Chapter 22
A postscript
to the Mediterranean dream
- chapter index -
page 1 - The World Became
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page 2 - The World
- page index -
Is My Face On Straight? |
Have Your Cake and Beat It
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Neil Ingram:
'Four holes in the ground' is a jokey pun linked
to the last line ('well, well, well, well, geddit?). The joke hides a bleak
song that continues the introspection further. In a world of seemingly unlimited
wealth and possessions, what is there of true lasting value (the pearl in the
oyster of the previous song)?
Neil Ingram:
This carnival theme is developed further with references to fortune tellers
and carousels:
And if life is just crystal
balls and luck
I couldn't give a ...
And if life is just this carousel
Sometimes it's heaven.
But mostly its hell
Just a paper shell
The emptiness of the rock and
roll lifestyle are being dissected with a precise anger. The irony is, of course,
that the songs were being sung by a band that aspired to that lifestyle.
Jon Green:
I suspect we all aspire to something more than what we've got, in terms of material possessions. So the song is about all of us . . . in danger of becoming a sad paper replica of our selves.
Dig yourself a...
Neil Ingram:
hole, as the proverb goes.
well, well, well, well
... that's life.
Is a funny, but not entirely satisfactory
ending. The problem remains, and we grin and bear it. "Mustn't grumble".
Jon Green:
Perhaps 'four holes in the ground' describes a life without spiritual meaning. Judging from the lyrics the four holes (voids) could be :
1) a well stuffed purse
2) crystal balls and luck
3) a carousel
4) a paper shell.
Taking the premise a step further, and given Peter's penchant for allegory, perhaps the 'four holes" correspond to the four psychological functions (as in "four went on but none came back"). If such is the case then surely this is how it breaks down:
1) a well stuffed purse
The Thinking function
For many of us, our incomes are profoundly influenced by how well we use our brains.
2) crystal balls and luck
The Feeling function
Crystal balls and luck are irrational pursuits - as were the "bone and globe" of In the Wake of Poseidon.
3) a carousel
Sensation
Life as a Cirkus ride of sensory experiences. The spinning motif (a carousel) is found throughout the Sensation album, Lizard.
4) a paper shell.
Intuition
If the four functions are not unified they may as well be "four holes in the ground" and the individual, instead of living authentically from his center, is a paper shell.
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Is My Face On Straight?
Neil Ingram:
Is My Face On Straight is the
first 'English' song to appear on an Italian PFM album. It is an indicator to
the kind of song that Peter Sinfield could co-write with the band (as compared
with re-interpreting the songs they had written). It is an acerbic satire on
modern social life, where we have to 'do our bit'. It applies as much
to the annual office Christmas party (the 'turkey party convention') as it does
to life within the biggest rock band in the world.
Jon Green:
I think this is also a not so subtle dig at political parties, which (in the U.S.) meet at conventions and are represented by animal symbols (the donkey and elephant). There is no one quite so "conventional" as he who "follows the party line".
Neil Ingram:
The 'ingroup' is very protective and supportive
of those who are like it, because it is a way of reinforcing its own social
identity:
You can leave your troubles
at the door
We have ways to make you cheer .
At the same time, it is fiercely critical of
those who do not 'fit in':
As long as you're not sick
or poor
A negro or a queer.
Curiously, groups do not usually realise that
they admit or exclude new members as a way of reinforcing their own identities.
Most of the exclusion is done unconsciously, depending upon whether the potential
new recruit is 'one of us' or not.
As the 'newbies' are drawn further into the
group, they can be initiated into the ways of the group. They seem to 'settle
in' and 'make progress'. The group is helpful and supportive, as long as the
'newbies' do not step out of line.
We can fit you with a suit
of clothes
That will make you look like us,
An appointments book and a new outlook
A ladder or a truss
Some social groups are more influential than
others. Rock-and-roll groups are richer and more influential than most, and
the next few lines satirise what it is to be taken to the top of the mountain
and be tempted with the pleasures of the world spread out below:
Have another cup of reality
Drink and drink some more!
You can own a boat, a house, a car,
Or live like Howard Hughes;
Come on what have you got to lose...
And if you're discreet there are pleasures sweet
You can even swap your wife
There is a cost, of course, and the first step
is commitment and tacit acceptance of the group behaviour:
If you'll only sign the dotted
line
You'll be fine... Oh so fine...
The stresses belonging to a social group have
to be hidden from the other members at all costs. This can lead members to privately
use and then abuse alcohol, prescription tranquilisers and 'recreational' drugs
in an attempt to cope with 'reality'.
Thank you for joining here
are your pills
The man in the white coat wilI send you the bill.
Would you like to meet
Our most distinguished member... a doctor Faustus by name!
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Doctor
Faustus is a character invented by Christopher Marlow, who sold his soul
to the devil in exchange for unimaginable wealth. This is a chilling reprise
of some of the themes that have been flowing beneath the surface of the songs
on this album.
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Is my face on straight?
'Is my face on straight?' is an informal way
that women ask if their make-up is smudged or running. It also hints at people
hiding behind masks (false faces) as part of a play or a masked ball (masquerade).
We can all be very adept at such social situations, but it does not prevent
us worrying about the 'little things':
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Will they laugh at the gate
Oh I mustn't be late
Will they let me through
the gate
Oh I mustn't be late
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Jon Green:
Undoubtedly coined by Peter Sinfield, the title of the last track, Have Your Cake and Beat It, speaks to the human condition. Everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too. That is we all want to be pure of spirit while at the same time thriving in the material world. This would appear to be the album's major theme. The world became the world. Spirit became flesh. When the unconscious "ape" became the self-conscious human our faces were horribly changed.
Each man to himself
in a well cut suit of selfishness,
just looks away,
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And yet there are still times when, in the silence and shelter of the inner courtyard, we can get back in touch with the inner voice.
And for a moment the courtyard heard.
But all too soon the world intrudes and tells us again . . .
"Now go
chase the gold"
As we learned in chapter twenty, we are in and out of unity with nature and ourselves, back and forth between the inner and outer worlds.
"The term dervish literally means "threshold," and that picturesque description
itself provides the crucial clue: the dervish calling has something to do with
the meeting of two worlds (i.e. the world became the world). For the hermit, reclusion is the bottom line: he or
she leaves the world and lives apart as a sign of renunciation and poverty of
spirit. The dervish is drawn, almost in spite of himself, back and forth across
that threshold. He or she lives at the boundary between pure solitude and the
need to spill back into the world, still pointing like a weathervane in the
direction of that other. Try as one might, the tension won't collapse."
- Sounding Solitude
by Rev. Cynthia Bourjeault
Raven's Bread
Vol: 2 No: 3 August 1998
