Necromancer
Dec. 31st, 2005 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakMishalak tries to interpret "Necromancer" by Al Stewart.
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.
Oh the sweet addiction
Of forbidden fruit
Oh the strange affliction
That has taken root
Oh the hidden cancer
Cancer of the soul
Oh the necromancer
Inside us all
A necromancer is a practitioner of death magic, usually though of in popular culture as someone who has the power to bring things back to a semblance of life from death. In this case I think perhaps the necromancer is used as an image to both represent the return to "life" of something that should have stayed dead and also that this thing inside us all is evil in itself, not just because it is back.
I have never seen this many
People gathered in one place together
Don't ask about it
You don't want to know
Caught up in the fury of euphoria
They say will last forever
Don't ask about it
It might just be so
Do not ask too many questions about the downside, as with anything that gives a high.
Oh the burning candle
Oh the pretty flame
Come fly into the night with us
And feel the same
Oh the sweet surrender
Oh the solemn vow
Leave your old identity
And join us now
And here I think the song starts to finally reveal what it is about. The leaving behind of your old identity sounds like it is being part of some sort of political movement. Surrendering your will to that of the movement with all its pretty trappings and ceremony.
I believe that I have been
Through this before
And I can still remember
Maybe a past life
I just can't tell
The faces and the uniforms
Are changed yet
There's something so familiar
Am I still under
That same old spell
A change of uniforms and fascism/communism/etc is back under a new name and the narrator of the song is wondering about that.
Oh the sweet addiction
Of forbidden fruit
Oh the strange affliction
That has taken root
Oh the love of darkness
Oh the vampire's kiss
Have mercy on a people
Who would dream like this
Who would dream like this
Like this
And by the end I am sure that is what the song is about, the secret place inside us all that would thrill to our own political movement dressed up in uniforms and barking orders. Wouldn't it be thrilling to see your own group triumphing over your opponents and getting your way? Forgive us all.
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.
Oh the sweet addiction
Of forbidden fruit
Oh the strange affliction
That has taken root
Oh the hidden cancer
Cancer of the soul
Oh the necromancer
Inside us all
A necromancer is a practitioner of death magic, usually though of in popular culture as someone who has the power to bring things back to a semblance of life from death. In this case I think perhaps the necromancer is used as an image to both represent the return to "life" of something that should have stayed dead and also that this thing inside us all is evil in itself, not just because it is back.
I have never seen this many
People gathered in one place together
Don't ask about it
You don't want to know
Caught up in the fury of euphoria
They say will last forever
Don't ask about it
It might just be so
Do not ask too many questions about the downside, as with anything that gives a high.
Oh the burning candle
Oh the pretty flame
Come fly into the night with us
And feel the same
Oh the sweet surrender
Oh the solemn vow
Leave your old identity
And join us now
And here I think the song starts to finally reveal what it is about. The leaving behind of your old identity sounds like it is being part of some sort of political movement. Surrendering your will to that of the movement with all its pretty trappings and ceremony.
I believe that I have been
Through this before
And I can still remember
Maybe a past life
I just can't tell
The faces and the uniforms
Are changed yet
There's something so familiar
Am I still under
That same old spell
A change of uniforms and fascism/communism/etc is back under a new name and the narrator of the song is wondering about that.
Oh the sweet addiction
Of forbidden fruit
Oh the strange affliction
That has taken root
Oh the love of darkness
Oh the vampire's kiss
Have mercy on a people
Who would dream like this
Who would dream like this
Like this
And by the end I am sure that is what the song is about, the secret place inside us all that would thrill to our own political movement dressed up in uniforms and barking orders. Wouldn't it be thrilling to see your own group triumphing over your opponents and getting your way? Forgive us all.