Babee your hands are enough to kill me đđđđđ
Download and enjoy đđ
Two hares away from home
Two hares love on tour
đ€Ș
So I just saw Harry's new merch and noticed the white rabbit and checkerboard theme (pic attached) which, although the merch is badly designed, is a cool concept as it strikes me as very Alice in Wonderland-esq and alludes to the matrix ref of 'follow the white rabbit'. Stand-alone it's cool but not anything notable.
BUT... but! then I remembered that the first thing that stood out when I saw Louis post-AFHF merch yesterday was that the baseball cap (pic attached) looks like it has... a white rabbit with a spiral behind it- when you look closer you can see it's the road going into the AFHF sunset/spiral but I know I now can't see it as just a coincidence that Harry's merch has white rabbits on it and Louis has the illusion of a white rabbit on it and their merch drop is literally only a couple of days apart.
Should we follow the white rabbit? đ
I want to be a mic đđ
x
Thank you for existing.
Full version of Louis performing his new song "Change"!
The Away From Home Festival. (30 August 2021)
These two lads doing lad things that laddy lads do đđđ
Remember everything will be alright. -Sign of the Times
Yeah itâs gonna be alright. -We Made It
Weâll be alright. -Fine Line
I know itâll be alright. -Change
Less than 24 hours and we have this analysis đ€Ż
My first thought when I heard Change is timeless. Thatâs an amazing, rare achievement. Between Change and Copy, LT2 is shaping up to be a really incredible album that Iâll listen to for the rest of my life because I love it.Â
On Change, Louis does a very good job of changing up his delivery and the instrumental to keep it fresh. My only complaint about Walls (album) was that there were times where it felt a bit repetitive and stagnant to me. Change suggests that Louis has totally grown out of that.Â
The song starts intimately, then grows into the kind of arena rock I love so much and Louis is so good at. He keeps you interested. Toward the end, we get the psychadelic-via-brit-pop influenced drone which is also a part of KMMâs magic. Between the lyric, delivery, and instrumental, itâs an astonishingly direct moment in the best way.
You might consider that the first part of the song is dripping in nostalgia. It might recall Louisâ romanticized days as a teenager going for cheap beer at an indie club. And it has the sound to match. Then, Louis knocks us into the present. He says âstop getting lost in nostalgia and regrets, you have a present to live and a future to look forward toâ and punctuates the message with a psychedelic vibe - almost as though we are being awakened with realization, gaining higher insight.Â
Thereâs also a touch of jazz influence, or perhaps more specifically, Amy Winehouse. I think this influence is the key to the magic Louis has achieved with Copy, Change, and his Beautiful War cover. Louis describes himself as a subdued and moody performer and the intensity of that attitude gels perfectly with the influence. It shows off his musicality. Itâs sexy. Itâs genius.
Now, on to the lyrcis! Iâll be using my own version of the lyrics. I will post relevant revisions and link them [here] if necessary when we have an official copy.
âOh, oh, ah-oh-oh
Turn on the lights
Itâs easy to see
We were just getting by
We werenât complete
Louis starts by setting up the story telling us that heâs shedding light on a problem, specifically an interpersonal problem. It isnât yet clear to whom exactly âweâ refers. It may be one other person or a group. It could allude to a romantic partner, fans, friends, etc.Â
It parallels âLights Upâ which has the lyric âLights up and they know who you are/do you know who you areâ. In both songs the light exposes a troubled sense of identity. Harry feels unsure, Louis feels incomplete. Both songs are retrospective. I think it is fair to say that like Lights Up, Change is a reflection on growing up in the limelight. Harry felt public observation exposed a conflicted sense of self and here, Louis feels that exposure reveals an emptiness.Â
It hasnât been long
That Iâve been away
I donât know why
Everythingâs changed
Louis says it hasnât been long that he has been away. Maybe a brief time away revealed changes he hadnât noticed. Maybe heâs an unreliable narrator, and he has been away for a long time, but he feels like he hasnât.Â
âCause inside
Weâre still the kids on the Friday nightsÂ
These two lines cement this as a song about growing up. Louis has commented several times on feeling his age. This is probably in part due to pop musicâs unhealthy obsession with youth, but he also has very legitimate reasons to feel his life has passed him by - first with the incredible, demanding pace of touring with One Direction that removed him from ordinary life and then with the series of personal tragedies as well as the professional setbacks that brought us to today. In Fearless Louis asks someone if they âremember being young and strong enough to get it wrong in front of all these peopleâ and in Change, Louis still does feel young. Itâs the dissonance between how he feels and the passage of time that stings.
