2007-01-17
"Astronomy" - Sandy Pearlman
This song was written by Sandy Pearlman for Blue Öyster Cult (BÖC). He was their producer/manager, but wrote and/or contributed his poems as lyrics for their music.
"Astronomy" ~ Sandy Pearlman:
| The clock strikes twelve and moon drops burst Out at you from their hiding place Like acid and oil on a madman's face Reason tends to fly away Like lesser birds on the four winds Like silver scrapes in May Now the sands become a crust And most of you have gone away Come Susie dear, let's take a walk Just out there upon the beach I know you'll soon be married And you'll want to know where winds comes from Well it's never said at all On the map that Carrie reads Behind the clock back there you know At the Four Winds Bar Four doors at the Four Winds Bar Two doors locked and windows barred One door's let to take you in The other one just mirrors it | In hellish glare and inference The other one's a duplicate The Queenly flux, eternal light Or the light that never warms Or the light that never, never warms Or the light that never, never, never, never, never warms The clock strikes twelve and moon drops burst Out at you from their hiding place Miss Carrie Nurse and Susie dear Find themselves at Four Winds Bar It's the nexus of the crisis And the origin of storms Just the place to hopelessly Encounter time and then came me Call me Desdinova Eternal light These gravely digs of mine Will surely prove a sight And don't forget my dog Fixed and consequent |
Although I have been a BÖC fan for years, Metallica covered this song, and I like their version better.
Blue Oyster Cult has always had songs about the "dark side" and death, like with their biggest hit, "Don't Fear the Reaper". This is due mainly to Sandy, and his writings.
I have always enjoyed this song without thinking to much about it. Then one day a friend ask me who Desdinova was.
Sandy could have had more fun with us if he had titled the song more obscurely, but there is still more to it than just pure astronomic references.
Here is my take: Nova is like a supernova, he is either a guardian and messenger for the night, and 'the dark side', or he is a performer in opera, song, on stage, portraying such (i.e. a musician - stars that only shine or have the stage for a little while). He is playing the villain to warn you of what can happen. His 'digs' are the night and it's realm. He just does it knowing, that you have to get the idea.
The twelve here is midnight not noon.
Most of the song talks about the moon. The moon is what is behind the Four Winds. The moon is the dark side. Dark versus light, good versus evil, haven versus hell. The moon is a woman ("Queenly flux"). The moon is also the 'light that never warms'. The moon is also the 'center of storms', the 'nexus of crisis', causes the tides, but so is hell. Sandy is saying beware the female sex. She may appear to be warm, but she is behind all evil. Women also rule over men at midnight. Man is more given to be weak for sex, and less guarded ("Reason tends to fly away"), at this hour, and may also be weak for alcohol (bar).
The four winds, are both the four directions of the wind (north, south, east, and west), but also the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. Also Aeolus is the god and father of the four winds (Boreas, Zephyrus, Eurus, and Notus), and some say a brother to Orion (see below). (I won't go into the four brothers, but lets just say that there is some curious crossover's to evil deeds, and horses between them.)
The door that mirror's the sun is the moon. The moon reflects the sun's light, there appears to be two lights, but there is only one. But, here Sandy says beware, the sun, or good, or haven is just being mirrored, or trap, or mirage. That door is locked, and there is no escaping the moon. The door that takes you in is also 'death' and the other three just deliver you to death through some extreme, wider, means.
At the start of the fourth verse we have:
The other one's a duplicate"
Here I think is the sun, with it's "hellish glare". The sun is inferred to be good, but it is also hellish. Then the moon is a duplicate, also with "hellish glare and inference", so either way, or door, you are in trouble.
The dog is Sirius (or the dog star) or (and part of) Canis Major, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, used to navigate by. But, also Revelations mention's the voice of the "fourth beast", the beast here is a dog.
So Desdinova is also Orion (who Oenopion 1 made him drunk, put out his eyes as he slept, and cast him on the beach. And then was killed by a scorpion, or a woman). Sirius sits at the foot of Orion, and lies just above (or at the entrance to) Hyades (or Hades) (or below it depending on how you look at sky). Some also say the Orion raped Merope 3 on the beach, so Nurse Carrie needs to beware.
A bar, like a sand bar that wreck ships, will wreck men. Both bars are shaped by liquid. One water, the other alcohol. Bars are the weakness of both ships and men.
In second verse it seems he is saying no one will ever tell you this, you won't read it anywhere:
On the map that Carrie reads"
As for Nurse Carrie and Susie, Carrie getting married, I am still working on that.
At the very least, like Neil Peart and Paul Simon (READ: Paul Simon and RUSH...???? A Musical Link), Sandy Pearlman is saying that (through the use of a minstrel), things may not be what the appear to be, beware.
Of course maybe Mr. Pearlman just wants us to look at the stars. I guess I'll always wonder what he was saying.
(NOVA: a star that suddenly increases its light output tremendously and then fades away to its former obscurity in a few months or years.)
(DESDI could be anagram, or abbreviated Latin anagram?)
(MISS CARRIE NURSE anagrams to ICARUS MERRINESS…? Icarus can't go out in the sun, but must stay in the night. SUSIE anagram's to ISSUE…?)
Now....go listen to it, then listen to it Again!
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Labels: Music
