I think this song is really about art. Specifically about how art has changed through the millenia. The song is about a man reminiscing over a secret spot he would visit as a boy. He was awed and impressed by cave drawings he saw there. We flash to a modern day art gallery where the man is viewing works of "a woolly man without a face and a beast without a name"; a postmodern take on those classic cave drawings. The art of the cave had a real power and connection to the viewer that the modern work lacks. The cave artist created because he had to, it wasn't some "cool" thing to do, it was much deeper than that; he heard the call and he put it on the wall.
"For you and me we understood"-it is an art that we can all realate to on an almost visceral level, not some highbrow concept laden bullshit that you need years of art history scholarship and modern art savvy to understand.
My favorite line is, "Could it be this sad design could be the very same?" The viewer can't believe what passes for art these days and how far removed it is from those early primeval sketches.
I absolutely agree with you Sleepy.... I had always wondered about the specific meaning of this song, and just the other day I was listening to it and it finally clicked:
I absolutely agree with you Sleepy.... I had always wondered about the specific meaning of this song, and just the other day I was listening to it and it finally clicked:
I see the song as, quite simply, a celebration of art/creativity as an inherent human good. "Art for art's sake," and for no other reason at all...except maybe expression and communion with the rest of humanity. "Hearing the call" is the human drive to create, and this is a much more ancient and primordial human trait than the modern ideas of art and fame and commerce or...
I see the song as, quite simply, a celebration of art/creativity as an inherent human good. "Art for art's sake," and for no other reason at all...except maybe expression and communion with the rest of humanity. "Hearing the call" is the human drive to create, and this is a much more ancient and primordial human trait than the modern ideas of art and fame and commerce or even written/spoken language.
In this way I think SD are also able to comment indirectly on the essential corruption of modernity (good call on the 2nd verse taking place in an art gallery). Thinking in a wide historical context helps people to think "outside the box" of their little existence. We're connected to our ancestors and to our descendants by the thread of time and history-- but if you ask the average person, they barely ever think about this-- and thus they never question if perhaps "the way things are now" wasn't always the way things were done (i.e. "Hollywood"). And without that kind of critical thought, you're just going to accept everything blindly and never escape the narrow confines of modern constructions ("before the fall"-- religion criticism?).
Also "for you and me WE understood" could be an attempt to illustrate how history connects us to our shared human heritage or experience, but even out past recorded history both into the past and the future. The narrator of the song AND the cave-dwelling artist both intuitively understand this kindred element to the art (be it music or painting), as do we all when engaged in the act of creativity (i.e. the cave-dweller was painting partly FOR the people in the future that he imagined might exist and find the painting).
So basically I see it as an ode to authenticity-- "there wasn't even any Hollywood" implies that SD wanted people to know that they, like the caveman, were making music just for the hell of it, or the sheer joy of it--- not to make money or be famous primarily (which, sadly, most mainstream musicians/the recording industry nowadays have made their primary/only goal).
But then there is still that quixotic element going on, in that the caveman is still going ahead and making the attempt at expression, or making something "permanent" against the ravages of time-- with no guarantee that anyone would ever see it or understand it or remember him or anything (and so perhaps he's actually the "wooly man without a face" and his painting the "beast without a name"). But still we have that "call" to do it anyway because that's what we humans do and have always done. And that's a wonderful thing that should be celebrated! (And what better way to celebrate this than by making your own mark, adding your own little piece to the continuum of human creative energy?) :)
I think this song is really about art. Specifically about how art has changed through the millenia. The song is about a man reminiscing over a secret spot he would visit as a boy. He was awed and impressed by cave drawings he saw there. We flash to a modern day art gallery where the man is viewing works of "a woolly man without a face and a beast without a name"; a postmodern take on those classic cave drawings. The art of the cave had a real power and connection to the viewer that the modern work lacks. The cave artist created because he had to, it wasn't some "cool" thing to do, it was much deeper than that; he heard the call and he put it on the wall. "For you and me we understood"-it is an art that we can all realate to on an almost visceral level, not some highbrow concept laden bullshit that you need years of art history scholarship and modern art savvy to understand.
My favorite line is, "Could it be this sad design could be the very same?" The viewer can't believe what passes for art these days and how far removed it is from those early primeval sketches.
I absolutely agree with you Sleepy.... I had always wondered about the specific meaning of this song, and just the other day I was listening to it and it finally clicked:
I absolutely agree with you Sleepy.... I had always wondered about the specific meaning of this song, and just the other day I was listening to it and it finally clicked:
I see the song as, quite simply, a celebration of art/creativity as an inherent human good. "Art for art's sake," and for no other reason at all...except maybe expression and communion with the rest of humanity. "Hearing the call" is the human drive to create, and this is a much more ancient and primordial human trait than the modern ideas of art and fame and commerce or...
I see the song as, quite simply, a celebration of art/creativity as an inherent human good. "Art for art's sake," and for no other reason at all...except maybe expression and communion with the rest of humanity. "Hearing the call" is the human drive to create, and this is a much more ancient and primordial human trait than the modern ideas of art and fame and commerce or even written/spoken language.
In this way I think SD are also able to comment indirectly on the essential corruption of modernity (good call on the 2nd verse taking place in an art gallery). Thinking in a wide historical context helps people to think "outside the box" of their little existence. We're connected to our ancestors and to our descendants by the thread of time and history-- but if you ask the average person, they barely ever think about this-- and thus they never question if perhaps "the way things are now" wasn't always the way things were done (i.e. "Hollywood"). And without that kind of critical thought, you're just going to accept everything blindly and never escape the narrow confines of modern constructions ("before the fall"-- religion criticism?).
Also "for you and me WE understood" could be an attempt to illustrate how history connects us to our shared human heritage or experience, but even out past recorded history both into the past and the future. The narrator of the song AND the cave-dwelling artist both intuitively understand this kindred element to the art (be it music or painting), as do we all when engaged in the act of creativity (i.e. the cave-dweller was painting partly FOR the people in the future that he imagined might exist and find the painting).
So basically I see it as an ode to authenticity-- "there wasn't even any Hollywood" implies that SD wanted people to know that they, like the caveman, were making music just for the hell of it, or the sheer joy of it--- not to make money or be famous primarily (which, sadly, most mainstream musicians/the recording industry nowadays have made their primary/only goal).
But then there is still that quixotic element going on, in that the caveman is still going ahead and making the attempt at expression, or making something "permanent" against the ravages of time-- with no guarantee that anyone would ever see it or understand it or remember him or anything (and so perhaps he's actually the "wooly man without a face" and his painting the "beast without a name"). But still we have that "call" to do it anyway because that's what we humans do and have always done. And that's a wonderful thing that should be celebrated! (And what better way to celebrate this than by making your own mark, adding your own little piece to the continuum of human creative energy?) :)