Golden Pendulum

Anyone else think this is about death? I didn't even realise it until I'd read the lyrics but it seems pretty obvious to me.

"You said I feel no pain Where are you going With number nothing Unnaturally" Seems a premature summing-up of the song. The person is claiming to "feel no pain" whilst they kill themselves, the narrator is amazed and confused as to why they're "going". They're definitely killing themselves because it's "unnatural". I'm not sure what "number nothing" means, perhaps there's the idea of you're number "being up" when you die. Perhaps this is again reiterating that they're killing themselves, dying before their time, their number isn't up yet?

"It's the feeling that can't be lost It's another that you can't explain It pulls on strings like falling in love Instant love instant love" Here the comparison seems to be between depression severe enough to encourage suicide and love may show another side to the song. The idea of you not being able to explain it and it "pull[ing] on strings", these may be your "heartstrings" or emotions or the "strings" in the idea of a puppet. So the feeling of love and depression affects your life and decides how things change in your life

"Only you asked to go lower And don't you just know it Dead fingers falls" Before I read the lyrics I assumed "asked to go lower" was a sexual image, but perhaps it's intending "lower" in the form of emotionally. If you're emotionally "low" you could be feeling dead, emotionless or you could be feeling absolutely sad and desolate. "Dead fingers falls" could potentially be a sexual image but it seems far more likely to be a literal one. They may be wanting to go "lower" by slipping into death itself. When you sleep the next level is death and that's when your fingers "fall".

"A star fades out of my heart But you laughed and just rolled and rolled over Everything slowly goes You said you knew and that's what you wanted" Obviously the star is fading because he's lost someone he cared about. The laughing and rolling over bit confused me. This may again be the mixing of romance and death. In a romantic sense you could be rolling over in bed, perhaps after having sex when you're preparing to sleep. However it could be drawing links with the idea of "turning (or "rolling") in your grave". So the star is fading in his heart because his lover is rolling in their grave and is "laughing" so is happy about it? And then there's another line which makes me think suicide. The person knows that everything will be fading and that's what they want, that's why the chose to kill themselves. This also gives the impression that the singer has asked them not to, tried to persuade them out of it yet failed.

"If time gone is history Then this is a victory A victory worth losing for you And all you need" So the past is history, none of it matters. Perhaps the "victory" is the victory of the person dying, finally being free from a world they hate. Perhaps his loss in the battle "a victory worth losing" is trying to persuade them out of it. He accepts that's what they wanted and perhaps what was best for them, it was what they needed.

"You said I feel no pain Where are you going With the number three" And then the first few lines repeated again. This time you know better what they mean, they felt no pain when they died. "The number three" I think is the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. People tend to evoke religious imagery far more when referring to death than they do when referring to life.

I think this is a really amazing, beautiful song with a far deeper meaning than first apparent when you listen to it. It's such a shame how underrated and under appreciated the Big Pink are.