Fylingdale Flyer Lyrics
No fanfare, just a blip on the screen
No quick conclusions now-- everything will be fine
Short-circuit glitsch and not what it seems
Flyingdale flyer-- you're only half way there
Green screen liar-- for a second or so we were running scared
Dead cert alert, lit match to the straw
One last quick game of bowls-- we can still win the day
Fail-safe; forget the thing that you saw
Some tiny fuse has probably blown
Sit back; relax and soon it will just go away
Keep your hands off that red telephone
As Massapequa correctly says, the song is named for the Ballistic Missile Early Warning Station at Fylingdales Moor in Yorkshire, and may have been inspired by reports of spurious warnings generated by the early warning system throughout the cold war. The song urges caution ("Sit back; relax ... keep your hands off that red telephone") in the face of computer glitches, given that the consequences of reacting prematurely would be so devastating.
The line about "one last quick game of bowls" probably refers to the famous but possibly apocryphal story in which Sir Francis Drake, a British naval commander, insisted on finishing a game of bowls before responding to reports of the approach of a Spanish invasion fleet, the Armada. The implication is that not responding impulsively to threats is a particularly British virtue.
The lyrics neither explicitly nor implicitly indicate whether the green blip was a malfunction or an actual attack. However, the implication of the song is that no matter whether or not an indicated attack is real, the human tendency would be to irrationally rationalize--"Naw, it can't be a real attack!"--therefore rendering the early warning systems completely useless in the event of a real attack.
The song is about a nuclear missile approaching, and the observers not being sure if they are dealing with a real attack or just a technical glitch.
inpraiseoffolly: The great thing about Jethro Tull is that they have music to appeal to just about anybody, however not everyone will like the same things. A happens to be one of my favorite albums. However, I'm not a huge fan of Crest of a Knaive, while just about everyone else loves it.
For the record, the song is FYLINGDALE FLYER, not Flyingdale.
Fylingdale Moor, North Yorkshire, was the former home of Britain's missile early warning system. Three giant golf ball-shaped domes dominated the skyline for miles around, and were the source of Britain's "four minute warning" of impending nuclear attack
The title of the song is "Fylingdale Flyer", not "Flyingdale Flyer".
Well, this album is better than Under Wraps, at least. I just cannot believe that my second favorite band would release an album as bad musically as Under Wraps (the lyrics are not first-rate, but with listen-toable music, they would be reasonable.
Honestly, after I heard Under Wraps, I had to clean out my ears.
Under Wraps and A, so far, at least, are the two worst Jethro Tull albums, though A is an order of magnitude above Under Wraps.