Lyrics for Herculean as interpreted by shrodes

Herculean Lyrics
Standing by the old canal
By the gasworks
Celebrate the ghost flow by
When the love hurts
And the medicine man here 24/7
You can get it fast in Armageddon
Everyone on the way to Heaven
Slowly...

Call for prayer is common round here
In the morning
We wash our faces go to work
There is no warning
That it all gets better when life is straight
It's bigger than you and the Welfare State
We will keep singing it's not too late
For you

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  • 11 Comments
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yugaquanto
01-17-2007

Rated 0 
I love this song. Have no Idea what it's about though. Life I guess.

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el_chiso
03-19-2007

Rated 0 
Can't stop listening to this one... Easily one of the catchiest songs of '07.

[The Letterman performance made me love this song even more... beautiful violins...]

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selbydate16
03-28-2007

Rated 0 
Lovely song... but there are unfortunately a few little mistakes I feel the need to nitpick, shrodes.

*Standing on the dark canal = Standing BY the OLD canal
*on the way to heaven so = .... SLOWLY
*the ghost gone by = ... FLOW by
*The wind keeps singing it's not too late = and WE WILL keep singing.... (I actually like your line better than the real one, but there we are).

N.B. I got this from the booklet with the TGTB&TQ album.

OK, on with the meaning..... first 5 lines, I think signify somebody mourning a dead loved one, or a loved one who they parted with for whatever reason.

"And the medicine man here 24/7
You can get it fast in ArmaggeddoN
everyone on the way to Heaven/So.... " = Medicine is provided so readily to so many older people nearing death (Everyone on their way to heaven).... maybe to with euthanasia?

"Call for prayer is common round here/In the morning
We wash our faces go to work
There is no warning
That it all gets better when life is straight
It's bigger than you and the Welfare State
The wind keeps singing it's not too late
For you" = People pray for good things to happen to them, and then suddenly good things happen when they least expect them to.....

Also, how did they create those boopy-type noises at the start?

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Homertown
04-06-2007

Rated 0 
The song is sort of set in W1 London, By the Kensal gasworks and the old Kensal Green cemetary that lies there.

W1 is a cool place, because itīs not overly hip and over-commercialized, like Nothing Hill just to the south (God I hate Nothing Hill).

Like all good poetry, this song defies explanation.
But there are some traits to pick up for us Navaho Indians:

Our protaganist is sort of melancholic, feeling the wings of history by the gasworks, but luckily "The medicin Men" are there (The infamous W1 Drug dealers obviously).

"The welfare state" is british socialism, and perhaps Albarn is commenting on the control state and the CCTV cameras rigged all over town.

Ultimately a dark song, but still a very hopeful one.

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Larrow
07-17-2007

Rated 0 
Damon is up there with my favorite poets. Fantastic song and like everyone else im still trying to make sence of it. Hey Homertown whats W1?

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choan
08-28-2007

Rated 0 
I think it's about death.
Something that's gonna happen to all of us sometime.
But that you should do something with your life, before it's to late.

It's a very dark and sad song.

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T_Cap
09-07-2007

Rated 0 
This song sounds like something Radiohead would do circa Amnesiac.

Best song on the album, bar none. Like choan said, it is very dark and sad...perhaps the protagonist knows that his existence means nothing to the rest of the world, that history will go on no matter what he does.

Rather amibguous lyrics,

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selbydate16
11-30-2007

Rated 0 
For those who don't know what W1 is, it's a postcode in West London (hence the W).

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jonnydmobile
07-17-2008

Rated 0 
I read that it was inspired by a whale that swam up the Thames.

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dilaudid
08-14-2008

Rated 0 
Call for prayer is common round here
In the morning
^^ Reference to Islam? Or just church bells?

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Alec.James
10-20-2008

Rated 0 
Although the meaning may be, to some degree, tragically lost in the translation between British and Hollywood American, this is what I got out of it.

Standing by the old canal
By the gasworks

In the city...

Celebrate the ghost flow by
When the love hurts
And the medicine man here 24/7
You can get it fast in Armageddon

Drugs are available...

Everyone on the way to Heaven
Slowly...

And life is a cruel game in which we all die slowly.

Call for prayer is common round here
In the morning

hope.

We wash our faces go to work

must have gotten it dirty last night.

There is no warning
That it all gets better when life is straight

nobody tells us life is good without drugs (or sex and violence)

It's bigger than you and the Welfare State
We will keep singing it's not too late
For you

Keep preaching hope.

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