From: jaeger@buphy.bu.edu (Gregg Jaeger)
Newsgroups: alt.music.rush
Subject: Re: Quotes
Date: 20 Nov 92 05:17:09 GMT
Organization: Boston University Physics Department

I'll quote ``Red Lenses'' as, lyrically speaking, it's one of my 
favorite songs (I can't choose a _single_ favorite). In fact I have
to quote the _whole_ song because it's even hard to choose a favorite
stanza!


Neil says in an interview (Guitar, Oct. 1986), ``the color red is the
theme of [the song],'' and that he used that theme as something through 
which to bring together a number of ideas, each of which is stated as
inexplicitly as possible. He was making use of the style of T.S. Eliot
in that respect.

``i see red
  it hurts my head
  i guess it must be something 
  that i read''

During the writing of _P/G_ Neil was reading the newspaper every 
morning and he was affected psychologically by that. The song seems
to be, in its broadest meaning an expression of Neil's reactions  
while reading the newspaper, projected onto the song's persona.
`To see red' is an expression meaning `to be upset and angry'
as a result of some experience or learning of some fact, and 
less conventionally to feel alarmed, as in `red alert.'

``it's the color of your heartbeat
  a rising summer sun
  the battle lost -- or won
  the flash to fashion 
  the pulse to passion --
  feels red
  inside my head
  and truth is often bitter --
  left unsaid
  said red red
  thinking about the overhead --
  the underfed
  couldn't we talk about something else instead?''


`The pulse to passion' can be broadly interpreted to mean any 
sort of emotional reaction, any animalistic urge. Neil invokes the 
image of blood at the outset `the colour of your heartbeat' and of 
`the battle lost -- or won,' and heats it up with `the rising summer 
sun.' `Thinking about the overhead' can be understood as a reference 
to economic decline (as in `in the red'), while `the underfed' are no 
doubt those starving in the Third World (and the 1st and 2nd world, 
for that matter) because of a decayed or decaying personal economy. 
`Couldn't we talk about something else instead' just expresses the 
discomfort the persona feels in light of these depressing realities.


``we've got mars on the horizon
  says the national midnight star
  (it's true)
  what you believe is what you are
  a pair of dancing shoes --
  the soviets are the blues --
  the reds
  under your bed
  lying --
  in the darkness 
  dead ahead''

`We've got mars on the horizon/says the national midnight star' 
can be viewed a sarcastic expression of ``annoyance with tabloids 
in general'' (our own TNMS has been approaching this level of late).
While this is clearly true of the last line, the first line might 
also be a headline which might appear such a tabloid and which is 
a way of saying `war is possible' (of course, Mars is the god of war). 
This is a typical rally cry of the McCarthy-era's `red scare', the 
fear of communist expansionism (a la Krushchev's  `We will bury you'), 
which was recalled by President Reagan's `Evil Empire' (ca. 1984, the 
year of the album) characterization of the Soviet Union, which can be 
viewed as free-world propaganda.  `The soviets are the blues -- the
reds' is  further evidence for this interpretation. `What you believe 
is what you are/ a pair of dancing shoes --' is Neil's put-down of the 
people who read tabloids or propaganda and say, `it's true' just because
it's in print -- he sees these people as puppets of the propaganda or
speculation. `Under your bed/lying --/in the darkness/ dead ahead' is 
poking fun at this paranoid (`under your bed') psychology in fear of
the "evil empire."

``and the mercury is rising
  the barometer starts to fall
  you know it gets to us all
  the pain that is learning
  and the rain that is burning --
  feel red
  still -- go ahead
  you see black and white --
  and i see red
  (not blue)''


`The mercury is rising/the barometer starts to fall' can be interpreted
 to mean events are ``heating up'' and the ``atmosphere is becoming 
 unsettled.'' This is really nice as Mercury, like Mars, is also a
 member of the pantheon, and mercury is (as we all know) one of the 
 liquids used in thermometers (which, like barometers, monitor weather
 conditions). As for `you see black and white -- and `i see red/(not blue)', 
 `see[ing] black and white' means believing that the truth of the matter
 is simple -- the way the paranoid feel that the existence of conspiracies 
 is clear -- and `i see red' is probably Neil's reaction to this 
 simplistic psychology (which could've got us all killed!). The 
`(not blue)',  I think, is an expression of the feeling that the future 
 wasn't so clear and bright (with blue sky) as many Reaganites thought
 but rather is quite uncertain (clouds, a falling barometer).

As for the title `Red Lenses,' red lenses are things through which
one ``sees red;'' and ``seeing red'' can be compared  directly 
with ``seeing rose,'' i.e. ``seeing through rose-colored glasses,'' 
which is to say seeing things in an overly optomistic way, much
like ``seeing blue [skies].''



Gregg

-- 
Gregg Jaeger (jaeger@buphy)  Dept. of Physics (and Philosophy), Boston Univ.
"You see, the quantum mechanical description is in terms of knowledge" -Peierls
"One can _not_ put the psi-function... in place of the... thing" -Schroedinger
                "You may _not_ touch my monkey" -Dieter
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