I'm currently using this song with my year 11 students to look at the way texts may be interpreted differently.
I think the very obvious, dominant, reading is always going to be the idea that this is some sort of underling of some monster from history like Adolf Hitler, making excuses for getting swept up in Fuhrer-mania and being, as a result, partially (or greatly) responsible.
Someone else suggested the song might be about Rudolf Hess; however, as much as Hess wasn't directly responsible for most Nazi atrocities due to being imprisoned in London for most of the war, he was still a pretty avid Nazi. While his life sentence in Spandau seemed excessive for someone who wasn't actually there when these things were happening, he doesn't strike me as particularly repentant. I view this more along the lines of a lower-level soldier or functionary who either went along blindly or did so out of fear of recriminations.
BUT
Your interpretation is going to depend on who you think "The Man" might be. What if it's not a real person but a metaphor? What if "wars", "torture" and so forth are also metaphors on various levels?
"The Man" could be the base savagery within the human psyche. I did these things (literal or metaphorical) because I can't control myself.
"The Man" could be The Devil -- "I can still hear his (beguiling) song", references to Judas Iscariot (silver) and the possibility that "father" here is a priest at a confessional. The devil made me do it!
"The Man" could be an organisation or group or even an ideology that it is difficult to go against. Could we be talking about some of the negative history of the church? "legalised robbery and called it belief". The confessional vibe could be one of bitter irony. Could the wars and armies refer to the crusades? I think it's quite clear that we're drawing quite heavily on Nazi activities such as rewriting history via book burning; however, these could be symbolic of similar concepts employed elsewhere.
To some extent, exactly who you view "Father" to be can also influence your reading.
Is it a priest?
Is it the speaker's actual father?
Is it God?
Is it someone else?
Now, all that's left for me is to leave a big GRRRRRR here for my class if they are reading this. I told you guys not to Google the answer! :)
@mike105163, I developed my interpretation as a teenager, the same age as your students, around the time this song was released. "Underling of some monster" sums up my perspective perfectly. At the time, I'd been reading a bunch of Stephen King. Randall Flagg, a powerful, sinister bringer of death, chaos, and manipulation, made his way through many of King's books, most spectacularly The Stand. I thought of that book’s Lloyd Henreid as the teller of this story; he was a wild, if petty, criminal who Flagg placed in a position of enormous authority over the remaining and naïve rabble of...
@mike105163, I developed my interpretation as a teenager, the same age as your students, around the time this song was released. "Underling of some monster" sums up my perspective perfectly. At the time, I'd been reading a bunch of Stephen King. Randall Flagg, a powerful, sinister bringer of death, chaos, and manipulation, made his way through many of King's books, most spectacularly The Stand. I thought of that book’s Lloyd Henreid as the teller of this story; he was a wild, if petty, criminal who Flagg placed in a position of enormous authority over the remaining and naïve rabble of humankind, imposing Flagg’s totalitarian agenda. In my imagination, Lloyd looks back on his past with joy, remembering with bright finger-picking guitar his "run with the money" days robbing convenience stores and scoring drugs before becoming the book-burning enforcer.
Knopfler delivers one of my favorite vocal performances in this song. He’s typically so very dry in his delivery, but the subtlety he brings in this piece shows he is a skilled actor delivering what he calls “an experiment in character and playwriting.” (http://members.tripod.com/~Dire_Straits/interview.html) Though Lloyd never experienced the chilling betrayal the song's protagonist relays ("Your sister gave me diamonds... and ah give 'em to your wife..."), he experienced nearly as bad, or in some ways even worse, at the hands of The Man. This song, in my imagination, allowed me to combine Lloyd’s universe with the blind followers of Flagg's many personas in The Dark Tower, Eyes of the Dragon, and more of Stephen King’s books. Lloyd was asking himself, “How did I get here? How did I become such an agent of evil?”
I'm currently using this song with my year 11 students to look at the way texts may be interpreted differently.
