Of course, if Jerry Falwell were to do an interpretation, we would learn that Triangle Man is actually gay…
(sorry)
I had a pet theory that Particle man was about various theologies/heresies; Triangle Man being the christian trinity idea, Person man being along the lines of the varous heresies that held that Christ was just man and not of dual nature (or existential post-nietzsche anthrocentric thought), particle man being Brahman-atman or somesuch, etc. Also not a good theory, but I had some people believing it at a time.
Well if we’re going to start quoting the cooler lyrics:
I was working all night in my office
When a man I had recently killed
Called me up from a phone near my building
So I looked out the window at him
He had the same obsequious manner
That was the reason I had him killed
So to calm my nerves I sang this song
To him, over the phone
Turn around, turn around
There’s a thing there that can be found
Turn around, turn around
It’s a human skull on the ground
Human skull on the ground
Turn around
I was out by myself in the graveyard
I was doing an interpretive dance
When I felt something heavy and pointed
Strike me in the back of the neck
And then the ghost of my dance instructor
Pushed me down into an open grave
And as dirt rained down she played a xylophone
And sang me this song
chorus
We were waving our arms out the window
Of a fast moving passenger train
Acting in an irresponsible fashion
Until the engineer whose back had been turned
And who we thought would find us highly amusing
Quickly swiveled his head around
And his face which was a paper-white mask of evil
Sang us this song
chorus
Do we really think THIS song has meaning? In this case does it really matter? The simple fact is that any group who uses the word obsequious are tres cool in my book.
dpr …
I concur. That song, and the statue got me high, are my two favorite TMBG songs!
MDE
My favorite line from a TMBG song:
They don’t need me here, and I know you’re there,
Where the world goes by like the humid air.
From Anna Ng.
I felt like that for a long time, perfectly put.
BTW, Balance, that was the shortest, best explanation of Everybody Wants a Rock I’ve ever heard
IIRC, “Whistling in the Dark” is a story about people who do the same dumb damn thing over and over again, and never learn from their mistakes.
She tries to tell him things, but he gets frightened and won’t listen. This isn’t the actual exchange, or her actual words, this is the feeling the exchage gave him.
Note the chorus.
Notice he ‘bumps his head up against the wall.’ Quite apparent symbolism.
(And goodbye to the rest of the song, chorus repetition and “Whistling in the dark…” over and over again.)
–Tim
I disagree Homer. Why would they make the antagonists be so forceful with their “changing the mind” technique? I think it’s about being yourself and not caring what anyone else thinks about it. Even if what you do is inane.
Back befor ethey discovered the joys of travelling with large backup bands they published a number for their fans. The number basically got you an answering machine on which they would record various things. Sometimes you would hear bits of songs in progresss. Sometimes you would hear obscure/inane ramblings. And sometimes they would even give hints with which to interpret their songs. “Birdhouse in Your Soul” is about a nightlight that one of them had as a child. I never got any scoop on :Whistling in the Dark", but my own interpretation is closer to Homer’s than Demo’s, though I tend to think that all of the characters in the song are prisoners of their own preconceptions.
Now, to respond to the OP.
Partivle Man == subatomic partcle
Universe Man == macroscopic universe
Person Man == Life, especially human life
Triangle Man == Entropy
In that context, it is about the inevitable process of entropic decay and the ultimately fruitless and yet somehow heroic anti-entropic struggle of life.
Or else it’s the fat wrestler thing. It’s a toss up, really.
Falcon, you fucking ROCK, woman!!! Of course, Flood IMHO is their best album but that song - man, I love it!
Y’know, this whole thread has revived a dream of mine - I gotta go buy all the TMBG albums now. Having a taped copy of Flood just won’t cut it any more. Thanks, guys. I needed this!
In 1844 the Democrats were split
The three nominees for Presidential candidate
Were Martin Van Buren, a former President
And an abolitionist
James Buchanan, a moderate
Lewis Cass, a general and expansionist -
From Nashville came a dark horse riding on:
It was James K. Polk, Napoleon of the South!
Austere, severe, he held few people dear;
His oratory filled his foes with fear.
The factions soon agreed:
“He’s just the man we need
To bring about victory,
Fulfill our manifest destiny -
And annex the lands the Mexicans command!”
And when the votes were cast the winner was
Mister James K. Polk, Napoleon of the South!
(heroic music interlude)
In four short years he met his every goal:
He seized the whole Southwest from Mexico,
Made sure the tariffs fell,
And made the British sell
The Oregon Territory.
He built an independent Treasury.
Having done all this, he sought no second term!
Yet precious few have mourned the passing of
Mister James K. Polk, our eleventh President -
Young Hickory, Napoleon of the South!
