Assume The Perpendicular Lyrics
We're off to the depths of Somerset to see what we can see see see
We don't wanna drink the cider, we don't wanna walk for miles
We just want to go to a stately home built in the Georgian style
It's time to rise, assume the perpendicular
Jump up and down, make complimentary sounds
And talk about nothing in particular
Just for today we're lords and ladies, oh what a gay charade!
Lavinia loves the lintels - Anna, the architraves
Ben's impressed by the buttresses thrust up the chapel knave
It's time to rise, assume the perpendicular
Jump up and down, make funny little sounds
And talk about nothing in particular
Get lost for days inside the manicured maze
We'll bump our heads jumping on a four-post bed
And we'll ride for free
On the ladders round the walls of the circular library
It's time to rise, assume the perpendicular
Jump up and down, make wild ecstatic sounds
And talk about nothing in particular
Nothing in particular
It's most likely about the class structure and rising through the ranks. All of the things that Neil is talking about are indicators of the upper class in England.
Assuming the Perpendicular being the rising up through the ranks from lower or middle class to the world of Berber jackets, libraries with wheeled ladders and grand country seats with grounds as designed by Capability Brown.
It makes me think of Evelyn Waugh and his bright young things idly playing around in a world of privilege with ridiculous names like Lavinia.
I think it's about rejecting a stactic, TV based life-style and favouring the outdoors!? Horizontal lines being the lines of a TV!
That should be "thrust up the chapel nave", not "knave". A knave with something thrust up him is something else altogether.
Ooh I like that theory, badgerdisco. I just assumed it meant lying in bed, and assuming the perpendicular was going out (to stately homes) and enjoying the outdoors and life in general. Very nice song, this. Always makes me smile and tap my toes.
is it Barbour Jacket?
Adore this song, makes you almost want to get up and go do something - which is exactly its intended message! Just to do anything at all. Neil's lyrical genius truly shines here, can anyone shed some light on some of the obscure allusions?
The lyrics here are copied from the official website:
The lyrics here are copied from the official website:
http://www.thedivinecomedy.com/?page_id=23#albumKnighthood
http://www.thedivinecomedy.com/?page_id=23#albumKnighthood
It looks like Hannon has misspelled this on purpose.
It looks like Hannon has misspelled this on purpose.
If the narrator is indeed heading off to Somerset, here are some of the homes he might see: http://www.britainsfinest.co.uk/historichouses/search_results.cfm/searchcounty/Bath%20%26%20Northeast%20Somerset
Although only No. 1 Royal Crescent is strictly Georgian. Tyntesfield is newer, and Clevedon Court is much older, albeit with Georgian additions.
Lancelot "Capability" Brown was an 18th c. landscape architect who designed over 170 parks. If you tour very many stately homes in England, you'll probably hear his name everywhere you go. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancelot_%22Capability%22_Brown