I agree, not too many shades of meaning here, but some back story: the sword of Damocles is a Greek legend, concerning the king Dionysius II and Damocles, a member of Dionysius II's court. Damocles was smitten with the power and privilege of afforded to the king and told him. Dionysius offered to switch placed with Damocles for a day. Damocles greatly enjoyed the wealth and power of being the king, until he looked up and saw a razor sharp sword hanging above his neck, tied with a single horse hair. At the moment, Damocles lost all taste for the banquets and privilege of being in power, and Dionysius successfully conveyed the constant tension a man in power bears.
In the context of this song, Reed makes use of the Damocles legend as a metaphor in two distinct instances: 1) to demonstrate the tension between treating cancer and causing more harm than good, as is often the case with radiation or chemotherapy treatments. Second, Reed uses the sword as a metaphor to show the tension between maintaining hope, and being cut down by the disease. As with much of the Magic & Loss album, this song references the recent deaths of several of Reed's close friends, in this case most likely Doc Pompus, a blues songwriter, who died of lung cancer shortly before this album was written. Pompus is referenced elsewhere in the album, by lines like "isotopes introduced his lungs to stop the cancerous spread..."
I agree, not too many shades of meaning here, but some back story: the sword of Damocles is a Greek legend, concerning the king Dionysius II and Damocles, a member of Dionysius II's court. Damocles was smitten with the power and privilege of afforded to the king and told him. Dionysius offered to switch placed with Damocles for a day. Damocles greatly enjoyed the wealth and power of being the king, until he looked up and saw a razor sharp sword hanging above his neck, tied with a single horse hair. At the moment, Damocles lost all taste for the banquets and privilege of being in power, and Dionysius successfully conveyed the constant tension a man in power bears.
In the context of this song, Reed makes use of the Damocles legend as a metaphor in two distinct instances: 1) to demonstrate the tension between treating cancer and causing more harm than good, as is often the case with radiation or chemotherapy treatments. Second, Reed uses the sword as a metaphor to show the tension between maintaining hope, and being cut down by the disease. As with much of the Magic & Loss album, this song references the recent deaths of several of Reed's close friends, in this case most likely Doc Pompus, a blues songwriter, who died of lung cancer shortly before this album was written. Pompus is referenced elsewhere in the album, by lines like "isotopes introduced his lungs to stop the cancerous spread..."