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BaldFriede View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 22 2005 at 05:54

An example of Peter Hammill lyrics which always gets me.

This Side of the Looking-Glass

 

 

The stars in the heavens still shine
up above me: 
how lovely they'd seem
if you were with me
but you're gone through the looking-glass
and I am left to pass these nights alone.
         
I'm lost, I'm dumb, I'm blind,
I am drunk with sadness,
sunk by madness,
the wave overwhelms me,
the mirror repels me,
the echo of your laugh
drifts through the looking-glass
and I am alone.
         
No friendship, no comfort, no future, no home,
the past lingers with me:
you're all the love I've ever known
and without you I'm nothing
but empty and silent,
reflecting on all that I've lost.
I let you slip away so soon.
         
Can you hear me? This is my song:
I am dying; you are gone.
         
These words are not enough to save my soul,
they just mock me from the mirror.
I'm cold and I'm yearning,
I've told you I'm burning,
my eyes can't stand the light...
like a stray dog in the night
I'll shuffle off alone.
         
We all make our futures
but I have lost mine;
I'm hoping for a miracle
but finding no sign....
         
The stars in their constellations,
each one just sadly flickers and falls...
without you they mean nothing at all.

To understand these lyrics fully one has to know Hammill had just broken up with his long time lover Alice, and title and lyrics of the song are a play on the title of the 2nd of the Alice books, "Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found there" by Lewis Carroll.



BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
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Syntharachnid View Drop Down
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Joined: April 05 2005
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 22 2005 at 18:23
Originally posted by penguindf12 penguindf12 wrote:

My favorite lyricists:

Roger Waters (realistic, no-frills political lyrics which got me into prog in the first place)

Ian Anderson (social commentary, biting but hidden behind a wall of poetry. sort of like Roger Waters and Jon Anderson mixed)

Jon Anderson (purely poetic, almost impenetrable but beautiful lyrics. hard to figure out what they are on occaision, but when you know what they mean it's better)

Peter Gabriel (less political than Ian's or Roger's stuff, but has a sort of hidden theme...a bit harder to figure out than Ian's, but easier to figure than Jon's)

And that's the top four on my list.

Hurrah!  My top four as well!  My undisputed favorite, though, is Jon.  His lyrics are pretty much impenetrable, but as 3fates said, there is meaning, if you first decipher it.

For example, A seasoned witch (God) could call you from the depths of your disgrace (could "redeem your soul") and rearrange your liver (your liver is a cleansing device) to the solid mental grace (the way he wants it)

Very clever.

 

 

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King of Loss View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 22 2005 at 19:29

Daniel Gildenlow most definitely: here are some:

The Perfect Element

Yesterday found him today
Caught him at his last breath
These walls built to stand come-what-may
Lie shattered in the ashes
His skin against this dirty floor
Eyes fixed on the ceiling
He has stretched those chains of sin
Far beyond all feelings
Still, so still...

In his head a thunderous
Cry of desperation
Tearing voices from his past
Scream for his attention
Behind those eyes a world explodes
No one there to save him
All pain that he's been passing on
Answers to his craving
Once more

I will never leave this shame...

Falling beyond the point of no return
Nothing to become and nothing left to burn

Stealing meaning from this child
We took away his reason
His soul put under lock and key
His heart blackened from treason
But if you take from those you fear
Everything they value
You have bred the perfect beast
Drained enough to kill you

Falling beyond the point of no return
Nothing to become and nothing left to burn

Watching unseen untouched bleeding
Empty exposed dying eyes closed

Once he had forests and mountains
That were only his - listening to him
Once he would run through the summer days
Catching memories for ages to come
Now he is dressing this naked floor
With his flesh and blood, and times passes by
His trade of pain might just have lead him
To deal with consequence
For some change as time passes by

I am the waking child
(Lingering, climbing, clinging, clutching
Craving, clawing, hurting, falling down)
I, the wayward son of a mountain lake
(Of icy liquor tears, of a silent Earth)
(Of a rusty lid, of a wingless wind)
(Of an eyeless storm, of fallen gods,
who lost their way)
I set myself on fire
To breed the Perfect Element

Will I ever walk again?

Falling far beyond the point of no return
Nothing to become and nothing left to burn

(This is the end)

Nothing left to say,
The pain will go away
Now you must surely see,
That you are killing me
You are killing me
Now you are killing me
(You must never leave this shame!)
Now you are killing me
(You must never leave this shame!)
Now you are killing me
(You must never leave this shame!)

Is this more than you want?

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TLZ* View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 02 2005 at 08:15
Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth)
James Keen Maynard (Tool)
Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)

Mikael is a genious, I especially love one sentence on the song Closure.

"In the rays of the sun I am longing for the Darkness..."

Beautiful.

Edited by TLZ*
"Music is a moral law - it gives wings to the mind, A soul to the universe, Flight to the imagination, A charm to sadness, A life to everything." - Plato
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