The Philosophical and Conceptual ideas in
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=36249
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Topic: The Philosophical and Conceptual ideas in
Posted By: coleio
Subject: The Philosophical and Conceptual ideas in
Date Posted: March 31 2007 at 14:41
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Listening to prog and the standard of the lyrics and musicianship, I've always been interested in any philosophical elements to the work. I'm not going to keep it that specific as I suppose Philosophy is slightly niche and not everyone is interested in it like myself. Basically though, what I'm asking is for you to share your knowledge and interpretations of prog albums or even individual songs. Are there any philosophical references or concepts running throughout, is there any reference to classic literature etc. Anything is greatly appreciated. Thankyou for your time  ------------- Eat heartily at breakfast, for tonight, we dine in Hell!! |
Replies:
Posted By: fuxi
Date Posted: March 31 2007 at 15:33
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There's a professor of philosophy from Chicago, Bill Martin I think his name is, who wrote a pretty much exhaustive study of the 'philosophical aspects' of classic Yes music. (Afterwards he also wrote liner notes for Yes CDs.) Problem is, these philosophical connotations exist ONLY in Martin's head. Jon Anderson wrote a number of (notoriously incoherent) lyrics, and Martin went on to interpret them using Plato, Nietzsche, William Blake and whoever else he could lay his hands on. This is one of the problems of so-called rock criticism: anything goes! (Ben Watson's entertaining study of Frank Zappa's music, THE NEGATIVE DIALECTICS OF POODLE PLAY, even shows that APOSTROPHE is based on Shakespeare's King Lear.) But nothing will prevent you from having a go of your own. Perhaps, if you're really interested in 'philosophical and conceptual' ideas, you will be interested in the work of some of prog's more articulate songwriters, such as Peter Gabriel and Peter Hammill.
Personally, I've always had a soft spot for Kevin Ayers' lyrics, e.g. People say that they want to be free They look at them and they look at me But it's only themselves they are wanting to see And everybody knows about it. |
Posted By: BroSpence
Date Posted: March 31 2007 at 15:36
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Didn't Iron Maiden do a whole thing on Huxley's Brave New World? They probably didn't even read the book. Then there's Animals by Floyd. Although I haven't paid too much attention to the lyrics so I don't know how well it represents Orwell's writing. |
Posted By: aprusso
Date Posted: March 31 2007 at 15:39
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Looking for a true nihilist philosopher? Take Peter Hammill circa 71-76
p
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Posted By: coleio
Date Posted: March 31 2007 at 15:48
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Cheers guys, I'll check out the suggestions you've put forward. This topic has gotten a suprisingly better reception than I would've predicted haha  ------------- Eat heartily at breakfast, for tonight, we dine in Hell!! |
Posted By: fuxi
Date Posted: March 31 2007 at 16:33
Only loosely inspired by Orwell, I think, but unforgettable, all the same - especially 'Dogs'. Some of Waters' lyrics I can't get out of my head, and often find myself repeating them, e.g.: And in the end you'll pack up fly down South and hide your head in the sand, just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer Cheer up - it's only a pop song!
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BroSpence wrote:Posted By: coleio
Date Posted: April 01 2007 at 05:30
Wow that's pretty grim  I can think of Symphony X albums actually. I'm not sure the songs on the albums on them have anything to do with them, but their latest two albums are the names of books which are classics in the literature world. You have 'The Odyssey', an ancient book of epic poety and 'Paradise Lost', english poet, John Milton's epic about the loss of God in civilised society. ------------- Eat heartily at breakfast, for tonight, we dine in Hell!! |
Posted By: Shakespeare
Date Posted: April 09 2007 at 20:14
| The Gabe described The Lamb as "A hymn to the integral innocence of the human spirit meeting the bacon-slicer of a corruptive society". So basically, all humans start out good, and are quickly corrupted by society. That's the philosiphy behind the Lamb - I know The Lamb sounds like nonesense, and even after reading that, still might. But for me, it suddenly made sense after reading that. |