Friday, May 2, 2008

An LDS Perspective on LSD

The druggiest substance I've ever been privy to in my days was some Vicodin when I got my wisdom teeth pulled. Even then, under a prescribed dosage, I said things and behaved in ways very uncharacteristic to my public nature.

However.

Given a choice with a guarantee of zero consequences, psychedelics probably would shed some light on a few Pink Floyd songs that I've been listening to, as of late.

The real question that I propose at this juncture, is the following:

Do you have 21 minutes and 38 seconds to sacrifice your full attention to the following chill and mellow melody? Go ahead, think about it. I'll wait.


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"Echoes" has three short verses with one of the longest bridges you've ever heard (AABA if B is the bridge) - and to be frank, it's was a bit tedious until I personalized some imaginative visuals to accompany it.

This instrumental break is more interesting to me than the lyrics themselves (be they, awesome as they are)

With themes of eternity, timelessness, infinity (all those abstracts) the music takes a constant steady and strong tone after the second verse. Kind of like a part of human history that is accepted as fact and heralded as a personification to man's greatness. But then, right around 10:30 (in this particular version), that slow steady beat fades away into obscurity, as history falls into legend, then myth, and is at last forgotten in some deep chasm beneath the ocean - screaming out occasionally, yet completely unheard. Until eons have passed, and everything about the former song is lost to memory until 6:45 on the second clip, when perhaps by chance or providence - something is being excavated, invigorated, brought into the light. Until finally, suddenly and almost violently, it breaks forth from an unseen darkness and blinds the world with it glory. And that, which no one believed existed only moments before, is staring them right in the face - apocalyptic and indisputable.
It's powerful moment of return, the third verse, feels all too short but all the same - familiar and warm. Then, it too fades away, remembered by a new generation, waiting in its own time to come back to life at some future point in time and space.

This may be the 3:13 A.M. in me talking, I realize that. But I think it's one of the most reflective and satisfying songs composed. Ever.

Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
The echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine.

And no-one called us to the land
And no-one knows the wheres or whys
But something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb towards the light

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can

And no-one calls us to move on
And no-one forces down our eyes
And any-one speaks and no-one tries
And no-one flies around the sun

Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Come streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning

And no-one sings me lullabies
And no-one makes me close my eyes
And so I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky

1 comment:

Grayson said...

Apparently you're all very busy. Congratulations.