The Sopranos -- 5/14/07 -- Kennedy and Heidi

Cafe Society
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[QUOTE=OpalCat]
Is this your interpretation or is it official? I’m not saying it’s wrong, just that I have always had a different interpretation. Yours is interesting, I will have to think about it. I always saw it as more like the numbness was a complete inward retreat (apathy being a symptom of depression). Insanity being one of the more common PF themes, and the character of Pink being in such a state several times in the movie of The Wall, it is just how I always thought of it.
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That and why would someone describe suicide as being comfortable?

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I always thought “Comfortably Numb” was about heroin. I mean, come on, “…just a little pinprick / There’ll be no more ahhhhhhhh but you may feel a little sick.” It’s totally a smack song, dude.

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Except that in the context of the movie the “pinprick” is some kind of stimulant (?) that his manager is giving him to snap him out of his “numb” (sitting there, staring off, unresponsive) so that he can go onstage and do the show. It wouldn’t be heroin because that would not give him motivation/energy.

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[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
I always thought “Comfortably Numb” was about heroin. I mean, come on, “…just a little pinprick / There’ll be no more ahhhhhhhh but you may feel a little sick.” It’s totally a smack song, dude.
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Heh, and you know, when I put a spike into my vein, I tell ya, things aren’t quite the same.

I’ll have to admit the suicide angle is my personal interpretation, though in my circles growing up it was the common understanding of the song. As far as why would suicide be comfortable: dying is comfortable. Hypothermia makes you sleepy, shock sets in after severe trauma, hell, even fire would supposedly burn off your nerve endings as the first order of business. Okay, that last one is dubious at best, but it makes some sort of perverse logical sense.

It’s recovery that sucks balls. If the attempt fails, you’re almost certainly in for a world of pain, or brain damage if you go the asphyxiation route.

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[QUOTE=OpalCat]
Except that in the context of the movie the “pinprick” is some kind of stimulant (?) that his manager is giving him to snap him out of his “numb” (sitting there, staring off, unresponsive) so that he can go onstage and do the show. It wouldn’t be heroin because that would not give him motivation/energy.
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I don’t remember much about the movie, so you might be right, but I always just assumed he was getting dosed up with horse to get on stage. Heroin makes you nauseous and a of of the imagery in the song (“There is no pain, you are receeding / a distant ship, smoke on the horizon / You are only coming through in waves / Your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying”) sound to me like they’re describing effects that are more narcotic and soporific than energizing or speedy.

That was just my impression from the album, though, like I said, I can barely remember anything about the movie. It’s been like 25 years since I saw it. It was certainly the consenus of me and all my pothead friends that it was a drug song, but potheads tend to read drug references into just about anything.

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I’ve always assumed that Diogenes’ interpretation was correct. (I didn’t necessarily think it was heroin, but I definitely interpreted it as a drug.)

If it was about suicide, what on earth would “get you on your feet again” mean?

Odd that we’re discussing the song so much and the episode so little. :slight_smile:

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[QUOTE=BlackKnight]
Odd that we’re discussing the song so much and the episode so little. :slight_smile:
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Welcome to the Straight Dope. :wink:

Watching the current episode again last night, I noticed two things:

It’s interesting how Tony’s had such disgust for Christopher’s drug habit and after killing him, goes on to indulge in the high of gambling, marijuana and peyote. Not to the same degree, but still.

Also, A.J.'s comment at the psychiatrist’s about people’s heads being so far up their butt’s that they can only see their faces, could be applied to Tony. Applied to his not seeing that his world is collapsing around him and/or his self-centeredness.

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Tony’s disgust, same with everyone else’s, had to do with Christopher’s inability to maintain control. Chris was a junkie, they were just recreational users. Even Paulie, in a throwaway line, copped to doing cocaine (at least that’s how I interpreted it). In true wiseguy fashion, they were never worried about what Christopher was doing to themselves, but only how it affected them and made them look to others.

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[QUOTE=BlackKnight]
If it was about suicide, what on earth would “get you on your feet again” mean?
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I very well may be wrong, so take this with a grain of salt. Reading the complete lyrics which I can’t reproduce here, I interpret the structure of the song to be this:

As song opens, guy is fading away/longing for death. In walks doctor man to thwart him:

Hello.
Is there anybody in there?
…
Can you show me where it hurts?

Now we jump from doctor’s perspective to the guy trying to die’s perspective:

There is no pain, you are receding.
…
When I was a child I had a fever.
…
Now I got that feeling once again.

Jumping back to doctor’s perspective:

Ok.
Just a little pinprick.
…
But you may feel a little sick.
…
Thatll keep you going for the show.
Come on its time to go.

And end from guy’s perspective:

There is no pain, you are receding.
…
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse,
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

Even as a kid he wanted to die. (He turned to look at the fleeting glimpse of death, but missed it.)

Of course, bear in mind that my alias ain’t just a pun; copius amounts of LSD went into my teen years, so any opinions I formed during that period probably can’t be trusted.

Back on topic, I would definitely agree that they portrayed tripping quite nicely.

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[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
I don’t remember much about the movie, so you might be right, but I always just assumed he was getting dosed up with horse to get on stage. Heroin makes you nauseous and a of of the imagery in the song (“There is no pain, you are receeding / a distant ship, smoke on the horizon / You are only coming through in waves / Your lips move, but I can’t hear what you’re saying”) sound to me like they’re describing effects that are more narcotic and soporific than energizing or speedy.

That was just my impression from the album, though, like I said, I can barely remember anything about the movie. It’s been like 25 years since I saw it. It was certainly the consenus of me and all my pothead friends that it was a drug song, but potheads tend to read drug references into just about anything.
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When I had to get a shot of epinephrine (adrenalin) at the emergency room, it made me extremely queasy. I don’t think the nausea points to heroin any more than a wide assortment of other drugs it could be. The “there is no pain…” lyrics are not about the results of the “pinprick”, though. They are sung by David Gilmour and represent the internal stuff that is going on with Pink before he gets the “pinprick” (his retreat into insanity/depression/whatever it is). The pinprick (whatever drug it is) is to snap him out of that state. So it wouldn’t make sense for that imagery to be heroin-induced, even if the pinprick was supposed to be heroin.

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[QUOTE=Ellis Dee]
Even as a kid he wanted to die. (He turned to look at the fleeting glimpse of death, but missed it.)

Of course, bear in mind that my alias ain’t just a pun; copius amounts of LSD went into my teen years, so any opinions I formed during that period probably can’t be trusted.

Back on topic, I would definitely agree that they portrayed tripping quite nicely.
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I’m not really seeing it. To me there is nothing that specifies suicide/death in any part of the movie, to relate to the song. He goes insane, clearly. He is in a self-induced isolation, mentally/emotionally (this is the “numb” to me, as well as the “wall” referenced in the title) but nothing from the movie or the song gives me the indication that he wants or intends to take that to the step of killing himself. He’s self destructive, to be sure, but that doesn’t necessarily mean suicidal.

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[QUOTE=OpalCat]
I’m not really seeing it. To me there is nothing that specifies suicide/death in any part of the movie, to relate to the song. He goes insane, clearly. He is in a self-induced isolation, mentally/emotionally (this is the “numb” to me, as well as the “wall” referenced in the title) but nothing from the movie or the song gives me the indication that he wants or intends to take that to the step of killing himself. He’s self destructive, to be sure, but that doesn’t necessarily mean suicidal.
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Site to consider.

Now back to what the hell is in Tony’s head!