Silver streets and the neon signs
My suspicion is that âsilver streetsâ doubles as a way of describing how pavement looks at night and as a way of communicating that this memory is romanticized - coated in silver. There is also a song called Silver Streets and a radio show called Silver Street that could, in theory, have nostalgic value for Louis. Silver Streets by BOY seems to have some thematic resonance with Change.
Neon signs may harken back to his Miss You music video in which pink triangle neon signs featured prominently.Â
Everythingâs changed outside
Sometimes I wonder why
A clever inversion of âI donât know why / Everythingâs changed / âCause insideâ
If you need you can call on me
Iâll be the friend you need
Everythingâs changed outside
But I feel the same inside
This seems to be Louis telling the other part of his âweâ that they can still rely on him just the same as they could in the past. Itâs important to him that he is still there for the people.
The kids are alright
That used to be me
Always losing our minds
Out on the street
The Kids Are Alright is a phrase which originated with the The Who song and it is also the title of the bandâs rockumentary which might remind Louis of his 1D days. (Also, the film The Kids Are Alright was the first mainstream comedy to depict lesbians raising children together.)
The phrase means that the current generation, for all of their problems and the hand-wringing of their parents, is capable and determined and will be able to grow into responsible adults. âThat used to be meâ adds the dark implication that, now no longer a kid, heâs may be not alright. Â
âAlways losing our minds/ Out on the streetâ evokes the Wellington incident where the boys were literally drunk and running through the streets. Make note of the word âOutâ which may be a double entendre meaning both Out as in outside and Out in the queer sense.
A trip down memory laneÂ
Houses all look the same
Thereâs different names on the gates
And all the people have changed
Oh itâs such a shame,Â
nothing stays the same
This line could be very literal because itâs what you experience when you grow up and people move and the place you lived changes. It may also be a metaphor for people changing. They look like themselves, but they get married and change their names, and who they are inside changes as they grow up.Â
Fame is said to put people into a state of arrested development at the age they got famous. For Louis, he may be feeling 18 inside while he sees his friends maturing through the ordinary rites of passage that sudden fame denied him. And now he canât revisit the things he left behind when he left home.
âCause inside
Weâre still the kids on the Friday nightsÂ
Silver streets and the neon signs
Everythingâs changed outside
Sometimes I wonder why
If you need you can call on me
Iâll be the friend you need
Everythingâs changed outside
But I feel the same inside
When you gonna realize
You donât get another life
Always overanalyse this, whatâs the point?
I know itâll be alright,
youâve still got the rest of your life
I am completely obsessed with the brutality of this lyric. I love it. It resonates with my own experience of growing into an adult. I actually had a conversation with a professor that was very important to me which could be poetically depicted this way - I was really distraught over how certain things in my life had played out. He made the point that life is as beautiful and exciting as it is because we only experience them once. (And lemme tell you that man knew a thing or two about an exciting life)
Louis separates âyouâ from âIâ here. You is another person heâs talking to. Maybe âyouâ is another version of himself or (more likely) âyouâ is a specific person this is directed at. Heâs waiting for this person to realize they are lost in lamenting the past. He asks what the point is of analyzing the past and wondering what couldâve been when you have a life ahead of you to live.
If the âyouâ here is Harry, then the obvious parallel is Fine Line with the repeating line âWeâll be alrightâ but the parallels go deeper. The first two verses of Fine Line might detail the conflict at the heart of this back-and-forth but the last two are more thematically relevant. âThereâs things that weâll never knowâ implies that he has been thinking about what couldâve been in another life and is coming to terms with the fact that they were not meant to be. âMy handâs at risk, I foldâ followed by âCrisp trepidation / Iâll try to shake this soon â might relate to the idea of overanalysing, prioritizing âwhat ifâ over the future he wants to live. I also think the idea of not getting another life is relevant to Harry because to me it seems apparent that Harry has a very real fear of dying (and his loved ones dying) which comes through on Fine Line and he explicitly stated while on Ellenâs Burning questions at 1:48.
