IMHO... Mother Stands For Comfort is a weird song, a dangerous lullaby to sing you to sleep... The 'shattering' evokes Babooshka... Another song of lies and deceit... But in MSFC, the son expects - and will make - his mother play her part...
Initially, the song had me asking What does 'son' stand for? What does 'mother' stand for? ... Society 'imprisons' us all in stereotypical expectations. From Trisha to Springer, mothers who don't stand for comfort are either demonised or psycho-pathologised as 'failed mothers'. The mother of this song seemed caged in 'the prison of motherhood' by her son's wrong, caught between a rock and a hard place, and desperate for moral expression.
Then I thought of Hitchcock's Psycho!
'She knows...' (mother's intuition? or is he paranoid schizophrenic?) ... 'something wrong...' (crime? OR overharsh super-ego/maternal identification? Negative Oedipus Complex?)
'But she won't say anything... But she won't mind me lying... Because...' (Has he already killed her for comfort? Is she mummifying in the chair?)
The 'madman' has gone over the edge... He has murdered the mother to keep her 'mum'*! ... He has made her play her ghastly comforting part...
The schizophrenic repercussion unleashes mad fearful imaginings. It breaks the cage of mental stability, provoking him to do dreadful things... There is a terrible, twisted lucidity... The cat/bird expresses social breakdown, mental disorder and role-reversal; and the maternal-hunter/food-gatherer has become the hunted prey...
Just like Babooshka's husband, we are lulled by the sound of MSFC only for it to shatter our expectations...
*He kills his mother to keep her mum... In England, mum=mother & to 'stay mum' means to say nothing of the secret you know!
IMHO... Mother Stands For Comfort is a weird song, a dangerous lullaby to sing you to sleep... The 'shattering' evokes Babooshka... Another song of lies and deceit... But in MSFC, the son expects - and will make - his mother play her part...
Initially, the song had me asking What does 'son' stand for? What does 'mother' stand for? ... Society 'imprisons' us all in stereotypical expectations. From Trisha to Springer, mothers who don't stand for comfort are either demonised or psycho-pathologised as 'failed mothers'. The mother of this song seemed caged in 'the prison of motherhood' by her son's wrong, caught between a rock and a hard place, and desperate for moral expression. Then I thought of Hitchcock's Psycho!
'She knows...' (mother's intuition? or is he paranoid schizophrenic?) ... 'something wrong...' (crime? OR overharsh super-ego/maternal identification? Negative Oedipus Complex?) 'But she won't say anything... But she won't mind me lying... Because...' (Has he already killed her for comfort? Is she mummifying in the chair?)
The 'madman' has gone over the edge... He has murdered the mother to keep her 'mum'*! ... He has made her play her ghastly comforting part...
The schizophrenic repercussion unleashes mad fearful imaginings. It breaks the cage of mental stability, provoking him to do dreadful things... There is a terrible, twisted lucidity... The cat/bird expresses social breakdown, mental disorder and role-reversal; and the maternal-hunter/food-gatherer has become the hunted prey...
Just like Babooshka's husband, we are lulled by the sound of MSFC only for it to shatter our expectations...
*He kills his mother to keep her mum... In England, mum=mother & to 'stay mum' means to say nothing of the secret you know!