From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V16 #649 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, January 7 2013 Volume 16 : Number 649 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Florence and the Machine - Spectrum - what are those allusions? [Paul Bla] [none] [Wayne Fisher ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2013 15:39:52 -0500 From: Paul Blair Subject: Florence and the Machine - Spectrum - what are those allusions? I've been hearing Florence and the Machine's "Spectrum" a lot lately, and the more I hear it, the more I am puzzled by the lyrics. It seems clear to me that it's alluding to something fairly specific, but I can't figure out what. Maybe ecto can help? From what I can tell, the song is sung from the point of view of the leader of some group, that came to some cold place, where they were afraid. At that time their skins were colorless, but the people to whom the song is being sung "let the spectrum in." Now this group is colorful and powerful, and will return to "drag bodies from their graves." Here are the lyrics - speculations below. - ----------------------------------- Spectrum Florence and the Machine When we first came here We were cold and we were clear With no colors on our skin We were light and paper-thin And when we first came here We were cold and we were clear With no colors on our skin 'Till you let the spectrum in Say my name And every color illuminates We are shining And we will never be afraid again And when we come for you We dressed up all in blue With the ocean in our arms Kissing eyes and kissing palms When it's time to pray We dressed up all in gray With metal on our tongues And silver in our lungs Say my name And every color illuminates We are shining And we'll never be afraid again And when we come back we'll be dressed in black And you'll scream our names aloud And we won't eat and we won't sleep We'll drag bodies from their graves So say my name And every color illuminates And we are shining And we'll never be afraid again... - ----------------------------------- Among other allusions are "paper-thin," "ocean in our arms," "kissing eyes," "kissing palms," "metal on our tongues", "silver in our lungs," and "drag bodies from their graves." Saying the name of the leader of the group also has some sort of significance, and causes the new power of the group to reveal itself. The way the lyrics are written also suggests that the name is widely recognizable, and if we can identify it, everything else will fall into place. (The song might be, say, about fallen angels and the name be Lucifer, but I don't see how that would fit the specifics of the rest of the song. At one point I even thought the name might be Voldemort and the group be the Death Eaters, but I don't recall any of the above allusions being mentioned in Harry Potter, and I don't think the Death Eaters started out clear and paper thin.) Since the song seems to be about a downtrodden group that is now standing proud, and since it alludes to colors on the skin, I first thought it had to do with racial minorities. But the fact that the group initially had no colors on their skin seems to belie that, and the specific allusions later in the song don't seem to bear any relationship to race. For a similar reason, the LGBT rainbow flag didn't seem to fit--particularly the reference to coming back and dragging bodies from their graves. One strange thing about the song is that even though it talks about the colors of the spectrum, the only spectral color mentioned is blue. (The other colors are gray, silver, and black.) All the colors mentioned are colors that the members of the group are dressed in, but maybe not the colors of their skin. Another thought I had was that the song might have to do with body art, or with some group characterized by body art ("metal on our tongues" could have to do with piercings, say). I don't know enough about that culture, though, to put it all together. AC/DC is Back in Black, and their fans might scream their names aloud, and even dragging bodies from their graves might fit with that, but I'm not sure that has anything do with the beginning of the song. "Metal on our tongues" suggests the coin that is placed on the tongues of the dead as payment to Charon to ferry them over the river Styx. I don't know of anything that has to do with the dead having silvery voices, though. Do shades ever return? Would they drag bodies from their graves? And why would they be "shining"? Lyra Belacqua from Phillip Pullman's *His Dark Materials* is Lyra Silvertongue, but again I can't place any of the other allusions. Then maybe the group isn't people at all, but, say, animals. Butterflies might be paper-thin, and blue butterflies might live near the ocean, and moths show up in gray and black. But I can't see the rest of it. Similarly with birds (say a silver-throated tanager?). "Kissing eyes and kissing palms" sounds like some sort of ritual, something Masonic, say. But again I don't know enough about that. Well, ecto, how about it? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2013 13:12:24 -0800 (PST) From: Wayne Fisher Subject: [none] http://musterisorgulama.com/images/wmnhl.php?gojo=gojo ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V16 #649 ***************************