Although I believe firmly in Larry and tonight only reinforced that belief, Larry or not, itâs important to remember that Harry and Louis were close friends in the same band for 5 years and experienced a lot of the same things. Harryâs the younger of the two so it makes some sense that heâs in a position that Louis has already worked through and made peace with. Their respective songs about this concept of making peace with the past reflect their individual struggles to move forward and create a sense of self beyond the band.Â
Now itâs time to realise you donât get another life
Always overanalyse this, whatâs the point?
I know itâll be alright
âNowâ points to time as the factor that moves this person from one of the kids who are alright to the adult who has to make peace with the things that happened in their past and the fact there are no do-overs.
Weâre still the kids on the Friday nights
Silver streets and the neon signs
Everythingâs changed outside
Sometimes I wonder why
âI know itâll be alrightâ into âWeâre still the kids on the Friday nightsâ softens the message up quite a bit. The revelation of âyou donât get another lifeâ reveals the answer to âwhyâ. It says we are the same people who did those things, even though they are now in the past.Â
If you need you can call on me
Iâll be the friend you need
Everythingâs changed outside
But I feel the same inside
And even though time has passed, you can still rely on Louis
When you gonna realise
You donât get another life
Always overanalyse this, whatâs the point?
I know itâll be alright,
Youâve still got the rest of your life
Now infused with the spirit of taking on the future together, thereâs something very hopeful about concluding the song on this lyric.
Moving the story along in the verses and bending the meaning of the chorus is probably my favorite approach to songwriting and holy shit does Change deliver.Â
Louis, you beautiful genius, I canât wait to hear this in all itâs HQ glory, in itâs studio form, and to hear all of its companion songs. And I really canât wait to sing these lines back to you through my tears.Â
man, what a song
Always You - 30.08
I can feel your energy from three planets away. He looks so happy
Through the Dark x
Love đđ„ș
ââŠI just fucking love all of you!â
Please please please let them out
why does he look exactly like he did in the dlibyh mv you know the one where the boy surfaces back on at sunrise to his lover and louis leaves with the money
The poser this human have! In so fookin excited for the festival but im not even attending wahaha And loueh did u cut ur hair u look like a baby again đ„ș so cute tho im fangirling right now i cannnntttt
@alwayslouisw Louis Tomlinson soundchecking Two Of Us for the  #AwayFromHomeFestival #LouisDay
So excited to see him on stage!!
Grabbing lunch for elEaNor Me GorLfRRiEND
Tweety birdie loueh
I don't know why this is hurting me so much but.
Loueeeh! đđđ
helenehorlyck: Hours and hours of work gone into this. So proud of Louis. đ€ â€ïžÂ
My main
iâm not sorry louis was always the main character
no like look at him
thatâs 10+ consecutive seconds in a mv. i mean
from the start, all eyes on him
even in a clip like you & i
look at those losers following his every move like that
look at him. look at the othersââââÂ
so yea
Petition
Since we are in the gay couple grunge rock era, I need Louis to cover All Apologies by Nirvana and Harry cover Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden....trust me I know what I am saying
Now I wanna watch it again
need to
the way he shook that vinegar bottle⊠i was really really watching
Louis u so lucky boi
Mannheim, Germany (04/05)
Just Like You PROMO:Â
Zane Lowe (talking about jly): this brand new record just like you, you said âthis is something you wanna put out for the fansâ but I think itâs something you wanna put out for you. I think itâs something you wanna say, isnât it?
Literally nothing to do with RBB/SBB, sorry to disappoint already. I just thought the lil wordplay was relevant.
This post is dedicated to She and gender. She is a song that I think really stands out from the rest of the album in many ways. While the song is a big part of Harryâs "self discovery journey", the sound really takes us back to good ole psychedelic rock, very⊠Pink Floyd.
âŒïžDISCLAIMERâŒïž This analysis deals with gender and identity crisis. When I use the term "queer" in this, I think itâs important to acknowledge its semantic: to be different, weird by society standards. I donât think there is anything to TW but please tell me if you think there should be !
A lot of people pointed it out: the beginning of She is extremely similar to Breathe. The first 20sec of both songs give it away.
Breathe is the opening song of The Dark Side of the Moon, another concept album by Pink Floyd. The album left such a mark it became their visual brand (that gay prism triangle thingy). Harry even got it tattooed on his sleeve.
