Dark Side of the Sun

Pretty damn good.

I read in some review that this song is partially about the dark side of religion, namely extremism -- "So how many young men Have to lay down their life... For some sick promise of heaven" Muslims believe that if you sacrifice yourself for Islam/Allah then you will earn your place in heaven...hence the suicide terrorists, who are so focused on their "duty" to Allah that they will do horrible things to get there. They believe that what they're doing in the name of Allah is right and holy and good, but it obviously isn't. The young Muslim men are brainwashed into believing the promise of heaven that will come from their evil deeds.

Lyric correction:

"Bushes burning on the mountain, Abraham and Ishmael, turn back the clock."

I believe that plath81 is right, but i also can see it as a double meaning, where as it is pointing out how extremists are willing to die for their religion, and there are people giving up their lives and the love of their woman, it is also i believe a statement against how america sends out its boys to fight on the forefront of an extremist ideal, for example

"Is there a way out of this If there is I don’t see it Can Heaven & Hell coexist Not when both battle for dominance" is like a statement of having gotten entangled in the war front in iraq, and with no way out in sight, where both sides preach that they are fighting for a haven, in the case of extremist muslims they are fighting for the rewards of jihaad, and the americans are fighting to bring an idea of peace and security to iraq, IE: to turn it into a haven, i dont know this song really can be viewed in anyway, and seriously it is not just localised to muslims, the burning bush and abraham and ishmael are from the bible... and there is such a thing as a christian extremist as well cough george bush cough lol

Does anyone else get an old-school Tori vibe from this song? The background vocals remind me of "Crucify".

Anyway, this seems pretty straight-forward. It's not approving how so many people are dying for a cause that doesn't seem just anymore, or a cause that was never just in the first place. And all this dying has put them in a bad place, the "dark side of the sun."

Yes, but it's so hard to tell who exactly she's supposed to me talking about, and which cause she really means. I mean, I don't hear any but a couple of Fundie wackjobs saying that OUR soldiers will automatically go to heaven if they die in their cause... on the other hand, that's pretty much a main article of jihadist faith, so maybe the song should be directed towards them, instead. Though I know that won't be a popular idea.

That's funny.

First you say "america sends out its boys to fight on the forefront of an extremist ideal" then you say

"the americans are fighting to bring an idea of peace and security to iraq,"

When peace and security are considered "extremist ideals" somebody's entered the Loonyverse.

"That word. I do not think it means what you think it means." -- Inigo Montoya

I also thought it referred to islamic terrorists. That is, if it really says "heaven". American soldiers are promised a "haven"...

There was one statement which really wasn't thought through. Good and bad, ying and yang, black and white, heaven and hell - whatever you call them - have always "coexisted" and will always do so. And because they are opposites, they will always "battle for dominance".

I thing this song is about our ignorance.. as was mentioned in the previous comments: "we're on the dark side of the sun".

But in addition to war and killing each other physically I see another dimension to what she is trying to say here, how we are killing ourselves internally..and specifically this part: "..So how many young men have to lay down their life and their love of their woman for some sick promise of a heaven

Lies go back now to the garden.." I think it refers to how men have to repress their feminine sides("the love of their woman"). How men are supposed to only be sexually attracted to women and anything else is a sin and they will not get to heaven. So if a man realizes that he is only attracted to other men it is a disaster for him in an ignorant society that tells him that something is wrong with him. Many people have committed suicide because they felt that the current ignorant society does not accept them.

This isn't directed towards any one faith, but blind religion in general. That's why there is mention of Abraham, who is the founder of most major religions in the world.

To me, the most powerful lyric is about how there will soon be fast food on the moon, yet we are all more afraid of what tomorrow will bring. This line is definitely about how humanity has progressed so much, yet so little at the same time. We'll soon be easily traveling to the moon, yet we still kill each other over ancient works of fiction.