A Saucerful of Secrets Lyrics
b. Syncopated Pandemonium
c. Storm Signal
d. Celestial Voices
In my humble opinion A Saucerful of Secrets is a song about life. I also believe that the meaning of this song was not fully realized as it was being written. I struggle to put what this song means to me into words because like most songs, or should I say spiritual things, are hard to convey in human language. In other words are language is too limited to fully express the meaning of this song. I shall attempt by means of analogous.
First lets get on the same page here, I believe that true knowedge is transformational, ok here we go:
You have just had a revelation, your view has completely changed. (something new)
You have information and knowledge now and it is calling for you to change but you refuse to allow it to change you(Syncopated Pandemonium).
A feeling is bubbling up from the inside, a peace that transcends all understanding (Storm Signal).
You have now allowed the knowledge to change you, you have cut your moorings and you are floating out to sea (Celestial Voices).
To me it seems that this song, like many Pink Floyd songs, can be applied in so many different ways. The root of it, as expounded upon above, seems to be the process of human life: Presentation of new knowledge, fear of change, acceptance of new knowledge, change...a higher level of understanding.
To me this is a very important message for today, it seems that everyone is staying in the Syncopated Pandemonium stage. We live in the information age, and it seems to have done more harm than good.
This song represents a battle: Something Else is the preperation Syncopated Pandemonium is the actual battle Storm Signal is the aftermath Celestial Voices is the mourning of the dead
100% agreed. Always visualise it in my head when this tracks playing. Sheer awesomeness.
100% agreed. Always visualise it in my head when this tracks playing. Sheer awesomeness.
This is definitely a battle with at the end the deligth of having been escaped to the evil. The inner hapiness that you survived a deep crisis. I think maybe Syd had had a bad LSD trip, and finally recovered from it and expressed this in his song. Everyone who ever has taken LSD (me just a few times) knows that it brings immense happiness and joy, but the slightest disturbment (a police control..) can cause you to go crazy. To get out of such a bad trip, you first really go through hell and the delight finally is the...
This is definitely a battle with at the end the deligth of having been escaped to the evil. The inner hapiness that you survived a deep crisis. I think maybe Syd had had a bad LSD trip, and finally recovered from it and expressed this in his song. Everyone who ever has taken LSD (me just a few times) knows that it brings immense happiness and joy, but the slightest disturbment (a police control..) can cause you to go crazy. To get out of such a bad trip, you first really go through hell and the delight finally is the celestial voices at the end. For me, it is a very encouraging song saying: through wichever hell you go, if you are good and strong, you will defeat and be rewarded by peace.
Killspy, Floyd has that effect on people! Many times have I got a tear in my eye after really listening to The Wall, DSOTM, Echoes, Atom Heart Mother the list goes on. The live version of this song on Ummagumma is the best version I have heard. I didn't like the Pompeii version as much. Mainly because it was too fast in places. I wish more bands these days gave experimentation a shot rather that sticking to crowd pleasing, dance/pop/rap music. Although, you get the odd "what the hell were you thinking!?" you also stumble across the odd gem. Saucerful being one of those jems!
The version on Ummagumma Live is fantastic and much better than the studio release. Namely Celestial Voices, as that's my favorite part of the song.
I am quite surprised that nobody noticed the key elements in the song (and also the most memorable out of the 4 movements): "Syncopated Pandemonium" and "Celestial Voices".
It is definitely about a battle between good and evil with links to the Paradise Lost's angelic war over Heaven. Pandemonium (roughly translated as "all-demons") is the name invented by John Milton for the capital of Tartarus (or Hell). "Syncopated Pandemonium" is a metaphor describing Hell's transformation (or syncopation) during the three days of the battle, while "Celestial Voices" could either mean the mourning of the defeated fallen angels, or the celestial voices of the victorious angels of God.
Considering the experimental, almost arbitrary, writing of the track (Gilmour once said "I can't say as I fully understood what was going on when it was being made, with Roger sitting around drawing little diagrams on bits of paper") there is a lot of room for interpretation and for sure there's more than one meaning, as each band member contributed to the track adding his own message. However, I always think to Milton's Paradise Lost when listening to it.
Can the stream of those subtitles mean death and rebirth or Heaven and Hell? Or war and peace? I feel also Atom Heart Mother has like this stream.
"Celestial Voices" lets me associate cherubs (angels serving a temple with the wings). The cover of A Saucerful of Secrets has some drawings and there is alchemy. Cherubs appear in a concentric circle of an original alchemy's drawing, though we can't see it on the cover for hiding.
Atom Heart Mother and Echoes consists of harmonious parts in front and behind and of confusion improvising in the middle. A state of confusion is put between harmonious parts, and it forms a circle. But as for A Saucerful of Secrets, it doesn't form a circle - it is one direction. Sysyphus, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, Atom Heart Mother, Echoes, The Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, The Wall... They, long works, form a circle all. A Saucerful of Secrets is an exception - it is a pattern from chaos to harmony/order.
Is "Something Else" a different world or different dimension? I associate "Something Else" with the word of "Kotenchu". "Kotenchu" is Chinese fables - it means the sky/heavens in a pot. There is a different world in a pot "Kotenchu," and it is the story which a hero goes through pot into there, just like "Alice in Wonderland." It means another world/a different world, the world of real self at being away from work and an amusement of drinking liquor and forgetting the workaday world.
That is, "Kotenchu" is just A Potful of Secrets.
sorry to spoil the fun but there really isnt any concept to this song that im aware of. in an interview with gilmour he says that most of the guitar in the song was actually created from loooking at odd shapes wright and waters drew on a peice of paper.
This one is just a trippy, psychedelic symphony. You will find something like this on every early PF album. "Interstellar Overdrive" on Piper, this song on SFOS, "Atom Heart Mother" on Atom Heart Mother, "Echoes" on Meddle, The Studio Part of Ummgumma is entirely composed of such Symphonies.
I have Pompeii and when I saw this along with all the images of destruction I started to cry.
dunno what i t means ...does it matter? the live version in pompeii especially celestial voices is just splendid!!never seen gilmour with a greater voice so much feeling in the screaming is amazing!it really makes you wanna cry!!pink floyd is something else more than just music