This album deals with themes such as money, dehumanization, insanity and the passing of time. All in all, if you combine those themes, you get a blatant criticism of capitalism and⊠society⊠the one we live in⊠damn Murray. There will be a lot of "society" thrown around in this post askdeojdosd
Hereâs the tracklist of the album. The songs Iâve highlighted are the ones Iâm gonna talk about in this post.
SO before the album dives into total conceptual madness (as usual with PF), Breathe is like a disclaimer, a warning about what life is about:
Breathe.
Donât be afraid to care.
Leave, but don't leave me,
Look around, choose your own ground.
Inhale, exhale. Take some time to think about the person you are, break from society if you must, so you stay in touch with the real you and the people you love. Because soon enough, you'll be caught up in a restless life, having to work all the time until you're in the grave. Fun, fun, fun.
So what about She and Breathe ? With that similar riff between them both, is it Harry saying "figuring out who you are is exhausting so take a step back and breathe" ? Yeah seems good, but thereâs ALWAYS more. Because referencing the opening song of an album is an invitation to listen to the rest of it.
Later in The Dark Side of the Moon, we get the track Time. It is directly related to Breathe in different ways:
Time is what Breathe summarized. Youâre chilling, doing nothing, feeling like wasting time and thatâs when it dawns on you: timeâs ticking for real. So you panic and try to keep up and life goes faster and you get old and⊠timeâs up. FUN FUN FUN.
At the end of Time, there is a reprise of Breathe. Meaning the She-esque riff comes back.
Letâs go for some Time and She parallels:
Nine in the morning, the man drops his kids off at school / Sends his assistant for coffee in the afternoon, around 1:32, She
Ticking away the moments that make a dull day, fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way, Time
The man in She has a routine: first dropping the kids off (getting rid of them for the day so he can work), ticked. Then sending someone for coffee (he doesnât have the time to do it himself, he has to work), ticked. You can even picture the scene, him waving his assistant off. In an offhand way. And thatâs it, morning and afternoon, all in a day work. Work work work.
And not telling his mates, he wouldn't know what to say
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
There is this idea of a "phantom menace" (pewpew nerd) in both songs: something that isn't tangible, but there is no escaping it. Rather than adressing it, they stick with their routine and suffer in silence, stuck in their own "preset" character (the English man).
The man has a very different life from Harry the popstar. The man is your average dude succeeding in life as we know it: he has kids, a job where he gets to order people around, so probably good money. He can easily lead a comfortable and secure life for the rest of his days. However, the man isnât comfortable with himself, he doesnât feel secure at all: he dreams of her, the man is queer. He knows it deep down but canât quite accept it. He doesnât know how to come to term with this idea of being different from the societal norm, so he separates this part from himself, from the man that society raised. She is seen as a stranger. Maybe in another life, one where he wouldnât have to work and please everyone around him, a life where he could breathe, he could sort out who (s)he is. But he canât, so he simply dreams of sailing away, to get away from here.
This struggle to know who you are and the idea of having to separate yourself in different parts can also be found in the song Brain Damage. The track exposes the consequences of society forcing people into one path and keeping them from straying away. In this song, the speaker who starts by identifying themselves as the "lunatic" is completely lost: whoâs the real them ? The inadequate person that should not exist by society standards or the tamed, socially acceptable version of them, that is deemed to be good but was molded by the world they live in ? Eventually the speaker says that the real them, the lunatic, was forcefully locked away and the person they present as in order to please society isnât genuine. Keeping that in mind:
A woman whoâs just in his head, She
The lunatic is in my head, Brain Damage
Oh and really quick, if you think Only Angel could be about gender youâre gonna like this one:
End up meeting in the hallway every single time
The lunatic is in the hall
Broke a finger knocking on your bedroom door
You lock the door and throw away the key
Wanna die, wanna die, wanna die tonight [scream]
You shout and no one seems to hear
^This one is the exact opposite of what happened with She and Time (suffering in silence, pretending). Here the speakers are being loud, but it doesnât change anything: the issue is that people donât care or donât want to understand. Youâre on your own with this one. So no use in telling your mates.
With Harry, itâs always about the speaker (the man) and a woman whose only attributes are⊠being a she (or presenting a femininity which is disapproved by society, like a skirt too short or a high sex drive associated to the literal devil). That woman is unreachable but always there, looming in the hallway or occupying his bed, so close yet so far. In Brain Damage, the lunatic may be locked away but is never gone for good: the speaker became pliant with time under societyâs pressure, but remembers fondly being themselves before, the lunatic. Lives for the memory.
