Heartland

Well last nights little ramblings didn't really make a cohesive argument. Linked to the micky taking of for example, Drug Czar, My thoughts are -

Yes, there is reference to A.N. Very obvious, like for example "I love the smell.." but I think that apart form amusing the man himself, this is to contextualize the song, the parody of warfare.

For me this is two fingers to the declared "War On drugs". Let's do can be taken as lets fight - "let's do him over"

And having done the odd bit of speed in the night, I've also done the odd camberwell carrot in the morning to slow me down again.

"I am come" has many biblical connotations, but mostly, I am come to save the world on behalf of god. Something like that?

The illusive wah-hoo? Two thoughts, a stoned war cry, or a secret Dr Zuess fan.

So it becomes,

I'm off to my supplier (aka the delta).
It's a nice day, so I'll walk.
I've got my score
Now I'm getting right royally stoned
Two fingers to your anti-drug policy matey

I am done

paint it black wrote:I'm off to my supplier (aka the delta).
It's a nice day, so I'll walk.
I've got my score
Now I'm getting right royally stoned
Two fingers to your anti-drug policy matey

I am done

And then "head on back to Kirkstall, in the shadow of the sun" in the second verse is walking back home

markfiend wrote:

paint it black wrote:I'm off to my supplier (aka the delta).
It's a nice day, so I'll walk.
I've got my score
Now I'm getting right royally stoned
Two fingers to your anti-drug policy matey

I am done

And then "head on back to Kirkstall, in the shadow of the sun" in the second verse is walking back home

see there is still some room for manoeuvre in the debate on anti-intellectualism

Move him into the sun--
Gently its touch awoke him once,

Electrochrome wrote: As for Patsy, yeah, she was the babysitter alright.

---- What exactly does an AE babysitter do? This has me perplexed!

Black Biscuit wrote:

Electrochrome wrote: As for Patsy, yeah, she was the babysitter alright.

---- What exactly does an AE babysitter do? This has me perplexed!

In Eldritch's own words, - she stops him from doing all the things musicians like to do i.e. kept him off the speed.

You'd know about this, judging by your cranked-up expression in the avatar pic!

Were Andy and Patricia in a relationship in those days, or was it just business? I assumed they were an item, so to speak.

Although there was much speculation at the time the relationship was definitely business.
According to Patricia. Andrew's final words to her were:
"You're no longer any use to me."

As for my cranked up expression - it's amazing what one can do with photshop these days.

why seven shades?¿ can someone help?¿ the only thing i can think about seven is the days of a week

seven shades of shit?

Or is that completely wrong?

Alliteration?

Or I've heard the phrase "seven shades of sh!t" as in "He got seven shades of sh!t beaten out of him" so maybe that's it?

*edit to add: Spooky, Lucien's post wasn't there when I typed mine...

distanceovertime wrote:why seven shades?¿ can someone help?¿ the only thing i can think about seven is the days of a week

see the chakra

shiva means seven in hebrew, if that helps anyone?

shiv·a also shiv·ah or shib·ah (shĭv'ə)
n. Judaism.
A seven-day period of formal mourning observed after the funeral of a close relative.

[Yiddish shive, from Hebrew šib‘â, seven.]

This one is complicated. Shiva is indeed Hebrew for Seven, and the Shiva is indeed the week spent mourning a dead one, usually sitting down. And indeed 'seven shades of shiva' is a phrase that is in use, though it's not common. See for example:
http://www.psyreviews.com/comedy/trancebook.html
But I suggest these are red herrings - typical Vonnish word play, but not much else.

But I suggest we stay with Hinduism for this one. Shiva is an important deity, a primary incarnation of Vishnu. Shiva's history is of course retold in the famous Bhagavad Gita. And here we get back, I'm afraid, to bombs - that old Von favourite. The orange haze is of course a reference to Agent Orange (not napalm), as used in Vietnam, Iraq and so on. But once again Von is flirting with the imagery of the big one - the a-bomb, destroyer of worlds...

On July 16, 1945, near Alamagordo, New Mexico, the pioneering nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer witnessed the first explosion of an atomic bomb. His feeling was one of awe, and the sense that humans had now usurped the place of gods. Being well-read, he quoted the Hindu epic about Shiva and his pals:

If the radiance of a thousand suns
were to burst into the sky at once,
that would mirror the Mighty One's splendor....
I am become Death -- destroyer of worlds.
--The Bhagavad Gita

So, as Oppenheimer said on watching the bomb blow, I am become death, I am become death, I am become, I am come...

The song is about war, and about drugs, of course, but as a possible sequel to Vision Thing, it reprises those themes on many different levels - the real war on drugs in Colombia and now Afghanistan, the connections between the loafer buying dope and incense in Leeds and the war going on where those are produced, the drug-addled American troops dropping bombs around the world, and my God how could you drop an a-bomb unless you were? All of these things, I guess. Great song.

@ Chris

I really like the Vision of MrChris

Thank you, thank you - I'd like to thank my agent, my mom, my wife without whom I'd have to wash my own clothes ... my teachers from school who saw something in this little boy from the wrong side of the tracks ... anyone who knows me ... the poor and oppressed of the world... God ... etc ...

Further to MrChris's Alamagordo insight; "the shadow of the sun" could again be a reference to nuclear weapons; the sun is after all powered by the same nuclear fusion reaction as an H-bomb.

Maybe it's to do with the flash (allegedly bright enough for a blind girl to see the flash from the Trinity test) or maybe it's to do with the shadow of the mushroom cloud?

or maybe its just to do with the artwork & imagery from apocalypse now & vietnam?

think "miss saigon"

or maybe its a p*ss take of the cure's "lullabye":

"on candystripe legs the spiderman comes
softly through the shadow of the evening sun
stealing past the windows of the blissfully dead
looking for the victim shivering in be"

seriously, though, its just a phrase - and a fairly common one at that. it aint yeates. not this time anyway.

Reopening this one and perhaps adding another layer to the lyrics on "War On Drugs", as I recall it from a discussion on Dominion some time ago:

Shiva is often worshipped in the form of a phallus, at least according to the English Wikipedia. See the entries about Shiva and Lingam as well. It definitely blends in with the line "I am come" and perhaps maybe "head on down the delta" in the most literal sense.

I don't know if it was mentioned before, but "delta" could also be a geographic location, as opposed to Kirkstall. The delta could refer to both Hamburg and Amsterdam, cities where lived.

Damn and his obscure lyrics!

Ah... but that is why we still love the guy! I really like this song and it is
definitely one of the odd-ball tracks I wished they would play more!

Thanks for all of your reflections and observations...
coming up with some stuff I've never thought of!

Speaking of which... which recording of War On Drugs do you prefer, DrG? I haven't quite made up my mind yet, though I have a slight tendency towards the M'era Luna 2000 version.

Deleted Previous post for various reasons.

Current Research:

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/essays/rosy.asp

This article is simply brilliant.

"the trees, turn orange in the rays" - carrying on the Apocalypse Now theme, clearly a reference to Agent Orange

I know this thread is like fifty years old but I've been listening to this song a lot lately and figured I'd throw in my two cents.

I agree with Blackrose above about the Agent Orange reference. I think he's simultaneously playing the part of someone watching the war while loaded and playing the part of some military fellow getting ready to dump chemicals all over another country.