I think it's not about the religion or the decay of our "godless" civilization. I think it's about searching for knowledge in different places at different times. It's also about media & popular culture.
While there was time when people went to Memphis to aquire some experience (a place where blues musicians made music so great that it seemed they were selling their souls to the devil), but the protaginist chooses Geneva to be the place he can learn something important.
The protagonist is the present-day missionnaire / a present-day blues musician (in my opinion, 'blues' is here synonymous to 'knowledge'): he will preach & "teach it to you". There is always a cost of any knowledge: either it is small pox & flu, or a bullet in Lorraine motel, or death under unknown circumstances.
There is also kind of knowledge, which is useless and does no harm (a teenage icon Miley Cirus aka Hannah Montana swimming in her pool). The connection between all these pieces is that all of them represent the culture in a certain period of time and people's obsession by it (by accepting it, learning it, teaching it, etc.). Still, it's quite unstable: "I can't remember anything at all". Might be, there is just one thing that really matters and stays: the protagonist's realtionship with another human being ("you are the best girl I've ever had").
On the second thought, these checkpoints on the protagonist's memory lane might be just alternative Universes (whose existence might be proven in Geneva some day) :)
I loved your views on it! Especially second thoughts about alternate universes. What do you think about the Mau Mau and Pygmy thing, I mean how does it fit in?
I loved your views on it! Especially second thoughts about alternate universes. What do you think about the Mau Mau and Pygmy thing, I mean how does it fit in?
A really well thought interpretation! Thanks for this. I'm still at the "impression only" phase with this song. It has a delirious feeling to it. It also gives me the impression that it is ahead of it's time, anticipating a future where we might make quantum leaps in discovery of the natural world that shake human cosmological views in time.
A really well thought interpretation! Thanks for this. I'm still at the "impression only" phase with this song. It has a delirious feeling to it. It also gives me the impression that it is ahead of it's time, anticipating a future where we might make quantum leaps in discovery of the natural world that shake human cosmological views in time.
@Ajnochka The CERN large hadron collider (where the Higgs Boson particle was first found) is just outside Geneva, just across the border into France. I agree with your interpretation, and believe the reason Geneva was mentioned is due to the collider.
@Ajnochka The CERN large hadron collider (where the Higgs Boson particle was first found) is just outside Geneva, just across the border into France. I agree with your interpretation, and believe the reason Geneva was mentioned is due to the collider.
I think it's not about the religion or the decay of our "godless" civilization. I think it's about searching for knowledge in different places at different times. It's also about media & popular culture. While there was time when people went to Memphis to aquire some experience (a place where blues musicians made music so great that it seemed they were selling their souls to the devil), but the protaginist chooses Geneva to be the place he can learn something important. The protagonist is the present-day missionnaire / a present-day blues musician (in my opinion, 'blues' is here synonymous to 'knowledge'): he will preach & "teach it to you". There is always a cost of any knowledge: either it is small pox & flu, or a bullet in Lorraine motel, or death under unknown circumstances. There is also kind of knowledge, which is useless and does no harm (a teenage icon Miley Cirus aka Hannah Montana swimming in her pool). The connection between all these pieces is that all of them represent the culture in a certain period of time and people's obsession by it (by accepting it, learning it, teaching it, etc.). Still, it's quite unstable: "I can't remember anything at all". Might be, there is just one thing that really matters and stays: the protagonist's realtionship with another human being ("you are the best girl I've ever had").
On the second thought, these checkpoints on the protagonist's memory lane might be just alternative Universes (whose existence might be proven in Geneva some day) :)
I loved your views on it! Especially second thoughts about alternate universes. What do you think about the Mau Mau and Pygmy thing, I mean how does it fit in?
I loved your views on it! Especially second thoughts about alternate universes. What do you think about the Mau Mau and Pygmy thing, I mean how does it fit in?
A really well thought interpretation! Thanks for this. I'm still at the "impression only" phase with this song. It has a delirious feeling to it. It also gives me the impression that it is ahead of it's time, anticipating a future where we might make quantum leaps in discovery of the natural world that shake human cosmological views in time.
A really well thought interpretation! Thanks for this. I'm still at the "impression only" phase with this song. It has a delirious feeling to it. It also gives me the impression that it is ahead of it's time, anticipating a future where we might make quantum leaps in discovery of the natural world that shake human cosmological views in time.
@Ajnochka The CERN large hadron collider (where the Higgs Boson particle was first found) is just outside Geneva, just across the border into France. I agree with your interpretation, and believe the reason Geneva was mentioned is due to the collider.
@Ajnochka The CERN large hadron collider (where the Higgs Boson particle was first found) is just outside Geneva, just across the border into France. I agree with your interpretation, and believe the reason Geneva was mentioned is due to the collider.