John Cage was an experimental music composer who attempted to put Zen Buddhist beleifs into practice through the music he composed. John Cage is actualy quoted as describing his music as "purposeless play" which is where Downie gets this lyric. Cage is also quoted as saying that the purpose of his music is "not an attempt to bring order out of chaos" which Downie also touches on. Cage also stated that his music is meant to "simply to wake up to the very life we are living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind mind and desires out of the way and lets it act of its own accord.".
This last point is what I think Gord is really trying to get at, the fact that Cage didn't make music to create masterpices, but simply to get people to realize how beautiful the world around them is when we actualy stop to apreciate it.
However, I think downie tries to go deeper with this by using the military analogy. In the first chours, Downie is talking about "serving the song" (which I assume is refering to buying in to what the theory that Cage had about the beauty of life if we let it happen on it's own) and follows this by saying "walking the range". In the second chorus however, Downie changes "walking the range" to "bombing the range". I think what Downie is trying to get at here is that while it can sometimes be good to "serve the song", as he puts it, (meaning to let the mind act of it's own accord) at other times, leting our mind act of its own accord and not questioning where it might lead us can be dangerous. But thats just one man's opinion.
John Cage was an experimental music composer who attempted to put Zen Buddhist beleifs into practice through the music he composed. John Cage is actualy quoted as describing his music as "purposeless play" which is where Downie gets this lyric. Cage is also quoted as saying that the purpose of his music is "not an attempt to bring order out of chaos" which Downie also touches on. Cage also stated that his music is meant to "simply to wake up to the very life we are living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind mind and desires out of the way and lets it act of its own accord.".
This last point is what I think Gord is really trying to get at, the fact that Cage didn't make music to create masterpices, but simply to get people to realize how beautiful the world around them is when we actualy stop to apreciate it.
However, I think downie tries to go deeper with this by using the military analogy. In the first chours, Downie is talking about "serving the song" (which I assume is refering to buying in to what the theory that Cage had about the beauty of life if we let it happen on it's own) and follows this by saying "walking the range". In the second chorus however, Downie changes "walking the range" to "bombing the range". I think what Downie is trying to get at here is that while it can sometimes be good to "serve the song", as he puts it, (meaning to let the mind act of it's own accord) at other times, leting our mind act of its own accord and not questioning where it might lead us can be dangerous. But thats just one man's opinion.
I love when people leave comments that provide background info on the lyrical content like this--thank you from one music nerd to another ;)
I love when people leave comments that provide background info on the lyrical content like this--thank you from one music nerd to another ;)