The Lobster Quadrille

no comments? :o i like this song. beautiful. ^^ i believe there are some mistakes in these lyrics with all those "will you, won't you, won't you, will you" etc...

huh. I'm listening to almost alice, and so far this is the best song on the thing. It's quite awesome.

This song is great. While it was simply made from a poem that was in either the book Alice in Wonderland or Through The Looking Glass (I believe it was through the looking glass but I can't remember which off the top of my head) and it was put together for the movie Alice in Wonderland, Franz Ferdinand really succeeded in adding an entrancing sort of "mad" instrumental sense and tone to it yet making it their own. It fits in extremely well with the movie and books.

Anyway, to explain the lyrics/poem: This to me is such a fun creative way to explain and poke fun at normalcy and corporations. Perhaps this isn't supposed to be interpretable but to let me explain verse by verse,

"Will you walk a little faster?" Said a whiting to a snail There's a porpoise close behind us And he's treading on my tail. ^^^^^^^^^^^ This first verse represents the snail as a regular dreamy person of sorts. A whiting is a small fish in the atlantic. To me the idea of the Porpoise on the tail of the Whiting shows the sort of food chain of porpoise eating the whiting eating the snail. The porpoise is on the whitings case about something and the whiting is now angry or questioning the snail. The Whiting is sort of showing this corporate world in a seductive way and making work seem enticing. He is asking the whiting to "join the dance" surrender dreams come to the corporate world welcome to reality sort of thing.

See how eagerly the lobsters And the turtles all advance. They are waiting on the shingle. Will you come and join the dance. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It is like the Whiting is saying see how everyone else is conforming. Come join the dance. Dances at the time this was written were all perfectly choreographed also so everyone would have been doing the same uniform thing.

Will you, won't you, Will you, won't you, Will you, won't you, join the dance?

Will you, won't you, Will you, won't you, Won't you, will you, join the dance?

"You can really have no notion How delightful it will be When they take us up and throw us, With the lobsters, out to sea!" But the snail replied, "Too far, too far!" And gave a look askance - Said he thanked the whiting kindly, But he would not join the dance. Would not, could not, would not, Could not, would not join the dance. Would not, could not, would not, Could not, could not join the dance.

^^^^^^^^^^^^ The beginning is mockery of how the higher up people treat everyone else like scum. He sarcastically explains how it will be great when they are tossed aside and taken advantage of. His look of askance shows he is suspicious of this offer the whiting is giving him. He refuses to conform.

"What matters it how far we go?" His scaly friend replied, "There is another shore, you know, Upon the other side.

The further off from England The nearer is to France - Then turn not pale, beloved snail, But come and join the dance.

^^^^^^^^^^ THese two verses suggest that becoming part of reality is inevitable. He cannot avoid it. Even if he went somewhere else he would have to change. It ends on a sinister and macabre almost note in his voice showing a sort of "haha you're stuck"

Will you, won't you, will you, Won't you, will you join the dance? Will you, won't you, will you, Won't you, won't you join the dance?

This is just what I get from it.

I am madly in love with this song(: i love how deep his voice is :D

it reminds me a lot of the original Alice story, as kind of a cross between the race toward the beginning, and the story of the Walrus and Carpenter later.

For years I've assumed this is about the semantics about war between England and France. About how to people less able to fight (IE snails and fish, both legless) are being pressured by those bigger (ie the porpoise) to do the same as the able bodied lobsters and the turtles.

Will you/won't you/will you/won't you sounds like they're pressuring and questioning then motive not to join and fight- analyzing the semantics not to partake.

Too far too far, is not about how he is trapped, but about how close the war is to them, and he should help.

That's my view.