Personal song-lyric interpretations?

[beautifuldistortion]

Personally I interpret the line 'a gathering of no meaning' as criticism of church goers.
Like the fact they all get together on a Sunday to worship a non existent god.

More I think about it, I think that is what the tone of the whole song means to me!
The waste of time in group worship and the piousness of some church going people.

[Slideling]

Ah, so that and Journal For Plague Lovers may be complimenting each other, in that sense!

[beautifuldistortion]

Exactly.
The more I read the words, that is the only conclusion I can come too, it just seems to dig at the sometime hypocritical nature of certain Religious types!

Any other ideas?

It's definitely an interesting song to discuss

[Slideling]

I thought, that since a lot of the album may be centred around his hospital stay, the gathering might refer to getting unwanted attention for it. And something like 'an arms army salvation' could be referring to a sympathetic embrace.

Here are some lines I wrote about DCS a year ago: (I edited some of my chatter, and clarified on one point.)

* "Sick of me, stupid and weak" -
First of all, feeling sick of oneself is quite a paradoxic emotion, even if we don't quite acknowledge that sometimes. It takes a certain amount of distance from yourself, and lack of compassion and forgiveness for oneself to say it, if we take it from the point of view of the narrative.

I don't personally believe that the narrator sees themselves as unintelligent and lacking strength of character in a general sense, just referring to certain vices, but that's my own interpretation.

* "Those most worthy are denied"-
As a friend told me once, there would always be someone who's worse off than yourself. 'Most worthy' in my opinion, refers to someone other than yourself.

What are these people denied of? Compassion for their basic human needs (like that kid starving off right now in the third world everyone likes to mention as an excuse to not feel sorry for oneself) Or, as stated later in this segment, mercy? (and the righteous judgement that comes along with the moral concept of mercy) Perhaps they're denied their own right to complain, that the narrator feels themselves privileged with. I don't know.

That line could mean other things also, but I'm not gonna branch off too much, just say what I feel is the closest to my own interpretation, OK?...

Worthiness can also refer to purity and standing up to one's standards, and those who do it in ways that are not socially acceptable are considered weak, therefore 'denied'.

* "Heautoscopy, Revile him" -
"Only a God can bruise/ Only a God can soothe/ Only a God reserves the RIGHT, to forgive those that..." Oops, sorry, wrong song.

But I mean, it's gotta be 'Nature as God', innit?

Here the narrator condemns his own body, or his 'chemical balance', for making him 'see' things (Heautoscopy is a delusional concept - watching your body from outside the body.)

* "Always wake up wasn't good enough" -
This sentence isn't exactly coherent grammatically, anyone care to make a claim on this one? Maybe it's "Always wake up/ (I) wasn't good enough." I wonder if we could make a valid comparison between this part, and the part in So Dead ('Learn to sleep through misery / never gonna wake feeling free.')

Self esteem, sleeping, and feeling trapped are subjects often introduced in Richey's writing. . .

* "The merciful cast the last stone" -
In the New Testament, those who are without sin cast the first stone. Here, those who are gentle and kind are the last in line, for whatever reason, to punish the sinner.

* "Love the soul, not the body."
I'm conflicted here, is that a religious idea of mind over matter, or the narrator's own attempt to see himself above things? We know Richey dealt with both things in his own writing, and often liked to combine religious chastisement and internal struggle as subjects for writing.


* "Let me forgive the word ruins" -
I don't know, TBF. I think it's meant to be "world ruins", which is a similar concept to This Is Yesterday. Anyone got other ideas?

* "I wanted to kill but my tears love" -
... I'm not gonna touch that one. Too much emotion for one small, concise sentence. . .You wouldn't cry for, or want to kill, anyone you don't harbour strong emotions for. You wouldn't admit to loving them, either.

[beautifuldistortion]

You have put a lot of effort into analysing the words and I have to take my hat off to you for that.
Personally I find when Richey spoke/wrote of his time in Hospital and other care that he was rather more explicit and overt with what he said. I think he sometimes wore it as a badge of honour (rightly or wrongly - that's a different matter and remember this is just my view). Or at least he wrote explicitly to show that there should be no stigma attached to mental illness or quite simply he tried to exorcise his 'demons' through writing about them.

