prophet song

Sebastian wrote: Care to elaborate?
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well there's plenty of biblical (old testament) references in there - and much of it fits in with Lot's prephecy of the destruction of Sodom and the Israelites fleeing the place

dysan wrote: BR = Bohemian Rhapsody.
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Sorry dude. I thought you meant Brighton Rock.  But still there's only a month between the release of the Sparks album and ANATO.

you serious? i always loved the prophets song, it was my favourite for about 2 months or so. and aye, it dose seem like brians own bohemian rhapsody, but hey, its alright. i like the lyrics, very well written. but aye the vocal bit where the instruments stop and they repeat "and now i know and now i know" over and over, that is a bit of a kill for it. but hey. tells a nice story but i dont know what this film is you watched on sky because ive definatly never heard of it :P so i cant really relate.

Hang On In There - "it's a great song - when they used to do it with White Man live it was great too - wonder if we'll ever get to hear that?" I'm sure I've heard a White Man/Prophet Song continuation somewhere on a popular bootleg... Hyde Park or Houston 77, maybe? I KNOW I've heard it. And I agree. When I'm in just the right mood, the whole of Prophet's Song blows me away. Actually, ANATO is one of three albums I own in my ENTIRE collection of music which I can listen to and not skip a track. I swear in all honestly, I can only listen to ANATO, Purple Rain, and the Footloose soundtrack without skipping a track.

sorry. the question i asked in the first post was did people think it was biblical? and if so did they agree it was the fall of Sodom? or was it Noah's Ark? or something else - even non-biblical

rhyeking wrote: "The vocal echos are the best part.


If you're going call "The Prophet's Song" a "Bohemian Rhapsody" facsimile, you ought to acknowledge that BR is a knock off of "The March Of The Queen." Come to think of it, TMOTBQ is a blatant rip of "Liar". And you know what, "Liar" began as Wreckage song called "Lover." Good Lord, this band lacks original ideas when viewed superficially.

"The Prophet's Song" is more accurately the next logical advancement of Brian's use of echo and repetition in his music, such as in his Brighton Rock Solo. The layers built in the TPS create an hypnotic soundscape that takes the listener through the dream Brian himself experienced. It's especially stunning in DTS surround, where it flows around the room.

Absolutely stunning work!"

I also love TPS (it's my all-time favourite song as a matter of fact), however the vocal echos IMO go on far too long. I think the song would have been better served if they had been shortened. It's just incredibly indulgent, and lessens IMO what is one of the greatest songs of all time.

I remember not liking TPS  when I listened to it the first time around...felt the echo went on for wayyy too long. It grew on me though...I think it applies a lot more to Noah's Ark  IMO...esp when he's called 'the madman' - people laughed at Noah when he was building the ark - the reference to the EARTH being split in two...the reference to 'rain', and to the king of beasts counting days...I  think if I were ever to see this as applying to a Biblical prophet I'd take a guess on Noah. 

Or  it's probably a slight stream-of-consciousness. 

Dunno if I can see TPS as similar in any way to Bo Rhap because as far as I can see the latter's a pastiche of styles - ballad, opera and hard rock, while TPS stays rather consistent stylistically throughout IMHO.

TPS is one of my favs. And to answer the question of the first post i remember that the idea of the song comes to Brian for a dream he had.

"sorry. the question i asked in the first post was did people think it was biblical? "

Maybe by accident.. Brian is far too intelligent and scientific minded to write a 'biblical' story. Its definitely Tolkienesque but that doesn't have to mean biblical

I clearly remember Brian saying it was based on some dream he had in a documentary (ANATO - Classic Albums?). Id hardly expect Brian to have biblical dreams, but then again who knows...

I was raised Catholic, so maybe that was first thing I thought of when I heard the song in my teens. 

Lines like:

"Beware the storm that gathers here, listen to the wise man!"

"And two by two, by human zoo, they'll be running for to come out of the rain."

"God give you grace to purge this place and peace all around will be your dowry!"

...All certainly could invoke the idea of Noah. And this was long before I read he'd dreamed it. So maybe bits of the Noah story slipped into his dream. You don't need to be religious to know the story or even have seen a version on TV (movie or documentary) or read about. I'm not Jewish, but I know what a golem is. Or the Greek gods or Norse legends.

Dreams don't generally make a lot of sense and there's never been a correlation that rational minds, such as scientists have (and Brian *is* a scientist, then and now), don't dream of "religious-y" things, even if it's just imagery.

Now, was the song intended by Brian to be Noah's Ark story? Probably not, but since he's lyrically recounting a dream, made up of crazy dream stuff like we all experience, what the dream was "about" is something only he knows.

Myself, I'll probably still picture a crazy kind of Noah-esque character because that's what I've seen for 20 years in my mind with this song.