Heartland

I can't believe it, but all this time I had been mishearing a line in "Black Planet" and when I realized what Von was actually singing, the whole mentality of the track just clicked into place. I heard "they kill to show for", when in fact he's singing "the kill to show for".

I've seen an interview on YouTube (which is no longer up), where Von said the album is about "how to have the most fun without doing too much damage to yourself and those around you who you love, and how to do the most damage to those you hate and that even though it's a grim world, even in Belgium it's a grim world, it's a world you can have fun in and get off on" [not sic].

The imagery of Black Planet is, well, a dark world, yet Von is saying in it that it's "the kill to show for" and that we should "run around in the radiation"; which it does sound like he's describing with a perverse glee, which can also be explained by his pleasure of the aesthetic effect of bombs going off he's mentioned in several interviews.

Really, then, Black Planet was the perfect opener for FALAA and possibly one of the best album openers of all time, because it manages to sum up the entire album in 4:41 seconds. Is this just me, or does anyone else think so too?

nick the stripper wrote:
Really, then, Black Planet was the perfect opener for FALAA and possibly one of the best album openers of all time, because it manages to sum up the entire album in 4:41 seconds. Is this just me, or does anyone else think so too?

Yep. It's such a groovy little number as well. I like the sense of the sweeping statement that seems to be made as though, by saying it's a 'black planet' he's getting the audience to take a new look around them, percieve it a bit differently to how they maybe have before. A bit of a 'm*****n statement' of a song, so to speak.

P.S.

Sorry ... I don't own any of their records. Please don't throw me off the forum. I didn't even know what I was writing ... In fact, it wasn't me ...


Logging off now.

Elfeyth wrote:P.S.

Sorry ... I don't own any of their records. Please don't throw me off the forum. I didn't even know what I was writing ... In fact, it wasn't me ...


Logging off now.

Despite the rather strange way I have of expressing myself, I stand by my comment that 'Black Planet' is something of a statement of, erm, intent and paints a compelling picture of one man's view on the world.

So, you'll just have to roll your eyes in the other direction now wont'cha.

P.S. (for the last time)
I promise never to mention the m*****n again (Oh s**t, sorry).

Just in case we're onto the next page already, here are Nick the Stripper's thoughtful and considered comments, which I think is what we're s'posed to be talking about.

nick the stripper wrote:I can't believe it, but all this time I had been mishearing a line in "Black Planet" and when I realized what Von was actually singing, the whole mentality of the track just clicked into place. I heard "they kill to show for", when in fact he's singing "the kill to show for".

I've seen an interview on YouTube (which is no longer up), where Von said the album is about "how to have the most fun without doing too much damage to yourself and those around you who you love, and how to do the most damage to those you hate and that even though it's a grim world, even in Belgium it's a grim world, it's a world you can have fun in and get off on" [not sic].

The imagery of Black Planet is, well, a dark world, yet Von is saying in it that it's "the kill to show for" and that we should "run around in the radiation"; which it does sound like he's describing with a perverse glee, which can also be explained by his pleasure of the aesthetic effect of bombs going off he's mentioned in several interviews.

Really, then, Black Planet was the perfect opener for FALAA and possibly one of the best album openers of all time, because it manages to sum up the entire album in 4:41 seconds. Is this just me, or does anyone else think so too?

[/u]

*goes away, logs off, never to be seen of or heard from ...*

i always thought BP was a bit lacking lyrically. to be honest i assumed it was written around (and therefore as a vehicle for) the "tune in.....turn on...burn out" slogan. and maybe as a p*ss-take of the goths.
on reflection it could well have just been an excuse noyt to use the huss-bag's lyrics.

So...

Any ideas what 'at the end of the great white pier' is a reference to?

For a long time I mis-heard this as 'great white fear' - but I still didn't claim to know what it meant.

Always thought it was an environmental song (radiation, acid rain, rainbow). Or possibly anti-nuclear (Western sky, kingdom come, so dark all over Europe).

My stab at it:

'Great white hope' is generally employed to indicate the expectation of great achievement. It's origins, however, were rather more literal: the phrase was coined to describe to James Jeffries, a white boxer who it was hoped would defeat Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion. As a result, the phrase is often used with a negative spin to indicate the desire for continued dominance by affluent, technologically advanced societies over the Third World, e.g. the Raj, or over anything else for which they hold contempt or to which they consider themselves superior.

'End of the pier' = 'end of the road', 'end of the line', but in a more final sense - you can always abandon a vehicle and walk, but the only way off the pier is into to the sea - and you're going to drown.

Sooooooo....end of the aspirations of the historically ascendant society/culture as a result of their own arrogance - and in this case, in an environmental context, as stufarq pointed out.

I've also always felt, since there were specific American ('Highway 101') and European references, that this was a condemnation of the industrial US's complete disregard for the consequences of its actions, and its impact on the rest of the world. And as a California girl, born and bred, I can't help visualising both the Long Beach refinery that features in the video (and which is much, much more Mordor-like in real life) and the offshore drilling platforms that can, in fact, be seen from the 'end of the pier' (or even just the shore) from many places along 101...

If it ain't about sex or drugs, it's about kicking America.

stufarq wrote:If it ain't about sex or drugs, it's about kicking America.

Yup.

Jeremiah wrote:Any ideas what 'at the end of the great white pier' is a reference to?

Isn't it obvious?

Think about the image of a guy clad all in black, standing at the end of a long white pier, surrounded by the ocean, staring up at a huge black planet in the sky.
That's all it is, no hidden references, just a really impressive mental picture.

End of the Pier shows have been out of fashion since the 70s, go figure

Blimey, I've just had a flashback to when I played that vinyl non-stop, and I can remember the first few times hearing that crashing intro to the album.

Thanks for that nick!

Black Planet is a favourite song of mine so much so that I wanted to make my own version of a video for it which I'm quite chuffed about.

While the Sisters version with the effects looks quite negative, I wanted to show the beauty that is in California and on the 101.

Drive south from Eureka, heading for San Francisco, through Humboldt Redwoods State Park, where the Giant Sequoia grow. Take a slight detour to where the original 101 use to be. Another slight detour to Confussion Hill (a family run adventure where even though you're driving up hill, it feels like you're driving down hill). Through Willitts (not much to see there), along to Napa Valley and Sanoma County where the vinyards are. Next stop The Golden Gate and San Francisco and stop off at Tommy's Joynt, a great bar on Van Ness

That's 290 odd miles of pure driving pleasure.
Have a look at my video of Black Planet.