This song is a lot more than just a coming of age scenario. In the previous song "Let me up" he wants disconnected from the "placenta," wants out of the egg, which I take as earth (or reality) and to go into the "heavens" or some sort of oblivion. So in the opening lines of this song "the cord is cut" and "my orbit had begun," he is referencing he has been cut from earth and reality, and is into oblivion.
Although he wanted "up" into this orbit, or oblivion, he finds that he's everything (politics, inkblots, etc.) and yet also "I am no one." Out in orbit he is everything and nothing all at once, and is still dissatisfied. And, of course, what is a Tim Kasher song w/out some ironic biblical references such as the body, the flood, etc - he's a satiric god out in orbit, the body and the blood, and also the cancer that feeds on those organs in humanity.
The theme of this album goes beyond commenting on religion, and into the negative nature of humans.
This cd is also really, really dark. But I love it!
I see a logical progression from "Mama, I'm Satan" through "Let Me Up" to this song.
I see a logical progression from "Mama, I'm Satan" through "Let Me Up" to this song.
In "Mama, I'm Satan," I think Kasher is singing as the adolescent believing he is important enough to be The Wrecker of the World, the writer who thinks his writ is holy, the sort of person he addressed in "Opening the Hymnal/Babies." In Billy Corgan's words, he is "intoxicated with the madness, [he's] in love with [his] sadness."
In "Mama, I'm Satan," I think Kasher is singing as the adolescent believing he is important enough to be The Wrecker of the World, the writer who thinks his writ is holy, the sort of person he addressed in "Opening the Hymnal/Babies." In Billy Corgan's words, he is "intoxicated with the madness, [he's] in love with [his] sadness."
Then there is more maturity in "Let Me Up," a sort of hopelessness or nihilism,...
Then there is more maturity in "Let Me Up," a sort of hopelessness or nihilism, that there is no point, that our world is thick with meaningless and absurdity. It's comfortable, but desperate. The struggle of "Mama, I'm Satan," is gone, along with any hope of cure. The speaker just seems to want ANY sort of purpose or end or oblivion. The final line is particularly suggestive: there's all this potency, but it's trapped in the shell of the body.
Which brings us to this song, the bloody fact of that potency. Here, you have pregnancy--and so heartbreakingly and surprisingly. I imagine a young teen girl going to her mother to confess so ineloquently but earnestly, "Mama, I'm swollen." But this is the potency of the body dreamed of in "Let Me Up," this is the purpose we get. It is the only way deeds are ever made flesh--and how great a consequence those deeds are, because not only does a newborn eventually rip out of you, bloody, but they suffer this bloody world, and then they die--all because of one single decision, one act.
This song is a lot more than just a coming of age scenario. In the previous song "Let me up" he wants disconnected from the "placenta," wants out of the egg, which I take as earth (or reality) and to go into the "heavens" or some sort of oblivion. So in the opening lines of this song "the cord is cut" and "my orbit had begun," he is referencing he has been cut from earth and reality, and is into oblivion.
Although he wanted "up" into this orbit, or oblivion, he finds that he's everything (politics, inkblots, etc.) and yet also "I am no one." Out in orbit he is everything and nothing all at once, and is still dissatisfied. And, of course, what is a Tim Kasher song w/out some ironic biblical references such as the body, the flood, etc - he's a satiric god out in orbit, the body and the blood, and also the cancer that feeds on those organs in humanity.
The theme of this album goes beyond commenting on religion, and into the negative nature of humans.
This cd is also really, really dark. But I love it!
I see a logical progression from "Mama, I'm Satan" through "Let Me Up" to this song.
I see a logical progression from "Mama, I'm Satan" through "Let Me Up" to this song.
In "Mama, I'm Satan," I think Kasher is singing as the adolescent believing he is important enough to be The Wrecker of the World, the writer who thinks his writ is holy, the sort of person he addressed in "Opening the Hymnal/Babies." In Billy Corgan's words, he is "intoxicated with the madness, [he's] in love with [his] sadness."
In "Mama, I'm Satan," I think Kasher is singing as the adolescent believing he is important enough to be The Wrecker of the World, the writer who thinks his writ is holy, the sort of person he addressed in "Opening the Hymnal/Babies." In Billy Corgan's words, he is "intoxicated with the madness, [he's] in love with [his] sadness."
Then there is more maturity in "Let Me Up," a sort of hopelessness or nihilism,...
Then there is more maturity in "Let Me Up," a sort of hopelessness or nihilism, that there is no point, that our world is thick with meaningless and absurdity. It's comfortable, but desperate. The struggle of "Mama, I'm Satan," is gone, along with any hope of cure. The speaker just seems to want ANY sort of purpose or end or oblivion. The final line is particularly suggestive: there's all this potency, but it's trapped in the shell of the body.
Which brings us to this song, the bloody fact of that potency. Here, you have pregnancy--and so heartbreakingly and surprisingly. I imagine a young teen girl going to her mother to confess so ineloquently but earnestly, "Mama, I'm swollen." But this is the potency of the body dreamed of in "Let Me Up," this is the purpose we get. It is the only way deeds are ever made flesh--and how great a consequence those deeds are, because not only does a newborn eventually rip out of you, bloody, but they suffer this bloody world, and then they die--all because of one single decision, one act.