| Talking Heads – Slippery People Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| The religious allusions are overt and obviously intentional. References to living creatures and wheels inside wheels obviously evoke the more ecstatic and visionary books of the Bible, such as Ezekiel and Revelation. The Talking Heads frequently discuss different ways of dealing with the crushing oppressiveness of modernity, of life, of certainty. In this song, they seem to defer to the 'slippery people': the prophets, the uncertains, the extremely crazy, hallucinatory elements that inspire faith, foster religion, and provide a counterpoint to the mundanity and meaninglessness of the day-to-day. | |
| Yes – Starship Trooper Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This song may be about the limits of speech. In each verse the narrator addresses a wise (or mystical) figure, who is privy to mysteries, knowledge, etc. But in each verse, he tells the 'enlightened' to shut up ("Don't you say a word," "Don't you tell a soul"). Either this Life Seeker can only preserve his sense of mystery by remaining an ignoramus, OR he knows that words cannot express the ineffable, and that what the Starhip Trooper, or Sister Bluebird, knows, can't be told in speech. (Words are better at conveying that which is familiar to us - "in sweet accustomed ways.") The fact that "What *you* don't know I have never heard" becomes "What *I* don't know I have never heard" might be a punchline supporting the 'ignoramus' reading, but "Disillusion" seems to favor the second reading. The "Disillusioned" narrator mentions that what he knows is only relevant if you accept what he says as fact, but when he says things, they can be mistaken, and misunderstood, and "this is all confusion." However, when he stops "saying" and starts "showing" you the day in him, it becomes a possibility that "you may follow." Direct, inexpressible, human experience, or religious experience, or world experience, is often reduced or betrayed by words. The Life Seeker shares his soul with the Starship Trooper, and lets Mother Life hold him, but doesn't speak to them or let them speak to him. |
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| Yes – Wonderous Stories Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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The meaning of the song is fairly straightforward. In each verse, the narrator is in an encounter with his "Forgiver," but at each encounter, the narrator is too preoccupied with "your wonderous stories." The Jesus figure opens the pearly gates for him, sends his spirit flying away into the heavens, and each time the narrator just thinks 'I hope I can get home in time for those wonderous stories!' This is either a tongue-in-cheek little piece of hyperbole about some VERY good stories; or perhaps it is an indictment of people who turn away from spiritual 'truths' in favor of entertaining stories (perhaps in a simple 'skipping Church in favor of watching TV' sense, or in a more pointed 'skipping an actual relationship with God in favor of sticking with your comfortable church with its familiar stories' - though if this is an indicment of organized/impersonal religion, it is done more artfully and beautifully than the similarly themed progressive work on Jethro Tull's Aqualung, which often verges on the pompous and self-righteous). In any case, a magical song. |
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