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Pleasure and Pain Lyrics
White as a cotton cloud
Silence sea and sky
Innocent as the child
Always asking why
I can take you there
I can show you
I can take you there
I'll be there
Gently catching you as you fall
Hearing you when you call
Smiling as we climb
Smiling or crocodiling?
As certainly as the sun
Bakes a Sahara day
Ancient as the hills
Crumbling into clay
It's pleasure and pain
No loss no gain
Pleasure and pain
Again and again
Pleasure and pain
This madness
This laughter
Outward feelings I can't control
Those coloured lights are leading me
It's in you
It's in me
Silence sea and sky
Innocent as the child
Always asking why
I can show you
I can take you there
I'll be there
Gently catching you as you fall
Hearing you when you call
Smiling as we climb
Smiling or crocodiling?
Bakes a Sahara day
Ancient as the hills
Crumbling into clay
No loss no gain
Pleasure and pain
Again and again
Pleasure and pain
This laughter
Outward feelings I can't control
Those coloured lights are leading me
It's in you
It's in me
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This is what Mark Burgess says about "pleasure and Pain":
"I still have no idea where this came from. All I remember is that we jammed it out with Martin Jackson after John had left temporarily to get his head together. The idea began with the intro, written by Dave on the piano."
I love this song. All of Script of the Bridge is great.
It's about a sense of innocence and wonder, as well as the dichotomy between pleasure and pain. The first stanza paints a peaceful scene of an innocent world that is waiting to be explored. The narrator offers to take the listener there and be there for them, catching them when they fall and smiling as they climb.
The second stanza acknowledges the harshness of the world, comparing it to a baking Sahara day and ancient hills crumbling into clay. The repeated refrain of "pleasure and pain, no loss no gain" highlights the duality of life, with its joys and sorrows, and the idea that one cannot exist without the other.
The lyrics also touch on the idea of control, with the narrator acknowledging that they can't control their outward feelings and that the colored lights are leading them. This suggests a sense of surrender to the unknown, which may be both thrilling and frightening.