Time
Like T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, this one is an unbelievably perceptive take on old-age regret by the impossibly young. It’s a “Seize the Day” song, encouraging others to get off their keisters before it’s too late. It takes 2:30 minutes to kick in and the last minute or so is a reprise of Breathe in the Air, another song on the album.
Favorite lyrics: The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older/Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.
Comfortably Numb
Childhood promise turns into adult desolation in this song that is as hypnotic as it gets. One part has an examiner bluntly asking questions. The second part depicts the examinee’s solace and retreat. A version of the song was used quite well in Scorsese’s The Departed when Costigan goes to the shrink’s house.
Favorite lyrics: 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
Wish You Were Here
A rare relationship song for Pink Floyd has one member selling their soul to obtain the world. It’s also Pink’s response to the downside of their unmatched Dark Side of the Moon success. The stalkers and sycophants are like unwanted afterbirth. But it’s mostly a heartfelt song about longtime love and longing.
Favorite lyrics: Running over the same old ground/What have we found?/The same old fears./Wish you were here
Fearless
Meddle is Pink Floyd’s criminally overlooked 1971 album, and this song is the most accessible song on the CD. The album doesn’t have the insightful lyrics, high concept, and perfect musical accompaniments of 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon, but the lyrics of this relaxed, groovy song show they’re ready.
Favorite lyrics: You pick the place and I’ll choose the time/And I’ll climb that hill in my own way/Just wait a while for the right day
Brain Damage
I could have easily included “Learning to Fly” from their 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason, just to have 5 different albums represented, but I couldn’t help including this gem. I also couldn’t help including Eclipse on the video link. Eclipse is the last song on Dark Side of the Moon and compliments Brain Damage perfectly. Confusion and misplacement never sounded so good.
Favorite lyrics: And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear/ You shout but noone seems to hear
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Five by Pink Floyd
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1 comment:
PF has slowly grown on me. In high school it seemed like the weirdest people I knew were into them and I couldn't get into it, but now I appreciate them for being the 'arty' led zeppelin. Each of the songs you put forth is great, my two favs being Comfortably Numb and Wish You Were Here. Scorses owes the power of that scene to the live version of CN.
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