fathomthepower
11-13-2003, 08:35 PM
something tells me this thought has already been expressed on this board before, but i'm too lazy to go searching for anything posted 90 days earlier.
it goes without saying that maynards lyrics usually are metaphors whithin metaphors. what i mean by that is that usually maynard starts with some sort of relatively recognizable connection between what he says to life. in eulogy, the obvious relation is to the crucifixion of christ--"get off your fucking cross, we need the fucking space for the next fool martyr."
but the beauty of maynards metaphors is that this is only the first layer in his meanings. usually what you discover on the first pass is surely connected to a deeper meaning, and thus the ambiguity spirals out into infinite objective analysis.
i think in eulogy maynard is relating the dogma associated with christ with that of bill hicks, the comedian. anybody who knows about hicks knows he was very unwavering in his opinions, and to some extent had a "fuck the crowd" attitude towards his audiance. this dogmatic expression in his comedy is paralled to that of the teachings(and following). just as christ was considered a man "above the crowd" hicks had is own counter-culture following. at the end of the song, maynard says, "get off your fucking cross, we need the fucking space for the next fool martyr." just as christs teachings are considered outdated, so too will bill hick's one day, and so to will the next "fool martyr"s teachings seem irrelevant.
it goes without saying that maynards lyrics usually are metaphors whithin metaphors. what i mean by that is that usually maynard starts with some sort of relatively recognizable connection between what he says to life. in eulogy, the obvious relation is to the crucifixion of christ--"get off your fucking cross, we need the fucking space for the next fool martyr."
but the beauty of maynards metaphors is that this is only the first layer in his meanings. usually what you discover on the first pass is surely connected to a deeper meaning, and thus the ambiguity spirals out into infinite objective analysis.
i think in eulogy maynard is relating the dogma associated with christ with that of bill hicks, the comedian. anybody who knows about hicks knows he was very unwavering in his opinions, and to some extent had a "fuck the crowd" attitude towards his audiance. this dogmatic expression in his comedy is paralled to that of the teachings(and following). just as christ was considered a man "above the crowd" hicks had is own counter-culture following. at the end of the song, maynard says, "get off your fucking cross, we need the fucking space for the next fool martyr." just as christs teachings are considered outdated, so too will bill hick's one day, and so to will the next "fool martyr"s teachings seem irrelevant.