Lyrics for Synchronicity II as interpreted by Demau Senae

Synchronicity II Lyrics
Another suburban family morning
Grandmother screaming at the wall
We have to shout above the din of our rice crispies
Can't hear anything at all

Mother chants her litany of boredom and frustration
But we all know her suicides are fake
Daddy only stares into the distance
There's only so much more he can take

Many miles away something crawls from the slime at the
Bottom of a dark Scottish lake

Another industrial ugly morning
The factory belches filth into the sky
He walks unhindered through the picket lines today
He doesn't think to wonder why

The secretaries pout and preen like cheap tarts on a red-light street
But all he ever thinks to do is watch
Every single meeting with his so-called superior
Is a humiliating kick in the crotch

Many miles away something crawls to the surface
Of a dark Scottish loch

Another working day has ended
Only the rush hour hell to face
Packed like lemmings into shiny little boxes
Contestants in a suicidal race

Daddy grips the wheel and stares into the distance
He knows that something somewhere has to break
He sees the family home now looming in his headlights
The pain upstairs makes his eyeballs ache

Many miles away there's a shadow on the door of a cottage on the shore
Of a dark Scottish lake

Many miles away
Many miles away
Many miles away
Many miles away

Interaction
Mail to a friend Send Lyrics to a Friend
Share on Facebook

Stumble It
Add to Del.icio.us Add to Del.icio.us




  • 32 Comments
  • Printer Friendly Lyrics
newest first     Expand All
legalbeaglechick
05-30-2009

Rated 0 
This song reminds me of the true story of John Emil List.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/art/1.html

Log in to reply
doki_pen
08-29-2008

Rated 0 
Thinking about it more... the narrator is the son of the crazy guy. He refers to him as daddy throughout the song. I don't think he kills his family, but either his wife or his mother. The narrator can't be dead.

Log in to reply
doki_pen
06-24-2008

Rated 0 
The reason he walks through the picket line unhindered is because he has gone crazy and everyone can tell. I never realized it until just now. I always thought he kills his family at the end, or commits suicide. But now that I think about it, only killing his family makes sense. My favourite is the second verse. The fact that he has been emasculated and will not screw his secretary is a very nice reflection of modern society. Sting is nuts because he is showing how this homicidal maniac is actually a hero and becoming free! lol. Great song. Right up there with Every breath you take, which is also very creepy.

Log in to reply
Stingfan
04-08-2008

Rated 0 
I think people are getting too hung up on the environmental side of the song. This was written in 1983, before the real fuss about the environment began. The synchronicity is definitely the anger rising within the father as his crappy mundane life gets to him. The monster is rising from the lake at the sametime. The real giveaway is the last verse for both where the fathers home is looming in the headlights and the monster is at the door of the cottage.

Log in to reply
stinger31216
03-30-2008

Rated 0 
i have a good point for everyone who believes in this "LNM theory". How do you explain the picket lines at the man's job? Anyway, I'm going in a slightly different direction. The factory that this man runs/works at is creating a pollutive, possibly nuclear waste and sending it in the air. This makes it's way from the factory, which I'm assuming is in England or some country close to Scotland, to the "Scottish loch" (being any lake, not Loch Ness). This mutates the organisms in the lake, causing them to become hostile, emerge from the water safely, and attack the other beings in their habitat (the cottage). This is in synchronicity with the man, who "walks unhindered through the picketl ines today" after being changed by the corruption of his "so-called superiors". This causes him to become hostile as well, and attacks the others in his habitat (the home). This is just what I think, feel free to criticize.

Log in to reply
xod
02-02-2008

Rated 0 
"He knows that something somewhere has to break"

Doesn't sound like a man about to take out his family. Something has to break, not him. It will happen somewhere, not here. Many miles away.

The frustration of these millions of desperate people is causing something to occur many miles away. That's synchronicity. There is no synchronicity in a man cracking under strain and killing his family.

Log in to reply
pf
11-16-2007

Rated 0 
This song is MOST DEFINITELY about the father slowly slipping into insanity, driven by his poor home life and the hopelessness of his work situation. Sounds like he gets it honestly from his mother.

The 'monster' or 'creature' was never said to be the Lock Ness Monster. There are lots of stories about lake monsters in Scotland, and Nessie is only one of them

I see a vile creature stirring and rising from the depths of a dark slimy lake coinciding with the father's fall. Or, you could say that as the creature rises, so does the evil within the father.

One line that put it into focus for me was:

"He walks unhindered through the picket lines today
He doesn't think to wonder why"

I picture him walking him walking through a throng of protesters with suck a look on his face and an air of fear about him that they move aside as he gets closer. But he's already so far gone that it doesn't even occur to him.

And at the end as the shadow falls across the door both of the house and the cottage, the creature has risen and is loose both in life and metaphorically, and I doubt if either is going to simply whine about having a bad day...

Log in to reply
saturn9
09-10-2007

Rated 0 
I can't really see the synchronicity between the monster and the dad, as they have different motives for violence. To me this song is just a chilling warning that even the most seemingly harmless and vacant have their breaking point.

