Mother Whale Eyeless

pastry mother

secret of the song is not the words really but there they are

inexpressible blueness

Pie shop in the sky, but I would also like to write-in vote for Phil Collins

I'm wasting fingers like I had them to spare,
Maybe things are different, maybe they're the same.
Heroes are born, but heroes die

all solid contenders

I don't think I've ever seen the words before and I have never been able to make many of them out, as usual with most songs. This album has had remarkable staying power for me, since I first heard it in the late 70s or early 80s. (Wouldn't have had much chance of hearing it before then.)

I've noticed particular lyrics but never really thought about what the overall song means. Is it about a soldier thinking about home?

Great idea. I can sing most of these lines in my head but don't recall seeing the lyrics written out. Some lines like "nothing ventured, nothing gained" stand out in the song itself but aren't overly remarkable as written words. Not sure how I'll vote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_A-3_Skywarrior

this wwii plane was called "the whale." zuider zee was a site of fighting in wwii. i think the song is about a fighter pilot trying to long for home but coming up with ambivalent memories of petty arguments and domestic misery. ("we talk just like a kitchen sink play."

actually that plane was post-wwii. but other planes have been called "whales."

Fingers / Zuider Zee = the story of the Dutch boy putting finger in hole of dyke.

Interesting.

I feel like the base narrative is less important than the way the images play off one another and resonate with ideas of birth, death, and even gestation.

like a lot of the album it's riddled with secret agent/behind enemy lines imagery

which also makes for a neat imagery of detachment/alienation

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This song is my favorite off TTM. I love "Punishing Paul for Peter" but I think I have to give it up to "Heroes are born, but heroes die" as the single lyric guaranteed, even in print, to bring the euphoric pop rush of this song coming back to my mind

I don't know what my favourite off TTM is. Maybe this, but the whole album has a very special feeling.

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