Ugo
Group: Members
Posts: 5495
Joined: April 2000 |
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Posted: Dec. 28 2011, 19:32 |
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Please forgive me for insisting once again on this, but this song bugs me particularily because the melody is extremely beautiful (IMHO), but the lyrics are extemely silly, always IMHO. I'm not even saying what it is - it's very clear by the lyrics I quote.
Have you ever been to North Point
To spend your time and pray?
No, Anita, I haven't, because North Point (or Northpoint) is a PRISON!! 
The prison walls are dark and cold and grey.
The writing on the wall at North Point
Speaks to a silent room.
They shut the bars down, leave you to the gloom.
[ Chorus ]
How could we get any closer?
So high is the wire and the guards won't listen,
They won't believe me.
And then it all came back. [?????????]
Somewhere far above has a new day risen?
Way beyond the searchlight,
Comes alive, comes alive.
Can someone please tell me WHAT exactly comes alive?? 
Then on a bright day at North Point
The gate was open wide.
They chanced to look at what was inside.
There were a million stars at North Point,
And from the silent tomb,
They took it to the heart and left for the moon.
WHAT did they take to the heart? WHY did they leave for the moon? And WHO are "they" anyway??
I know that Mike never was a good lyricist, but here I think that he reached his Nadir of silliness. And the worst thing about the song is, as I said, that the music is fantastic...
@ Milamber: "Near a tree by a river there's a hole in the ground, where an old man of Aran [in Ireland, Russia or Azerbaijan??] goes around and around; and his smile is a beacon in the veil of the night, for a strange kind of fashion there's a wrong and a right." Yes, this is pure nonsense. There may be various allusions to war and military things all through the lyrics, but most of it is nonsense. Nik Kershaw himself admitted it on his website: « "The Riddle" is nonsense, rubbish, bollocks, the confused ramblings of an 80's popstar». So there you have it. 
@ wiga: ah, Coldplay, eh? What about "I've seen Jerusalem bells a-ringing, Roman cavalry choirs were singing; be my hero, my sword and shield..." etc. The Romans never went to Jerusalem, for starters. The Crusaders did.
@ Sweep: to me it's no wonder that Enya writes nonsense. There are lots and lots and lots of places where she uses words for their sounds rather than for their meanings. Have you ever heard "Only If..." ?
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Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian
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