I am of the opinion that a lot of JFPL is aimed at organised religion, he obviously had a track record of this (Crucifix Kiss springs to mind).
I also recall James or Nicky stating that the way The Priory shows people to deal with problems is by using pseudo-religious teachings, something that was alien to Richey and therefore made him change and practice something he perhaps didn't believe in but felt it was necessary if that's what it would take to make him better!

Songs such as V.S.E.C were again overtly about hospital care of the mentally ill.

One quick point:
The lyrics are actually "unarmed army salvation", now I'm not stating that to be pedantic (it's hard to convey tone via a forum) but I think that those words add weight to the viewpoint that the song is about religion/religious people.
It ties in with the Salvation Army (or maybe that's too obvious?) another religious organisation, I think he was playing with words here!

You have written in a style a lot better than I am capable of doing!
Although I would have to state that as a specific song that DCS to me is definitely about religion/hypocritical religious people.
I would say it is a sister song to JFPL, again something that Richey had a track record of (Mausoleum/Intense Humming of evil).

However we could all be totally wrong

[cherrybomb]

I'm a bit drunk tonight so hope I make some sort of sense. I always thought the first two verses of the original lyric were Richey's thoughts about being in the band and in particular being perceived as the leader of the band. Drowned in love and false kisses=the fans, a gathering of no meaning=the gig. Then in the second verse he goes on to say that when he looks at himself on the stage he see's a fraud, someone who should be reviled while the worthy ones-the proper musicians are largely ignored. As for the rest of it fuck knows but I think the first couple of verses are about Richey's discomfort with being the bands focal point.

[The Gutless Wonder]

Originally Posted by cherrybomb

I'm a bit drunk tonight so hope I make some sort of sense. I always thought the first two verses of the original lyric were Richey's thoughts about being in the band and in particular being perceived as the leader of the band. Drowned in love and false kisses=the fans, a gathering of no meaning=the gig. Then in the second verse he goes on to say that when he looks at himself on the stage he see's a fraud, someone who should be reviled while the worthy ones-the proper musicians are largely ignored. As for the rest of it fuck knows but I think the first couple of verses are about Richey's discomfort with being the bands focal point.

Could be on to something there!

[beautifuldistortion]

Some very interesting points there cherrybomb!
I hope you are wrong about the "gathering of no meaning" I can see what your getting at, but that would be a bit of a sickener for the fans if that's how he saw it

I'm still going with the religious thing

[cherrybomb]

I'm not suggesting that Richey had any contempt for the fans. Perhaps he felt it was a gathering of no meaning because everyone was coming to see him but he had no actual talent. It's far more likely though that I'm talking bollocks.xx

[Slideling]

For the record, the 'arms' thing was a mistake on the msppedia page when I read it today. I'll think about the other points now.

[Slideling]

beautifuldistortion, what do you think "embrace the betrayal" and "listen to the selfish ones, they are the voice of accomplishment" mean?

I'm still taking this all in. Not taking a stand now, as I did ask for opinions.

[beautifuldistortion]

I would take "Embrace to Betrayal" to mean maybe the Judas story? I think he embraced or kissed Jesus before betraying him (in the story of course ). I would say that perhaps Richie was using this as an analogy for more recent Christian practices, by which I mean (once again!) the whole hypocritical nature of some practitioners. Maybe saying they will take you in, then let you down?! Perhaps this is how he saw his failure to be 'cured' by religion during his stay at The Priory.
I think the emphasis must therefore be on the 'to' in that lyric i.e. embrace 'turns' to betrayal?

"They are the voice of accomplishment" could perhaps mean the fact that some religious people are so convinced of their religion that they feel very self satisfied, or it could tie in to your theory regarding Richey's hospitalisation. The whole religion thing at the Priory could be preached as THE way to cure a patient. I find the lyric to be spiteful and definitely aimed at some kind of self satisfied person/persons.

So now you have got me swinging back to your way of thinking it is about Hospitalisation and maybe using Religion as an analogy for this?!!
Or perhaps it covers both subjects?

[Slideling]

^ I think it's plausible to assume those topics overlap in his writing.

[Slideling]

"Everything Must Go" usually refers to selling of items, doesn't it? Is that the metaphor in the song also?

[Slideling]

PLS?