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mishalakMishalak tries to interpret "Hipposong" by Al Stewart.
As usual all are encouraged to add their own thoughts about the imagery in the song and agree or disagree with what I'm thinking. After all there is no one way to see anything. But let me just start of by saying with the tuba and everything this is just such a wonderfully silly sounding song. Though it is a bloody lot harder to figure out what it might be about than one of his historical songs.
I was surrounded by a large hippopotamus
And nine of its friends who declared,
"Quite a lot of us
Are feeling rather blue
And we don't know what to do."
Okay we have ten hippopotamuses who are depressed. And the narrator has given us the sense that he's been suddenly come upon by them and trapped or cornered with them complaining about their problems.
I turned away but the large hippopotamus
Said that his pit of despair appeared bottomless
Yet hippopotami are not supposed to cry
I think the line about them not being supposed to cry is a double reference to the myth that they cannot cry. The second meaning would possibly that a big strong guy shouldn't cry. It's hard to tell who's supposed to be speaking there, the hippo' or the narrator, about them not being supposed to cry.
I said "My, my, other people's problems
Do get tedious by and by.
And it is true. Other people's problems pretty much never seem as important as your own problems. Just human nature to care more about one's own splinter than someone else's toothache. And depression is particularly hard for other people to deal with.
My, my you can never solve them
No matter how hard you try."
And this is true as well. It is sort of a trite statement, but totally accurate that, "Only you can make yourself happy." Other people might help out, but particularly in the case of being happy it has to spring from within a person.
This brought a tear from the large hippopotamus
Who said in a voice that was
growing monotonous
Well the narrator character did put it rather bluntly that he didn't care. No wonder the hippopotamus is crying. And the narrator is also bored with listening to this.
"You cannot get the sense
Of how it feels to be immense
The sleek and the slim make fun of a lot of us
And creatures who fly through the air
Sit on top of us
And even in the pool
We are faced with ridicule."
At the pool, in the water being a pretty natural environment for the water horse. So he whinges about being mocked even there. And perhaps the song is also a bit of a commentary about the way that fat people are treated in western society.
I said "My, my other people's problems
Do get tedious by and by.
My, my you can never solve them
No matter how hard you try."
He's still not sympathetic. Though I begin to suspect he's just saying this as a easy out to give no help whatsoever rather than actually finding that the hippopotamus is looking for other people to solve all his problems.
I came back as a large hippopotamus...
And here the song ends rather abruptly. Did Al just run out of things to say? And the line, does it mean that the narrator, though right about not being able to solve other people's problems for them, has been reincarnated for not at least being sympathetic/nice about it?
As usual all are encouraged to add their own thoughts about the imagery in the song and agree or disagree with what I'm thinking. After all there is no one way to see anything. But let me just start of by saying with the tuba and everything this is just such a wonderfully silly sounding song. Though it is a bloody lot harder to figure out what it might be about than one of his historical songs.
I was surrounded by a large hippopotamus
And nine of its friends who declared,
"Quite a lot of us
Are feeling rather blue
And we don't know what to do."
Okay we have ten hippopotamuses who are depressed. And the narrator has given us the sense that he's been suddenly come upon by them and trapped or cornered with them complaining about their problems.
I turned away but the large hippopotamus
Said that his pit of despair appeared bottomless
Yet hippopotami are not supposed to cry
I think the line about them not being supposed to cry is a double reference to the myth that they cannot cry. The second meaning would possibly that a big strong guy shouldn't cry. It's hard to tell who's supposed to be speaking there, the hippo' or the narrator, about them not being supposed to cry.
I said "My, my, other people's problems
Do get tedious by and by.
And it is true. Other people's problems pretty much never seem as important as your own problems. Just human nature to care more about one's own splinter than someone else's toothache. And depression is particularly hard for other people to deal with.
My, my you can never solve them
No matter how hard you try."
And this is true as well. It is sort of a trite statement, but totally accurate that, "Only you can make yourself happy." Other people might help out, but particularly in the case of being happy it has to spring from within a person.
This brought a tear from the large hippopotamus
Who said in a voice that was
growing monotonous
Well the narrator character did put it rather bluntly that he didn't care. No wonder the hippopotamus is crying. And the narrator is also bored with listening to this.
"You cannot get the sense
Of how it feels to be immense
The sleek and the slim make fun of a lot of us
And creatures who fly through the air
Sit on top of us
And even in the pool
We are faced with ridicule."
At the pool, in the water being a pretty natural environment for the water horse. So he whinges about being mocked even there. And perhaps the song is also a bit of a commentary about the way that fat people are treated in western society.
I said "My, my other people's problems
Do get tedious by and by.
My, my you can never solve them
No matter how hard you try."
He's still not sympathetic. Though I begin to suspect he's just saying this as a easy out to give no help whatsoever rather than actually finding that the hippopotamus is looking for other people to solve all his problems.
I came back as a large hippopotamus...
And here the song ends rather abruptly. Did Al just run out of things to say? And the line, does it mean that the narrator, though right about not being able to solve other people's problems for them, has been reincarnated for not at least being sympathetic/nice about it?