I think the very obvious, dominant, reading is always going to be the idea that this is some sort of underling of some monster from history like Adolf Hitler, making excuses for getting swept up in Fuhrer-mania and being, as a result, partially (or greatly) responsible.
Someone else suggested the song might be about Rudolf Hess; however, as much as Hess wasn't directly responsible for most Nazi atrocities due to being imprisoned in London for most of the war, he was still a pretty avid Nazi. While his life sentence in Spandau seemed excessive for someone who wasn't actually there when these things were happening, he doesn't strike me as particularly repentant. I view this more along the lines of a lower-level soldier or functionary who either went along blindly or did so out of fear of recriminations.
BUT
Your interpretation is going to depend on who you think "The Man" might be. What if it's not a real person but a metaphor? What if "wars", "torture" and so forth are also metaphors on various levels?
"The Man" could be the base savagery within the human psyche. I did these things (literal or metaphorical) because I can't control myself.
"The Man" could be The Devil -- "I can still hear his (beguiling) song", references to Judas Iscariot (silver) and the possibility that "father" here is a priest at a confessional. The devil made me do it!
"The Man" could be an organisation or group or even an ideology that it is difficult to go against. Could we be talking about some of the negative history of the church? "legalised robbery and called it belief". The confessional vibe could be one of bitter irony. Could the wars and armies refer to the crusades? I think it's quite clear that we're drawing quite heavily on Nazi activities such as rewriting history via book burning; however, these could be symbolic of similar concepts employed elsewhere.
To some extent, exactly who you view "Father" to be can also influence your reading.
Is it a priest? Is it the speaker's actual father? Is it God? Is it someone else?
Now, all that's left for me is to leave a big GRRRRRR here for my class if they are reading this. I told you guys not to Google the answer! :)
@mike105163, I developed my interpretation as a teenager, the same age as your students, around the time this song was released. "Underling of some monster" sums up my perspective perfectly. At the time, I'd been reading a bunch of Stephen King. Randall Flagg, a powerful, sinister bringer of death, chaos, and manipulation, made his way through many of King's books, most spectacularly The Stand. I thought of that book’s Lloyd Henreid as the teller of this story; he was a wild, if petty, criminal who Flagg placed in a position of enormous authority over the remaining and naïve rabble of...
@mike105163, I developed my interpretation as a teenager, the same age as your students, around the time this song was released. "Underling of some monster" sums up my perspective perfectly. At the time, I'd been reading a bunch of Stephen King. Randall Flagg, a powerful, sinister bringer of death, chaos, and manipulation, made his way through many of King's books, most spectacularly The Stand. I thought of that book’s Lloyd Henreid as the teller of this story; he was a wild, if petty, criminal who Flagg placed in a position of enormous authority over the remaining and naïve rabble of humankind, imposing Flagg’s totalitarian agenda. In my imagination, Lloyd looks back on his past with joy, remembering with bright finger-picking guitar his "run with the money" days robbing convenience stores and scoring drugs before becoming the book-burning enforcer. Knopfler delivers one of my favorite vocal performances in this song. He’s typically so very dry in his delivery, but the subtlety he brings in this piece shows he is a skilled actor delivering what he calls “an experiment in character and playwriting.” (http://members.tripod.com/~Dire_Straits/interview.html) Though Lloyd never experienced the chilling betrayal the song's protagonist relays ("Your sister gave me diamonds... and ah give 'em to your wife..."), he experienced nearly as bad, or in some ways even worse, at the hands of The Man. This song, in my imagination, allowed me to combine Lloyd’s universe with the blind followers of Flagg's many personas in The Dark Tower, Eyes of the Dragon, and more of Stephen King’s books. Lloyd was asking himself, “How did I get here? How did I become such an agent of evil?”
@mike105163
@mike105163
Indeed. Thank you for the reminder of metaphor as well as physical in literature, poetry, and song.
Indeed. Thank you for the reminder of metaphor as well as physical in literature, poetry, and song.