The ConstruKction of Light Lyrics
beauty, die, black, joy, love
empty, day, life, die, pain, passion, joy, black, day, hate, beauty, die, life, joy, ache, empty, day, pain, die, love, passion, joy, black light
a fleck of dirt on the wing of a fly
hurtling to earth
through a hole in the sky
a speck of lint on the penis of an alien
buried in gelatin
beneath the sands of Venus
sad, white, rain, sun, anger, hurt, soft,
trust, night, rage, rain, white, hope, dark,
sacred, sun, time, trust, hurt, rage, anger, rain, white light
who once was a dinosaur
and a dog can dream
should it be implausible?
that a man might supervise
the construKction of light
love, empty, time, sun, hurt, trust, peace, dark, rage, sad, white, rain, hate,
anger, hope, sacred, passion, life, night,
ache, soft light
The original working title for this song was "Let There Be Light". The "ConstruKction of Light" is a musical interpretation of the Creation Story from the Book of Genesis. It reflects on the opposing perspectives of faith and reason or creationism vs. evolution. The musical prelude is an interpretation of the first six days as written in Chapter1 of the Book of Genesis. (Read it while you listen - it will take about the same amount of time. The recurring descending lines are "day turned into night" each day.) The lyrics begin with Day 7 (Chapter 2) when God gave man dominion over the earth and all of creation. With all of the joys and pain humans experience, we struggle to understand how we could have been created in God's image and what is our purpose. At times we wonder if we have created God in our own image and for our own purposes. If birds evolved from dinosaurs, than why couldn't humans be masters of the universe, or just a speck of dust? As with many King Crimson songs, there is ambiguity, and the lyrics don't take one side or the other, just reflect the struggle.
I think this song is about questioning the existance of God. If you know about the physics of light, you know that it has both wave and particle properties and theories. We don't and can't really understand it fully - it's beyond us and assumed must have been created by God. But the song lists all the things in the world that we usually associate with God having created and then questions if it's really all that impossible that maybe God didn't create them.
I think it also points out how afraid people are of feeling insignificant. Without a god watching over us we become just another speck in an infinite sea of stars, in the big scheme of things no more important than a speck of dirt.
Early KC lyrics were notable for actually being good.