Oh, just as an aside. I’ve been to Lincoln-Sudbury High School in Sudbury, Massachuetts where, as I understand it, John and John spent their formative teenage years. Only 'cos my granddad went there in 1930 and I was trying to find his high school transcripts. But I thought the connection was cool.
Until now I was certain that Birdhouse in your soul was a love song, “Say I’m the only bee in your bonnet.” Now after listening again, I am totally crestfallen. It is a damn nightlight! Sheesh.
I never had so much trouble explaining song lyrics to my kids until TMBG came along with that;
I have a secret to tell,
From my electrical well
bit in that song. My son (a very literal individual, even at 6) demanded to know what this electrical well reference meant. To this day, I have no satisfactory explanation.
The OP part (lest I hijack)
As for Particle Man, I haven’t the foggiest. It ceratinly is about some conflict of some importance, but beyond that I am blissfully lost. Even so I frequently sing this song to myself.
Flood is one of my favorite albums, and I can quote most of the lyrics even though most of it is insrcutable to moi.
electrical well == light socket
Olent -
I know the feeling…this thread forced me to finally go get the albums on CD, instead of my crappy taped copies.
And YOU rock! I love “James K. Polk”!!!
I tend to go with the “we didn’t mean anything by much of any of it” theory. It is remarkably cool, however, how many different, conflicting, and mostly-making-sense interpretations there are. That’s part of what makes it cool.
And being about a night-light doesn’t mean it can’t be a love song!
And I really must expand my collection beyond Flood . . .
What finally clued me in to the nature of this song:
There’s a picture opposite me
Of my primitive ancestry
Which stood on rocky shores
And kept the beaches shipwreck-free
After several years of listening to that song it finally dawned on me that they were talking about a lighthouse.
Though I respect that a lot
I’d be fired if that were my job
After killing Jason off
And countless screaming Argonauts
“What the hell?” I thought to myself. What do John and John have against Greek mythology? Then it hit me - well, if you put a damn nightlight up on the rocky point of the narrows it wouldn’t work very well, would it?!
Then… then it all made sense.
So -
All the room must listen to me
Filibuster vigilantly…
Weep Day
I never went to the tropical island
Though everybody said they saw me there
And it wasn’t me you punched a hole in
At the West German protest march
Simultaneous events don’t happen
We are isolated temporally
And a part is never called the whole thing
Though it bothers us to know it’s so
Every man is made of two opinions
Every woman has a second half
And it’s samba time for Tambo and Weep Day for Urine Man
I didn’t write the words you hear me singing
I didn’t sing the line before this one
You are not the one I was addressing
That person took a train to Africa
Where he met the consulate from Belgium
Who is now a Buddhist in a cave
Who is pitching for the Oakland Raiders
Striking out the batter she became
Every man is made of two opinions
Every woman has a second half
And it’s samba time for Tambo and Weep Day for Urine Man
I always thought “from my electrical well” was a a reference to the electrical potential well bounding the probability function of an electron.
SenSurround
When I was only a zygote,
I still remember the time,
When there was nothing to know or to think about
Except the sound of my mind,
And the sound from outside.
Sensurround, down at the bottom,
Sensible to ear and sternum,
And the world first spoke to me in Sensurround.
If Mom had known she was expecting
She might have gone to see “Jaws”,
Instead of picking a film where the sound effect
Came right up through the floor,
And I’d be differently formed.
Sensurround, down at the bottom,
Sensible to ear and sternum,
And the world first spoke to me in Sensurround.
Accidently in a coal mine it was found,
When they accidently dug too far down and found the Sensurround.
I still don’t know who conceived it,
Or where they got the idea,
But there it was in the aisle by the exit sign,
A woofer covered in wood,
To shake the room when it should.
Sensurround, down at the bottom,
Sensible to ear and sternum,
Make the fakeness realistic
When the action went ballistic,
One degree shy of sadistic,
And the world first spoke to me in Sensurround.
If I could swim under the water
Without having to breathe,
If I could follow the trail to the ocean floor,
I think I know what there’d be,
Down there waiting for me.
Sensurround, down at the bottom,
Sensible to ear and sternum,
Make the fakeness realistic
When the action went ballistic,
One degree shy of sadistic,
And the world first spoke to me in Sensurround.
Well now I have a plausible explanation for the electrical well. My son thanks all of you!
On another level, it will always be a love song for me.
Check out my new sig… Ahh egotism
Like I said, check out my new sig…
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Spiritus Mundi *
**Back befor ethey discovered the joys of travelling with large backup bands they published a number for their fans. The number basically got you an answering machine on which they would record various things.
That’s still up. Their dail-a-song is: 718-387-6962
Just a long distance call to Brooklyn. 