Circles

For a long time, I thought the song was about a person feeling lost after a breakup. The bewilderment was always so obvious to me "going round in circles, compass is all messed up" "Got oil on my feathers and I can't fly" (oil possibly representing his hate during the relationship, because when you're in love, everything seems light: it's as if you were flying), and also, well the chorus just states that his days are "long and lonely". The clown metaphor (which I found extremely moving, by the way) was, still back then to me, a pure example of his loneliness despite his many efforts and commitment ("I can laugh and sing and stand on my head: nobody knows where I'm at"); sometimes when you want to impress your crush, you become a whole unrecognisable person, like putting on a mask or 'putting on an act'. I also find it interesting that later on he says "I can't laugh anymore" when he specifically said it was part of his act, which means one thing: he lost his ability to amuse. He lost a part of his identity. And I find the "old Chang surely told me" part rather self explanatory. The reason the relationship didn't work out was his own fault.

And then, I realised something not too long ago: all of the song is a description of a pilot landing a plane (and let's be obvious: the album's cover shows it all, and after a bit of research, I found a few photos of the whole band with pilot suits on. I wonder though what drove the band so much for flying, but maybe this is the concept of the album?? Idk) and I find it explains everything. His trajectory is going in circles because he probably broke his compass. He is on a bottle of wine because he feels dizzy after flying so much. The clown without a circus is basically the pilot saying "I'm making all of these circles around in the air like a stage performance, but no one's watching anyway". And well, the "my frozen toes are beginning to melt, I believe I'm catching a cold" part is obvious. The bull in the China shop part is because his aircraft was hard to control as he tried reducing speed on the landing runway, maybe? In any case, the pilot metaphor somehow makes more sense I find.

An amazing song!!! And the rest of the album is stunning!! Pure prog at its best!!!