the easy genius of celebrated heroes.
 

take this song;

I want to tell you a story
about a little man
if I can
a gnome named Grimble Gromble
and little gnomes stay in their homes
eating, sleeping, drinking their wine
He wore a scarlet tunic
a blue-green hood
it looked quite good
he had a big adventure
admidst the grass
fresh air at last
winding dining biding his time
And then one day hurray
another way for the gnomes to say hurray
Look at the sky, look at the river
isn't it good
look at the sky, look at the river
isn't it good
winding finding places to go


this is a very detailed examination of a song that is, in all honesty, just about a gnome.

The Gnome is absolute and without limits, so he is discontent in the world because the world doesn't belong to him, to be outside would mean compromising which is limitation & surrender - not good. So in the first verse he stays in doors keeping himself content with wine etc and he ignores the world by shutting it out. He lives in his world that he controls.

In the second verse he discovers Pot and he can finally go outside (a bit) and be easy going and ignore stuff close up. But then, one day... he discovers LSD (King of Dopamine) and he's more than outside, he's free. He doesn't have to ignore stuff because it all exists in his world that he has created - his trip.

The sky is generally God or death, and the river is his life, going down by the route of least resistance, see through and formless in itself it still cuts a deep groove that it owns and it is still a beautiful & powerful force of nature. The Gnome is about taking control & escaping the limitation of reality & other people - liberation through self destruction.


I found this explanation on a lyric explanation site. If in 10 years time I can write a song about a gnome and have someone find THIS much genius in it, then I will die a happy man.

People need to stop examining Syd Barrett's lyrics.

^This.

I don't understand how anyone can write an explanation of lyrical work when the lyrical work is shorter than the explanation. It's like writing a dissertation using a paragraph as a sole source.

lol as i was reading it it very much reminded me of syd. but i didnt know it was his, im not familiar with his work.

You can find (create) metaphors in virtually any type of narrative or lyrics, if you want to see them. That's pretty much the point of art, that each person can draw from it what they want.

This "detailed examination" of one person's interpretation of "The Gnome" is akin to an essay on "a detailed account of everything I see in this ink blot." You can dress it up in the manner of formal analysis, implying that there's something objective, but ultimately it's nothing more than what's running through that individual's head when he/she listens to the song.

I've never found deconstruction of art to be a worthwhile endeavour, but I recognize that other people enjoy it.

I think it's just annoying that people can gain so much lyrical credibility by writing something so mind numbingly simple.

I mean yeah, if that's how you get your kicks, write a detailed analysis of a song about a gnome. But many of the comments that proceeded the one I put were also analysis' followed by the words 'Syd Barrett is a genius.' Yes, he is, but not for all these rubbish underlying meanings you're finding in his songs. For the fact that he could get away with writing anything no matter how irrelevant and everyone in this day and age laps it up like the second coming of christ.

I always lol a good bit when people say Barrett is a better lyricist than Waters.

He was just as good if not better.

His middle name was mother fucking?