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The Three Shadows, Pt. 2 Lyrics
Oh classic gentlemen
Say your prayers
To the wind, of prostitution
To your faces, and Rex complexes
Riddle my breast
Full of the oppressed puss
Oh gentlemen, with your fish
The you surround, all around
And you man, will always point
Your fishes, at me
But I will always exist
Because I always exist
Damn good too
The rat race begins
The fat face stings
I hold the fresh pink baby
With a smile
I slice off those rosy cheeks
Because I feel so thirsty
And Oedipus Rex complexes
...riddle my closed bloated breast
Say your prayers
To the wind, of prostitution
To your faces, and Rex complexes
Riddle my breast
Full of the oppressed puss
The you surround, all around
And you man, will always point
Your fishes, at me
Because I always exist
Damn good too
The fat face stings
I hold the fresh pink baby
With a smile
I slice off those rosy cheeks
Because I feel so thirsty
...riddle my closed bloated breast
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I can't believe no one has commented on this song! It's so lovely and gloomy and symbolic. Does the pink baby flesh refer to the baby Jesus? Or just mankind in general? Someone give me some food for thought!
My boyfriend and I were trying to figure this out for the longest time. His theory is that this is an anti-capitalist protest song. 'Fish' is sometimes a term for a follower or subordinate as in a 'school of fish,' in which fish mindlessly follow each other. The fish being pointed at the narrator basically equates to 'pointing the blame' at socialism when it's truly the capitalist's fault. The 'I will always exist' line means that the political ideation of socialism will still be an underlying belief amongst the oppressed, despite 'The Man' trying to push it down. The 'wind of prostitution' refers to the stock markets, which are often compared to the 'world's oldest profession, AKA, it'll always exist. The 'classic gentlemen are being told to pray for their stability. The oppressed pus is all the poor/disadvantaged people, which, as is stated, riddle the narrator's breast, ie. put a burden on him/he feels sorry for them. And 'to your faces, and Rex complexes' is a polite way of calling someone quite an impolite name. Basically, it's a pro-socialism, anti-capitalist song, in his interpretation.
@the3shadowspt2 Oh, and the line about the baby refers to being desperate enough to commit crimes to gain money in a society wherein poorer people are treated as criminals.
@the3shadowspt2 Oh, and the line about the baby refers to being desperate enough to commit crimes to gain money in a society wherein poorer people are treated as criminals.
So you'd ever harm the innocent because capitalism makes people greedy.
So you'd ever harm the innocent because capitalism makes people greedy.
@the3shadowspt2
I think you may be on to something. The track after the Three Shadows tracks is All We Ever Wanted, which I also thought was written from the perspective of workers in post-industrialized society. "All we ever wanted was everything. All we ever got was cold" and the liine " Oh to be the cream" I think is a reference to Herbert Spencer saying about the upper classes that the cream rises to the top to justify laissez-faire capitalism.
@the3shadowspt2
I think you may be on to something. The track after the Three Shadows tracks is All We Ever Wanted, which I also thought was written from the perspective of workers in post-industrialized society. "All we ever wanted was everything. All we ever got was cold" and the liine " Oh to be the cream" I think is a reference to Herbert Spencer saying about the upper classes that the cream rises to the top to justify laissez-faire capitalism.
Someone's mistaken here, as these are The three shadows part III lyrics, not part II. Here are the lyrics for part II :
Oh classic gentlemen Say your prayers To the wind, of prostitution To your faces, and Rex complexes Riddle my breast Full of the oppressed puss
Oh gentlemen, with your fish The you surround, all around And you man, will always point Your fishes, at me
But I will always exist Because I always exist Damn good too
The rat race begins The fat face stings I hold the fresh pink baby With a smile I slice off those rosy cheeks Because I feel so thirsty
And Oedipus Rex complexes ...riddle my closed bloated breast
I can't escape the thought of this having a religious undertone either. The "fish" may also refer to Jesus, and the gentlemen pointing their fishes fits my image of religious figureheads who waive their rod of morale.
With this in mind, I see the song as displaying some anthropocentric qualities: the faces of God/Jesus/religion in general is everchanging with time ("the rat race begins") whereas man is constant (the "I will always exist" part)
However, I'd like to see some thoughts on how this relates to the other parts of the The Three Shadows-piece?