backspacer echoes
tremors
Posts: 8,051
It seems to me that in backspacer, more than on any other PJ album, the words and images reference, echo and reflect on other lyrics in the album, and in fact on many other lyrics from across the back catalogue. What do you think?
Without me getting sucked into interpreting their meaning too much, I thought I'd pull out some of the standout lyrics which for me echo and reflect back on each other in backspacer and across the earlier work. Some of these links may seem more tenuous than others, but are included because personally I hear them as parallel ideas and sentiments. I know this is highly subjective, this is opinion, but here are just some of the echoes I find:
And I sleep with the light on..... | .....shipwreck on the rock that he calls home with one light on
shipwreck on the rock that he calls home | will myself to find a home, a home within myself [plus all the other 'homes' – NAIS, alive, etc]
A silhouette in the black light full moon glow, In the sand there he stands upon the shore forevermore..... | …..hard as a statue, black as a tattoo, never to wash away …..| …..I've lived all those lives, it's been wonderful at night, I will live forever
One man stands the edge of the ocean a beacon on dry land | please stand by the shore, I will be there once more.....| see the waves on distant shores, awaiting your arrival
I’m a lucky man to count on both hands the ones I love …..| …..small my table, sits just two...!
Did I say that I need you? Did I say that I want you? Oh, if I didn’t now I’m a fool you see| Gotta say it now better loud than too late
Waiting on a sun, that just don’t come …..| …..in the dark before the darkness meets the dawn.....|......no matter how cold the winter, there's a springtime ahead
A whisper in the dark, is that you or just my thoughts?|I'll wait up in the dark for you to speak to me.....
No way to save someone who won't take the rope …..| …...hold tight the ring
All the strength that you might think would disappear.....resolving |.....Have you heard of diplomatic resolve?
I know that interpretations of lyrics are a highly personal business, and source of much debate. So at the end of the day I'd be more interested in hearing the alternative echoes you hear, here rather than an attack on mine!
Without me getting sucked into interpreting their meaning too much, I thought I'd pull out some of the standout lyrics which for me echo and reflect back on each other in backspacer and across the earlier work. Some of these links may seem more tenuous than others, but are included because personally I hear them as parallel ideas and sentiments. I know this is highly subjective, this is opinion, but here are just some of the echoes I find:
And I sleep with the light on..... | .....shipwreck on the rock that he calls home with one light on
shipwreck on the rock that he calls home | will myself to find a home, a home within myself [plus all the other 'homes' – NAIS, alive, etc]
A silhouette in the black light full moon glow, In the sand there he stands upon the shore forevermore..... | …..hard as a statue, black as a tattoo, never to wash away …..| …..I've lived all those lives, it's been wonderful at night, I will live forever
One man stands the edge of the ocean a beacon on dry land | please stand by the shore, I will be there once more.....| see the waves on distant shores, awaiting your arrival
I’m a lucky man to count on both hands the ones I love …..| …..small my table, sits just two...!
Did I say that I need you? Did I say that I want you? Oh, if I didn’t now I’m a fool you see| Gotta say it now better loud than too late
Waiting on a sun, that just don’t come …..| …..in the dark before the darkness meets the dawn.....|......no matter how cold the winter, there's a springtime ahead
A whisper in the dark, is that you or just my thoughts?|I'll wait up in the dark for you to speak to me.....
No way to save someone who won't take the rope …..| …...hold tight the ring
All the strength that you might think would disappear.....resolving |.....Have you heard of diplomatic resolve?
I know that interpretations of lyrics are a highly personal business, and source of much debate. So at the end of the day I'd be more interested in hearing the alternative echoes you hear, here rather than an attack on mine!
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Post edited by Unknown User on
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Following this would be like trying to cut all the fat of well-marbled piece of beef: eventually you'd end up with shreds of beef with nothing to hold it all together... Okay, that's weird but I stand by my simile.
Give me any two albums (or more) by the same artist and I could find lyrical similarities and themes throughout them. If it didn't work that way, I would suggest that that artist had no musical direction. That's one of the things I love about Ed in particular, that he holds true to his core beliefs but still finds ways to keep them fresh.
Sorry for not including my own examples, I just got off work and I'm feeling pretty well fried.
Sure, I agree it's easy to pluck out similarities in words from great artists. I didn't really want to get bogged down in expanding on this - for fear of getting entrenched in the battle of the Somme or something, but most of the examples I quoted above weren't chosen simply for the similarities in words, but more because they fit with themes and specific meaning which I have come to understand in PJ's music (I may be entirely wrong!). So I just highlighted the spots where I think there is a deeper underlying meaning, some familiar and some new messages. Agree with you about Ed finding ways of working around and out from some core themes. For me backspacer is a distillation of a lot of em!
Anyway, it's much better to hear the album as a whole rather than me chopping it up like your slabs of beef. But when I do this I hear it as a cohesive piece more than the majority of other albums, including pulling together themes they have explored before. Seems like a gathering together, taking stock, end of a long chapter to me.
Anyway, maybe best for me to just stick to my own little theories, for fear of my bloodpressure. I reckon the next 9 albums tho will probably be expanding on Jazz Odyssey. You heard it here first!
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