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4.50 AM (Go Fishing) Lyrics
As cars go by I cast my mind's eye
Over back packs on roof racks
Beyond the horizon
Where dream makers
Working white plastic processors
Invite the unwary
To reach for the pie in the sky
Go fishing my boy!
We set out in the spring
With a trunk full of books about everything
About solar devices
And how nice natural childbirth is
We cut down some trees
And we trailed our ideals
Through the forest glade
We dammed up the stream
And the kids cooled their heels
In the fishing pool we'd made
We held hands and we exchanged bands
And we practically lived off the land
You adopted a fox cub
Whose mother was somebody's coat
You fed him by hand
And then snuggled him down
By the grandfather bed while I wrote
We grew our own maize
And I only occasionally went into town
To stock up on antibiotics
And shells for the shotgun that I kept around
I told the kids stories while you worked your loom
And the sun went down sooner each day.
Chapter six in which Eeyore has a birthday
And gets two presents
Daddy...come on dad
Eeyore the old grey donkey stood by the side
Of the stream and he looked at himself in the water
"Pathetic" he said, "That's what it is"
"Good morning Eeyore" said Pooh
"Oh" said Pooh, He thought for a long time
The leaves all fell down
Our crops all turned brown
It was over
As the first snowflakes fell
I realized all was not well in the camp
The kids caught bronchitis
The space heater ran out of diesel
One weekend a friend from the East
Rot his soul
Stole your heart
I said "Fuck it then
Take the kids back to town
Maybe I'll see you around"
And so...leaving all our hopes and dreams
To the wind and the rain
Taking only our stash
Left our litter and trash
And set out on the road again
On the road again
Bye Bye Daddy, Bye Daddy
You can bring Pearl she's a darn nice girl
But don't bring Liza
Over back packs on roof racks
Beyond the horizon
Where dream makers
Working white plastic processors
Invite the unwary
To reach for the pie in the sky
Go fishing my boy!
With a trunk full of books about everything
About solar devices
And how nice natural childbirth is
We cut down some trees
And we trailed our ideals
Through the forest glade
We dammed up the stream
In the fishing pool we'd made
We held hands and we exchanged bands
And we practically lived off the land
You adopted a fox cub
Whose mother was somebody's coat
You fed him by hand
And then snuggled him down
By the grandfather bed while I wrote
We grew our own maize
And I only occasionally went into town
To stock up on antibiotics
And shells for the shotgun that I kept around
I told the kids stories while you worked your loom
And the sun went down sooner each day.
Chapter six in which Eeyore has a birthday
And gets two presents
Daddy...come on dad
Eeyore the old grey donkey stood by the side
Of the stream and he looked at himself in the water
"Pathetic" he said, "That's what it is"
"Good morning Eeyore" said Pooh
"Oh" said Pooh, He thought for a long time
Our crops all turned brown
It was over
As the first snowflakes fell
I realized all was not well in the camp
The kids caught bronchitis
The space heater ran out of diesel
One weekend a friend from the East
Rot his soul
Stole your heart
I said "Fuck it then
Take the kids back to town
Maybe I'll see you around"
To the wind and the rain
Taking only our stash
Left our litter and trash
And set out on the road again
On the road again
You can bring Pearl she's a darn nice girl
But don't bring Liza
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jeez, this is THE best song ever written, the lyrics are without a doubt some of the finest roger has ever done,
"We set out in the spring With a trunk full of books about everything"
"You adopted a fox cub Whose mother was somebody's coat"
the guys a fricken genius! who the hell can rhyme, Bronichitis, Antibiotics!!!
This song is better than sex!!
I think the lyric’s speak for themselves though after many listens to this and other PF records, myself and others have found many musical secrets within the song that make many references to his other songs. The purpose of this is to manipulate our emotions like with a film score, only using the Pink Floyd catalog for reference…for instance, after Roger delivers the line “go fishing, my boy” he then invites us to draw clues from short musical refrain’s:
The first one comes from The Fletcher Memorial “The Fletcher Memorial home for incurable…, etc.” Then the next is from Your Possible Past “Do you remember me? how we used to be? do you think we should be closer?” Both are from The Final Cut album, another record riddled with connections…
Then, during and after the bit when he’s lighting a joint while reading to the kid’s about Eeyore and then again at the end; “And so...leaving all our hopes and dreams to the wind and the rain...” we hear the crashing climax refrain from In The Flesh? From The Wall…What it all means, I don’t know, but after all these years it still makes my hair stand on end!!!
I’ve always thought that The Wall, The Final Cut and The Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking were all very connected and would have mad a great massive rock opera!
First to comment, eh? Pros and Cons looks at a series of dreams that lead Roger to realise that he infact loves the woman that he is with. During the Animals recording sessions Roger was in the middle of a divorce from his wife hence the reason The Wall, TFC and this album all contain alot of references to relationships, break ups, evil women etc.
This song tells it's own story really, it's about a dream that Roger had where he and his ex-wife went and lived in the country for one summer until she cheated on him and took the kids away (Reminds us of a line on The Final Cut "Would you take the children away/and leave me alone"). Simple.
the lyrics are awesome, but musically it lacks. The only really powerful part is the ending.
They have an experiment and try to live off the land in the forest for a while, but realize that they won't be able to make it through winter so they split again.
GREAT!
such strong powerful lyircs.
Interesting that this isn't the only time that Roger has alluded to pet foxes and open fields... check out "Grantchester Meadows"
With the great catalog that PF has, this RW album might be my favorite of all time. The lyrics speak to you because it's about life, relationship, maturity, death etc all things that transcend time and anyone can relate. Love it.
You will probably never see this but I need to comment because you left a message in 2019, Everyone else is in 2006. I love all the Pink Floyd stuff and their solo stuff, I can’t believe I just found this album, it’s so good.
You will probably never see this but I need to comment because you left a message in 2019, Everyone else is in 2006. I love all the Pink Floyd stuff and their solo stuff, I can’t believe I just found this album, it’s so good.