"The Sea Goat casts aquarian runes through beads of
Neil Ingram:
The runes cast by the Sea Goat are 'marks of magical significance'
and we are introduced to a heady mixture of astrology and alchemy. The runes
are cast 'through beads of mirrored tears'.
Jon Green:
This first line of the song is loaded with allusions to prophecy or
divination. Casting runes is a method of foretelling the future. The Aquarian
is a prophesied future age. Beads are also associated with fortune telling.
"he's sent you dreams,
he's left you signs,
he's left you feathers, beads and runes,"
- An Invocation by Terri Windling
Neil Ingram:
The beads of mirrored tears are a product of the pain that the Sea Goat
feels. At the same time the mirrors reflect the image of the listeners, and
allow us to project our meanings onto the song. In addition, the tears act as
a shield behind which the Sea Goat can hide.
Jon Green:
The "mirrored" quality of the tears is also meant to express the
writer's realization that what he perceives in the world is a reflection of
himself. As in Donne's "no man is an island", the world's pain and
suffering is his pain and suffering. The two are one and the same.
Neil Ingram:
Tears have significance in alchemy:
'Tears are the food of the
soul, a strengthening of the senses, a forgiveness of sins, and a gain of the
debt'
- The Iconologia of Cesare Ripa
The tears of the Sea Goat are
introducing us to the idea of transformation, which is central to alchemy and
to this song. The psychoanalyst Jung has also linked alchemical symbolism to
psychological transformation (a process which he calls individuation). The
song's link with alchemy is further strengthened by the image of mirrored
tears. Mercury, a silver liquid, is a central idea on alchemy:
"Common Mercury is silvery
and opaque, that of the philosophers is clear at first, as clear as the tears
of the eye" (Bernard Trevisan, etc.), but when its salt is dissolved in
it, it is milky and opaque."
- R.W. Councell Apollogia Alchymiae: Section IV. The Mercury of the Philosophers
"Suave pirates words of apricot crawl out
of your veneer
Anoint your eyes with midas oil and make it still appear
Aladdin's lamp is glowing bright transmuting panacea
To fill your souls with sugared holes"
The first verse of Sea Goat is complex, partly because of the use
of 'you' as both a singular and a plural verb. We are also introduced to a
narrator (who is identifying the people featured in the song).
Suave words, pirate words, apricot words. Suave and apricot are sophisticated
sensual adjectives. Yet the words are piratical, marauding and dangerous.
Their effects are
"To fill your souls with sugared
holes."
'Veneer' is singular, yet 'souls' are plural. Something generates
the 'suave pirate' words deep within itself and they crawl out (like maggots)
of its polished surface veneer. Their effects are sweetly corrosive, for they
fill people's souls with sugared holes.
Peter Sinfield has revealed that the images relate to the corrosive power of
advertising. The advertisers generate the words of apricot. The image of
apricot was stimulated by a personal memory of Peter visiting a farm with
such a heavy harvest of apricots that they spilled all over the ground.
There are many apricot words spilling everywhere. It is not surprising that
they leave 'sugared holes'.
Jon Green:
Very good. Many things that I did not imagine. This song has really been an
enigma to me until now. But, as is frequently the case with Peter's words,
there is at least one other angle to consider. And this is where it gets
really interesting. The first song on
Still
,
The Song of the Sea
Goat
, naturally follows from the last song on the previous album,
Islands
.
First of all there is the striking ocean motif employed in both songs.
Secondly, in both albums we have "words". In
Islands
we have
"sailors' words - pearls and gourds". In
The Song of the Sea
Goat
we have "suave pirates words of apricot".
As I indicated earlier, Peter Sinfield is the "sailor". I suggest
that he is also the "pirate" (or at least a pirate).
"Suave pirates words of apricot crawl out
of your veneer"
"Suave" connotes a deceptive seductive quality. "Pirates" suggests theft, illegitimacy. "Apricot" is significant for its color: golden. The "pirates words" appear to be gold but they are only golden in color. They represent fool's gold. The words "crawl", lizard like (a product of the ego), out of the "veneer" (surface). They lack depth or substance. "Veneer" also suggests a persona or image. Like the Smiths of Indoor Games , the writer is concerned with his public image and writes with this in mind. It seems to me that what we have here is a poet being seduced by the paybox glove. The prophetic aspect of this passage is that the author knows what is coming. He knows that the great age of Art Rock as a viable commercial entity is fast coming to a close. The barbarians are at the gates. He knows what he, as an artist, is going to have to do in order to survive. It might be that, when he says "YOUR veneer", he is simply talking to himself but I believe he is, again, projecting his own internal issues out into the world. There are artistic pirates in the world. There are pirates in every walk of life. He can recognize them because he has a "pirate" inside of him. This realization, this "pirate", may be rising to consciousness.
