More evidence of CQ, Wassa and the Highlander's Folly & Today Decomp: Comfortably Numb

Once again, at Celtic Quinn's insistence, I've started another blog. This one is just for what he calls "my little rants about songs". Apparently, I crab about music enough that he's had time to CREATE a name for them, but he seems to like it when I do it and thinks the rest of the world might be similarly entertained. I pity any of you who actually agree! :-)

The title for this blog actually came from Wassamatta U and the Highlander both. The Highlander was responsible for Blinded By the Sprite (which he woke up and said to me in the middle of the night and just wouldn't leave my head) and Wassa had gone entirely insane using the words "verse" and "stanza" to the point where I HAD to take something he said just to make him take his Ritalin...!

But I digress...

The song on the block today is Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. Here's the lyrics for those of you as unfamiliar as I was with them before JACK-FM stuck them in my brain yesterday morning:

Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?

Come on now
I hear you're feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain,
Get you on your feet again.

Relax.
I need some information first.
Just the basic facts,
Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you say

When I was a child I had a fever.
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I got that feeling once again.
I can't explain, you would not understand.
This is not how I am

I have become comfortably numb.

[guitar solo]

I have become comfortably numb.

Ok.
Just a little pinprick.
There'll be no more ...Aaaaaahhhhh!
But you may feel a little sick.

Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working good.
That'll keep you going for the show.
Come on, it's time to go.

There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you say.

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.

I have become comfortably numb.

WTF????

Bear in mind, the first and last time I heard this song, I was a senior in high school (and even then, I wasn't really paying attention...we used it for a scene depicting light and dark symbolism in English class). I guess if I'd been INTO any sort of recreational drug use at all, I could totally feel this song and go "wow, far out, man" or whatever it is people DO, but I never took more than two Advil in my whole LIFE, see?

I'm probably making more of this than I should (hence the term "rant"), but I guess I wasn't prepared for how directly about drug stuff this song WAS. I mean, it came out when I was still a kid and things were majorly censored back then. It was like when I finally listened to "International Lover" by Prince and UNDERSTOOD THE WORDS. All of the sudden, it's this NASTY song instead of just this song I knew I was supposed to scream wildly about for some reason (one day in the future, children of today will have this same epiphany about the "bow-chicka-wow-wow" sound from the 70's porn flicks!).

There's also a certain amount of hype surrounding songs that people do drugs to. They make it sound all great, but when you're listening to the song alone, it's really weird, like watching Rocky Horror on home video by yourself. You just have to sit and listen and wonder did people really get INTO it, or were they just so zoned out, they didn't HEAR the words??? With Rocky Horror, it's so bad on it's own that you HAVE to fill in the blanks with nonsense (hence the all the theatrical staging), but with Comfortably Numb, it's just so OUT there that you have to sit and listen to it and just.........

And have you ever tried DRIVING while listening to this song? I thought "Dude, I'm gonna go off the road, but I really don't CARE...!"

Overall, it's really depressing, though. On first appearances, you've got exactly what it sounds like; some whacked out rock star taking more crap to make it through a show, but essentially losing himself totally, wholly unable to connect to the world around him (which is what true enjoyment of anything requires).

So I call the Highlander on the cell phone and ask him, "What the !@#$ kinda mind rape is THIS deal??? Has this song ALWAYS been this weird?" And HE, having the soul of a true bard wrapped up deep within him somewhere, says, "Actually, it's not entirely drug referenced. The part about the kid is kinda sad. It's almost like he's lost his childhood innocence in that one stanza...that's what he can't see anymore. It's almost like...(and here, I can HEAR him blush over the phone at what he thinks is just silly, but I know is yet another reason I married him) well, he saw a sprite out of the corner of his eyes, but now that he's older, he can't see the magic anymore."

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.

This kinda made me mellow out a little. It became less of an overt drug tune and more of a reference to innocence lost and the attempt to avoid dealing with adulthood. Frankly, it wasn't QUITE as interesting to read what the band members themselves thought of this song. Supposedly Roger Waters got some tranquilizers for hepatitis to help him make it through a concert, which is where he got the idea.

Still, in the spirit of ranting, I have to admit I had more fun giving the Highlander grief over "that crazy alternative music of his"!