Log in to reply
dustinholleman
07-31-2007

Rated 0 
i think that the song is telling two stories about the lochness monster and a frustrated dad. they are feeling and doing the same thing, they are in sychronicity. the dad realizes his life is full of boredom and frustration and hes trapped as a middle class worker. while the monster is full of boredom and frustration, trapped in a loch and always hiding.
In this point in the fathers life he finally snaps out side of his house where he can see his family who he's gotten sick of and his monster hes been storing inside of him finally comes out, and goes in and murders them all. The Loch ness monster, in an act of frustration, creeps up to a lake side cottage to kill everyone inhabiting it.
basically the same story with both the man and the monster.

Log in to reply
Feohatha
06-29-2007

Rated 0 
this song is kind of odd and so is the vid but good anyway. By the way you put the 'all' and 'know' around the wrong way.

Log in to reply
forest29
03-18-2007

Rated 0 
"Seems to me this song is referring to...a desperate middle-class man socially buffeted from all sides until 'something has to break,' at which point the inner monster is released and, the song seems to imply, something horrible happens. "

Yep. All you folks who think otherwise, need to listen again. The visceral intensity of the music and Sting's voice leave no doubt in my mind that the monster inside of daddy is coming home and that when it does something really ugly is gonna go down.

Log in to reply
PencilNeckedGeek
02-19-2007

Rated 0 
Some famous writer once described Britons as living lives of quiet desperation. Pink Floyd referenced the line at the beginning of "Dark Side of the Moon." Seems to me this song is referring to it as well, drawing a picture of a desperate middle-class man socially buffeted from all sides until "something has to break," at which point the inner monster is released and, the song seems to imply, something horrible happens.

Log in to reply
kickstart71
02-16-2007

Rated 0 
I like Rikdad's posts, and agree. I never visualized violence at the song's end. Like the song "Walking in your Footsteps", Sting is comparing our lives/feelings (or lack of them) with those of Dinosaurs and, here, the LNM... Things bubbling underneath the surface of the everyman's regular day... I never paid attention to the lyrics 20 years ago when I first discovered this album and fell in love with it. But a few years ago, when I heard it with wiser ears, it was as if for the first time. The imagery, and the comparisons of the two realities in the song, are fantastic. Best song on the album.

Log in to reply
CuteSparkina
02-05-2007

Rated 0 
It could be about a family named Sumner. The sumners are at breakfast. Dad Sumner is complaining that his job bites the sword, Nana is upset about something, and Mom Sumner is frustrated at her son Gordon. See, she's all upset because her little Gordie-Wordie hates school, says he wants to be a rock star, and even hates his name and wants to be nicknamed after the thing bees do best :-)

Log in to reply
sillybunny
09-28-2006

Rated 0 
Anyway, 'Synchronicity I' is my favourite of the two - the energy, catchiness and band tightness on this Karl Jung-dedicated track simply can't be beat. Its partner, 'Synchronicity II', is somewhat more complex and throws in tough lyrics about ugly industrial mornings and Scottish lakes, but is still a near-masterpiece of a superb 'atmospheric rocker'. And that's it with the energetic tracks; although personally, I'd say that 'O My God', despite being slower and 'draggier', is still pretty energetic.
[George Starostin]

Log in to reply
RobotRock
09-21-2006

Rated 0 
I'm sorry, I meant "When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's still Around.

Log in to reply
RobotRock
09-21-2006

Rated 0 
Like many Police songs of this era (check out When the World is Turning...") this is definitely a social commentary on post-modernism. For a good example of fictional post-modernism and to see what it's all about, check out "White Noise" by Don DeLilo (not sure about spelling) but it's an amazing book. I'm not sure about the Loch Ness Monster references though. Perhaps it is comparing the stark, bleak, reality of the American post-modern age, with the fantasy and mystery of ages past? Who knows. grouping may have a good point too.

Log in to reply
sillybunny
09-21-2006

Rated 0 
In “Synchronicity II,” unusually harmonious picket lines surround the industrial workplace of the song’s emasculated father-character, protesting the environmental contamination unleashed by that factory. Simultaneously, a vengeful Ness-like creature emerges from a polluted Scottish lake, many miles away ... or as close as the stressed father’s teeming subconscious, the beast inside him being on the verge of wreaking havoc just as the distant monster arises. (In the video for the song, the “cottage” finally approached by the creature on the strand of the dark lake becomes Boleskine House, on the eastern shore of Loch Ness. A century ago, the mansion was owned by Aleister Crowley, and more recently, by Jimmy Page.)

[From Rock & Holy Rollers: The Spiritual Beliefs of Chart-Topping Rock Stars in Their Lives and Lyrics by Geoffrey D. Falk.]

Log in to reply
rikdad
09-18-2006

Rated 0 
"the monster would bash into the cottage. Weird that you'd include the size of a door as a rebuff- that's weak, man."

I wasn't trying to rebuff you based on that; I was just commenting on the image the song paints vs. the conventional depiction of the LNM which is, as you say, generally like a plesiosaur, and wouldn't be apt to menace a cottage. That's a separate point; we can accept that there's a monster that can menace a cottage and move on, whether it's the usual image of the LNM or not. (Deeper aside: Some have claimed to see a/the monster on land near Loch Ness.)

