So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
Turn the lights down (way down low)
Turn up the music (hi as fi can go)
All the gang's here (everyone you know)
It's a crazy scene (hey there just look over your shoulder)
Get the picture?
No no no no (Yes)
Walk a tightrope (your life-sign-line)
Such a bright hope (right place, right time)
What's your number?(never you mind)
Take a powder (but hang on a minute what's coming round the corner?)
Have you a future?
No no no no (yes)
Well I've been up all night again
Party-time wasting is too much fun
Then I step back thinking
Of life's inner meaning
And my latest fling
It's the same old story
All love and glory
It's a pantomime
If you're looking for love
In a looking glass world
It's pretty hard to find
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Divine intervention
Always my intention
So I take my time
I've been looking for something
I've always wanted
But was never mine
But now I've seen that something
Just out of reach, glowing
Very Holy grail
Oh mother of pearl
Lustrous lady
Of a sacred world
Thus, even Zarathustra
Another-time-loser
Could believe in you
With every goddess a let down
Every idol a bring down
It gets you down
But the search for perfection
Your own predilection
Goes on and on and on and on
Canadian Club love
A place in the Country
Everyone's ideal
But you are my favorita
And a place in your heart dear
Makes me feel more real
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't change you
For the whole world
You're highbrow, holy
With lots of soul
Melancholy shimmering
Serpentine sleekness
Was always my weakness
Like a simple tune
But no dilettante
Filigree fancy
Beats the plastic you
Career girl cover
Exposed and another
Slips right into-view
Oh looking for love
In a looking glass world
Is pretty hard for you
Few throwaway kisses
The boomerang misses
Spin round and round
Fall on featherbed quilted
Faced with silk
Softly stuffed eider down
Take refuge in pleasure
Just give me your future
We'll forget your past
Oh mother of pearl
Submarine lover
In a shrinking world
Oh lonely dreamer
Your choker provokes
A picture cameo
Oh mother of pearl
So so semi-precious
In your detached world
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Turn up the music (hi as fi can go)
All the gang's here (everyone you know)
It's a crazy scene (hey there just look over your shoulder)
Get the picture?
No no no no (Yes)
Walk a tightrope (your life-sign-line)
Such a bright hope (right place, right time)
What's your number?(never you mind)
Take a powder (but hang on a minute what's coming round the corner?)
Have you a future?
No no no no (yes)
Well I've been up all night again
Party-time wasting is too much fun
Then I step back thinking
Of life's inner meaning
And my latest fling
It's the same old story
All love and glory
It's a pantomime
If you're looking for love
In a looking glass world
It's pretty hard to find
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Divine intervention
Always my intention
So I take my time
I've been looking for something
I've always wanted
But was never mine
But now I've seen that something
Just out of reach, glowing
Very Holy grail
Oh mother of pearl
Lustrous lady
Of a sacred world
Thus, even Zarathustra
Another-time-loser
Could believe in you
With every goddess a let down
Every idol a bring down
It gets you down
But the search for perfection
Your own predilection
Goes on and on and on and on
Canadian Club love
A place in the Country
Everyone's ideal
But you are my favorita
And a place in your heart dear
Makes me feel more real
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't change you
For the whole world
You're highbrow, holy
With lots of soul
Melancholy shimmering
Serpentine sleekness
Was always my weakness
Like a simple tune
But no dilettante
Filigree fancy
Beats the plastic you
Career girl cover
Exposed and another
Slips right into-view
Oh looking for love
In a looking glass world
Is pretty hard for you
Few throwaway kisses
The boomerang misses
Spin round and round
Fall on featherbed quilted
Faced with silk
Softly stuffed eider down
Take refuge in pleasure
Just give me your future
We'll forget your past
Oh mother of pearl
Submarine lover
In a shrinking world
Oh lonely dreamer
Your choker provokes
A picture cameo
Oh mother of pearl
So so semi-precious
In your detached world
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Oh mother of pearl
I wouldn't trade you
For another girl
Lyrics submitted by kevinsucks
Mother of Pearl Lyrics as written by Bryan Ferry
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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MOTHER OF PEARL
This is a wonderful song, poetic yet hard-hitting: an artistic recreation in two parts, of an experience and a contemplation of that experience.This is not the only time Ferry produces a disturbing monologue on the vacuous nature of opulence to for its own sake. "Dreamhome" resonates with the same notion.
I have yet to see a coherent explanation of this song. It has been interpreted as a eulogy to cocaine, but I disagree. Maybe the song is a poem, a song and an experience which defies explanation but here goes anyway!
The first part creates the party, with its frenzied pace and loud guitar. The music is overpowering, everyone of note is there, and they all "take a powder". The scene is set, and is underpinned by Mananzera's dominant guitar.
Then Ferry takes centre stage, and with stylised movements, begins a stream of consciousness contemplating the emptiness of the life he has chosen. He is the consummate player, with every movement, every wave of his hand carefully orchestrated.
At this point, it is necessary to consider the title. "Mother of Pearl" is a substitute for real pearl. and is derived from a veneer inside the oyster's shell. An excellent metaphor for his superficial life which has a lustrous veneer but no substance.
