Albatross Lyrics
I always loved this one. It makes me picture a young woman attending someone else's wedding, feeling stifled by the restrictions of her dull life, and dreaming of a mysterious lover who will call her away to a wild new existence.
Lyric correction: "Isinglass," not "icing glass." Isinglass is a sheet of semi-transparent mica, that was used long ago to make lanterns.
One of my favorite songs of all time. I think it wonderfully captures the sort of epic mythic side of what it's like to be an attractive woman whom all the men are trying to "make time with", as I think 1967 parlance would have it. She's tired and disconnected and watches idly as they are so engaged with what they think she's about.
I've also always loved that the chorus has this sort of dark other place, like a mortal fear nightmare place, that exists in her experience - I can't tell what that's really supposed to be about, but emotionally, it really works for me. It reminds me of "Synchronicity II", where the verses are less emotional and describe a daylight sort of place, and the chorus counters with a dark, visceral, emotional, very different place.
"And tell you why, and ask you why, either way you answer." Love it.