Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk

I'm not sure if anyone hit this by the title is an obvious reference to the parable of Jesus healing the cripple. He pretty much tells a guy to "pick up thy mat and walk." however since it is now stethoscope the doctor is being healed.

not to be an ass here, but can we get the lyrics any more wrong? lol This is straight outta the book that comes with the CD, so they are the right lyrics:

I'm in bed, aching head gold is lead choke on bread underfed gold is lead jesus bled pain is red dark doom

gruel ghouls, greasy spoons used spoons, June Bloom

music seems to help the pain seems to contemplate the brain Doctor kindly tell your wife that I'm alive flowers thrive realise realise realise!

Sounds to me like this guy is a soldier who has been hurt in battle. Gold is lead is a tricky line. I'm guessing what matters most is the lead that's in his body, so gold meaning the most valuable thing. underfed, choke on bread (there's not enough water either lol) Jesus bled, pain is red... dark doom... simple enough gruel is nasty ass food that army people eat. gruel ghouls are maybe the people who eat up all the gruel lol. the spoons are dirty My favorite part of the song is "June Bloom" I think he has the flowers represent being alive.... that's why later he says so strongly that flowers thrive. The one line I don't get is "doctor kindly tell your wife" Did the doctor steal his wife from him? Is the doctor's wife a nurse? Who the hell knows lol. This song is amazing.... people need to stop dissin on songs they don't understand because not being accessible is almost synonymous with artistic. Thanks for reading through all this. Send me an IM people. I love talking Floyd! Syd Barrett may be the greatest poetic mind in history.

I can't stand the first part of the song but after all the annoying lyrics the instrumentals are cool.

This song kicks ass!

gold is lead probably means nothing more than the singer does not appreciate or find value in things that normally are worth something to people. as in he is not feeling well or finding worth in life at the moment, i doubt it has anything to do with bullets. i think this is one of roger waters best songs along with 'if'.

wonderful beautiful song. the closing lyrics with the music is a blast to listen to. sometimes im pretty sure im the only one who thinks that this is the BEST floyd album....although saucerful of secrets is a nice listen.

BleedingHeartArtist strikes me as the kind of Floyd fan who thinks The Final Cut was Waters' greatest of achievements, meaning we can safely disregard everything he says as being wrong. TUTSaW is a FANTASTIC song, and so is Pow R. Toc H. Anyone who says differently clearly does not understand British psychedelia. Probably the same people who inexplicably can't understand the humo(u)r of Monty Python.

i dont understand u guys, this song is really great =) used it in a theater show in the high school, which was wonderful aswell.

to me, it always sounded like a description of a trip. the "doctor" is the guy who gave him the acid. the opening lyrics are just the images and thoughts he's experiencing ("gold is lead" is obviously a reference to alchemy, and I never thought anything of it beyond that). the middle, lyrics-free section is him experiencing the rest of the trip. he sets it up to make it sound as if it's a bad one, but then at the end he has an epiphony ("I'm alive/flowers thirve/realise!"). I don't know how valid that is, but it was just always my take on it.

To clarify, the words are awful, the way they are sung is awful, but the closing music is excellent. I just never got there because the beginning was so bad.