What is also really⊠poetic with this comparison is the term lunatic itself: its latin etymology is luna, related to the moon. One was called a lunatic because we used to think the moon changes could affect oneâs behavior. The moon is also commonly associated with femininity. She affects him and together, theyâre the lunatic.
One thing Iâve always wondered listening to Fine Line and its carefully crafted storyline is: whatâs the transition between the deeply introspective She and the lovey dovey Sunflower vol 6 and Canyon Moon ? How can Harry go from "society kills who I really am in favor of a facade" to "domestic sappy love songs" ?
Well remember when I said Time ended with a Breathe reprise ? Same riff that She begins and ends with ? Here are the lyrics to said reprise:
HARRY GET THE FUCK OUT WTF THATâS IT IâVE HAD IT
So basically. Those lyrics are the continuation of the track "On the Run" where the speaker rushes at the airport because they travel so much all the time (fast life work modern society capitalism you get the idea). Also itâs a little bit funny because the plane they have to take goes to Rome. But eventually they get back home for a break, and at last they breathe.
And then you have Harry writing a song about counting the days until he can come home from work and constant travel (Canyon Moon) and a song where Harry wants to take the time to really know the person whoâs like home to him (Sunflower vol 6). And in order to do that he has to⊠breathe. Take a step back from everything that has caused the flowers to die in the past. [insert inhaling sound effect]
It baffles me how it always comes back to this. Harry is always coming home. Where he feels safe, loved, where he gets to explore and be who he is. Itâs a place where time doesnât apply. He gets to feel like a kid again. Itâs a rainbow paradise, itâs a light for when he feels lost. Send in Sunflower vol 6 and Canyon Moon Iâm gonna lose it-
Personal attack right there đ
Are you taken?
as a fucking joke, absolutely
Me after not getting tickets for the Away from Home Festival I didnât even apply to because Iâm not EVEN in England
Another đ€Ż
i love that âaway from homeâ is yet another example of louis and plausible deniability. like is it a play on like the âstay at homeâ orders that kept us from live music, sure. but is it also VERY obviously a nod to his true home (harry) ABSOLUTELY. heâs so smart and i love him so much.
I think the "stay at home" <--> "away from home" is definitely a play on words here. And you know, gonna state the obvious, considering all of us having been/still being stuck in our homes and everything including festivals being off the menu for a long time I think the choice of calling a festival "the away from home festival" at a stage where being away from your home should still be a rare occasion is very fitting.
Also there will be a livestream a couple of days after? So people will be able to enjoy this festival that's away from their home?
And when we think of just him it's very fitting too; he was supposed to be away from home, he had just started to travel, be on tour, but then the pandemic hit and he had to go home basically the second it started. This is the first time he's back on stage with a live audience, the first time he's "away from home" in that sense, all in all it's just perfect.
But then again we got this crisp coincidoink pattern where this was probably definitely meant in some of those ^ways or something along the lines of it, still, he had all the words in the world to choose from and what did he decide to call this? home. We know he knows we know he knows we know what home means here in this đĄ. As if Home, the song, wasn't enough, as if the songs that would follow weren't enough, as if that dude being loud with a "tomorrow I'll find my way home" tweet when said tomorrow would be someone's birthday just earlier this year wasn't enough, I mean come on. This man eats double entendres for breakfast everyday.
This also gives me the-fish-is-traveling-right-now-vibes, as this festival is happening just (and I'm talking kicking off that same week just) before a tour is ~planned~, it's not Louis who is or is going to be away from home here, at least not as far as we know.
I do think it's 92.8% a ~these times amirite~ stay-at-home nod more than anything, it's just yaknow, son went ghuh that works in so many ways, yep nope that's perfect I want that.
(Also I like how both @ialwaysknewyouwerepunk and I went off about some of these home songs yesterday and the day before - Sweet Creature and that whole Canyon Moon x Home chaos so I'm just gonna link these here as relevant readings because I can)
Forever reblogging this beautiful trip/analysis
I love love LOVE HS1. When it came out, I had absolutely no idea what it was about as a whole and thatâs the best thing ever because then you basically spend a lifetime (nah) trying to make sense of it and itâs SO MUCH FUN. Here it is, a monster post text about how Harry is the biggest Pink Floyd fanboy ever and we kind of share that really.
