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lyrics: After The Heat : |
BROKEN HEAD
I was just a broken head
I stole the world that others punctured
Now I stumble through the garbage
Slide and tumble, slide and stumble.
Beak and claw, remorse, remindless
Slide and tumble, slide and
stumble.
Back and forth and back to nothing
Keep them tidy, keep them
humble
Chop and change to cut the corner
Sharp as razors, shiny razors
Stranded on a world that's dying
Never moving, hardly trying.
I was just a broken head
I stole the world that others plundered
Now I stumble through the garbage
Slide and tumble, slide and
stumble.
References:
'I'm not sure where the phrase "Broken Head" came from, except that it came from some obscure corner of my own Broken Head. Whether or not it was thus self-referential is a question best left to art historians and academics. I do recall at some time being aware that the lyric could be autobiographical, but that wasn't its conscious source.' -- Brian Eno in More Dark Than Shark, quoted by Craig Clark
Brian's self-reference is self-referring to the fact that he was knocked down by a taxi and his head was split open -- Tom
THE BELLDOG
Most of the day
We were at the machinery
In the dark sheds
That the seasons ignored.
I held the levers
That guided the signals
to the radio
But the words I received
Random code, broken fragments
from before.
Out in the trees
My reason deserting me
Oh the dark stars
Cluster over the bay
Then in a certain moment
I lose control
And at last I am part of the machinery
(where are you? [The] Belldog,
where are you?)
And the light disappears
As the world
Makes its
circle through the sky.
Alternative hearing:
Oh the dark stars / Cluster over the bay == All the dark skies / Cluster over the day (-- Ian Rywalt)
I've always had an alternative hearing for the lyric in "The Belldog" on After the Heat. In the dark sheds=In the dark chairs (-- Brock Bakke)
Agw801: In the dark "shafts" that the seasons ignore. This gives the first part of the piece a subterranian atmosphere as in mining "shafts" with a sense of depth of exploration requiring radio communication, a little cog performing a small task in a large operation, and a stark contrast to being "out in the trees." Later the darkness returns outside, with the star clusters in the night sky where he loses himself completely becoming "part of the machinery" ambiguously echoing both the microcosm of the mechanistic subterranian operations and the macrocosm of the great wheels in the sky. Notice how the same themes re-appear? The end of "Spinning Away" evokes the same feeling of loss of control (I draw but my lines move around in the stars) in the face of the vastness "as great wheels blaze."
References:
'I was walking through Washington Square Park, towards the "Arc de Triomphe" style monument there. There was a little group of people under the arch, and the full moon stood low on the horizon, visible through the top of the arch. As I got closer I saw what it was that had attracted their attention. A very grubby man of indeterminate age was playing an out-of-tune upright piano on wheels: his touch was that of a plummy night club pianist, but the chords he used were completely strange. Over this sequence of soft discords he sang, again and again, in a trembling voice: "The belldog, where are you?" I have no idea what he meant by the belldog. For me it was (and is) an unidentified mythical character from some unfamiliar mythology...So the vague feeling I have about the belldog is that he is a herald; of what is not clear. Whatever it is, in the song he has either not yet appeared or has gone away...' - Brian Eno in More Dark than Shark, quoted by Craig Clark
TZIMA N'ARKI
Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti
Erif eht ni rekop
eht saw tah dael s'gnik
Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti
Rediw hcum nozamA eht edam tah dael s'gnik
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Deneppah evah reve dluow siht fo
enon
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Derrucco dah reve dluow siht fo
enon
Noitamrofni suoicerp em evag uoy
Gninrom yranigami taht no
Noitarepsed ni nwod ti etorw I
Devres eb ot eciton eht tuo evag dna
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Deneppah evah reve dluow siht fo
enon
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Derrucco dah reve dluow siht fo
enon
Noitamrofni suoicerp em evag uoy
Gninrom yranigami taht no
Noitarepsed ni nwod ti etorw I
Devres eb ot eciton eht tuo evag dna
Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti
Reh edisni ecneconni
eht tup tah dael s'gnik
Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti
Erised ot remmah a saw tah dael s'gnik
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Deneppah evah reve dluow siht fo
enon
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Derrucco dah reve dluow siht fo
enon
Noitamrofni suoicerp em evag uoy
Gninrom yranigami taht no
Noitarepsed ni nwod ti etorw I
Devres eb ot eciton eht tuo evag dna
References:
The lines 'Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti / Reh edisni ecneconni eht tup tah dael s'gnik / Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti / Erised ot remmah a saw tah dael s'gnik' and 'Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti / Erif eht ni rekop eht saw tah dael s'gnik / Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti / Rediw hcum nozamA eht edam tah dael s'gnik' are of course from the Before And After Science song 'King's Lead Hat' -- Craig Clark
AGW801 explains:
"TZIMA N'ARKI" is reversed speech for "ECONOMIES" "ECONOMIES" is an anagram for "ENO IS COME" play the piece in reverse speech and you will hear:
King's lead hat was a poker in the fire
It will come, it will come,
it will surely come.
Kings lead hat made the Amazon much wider
It will
come, it will come, it will surely come.
If God had listened to my
story none of this ever would have happened.
If God had listened to my
story none of this would ever have occurred.
You gave me precious
information on that imaginary morning.
I wrote it down in desperation and
gave out the notice to be served.
If God had listened to my story none of
this ever would have happened.
If God had listened to my story none of this
would ever have occurred.
You gave me precious information on that
imaginary morning.
I wrote it down in desperation and gave out the notice
to be served.
King's lead hat put the innocence inside her
It will
come, it will come, it will surely come.
King's lead hat was a habit to
desire
It will come, it will come, it will surely come.
If God had
listened to my story none of this ever would have happened.
If God had
listened to my story none of this would ever have occurred.
You gave me
precious information on that imaginary morning.
I wrote it down in
desperation and gave out the notice to be served.
Dave Norman says: If you listen at: 2:01, 2:09, 3:05, 3:13, 3:37, 3:44, Eno (Backwards of course) says Tzima N'arki. If you capture just this bit and play it backwards (or forwards, depending on how you look at it) it’s says “If God had listened…” Just a thought…
THANKS TO:
Craig Clark, Jay Sachs, Phil Gyford. L. Bruce Higgins and other
nameless denizens of the alt.music.brian-eno newsgroup who worked together in
1995 to create the transcriptions on which the EnoWeb's lyrics pages are
based.
The references are not intended to indicate the "meaning" of the
lyrics -- it's well-known that Brian did not intend his lyrics to have a set
meaning and often selected words for the way they sounded. The references may,
however, suggest some of the reasons why some words or phrases got chosen
rather than others.