The bord

I have been hatching some ideas of how I am going to approach this and concluded I need to lay out some of my interpretations / imagery for the themes and motifs in the the lyrics.  Unlike most of the tracks on the albums Faust Arp is rich with imagery and I hope the relative obscurity of the lyrics (and accordingly the illustrations) will allow me to follow them quite tightly with the song without I being too literal

LINE BY LINE with NOTES: 

wakey wakey / rise and shine:  wake up | wipe fog from eyes | shaken out of mental sleep & ignorance | no more hiding behind excuses | face reality | ref to ‘pseudo proof of global warming as anti-capitalist conspiracy‘ on deadairspace (Thu 22nd Feb)

it’s on again off again on again: confusion over issues | in particular climate change | to-ing and fro-ing of evidence and reporting | ref to turnuptheheat.org George Monbiot’s “we’re all going to die/oh no we aren’t/oh yes we are” internet compendium. 

watch me fall / like dominoes / in pretty patterns:  knock on effect | crumbling | states / institutions | immensity of relationship & interconnectivity of modern constructs (internet / digital age) | power of single voice | increasing power of effect | applies to both failure and success | pretty patterns: detached, uncontrollable 

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fingers in the blackbird pie:  ref  English nursery rhyme (always more sinister than they seem!) | wealth and money | amusements of the rich adversely affecting the poor (poor have their eyes pecked out) | perhaps reference Faust ( foundation of the empire is moved through Mephisto’s cunning from the solidity of metallic gold to insubstantial promises on paper to support extravagant spending) | also connection to coded messages -nursery rhyme originated as  pirate code (c.f. worm buffet code?)

I’m tingling tingling tingling: on edge | heightened awareness or numbness | nervous system | adrenaline from both fear or excitement | anticipation … | Radiation therapy?

its what you feel not what you ought to what you ought to / reasonable and sensible: ref Thom’s take on creative process and writing | getting in touch | freeing self from purely cerebral/cognitive action | power | conformity and conventions | laws / big brother / double think | responsibility (perhaps ref issues with activism - Bono, Dylan) | maturity | expectations

dead from the neck up / because I’m stuffed stuffed stuffed: body and mind duality | ref Breakfast of Breakfast of Champions (Vonnegut) and how the rich and powerful that could change the world won’t change the world because they don’t know the hunger of the poor….When  well fed (stuffed, stuffed, stuffed) you get numb | information overload / too much to think about | spills over | excess |  [ ref:  ”They knew they were being lied to, but if lies were consistent enough they defined themselves as a credible alternative to the truth. Emotion ruled almost everything, and lies were driven by emotions that were familiar and supportive, while the truth came with hard edges that cut and bruised. They prefered lies and mood music…” JG Ballard ]

squeeze the tubes and empty bottles / take a bow take a bow: ref recycling and consumerism | not a fad  | self congraulatory (not something that once you have done your little bit you can pat yourself on the back and move on) | cynical | irony | and yet …

elephant that’s in the room is: ref English idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed | environment / religion / poverty /war / tibet etc | embarrassment or taboo | possibly also addiction / failure | ignoring self-knowledge

duplicate and triplicate and plastic bags:  again environment recycling | beaurocracy | statistics - documentation | issues re-emerging | reproduction | homogeneity? …

Ok obviously I will need to keep developing this but thats a start

SOME OTHER THEMES TO KEEP IN MIND:

Faustian Pact (Goethe) - retold a Renaissance legend about a doctor who bargains with the devil for youth power & knowledge. The second part, published posthumously, was a philosophical treatise in which Faust’s soul is saved because he loves and serves both God and humanity, despite his errors. This Faust is considered to embody the “modern” human (Similarly, the adjective “faustian” has come to denote acts or constellations involving human hubris (exaggerated self pride or self-confidence [overbearing pride]) which lead eventually to doom.  More recently, the term ‘Faustian’ has once again become a byword for reckless expansionism, private immorality, and the indiscriminate pursuit of scientific experimentation regardless of all consequences.)

Selling Out (Benjamin Franklin) ‘faced with a choice between liberty and security, choose liberty. Otherwise you will end up with neither. (People who sell their souls for the promise of a secure job and a secure salary are spat out as soon as they become dispensable.’ ) 

Arp? - arpeggio? sequence? separations? / Jean Arp dadaist artist? / Hans Arp, expressionist and surrealist poet?

Humanity? - ideals/myths as symbols and their effect on our humanity - escapism / reality / transcendence

SOME OTHER GENERAL LYRICS FROM AROUND THE ALBUM TO KEEP IN MIND:

“Now that you’ve found it, it’s gone/ Now that you feel it, you don’t”

“I’m the next act/ Waiting in the wings”

“Whatever happens now/ you shouldn’t be afraid because I know today has been the most perfect day I’ve ever seen”

“You’ll go to hell for our fathers. (you’ve got a head full of feathers)”

“Because we separate”