"Anoint your eyes with midas oil and make
it still appear
Aladdin's lamp is glowing bright transmuting panacea"
For alchemists, oil is a concentrated form of an essential
chemical. For example:
"The Philosophers, when
they have thus prepared our Antimonium in secret, have remarked how its
outermost nature and power has collapsed into its interior, and its interior
thrown out and has now become an oil that lies hidden in its innermost and
depth,
well prepared and ready. And henceforth it cannot, unto the last judgment, be
brought back to its first essence. And this is true, for it has become so
subtle and volatile, that as soon as it senses the power of fire; it flies
away as a smoke with all its parts because of its volatility."
Roger Bacon - Tract on the Tincture and Oil of Antimony
This oil is a powerful 'transmuting
panacea'. Alchemists use the term 'panacea' as a universal medicine –
literally a 'cure-all'. This is a possible reference to the 'snake-oil
charms' of the advertisers who want to persuade us that their products can
solve all our problems. King Midas was the king of Phyrigia who requested of
the gods that everything he touched turned to gold. This was granted and
everything became gold, including his food. At which point, he requested that
the spell be revoked. He was ordered to bathe in the river Pactolus in order
to undo the magic.
The image of the oil is strengthened by its link to Aladdin's lamp. Oil is
the fuel for the lamp, and also the home of an unpredictable genie that can
grant wishes.
The effect of interposing this evocative 'wishing machine' imagery after the
emergence of the suave pirate words is a powerful description of consumer
society. The advertisers words generate powerful desires within consumers.
The combination of the two together results in the corrupting influence of
consumerism, where 'our souls are filled with sugared holes'.
The lines:
"Anoint your eyes with midas oil and make
it still appear
Aladdin's lamp is glowing bright transmuting panacea"
are some of the most
powerful in any Peter Sinfield song, and may well be acting on several
different levels simultaneously.
Jon Green:
I certainly agree. King Midas was obsessed with gold (material riches). The
first of these two lines seems to say "let the paybox glove write on
your tongue but pretend - keep telling yourself (and let it appear to the
world) - that you are still following your muse".
Neil Ingram:
Might the transmuting panacea be used for good as well as ill?
Jon Green:
Yes!
"Aladdin's lamp is glowing bright transmuting
panacea"
A wonderfully ambiguous line. As you point out, a
"panacea" is generally considered to be "snake-oil". So,
again, we see a disingenuous quality. But I see nothing phony about
"Aladdin's lamp glowing bright". This represents the light of
inspiration (Peter's muse) which clearly was glowing bright for our Aladdin,
Peter Sinfield, the man who knows the magic of words like no other poet of
our generation. Could it be that Aladdin hopes to transform not only himself
but also the world (and its encroaching commercialism) by the magic of his
words?
"From now on the silent presence of the alchemist is a benediction on all
beings. He is the
secret king, the conciously central being who relates heaven and earth and
ensures the
good order of things. Unum ego sum et multi in me: He is a dead man
bringing life. Dead
to himself, become inexhaustible nourishment, in him there operates the
mystery of
"multiplication" and "increase." He is the "panacea," the "elixir of
life." "Drinkable gold." From
the Christic stone with which it is identified there flows a red and white
tincture which
comforts the soul and the body. He is the phoenix from whose ashes a vast
flock of golden
birds take flight."
- Notes on Alchemy the Cosmological
"Yoga"of Medieval Christianity
By Maurice Aniane
"Sugar" is used here like the "marron glaced
fishbone" of
Ladies of the Road
. It is completely lacking in
nourishment but it tastes good. The line also looks and sounds good -
suggesting that, perhaps, there are worse fates than having ones soul filled
with sugared holes. ...suggesting that, perhaps, there are worse fates than
being a "pirate". ...suggesting that, perhaps, the artist is just a
little ambivalent about the prospect of becoming a literally "starving
artist"! And, again, there is that curious plurality "souls".
Perhaps this is more projection. The fate of the world is his fate.
"Oh can't you hear" sang the sea goat
"the nonsense
makes me numb."
"It's near it's clear" sang the sea goat "we live to
overcome,
The madman's voice and his nowhere choice,
The pain that drains like an endless day of rain."
The message of the Sea Goat to the blinded corrupted listeners is
an exhortation to resist the 'madman's voice'. This refers back to the
advertisers who produce the suave pirate words of apricot that so damage our
souls. The choices offered are tempting but illusory (nowhere choice).
Resisting is a permanent and perpetual struggle (we live to overcome).
Jon Green:
Yes. WE live to overcome. Peter Sinfield must also resist this threat on
multiple levels.
Neil Ingram:
The first verse echoes and develops political themes introduced in
Schizoid
Man
(nothing he's got he really needs) and on
Cirkus
(worship
cried the clown, I am a TV…).
Jon Green:
..as well as the "paybox glove which wrote on my tongue" and
Happy
Family's
general theme of authentic artistry in the face of
commercialism.
chapter & page index
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the Dreambook
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the Dreambook
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