understanding pink floyd

[Octavius]

I've been reading Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb lyrics and I can't seem to put my finger on the song's meaning.

Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?
Come on, now,
I hear you're feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again.
Relax.
I'll need some information first.
Just the basic facts.
Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain you would not understand
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.

O.K.
Just a little pinsalamander.
There'll be no more aaaaaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick.
Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working, good.
That'll keep you going through the show
Come on it's time to go.

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.
When I was a childI caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

[/i]

What I get out of it:  Dreams from childhood and the imagination & creativity of a child have fled.  Reality sets in as you mature.  Being comfortably numb now (as a mature adult), you become comfortably numb with that feeling once again.   The pin salamander (or shot, whatever) throws you back into reality.

Heh, I'm strange sometimes.  I've looked around but haven't been successfull;  are there any sites or discussion groups on the song meanings?  I've found some on Van Morrison, which was pretty cool, but none on Pink Floyd.

[NUKE]

Originally posted by Octavius
I've been reading Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb lyrics and I can't seem to put my finger on the song's meaning.

[/i]

What I get out of it:  Dreams from childhood and the imagination & creativity of a child have fled.  Reality sets in as you mature.  Being comfortably numb now (as a mature adult), you become comfortably numb with that feeling once again.   The pin salamander (or shot, whatever) throws you back into reality.

Heh, I'm strange sometimes.  I've looked around but haven't been successfull;  are there any sites or discussion groups on the song meanings?  I've found some on Van Morrison, which was pretty cool, but none on Pink Floyd.

I heard it was an acount of a concert they played, Roger Waters was sick, wasnt going to play the show and a Doctor gave him a shot of something that almost killed him.

The line "just a little pin salamander" was the shot and "that'll keep you going for the show" was almost a  literal account.

[Airhead]

Really, don't try to look for a deeper meaning from British rockers of the time. What few brains they had were fried by drugs, so what you see is what you get.

[whgates3]

about a month ago the was a thread about 'When the Tigers Broke Free' - a tune thats in the movie The Wall, but not on the soundtrack...its about Roger Waters dad & how he was killed when kraut armour (inc. tiger tanx) counterattacked@anzio...its actually kinda inconguous w/ the action in the movie, which indicates his dad was killed by a stuka

[mrfish]

don't look at the song alone, it's an important part of the bigger context of 'the wall' story. it's about isolation i think mainly.

[NUKE]

TV: So physiologically what stage of the character Pink for the track "Comfortably Numb"?

RW: After "Bring the Boys Back Home" there is a short piece where a tape loop is used; the teachers voice is heard again and you can feel the groupie saying "are you feeling ok" and there's the operator saying, er, "there's a man answering" and there's a new voice introduced at that point and there's somebody knocking on the door saying "come on it's time to go," right, so the idea is that they are coming to take him to the show because he's got to go and perform that night, and they come into the room and they realize something is wrong, and they actually physically bring the doctor in, and "Comfortably Numb" is about his confrontation with the doctor.

TV: So the doctor puts him in such a physiological state that he can actually hit the stage?

RW: Yes, he gives him an injection, in fact it's very specific that song.

TV: "Just a little pinsalamander"?

RW: Yeah.

TV: "There'll be no more aaaaaaaaaaah!"

RW: Right.

[COMFORTABLY NUMB]

RW:Because they're not interested in any of these problems, all they're interested in is how many people there are and tickets have been sold and the show must go on, at any cost, to anybody. I mean I, personally, have done gigs when I've been very depressed, but I've also done gigs when I've been *extremely* ill, where you wouldn't do any ordinary kind of work.

TV: Because the venue is there and because the act's there...

RW: And they've paid the money and if you cancel a show at short notice, it's expensive.

TV: So the fellow is back in the stage, but he's very...I mean he's vicious, fascist.

RW: Well, here you are, here is the story: I've just remembered; Montreal 1977, Olympic Stadium, 80,000 people, the last gig of the 1977 tour, I, personally, became so upset during the show that I *spat* at some guy in the front row, he was shouting and screaming and having a wonderful time and they were pushing against the barrier and what he wanted was a good riot, and what I wanted was to do a good rock and roll show and I got so upset in the end that I spat at him, which is a very nasty thing to do to anybody. Anyway, the idea is that these kinds of fascist feelings develop from isolation.

[capt. apathy]

I'd say nuke nailed it.

if you watch the movie it's very easy to follow along.  basicly an overdose( or bad reaction) induced state inbetween dreaming, awake, and dead

[Octavius]

cool!  thanks guys

[Animal]

Watch the movie 'The Wall' a bunch of times late night during a depressesing phase, and only when you snap back into reality, look at yourself in the mirror and you dont have eyebrows, only then you may understand it

[Wlfgng]

reminds me of a guy in the coast guard that tried to 'illuminate' his world by shaving off his brows...
needless to say he didn't last in the guard.

I'm sure if you ask him though, he can tell you exactly what the lyrics mean....

[vorticon]

i doubt there was a meaning to any of floyd's (or any other british rockers) songs

[Kieran]

I always imagined Comfortably Numb was about losing one's grip on sanity through isolation.

[Eagler]

I think understanding Floyd requires mushrooms and a strobe light

[capt. apathy]

don't know about the shrooms. but I have noticed that since cleaning up my system I listen to alot less pink floyd

[SLO]

HE's STONED....a little shot of heroine and voila your comfortably numb....