Don't see the monster as an allegory -- that would have nothing to do with synchronicity. An allegory could be a story within a story, or a story beside a story. In the song's world, the monster is real, and is approaching the cottage at the same time the man approaches his home. If the monster weren't real in the song's world, it wouldn't be an instance of synchronicity.

I doubt that we are to understand that the man WILL kill his family when he gets inside today. That would be the most terrible thing that could happen, but the song doesn't tell us that he isn't just going to throw a fit or beat the hell out of someone... There are a lot more ways to snap than to launch into a multiple homicide. The most sensational interpretation is not automatically the right one. It's a hack who can only write sensational endings, and I give Sting much more credit than that. Left hanging, the song is more evocative than if Sting had written a particular ending. The subject of the song is what has led to the man's weakened mental state, not what, if anything, will be in the headlines the next day.

Log in to reply
loderunner
09-15-2006

Rated 0 
Just to add a fact- many believe the Lcch Ness monster to be a Plesiosoaur. Dinosaurs lived between 70 and 230 million years ago. (Ages- Triassic, Jurassic, Cretacious). It is doubtful that a Plesiosaur cound fit through a door, and even more doubtful that he would walk on land considering the fact he was a marine dinosaur with flippers.

The Loch Ness saga grew with conspiracy buffs due to the fact (or I've read) that the deep Scottish lake is fed from the sea and returns to the sea.

The only 2 sea monsters I believe in are (1) The Sperm Whale, and (2) this whale's enemy, the Giant Squid. Both spend most of their time deep in the Ocean. We've caught Sperm Whales (Moby Dick was based on a Sperm Whale), but we only have evidince of Giant Squids by the partial tentacles that wash up onshore.

So I will agree that neither a Plesiosaur, nor a Sperm Whale, nor a Giant Squid could have entered a cottage door. As far as a literal interpretation, it's hard to argue with.

But what if he had entered through the GARAGE door..... ??????

Log in to reply
loderunner
09-14-2006

Rated 0 
"The monster has also crawled out of Loch Ness and arrived at the door of a cottage there. I don't know of any accounts of the legendary monster of Loch Ness that makes it small enough that it could actually fit inside a cottage door -- I can't visualize it walking through a door and going on a rampage inside a house.

The song suggests that something bad might happen at both locations, but it's just creating the tension, not reporting a grisly outcome. "

Well, ridiculous- if u want to be frank- the monster would bash into the cottage. Weird that you'd include the size of a door as a rebuff- that's weak, man.

The monster is an ALLEGORY, man. The man is the monster. He's in syncronicity with the other monster. I can't convince you, but, if you give me the SIZE of the door as an argument- well, that's not only juvenile, it's just silly.

Godzilla never let the size of a door persuade him to leave Tokyo.

Silly. Just damn silly.

Log in to reply
rikdad
09-12-2006

Rated 0 
I don't think the song quite dots the "i" and crosses the "t" of saying that the father WILL do something violent at this point. He is frustrated by his life, and is returning home with a rising discontent, but there are a lot more men like that than there are homicidal maniacs.

The monster has also crawled out of Loch Ness and arrived at the door of a cottage there. I don't know of any accounts of the legendary monster of Loch Ness that makes it small enough that it could actually fit inside a cottage door -- I can't visualize it walking through a door and going on a rampage inside a house.

The song suggests that something bad might happen at both locations, but it's just creating the tension, not reporting a grisly outcome.

Log in to reply
loderunner
08-24-2006

Rated 0 
Adding to last comment- found 1 line wrong here- should be-
"Daddy grips the wheel and stares alone into the distance" - the word alone adds emphasis to his ambivolence of feeling towards anyone.

"He knows that something somewhere has to break
He sees the family home now looming in his headlights
The pain upstairs makes his eyeballs ache

Many miles away there's a shadow on the door of a cottage on the shore
Of a dark Scottish lake

Many miles away"

So to clarify my post- the monster is entering the cottage to kill all inside, at the same time the father is entering the house to kill his family. Hence, the synchronicity. After hearing the song umteen times, reading the lyrics, and realizing this, it sent chills down my spine. Sting is a hell of a lyracist, with one hell of an imagination.

Log in to reply
loderunner
08-10-2006

Rated -1 
This song is about the guy going insance. The loch-ness monster is a metaphor for his mental state- the guy is in syncronicity with the monster. At the end of the song, he's entering his house to kill his family.

Log in to reply
sixedheart
06-03-2006

Rated 0 
icantleaveyoubehind - just because it's miles away doesn't mean it's not happening at the same time...

I think the best line in the song is the 'shiny metal boxes'. No wonder Sting was inducted into the songwriters hall of fame.

Log in to reply




  • Add Your Comments
What does this song mean to you?

You must be logged in to post your comments.

Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.





Popular
Top:   Lyrics, Artists, Albums
Random:   Lyric, Artist, Album

Your Ad Here