Fagan is using the Cave Paintings or Altamira as a metaphor for youth/ ancient man vs. adulthood/ modern man.
A young child in verse one - so young he didn't even know of the marvels of Hollywood movies - spent his time and imagination drawing pictures on the rocks with what is probably a crayon.
When he goes back as an adult he looks at the lost treasures of his young creation as 'sad designs'. But the memories rush upon him unexpectedly - like an physical reaction.
The chorus pulls it together - 'They heard the call and wrote it on the wall'. Who are 'They'? Prehistoric mankind? The children we were and are inside us? What "they wrote on the wall" conveys man's need to create and document his world around him. Or - as some anthropologist's could argue - the images that pop inside your head after being in a dark cave for a while. There is a connection between ancient and modern man that is made in art. That is Fagen's point. It's 'understood'.
Stepping into the sun is the movement into adulthood, the modern age.
Fagan is using the Cave Paintings or Altamira as a metaphor for youth/ ancient man vs. adulthood/ modern man.
A young child in verse one - so young he didn't even know of the marvels of Hollywood movies - spent his time and imagination drawing pictures on the rocks with what is probably a crayon.
When he goes back as an adult he looks at the lost treasures of his young creation as 'sad designs'. But the memories rush upon him unexpectedly - like an physical reaction.
The chorus pulls it together - 'They heard the call and wrote it on the wall'. Who are 'They'? Prehistoric mankind? The children we were and are inside us? What "they wrote on the wall" conveys man's need to create and document his world around him. Or - as some anthropologist's could argue - the images that pop inside your head after being in a dark cave for a while. There is a connection between ancient and modern man that is made in art. That is Fagen's point. It's 'understood'.
Stepping into the sun is the movement into adulthood, the modern age.