This song isn't about death (in general) or about the death of progressive rock or death by pollution, and certainly not about God and the devil.
Maybe people are too young to remember, but the album was recorded October—December 1979 at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. Nuclear Winter as a general topic didn't appear in the public lexicon until 1982-1983. As such, the Cold War powers were not being deterred by the idea that a nuclear war might have terminal effects for boths sides. After many years of detente, relations between East and West had begun to slip into much more aggressive posturing on both sides, and tensions really began to rise. See Wikipedia Cold War (1979—1985).
This song isn't nearly as metaphorical as you might want it to be. See Tony Banks album (A Curious Feeling) which was produced and released just prior to "Duke", and you'll find a fairly straightword dipiction of a man losing his sanity.
Cul-de-Sac is just as straightword. It was a warning song just like "Land of Confusion" five years later.
Thinking in terms of the times, all of the imaging is related to the buildup and use of nuclear and other arms,
Para 1 - The time has arrived, all of the world's dreads are going to come true.
Para 2 - Fleets of weapons ( and God we were building them by the thousands and putting them in silos and on submarines) begin to warm up. Defcon One anybody. And of course nobody would think of launching those weapons against anything less than pure evil. Read some of what passes for politcal thought of the time and you'll realize just how us/them good/evil the atmosphere of the times was. Sort of like Iran/Israel or Bush/Hussein, except that both sides were willing and capable of destroying the other.
Para Three (Chorus) - Nothing lasts forever, even if in the end is suicide
Para Four - Reflections on what is was to be Mankind. Not especial of God, but a natural outcome of evolution. A self-aware species with great hopes and ambitions, whose only impediment is itself. But once gone, never to be seen again.
Para Five - A nuclear war, so awesome and complate that everything is lost, including shepards in South America and Maiori in New Zealand. Between radiation, biological and chemical weapons and the like, even people on the other side of the world and completely cutoff from "Civilization" would all die.
This song isn't about death (in general) or about the death of progressive rock or death by pollution, and certainly not about God and the devil.
Maybe people are too young to remember, but the album was recorded October—December 1979 at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. Nuclear Winter as a general topic didn't appear in the public lexicon until 1982-1983. As such, the Cold War powers were not being deterred by the idea that a nuclear war might have terminal effects for boths sides. After many years of detente, relations between East and West had begun to slip into much more aggressive posturing on both sides, and tensions really began to rise. See Wikipedia Cold War (1979—1985).
This song isn't nearly as metaphorical as you might want it to be. See Tony Banks album (A Curious Feeling) which was produced and released just prior to "Duke", and you'll find a fairly straightword dipiction of a man losing his sanity.
Cul-de-Sac is just as straightword. It was a warning song just like "Land of Confusion" five years later.
Thinking in terms of the times, all of the imaging is related to the buildup and use of nuclear and other arms,
Para 1 - The time has arrived, all of the world's dreads are going to come true.
Para 2 - Fleets of weapons ( and God we were building them by the thousands and putting them in silos and on submarines) begin to warm up. Defcon One anybody. And of course nobody would think of launching those weapons against anything less than pure evil. Read some of what passes for politcal thought of the time and you'll realize just how us/them good/evil the atmosphere of the times was. Sort of like Iran/Israel or Bush/Hussein, except that both sides were willing and capable of destroying the other.
Para Three (Chorus) - Nothing lasts forever, even if in the end is suicide
Para Four - Reflections on what is was to be Mankind. Not especial of God, but a natural outcome of evolution. A self-aware species with great hopes and ambitions, whose only impediment is itself. But once gone, never to be seen again.
Para Five - A nuclear war, so awesome and complate that everything is lost, including shepards in South America and Maiori in New Zealand. Between radiation, biological and chemical weapons and the like, even people on the other side of the world and completely cutoff from "Civilization" would all die.
Chorus....
Sometimes, a cigar is a cigar....