This is possibly one of the most esoteric songs ever.
Rosemary West interpretation does hold water and was possibly an inspiration, but more generally it has to be about post-death experience. Video was a fairly blatant clue. Chorus makes it clearer:
It took a lifespan with no cellmate
(a soul trapped in a body)
The long way back
(mundane "life" in a physical reality, we have to get through the drudgery to "return" to heaven)
Why can't we look the other way?
(once the soul resides inside a body, it can ONLY experience reality through the body and cannot relate to any other perspective. whereas after death, consciousness is universal.)
evil = live spelled backwards
"smart like all peoples" having a double meaning because "physical life" makes us wiser through experience, but "smart" also means to "hurt."
As for Rosemary, I would point out that Rose is anagram for Eros which is love, also related to "evil," "live," "veil." Maybe not etymologically correct, technically speaking, but its a pun. Life is a veil, under which we can only experience the particular and not the universal.
Mary derives from "Mar" meaning water, which leads to the beach metaphor and all the references to sand.
I would interpret this duality thus: human body is "land" whereas a free-floating soul is in the "water."
"Sand" is also likened to "pollen," because where would the soul reside but in the reproductive faculties!
This is possibly one of the most esoteric songs ever.
Rosemary West interpretation does hold water and was possibly an inspiration, but more generally it has to be about post-death experience. Video was a fairly blatant clue. Chorus makes it clearer:
It took a lifespan with no cellmate (a soul trapped in a body)
The long way back (mundane "life" in a physical reality, we have to get through the drudgery to "return" to heaven)
Why can't we look the other way? (once the soul resides inside a body, it can ONLY experience reality through the body and cannot relate to any other perspective. whereas after death, consciousness is universal.)
evil = live spelled backwards
"smart like all peoples" having a double meaning because "physical life" makes us wiser through experience, but "smart" also means to "hurt."
As for Rosemary, I would point out that Rose is anagram for Eros which is love, also related to "evil," "live," "veil." Maybe not etymologically correct, technically speaking, but its a pun. Life is a veil, under which we can only experience the particular and not the universal.
Mary derives from "Mar" meaning water, which leads to the beach metaphor and all the references to sand.
I would interpret this duality thus: human body is "land" whereas a free-floating soul is in the "water."
"Sand" is also likened to "pollen," because where would the soul reside but in the reproductive faculties!
and a spooky odd coincidence re: Rosemary West, in the context of my interpretation:
and a spooky odd coincidence re: Rosemary West, in the context of my interpretation:
soul = sol = sun. and where does the sun set, or "die" every day?
soul = sol = sun. and where does the sun set, or "die" every day?