"A song like Pedestal for instance, something like that could only be created in that time. It's about death; I was much more into that than now. I thought I had a clear picture of death but now I know it's a mystery and it will always be a mystery, although it is something we all have in common: everybody knows that life ends with death. So then I try to imagine how we would live if we didn't know we were going to die. Would we live our lives differently? Less careful maybe? Less scared? These are beautiful things to think about and build a song around. But I think that after a year of Portishead I've become a little more sober."
Beth Gibbons of Portishead in an interview found here:
"A song like Pedestal for instance, something like that could only be created in that time. It's about death; I was much more into that than now. I thought I had a clear picture of death but now I know it's a mystery and it will always be a mystery, although it is something we all have in common: everybody knows that life ends with death. So then I try to imagine how we would live if we didn't know we were going to die. Would we live our lives differently? Less careful maybe? Less scared? These are beautiful things to think about and build a song around. But I think that after a year of Portishead I've become a little more sober."
http://wnet.suomi.net/kotisivu/heikki.hietala/Interviews/Beth%20Oor.htm