Learning to Fly Lyrics

Lyric discussion by jgronholz 

Cover art for Learning to Fly lyrics by Pink Floyd

"A soul in tension that's learning to fly" We are 'souls' (born of 'space'), that have awoken/arrived here on Earth, and have spent eternity trying to learn how to get out into 'space', back where we came from. We are already flying; 'reality' is the wind-swept field.

"Condition grounded but determined to try" We are stuck 'here' because of our misconceptions about where 'here' actually is.

"Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies" Always needing to get 'out there', not realizing we've already been and got the t-shirt.

"Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I" The things we've learned, chosen to believe, and then consider 'known' have trapped us more completely on this planet. We, as a race, are confused and miseducated; repeating what we're told to believe to each successive generation, each generation having slightly less ability to think for themselves and discover REAL truths.

Song Meaning

Hello, did you ever read "The Present?" You sound like you have :)

I agree with this. I've always found this song to be about the soul's journey. "Earth-bound misfit" refers to this person who feels trapped here in this world in which he doesn't belong, longing to once again go back out into where he feels he's from, and finally, at the end of the song being able to do so as his life here is finished. The line "out of the corner of my watering eye" is a powerful one. It's as if he were flying above the planet seeing it from space knowing it will be the last time he...

@jgronholz When you said "We, as a race, are confused and miseducated; repeating what we're told to believe to each successive generation, each generation having slightly less ability to think for themselves and discover REAL truths". I like to think why each generation is losing the ability to think for themselves because of the growth of media consumption. As humans we learn from our experiences, mistakes we have made. But now you can sit in your room and learn through a screen from other people's experiences from media or even television or Netflix, which is over simplified. With each generation,...