The line in “Comfortably Numb” was explained by Roger Waters as a detail recalled from his own life, where his hands swelled up in reaction either to illness or to a medication. No metaphoric significance intended there.
“Swollen hand blues” I took to be a reference to masturbation.
“swollen hand blues” refers to masturbation. Gilmore (or maybe Roger Waters) copped to that in an interview with Jim Ladd that I heard on the radio shortly after the album was released.
As for the other thick hands, just a fever thing on how your body doesn’t feel right undwer those circumstances.
Dammit, Biffy. That’s the interview I was thinking of. Guess I remembered wrong.
When this song came out I knew exactly what he meant by:
I had several bouts of really high fever as a child and experienced the same phenomenon. Probably some sensory loss or hallucination caused by the fever. I don’t know if it is common but I recognized the meaning of the phrase immediately.
Apparently other people have had the same feeling.
I thought the whole idea was that once, when “Pink” was a kid, he got sick and either the drugs or the fever made him feel strange, as if his body was inflating and his mind was drifting away.
Decades later, grown-up rock star Pink has overdosed on drugs in his hotel room, and is feeling the same kind of sensations. For a moment, he feels as if he’s about to experience some important psychic or spiritual revelation… but then the band’s doctor injects him with a stimulant, bringing him more-or-less back to reality, and ending any hope he had of a grand spiritual breaktrough.
Long time fan of Pink Floyd. It never once occured to me that the line “swollen hands blues” was a reference to masturbation. To me it sounded like a complaint from a tired, worn out blues guitar player, complaining about sore (swollen) hands after a gig. Perhaps due to arthritis setting in after years of play. <shrug>
I mean, read the lyrics for the entire song. Doesn’t it paint a picture of a tired old musician who’s done too much hard living?
“Comfortably Numb” is about rock star Pink (Roger Waters’ alter ego) getting high in his hotel room. All kinds of images go through his head, including a memory of a childhood illness that had given him similarly weird sensations long ago.