Yellow Brick Road

Quite a few lazy thinkers when it comes to Beefheart, I've noticed. His lyrics are not abstract meanderings. That's like saying his music doesn't make sense. It all makes sense, it just requires a small degree of effort, like much of the best poetry.

This particular song sounds like it's about one of the many "free thinking" cults that were prevalent in Los Angeles in the sixties. I wouldn't be surprised if this was about scientology, but it could be about any number of free love cults that were floating around back then.

Google "yellow brick road" and "mind control" and see what you come up with. The 1-2-3-4-5 is significant as well. After doing some reading on that stuff, go back and re-read the lyrics and consider that it was written in 1966 by a guy who had conversations with every kind of wacko in Cali that you can imagine ..

i think it clearly refer to "wizard of oz"

Often I don't think you need to look for a overall meaning in Beefheart's lyrics, but fragments of ideas and images. I think sometimes it helps to imagine them in a non-linear fashion, ignoring the order they're written in - so as to read them and produce an overall picture, rather than listen to each line sequentially and try and decode them in terms of a structured piece of prose.

I've had two realisations with Beefheart's output. First when I realised that the music was carefully planned and executed, and second when I realised that this also applied to the lyrics.

needo burrrrreedo they so swell when they poppy like this this is what hippies shoulda been doint with their guitars

i don't know what the heck this songs is about.

isn't funny that really good music and stuff nobody knows whats about isn't commented on but every fucking pop song has 100 different meanings/comments

but every fucking pop song has 100 different meanings/comments

It is popular....

Don Van Vliet's lyrics aren't to be taken literally. He loves to play with words, meanings and the sound they make, so trying to understand the intent behind the song will leave you either confused or frightened.

charrbin put it perfectly, trying to find out what the hell dan van vliet's songs mean is a terrifying task.

yea this band is popular but i meant y'know the songs that are so obvious and that are shoved down our throats by the media.

whatev yellow brick, don't look back

this is great stuff people don't try to analyze something so abstract as this it ruins the intent of the artist. mixing with your mind is healthy sometimes

The other day I asked my grandmother what her view on life was. She said "There's two roads in life. The good and the bad, etc etc". I think The Yellow Brick Road is an analogy to doing the right thing.