He is aware that this "party time wasting" is devoid of meaning, empty, superficial, "a pantomime" yet he is lured in just the same. . The world of fame, parties, changes of partners who are solely concerned with image is not conducive to happiness. The following line will feature several times: "If you're looking for love/in a looking glass world /it's pretty hard to find."
However, although aware that there is a higher love, it is out of reach, and at that point begins the religious imagery, which adds an ambivalent overlay to the song: "Very holy grail" " Lustrous lady of a sacred world". "Highbrow holy"
This love may be aspired to but was "never mine." The celestial, which is merely glimpsed briefly, is juxtaposed with secular love, and the protagonist seems unable to make the distinction.
And so it is that the substitute life is embraced. This false shimmering god is irresistible, even to Zarathustra. (Zarathustra is a character in Nietzsche's philosophical novel which is often mistaken as a nihilistic system of thought- Ferry himself makes this error), and in the same way Ferry cannot resist.
"Serpentine sleekness" refers to the biblical temptress who engineered the downfall of Adam, and who is the false ideal the protagonist has chosen to worship. He is fully aware of the choice he has made and so " no filigree fancy beats the plastic you." All the magazine cover girls are vacuous and interchangeable: "Career girl cover/exposed and another/slips right into view."
The "throwaway kisses" could be for anyone, who cares if they meet their intended target? Just fall back into a life of luxury and all will be in order.
Towards the end we have the "choker" image, which is both the necklace which adorns the female, yet also a symbol of her demise, being literally choked in the world where image is rated more highly than reality and sincerity.
Finally, and depressingly, we have the affirmation of superficiality above authenticity. "Mother of pearl/ so semi precious/ in your detached world."
There is multiple repetition, involving several unaccompanied voices, of: "Mother of Pearl I wouldn't trade you for another girl", reinforcing that message.
@Jillgiannotta <br /> This is commentary worthy of the song.<br /> I wish all SongMeanings analysis was as profound as what you have written here.<br /> I am inspired and encouraged by your articulate appreciation of an immortal group.<br /> Roxy Music: one of the greatest bands ever. Happy New Year.<br /> Come visit some time:<br /> connecthook.wordpress.com/tag/roxy-music/
@Jillgiannotta The best interpretation I've ever read. Thankyou.
@Jillgiannotta Fantastici insight into this song which has always puzzled me.
@Jillgiannotta absolutely adored this interpretation. I also know the work that goes into condensing a complex theme into an economy of words. Something I struggle with myself. Beautiful. Bryan would be proud.
@Jillgiannotta Zarathustra is more than just a character in one of Nietzsche's. He is the historical founder of the Zoroastrian religion, which Freddie Mercury's family were members of. (I say to confuse the matter even further).
@Jillgiannotta <br /> <br /> Thanks, my friend, for this excellent, spot-on analysis. I would only add a big of context. Ferry’s I-want-it-but-I-loathe-it obsession is no doubt largely fueled by the driving force in his life, by his own admission: having grown up locked into the British working class, he felt almost doomed in his options, and was determined, like Gatsby, to break out and seize the money and position he’d been denied. But as he edges toward attaining it, as in “Every Dream Home a Heartache,” in the cold light of day, it’s as vacuous as a blow-up doll. In fact, it’s a nightmare, like that beauty in “The Shining” who’s revealed as a cackling ghoul. This is all part of the times, of course, with the unbridled freedom and joy of the hippy 60s coming up sad and disappointing. In the same period Joni Mitchell condemns that daydream asl little more than “Acid, booze and ass/Needles, guns and grass.” As you brilliantly point out, the mother of pearl is a cheap knock-off of the real McCoy. Yet, in the end, Ferry prefers this cheaper version - “No dilettante filigree fancy/Beats the plastic you.” Ultimately, he’s happy with the working class and the working girl striving, like Ferry, to be something they ain't. On one hand he worships at the altar of the posh woman and culture’s “highbrow holy,” but in the end he adores the lowly but lovely mother of pearl: “I wouldn’t trade you for another girl.”
@Jillgiannotta <br /> <br /> Thanks, my friend, for this excellent, spot-on analysis. I would only add a big of context. Ferry’s I-want-it-but-I-loathe-it obsession is no doubt largely fueled by the driving force in his life, by his own admission: having grown up locked into the British working class, he felt almost doomed in his options, and was determined, like Gatsby, to break out and seize the money and position he’d been denied. But as he edges toward attaining it, as in “Every Dream Home a Heartache,” in the cold light of day, it’s as vacuous as a blow-up doll. In fact, it’s a nightmare, like that beauty in “The Shining” who’s revealed as a cackling ghoul. This is all part of the times, of course, with the unbridled freedom and joy of the hippy 60s coming up sad and disappointing. In the same period Joni Mitchell condemns that daydream asl little more than “Acid, booze and ass/Needles, guns and grass.” As you brilliantly point out, the mother of pearl is a cheap knock-off of the real McCoy. Yet, in the end, Ferry prefers this cheaper version - “No dilettante filigree fancy/Beats the plastic you.” Ultimately, he’s happy with the working class and the working girl striving, like Ferry, to be something they ain't. On one hand he worships at the altar of the posh woman and culture’s “highbrow holy,” but in the end he adores the lowly but lovely mother of pearl: “I wouldn’t trade you for another girl.”