all over the place.

My own thoughts revolve around the instrumental which follows Back in NYC , and more tellingly, its location at the hairy or not so hairy heart of the Lamb.

For me it seems to mark a turning point. The track Back in NYC seems to boil down to an internal dialogue – go the route which will put one back behind bars , or go another route which will unite one with the rest of humanity ( counting out time , carpet crawlers and 32 doors ) as opposed to the lifeless grand parade view of humanity he has held to date. For me, the heartfelt 32 doors could almost have been the end of Rael´s story – listen to the beautiful final tinkle of Tony Bank´s piano.

This could be the end because, after very many listenings, the second record now runs parallel in my head with the first ( er um , am I making sense doctor ?) , kind of looping back to this very point. The first record seems to be Rael at the upper level of his mind, while the second deals with his deeper drives . On disc two his mum and dad ( seemingly absent on the upper level) , for me at least, loom very large from a psychological perspective . My somewhat potty notion is that these figures affect the events on the first record rather than following them in a linear fashion. Outlandish I know, and probably the result of my over active imagination ! But pretentious fun nonetheless.

Man, for once i want to assume a serious deeper meaning into something the author freely admits he wrote as a reference to masturbation.

I kinda hoped it was about how the culture of machismo Rael grapples with is a cycle of abuse built on filling young men with self-hatred; to admit to emotions and empathy is seen as weakness to be punished until you learn to define yourself (and masculinity in general) through your capacity for violence, both in giving (starting fires, picking fights, and viewing sex as conquest of "sweetest meats...in striped sheets") and receiving (not being respected until he does time in reformatory, "we don't believe in pain, cuz we're only as strong...as the weakest link in the chain."

And so you "cuddle the porcupine": you see yourself as unworthy of comfort (and despise those who possess it, assuming that they "don't think I'm real") and deserving only of pain, you hurt yourself until you can't hurt anymore so that nobody else can hurt you, and you put up this nasty, violent tough-guy front we see throughout the song. And as much as I do not like the reference to r*pe, i don't interpret it as Rael having done so, but rather his fear that remaining gentle and kind and possessing the "fluffy-hearted" capacity for "romantic escape" in such a violent environment leaves you a target for those who have since given up their humanity and want to drag you down to their level.

Problem is, denying your vulnerability doesn't actually stop you from hurting, it merely frustrates your own expression of it, until you wind up disaffected ("this is your mess I'm in, I really don't belong"), angry at the world and lashing out in every direction ("I don't care who I hit...I don't care who I hurt, I don't care who I do wrong) and determined to hurt everyone as badly as you hurt ("you cannot buy protection from the way that I feel.")

And you have no patience for those who lecture you from the outside--"progressive hypocrites who hand out their trash", because they don't know the world you're fighting to survive in; it's yours in the first place, and you'll burn it to ash.

But in the quiet moments, with no one else around to lash out at, you're forced to confront the violence and pain--you chose to cuddle that porcupine and when you wake up covered in bloody pinpricks there's none to blame but you.

[Edit: it's 3 in the morning, i'm bound to make some typos]

Rael takes the time to justify his existance and the things hes done on this track. Sets the scene for his past with fighting, arson and rape on the list... lovely bloke. Thinking about the porcupine, i spect thats his conscience which he cant let go of poking a bit of guilt or sense into him and therefore bringing about the decision to shave his heart of its hair... perhaps a metaphor for his new found run in with emotions.

Love the way the song builds - so powerful

"You say I must be crazy, 'cos I don't care who I hit, who I hit."

Insane!

I first heard this song when I was 17. It was awesome, rebellious, even when taken out of the album's context "They call me the trail blazer - Rael - electric razor" so kewllll ......