Before I start here are some Pink Floyd parallels posts I really love, courtesy of @bluewinnerangel: here and here. The second one is mostly clownery on my part I apologize but itâs a warning of whatâs to come in this long ass post.
... this won't make the cut to my professional portfolio.
DISCLAIMER just so we're clear, I donât think this wall has anything to do with someone elseâs walls. I think the inspiration and creative process behind both their albums are really different so what I'm saying about HS1 doesn't necessarily apply to Walls. But hey, as someone once said, a wall is a wall.
The Wall is a concept album by Pink Floyd with a narration: it tells us the story of Pink, a rockstar on the verge of a breakdown. He ends up building a metaphorical wall around him. Each brick represents a trauma (the passing of his father during the war, his upbringing, his school education, the Blitz, his love life). Pink isolates himself in a hotel room and the wall is absolute. From there it's a free fall into depression and madness before he makes his wall fall eventually.
Now letâs talk about HS1. We know the sound of some of it kind of reminds us of Pink Floyd, as pop tabloids said (they do love forcing down parallels as much as I do). We also know that with this album, Harry wanted to say things he couldnât before, and it's all about him, his struggles. Sad stuff.
âI donât want to hear my favorite artists talk about all the amazing shit they get to do. I want to hear, âHow did you feel when you were alone in that hotel room, because you chose to be alone?'â
Harry really really likes the idea of being alone in a hotel room for this album.
What we also know is that the album was supposed to be named "Pink". Letâs take a look at the album cover real quick:
Harry is not facing us, he's naked and curled up on himself, surrounded by pink water.
My interpretation regarding this whole analysis: he doesnât let us in by turning his back on us. Yet heâs still vulnerable and exposed because heâs naked. Pink water is not pure, it's a result of toxic waste. Therefore it could be the form his wall takes: Pink's wall is made of bricks/traumas, Harry's is made of toxic substances/traumas. Here an interesting interpretation by billboard that helped me.
Harry trapped underneath blood water on the SOTT cover:
Harry above water in SOTT's mv standing taller than it
SO this once named âPink,, album cover could be his own take on Pinkâs character. From the get go, he compares himself to the protagonist of The Wall.
HS1 begins and ends within 4 walls: Harry is waiting for someone to come out of their room in MMITH and ends up alone in a hotel room in FTDT. Another bedroom in Only Angel. A room (kitchen) in Two Ghosts. Walls are also mentioned in ESNY (Understand Iâm talking to the walls). Regardless of the whole album progression, the setup barely changes, which makes me think that while Fine Line tells us a linear narrative, HS1 is more of a reflection on past traumas with no resolution in the end. Swimming in a fish bowl, a glass half empty. Contrary to Pink who gets to make his wall fall at the end of the album, Harryâs walls are still up. His first album is just the beginning of his solo career, of his story.
For this post I'll focus on some parallels that strike me as LOUD, whether itâs a specific theme, lyric or imagery.
Itâs SOTT appreciation time. What did Harry say about it ? Itâs inspired by a mother dying after giving birth and basically warning her child about life in the span of 5 minutes. Itâs also about various political and social issues, as he said once, vaguely answering a very pointed question in the midst of post 2016 political climate.
There is also a nice death imagery going on with the angelic choirs, the idea of seeing things from above, the bullets, the escapism. I donât think itâs literally about a mother dying after childbirth. But I donât think the mother explanation should be dismissed as just 'Harry talking out of his ass to get himself out of a delicate situation'.
I find a lot of interesting parallels with Pink Floydâs song Mother. Itâs about Pink remembering his overprotective mother, who projected on him her own fears and traumas and contributed to the building of his wall.
Just stop your crying itâs a sign of the time, SOTT
Hush now baby, baby, donât you cry, Mother
⊠to point out the obvious. But it doesnât stop here, there is also a lot of war talk going on:
Why are we always stuck and running from the bullets ?
Mother do you think theyâll drop the bomb ? / Mother, will they put me in the firing line ?
Of course the nature of the war differs from one song to another. Motherâs about WW2 and SOTT, well, oppression of some sort? me thinks closeting. Still in both cases the speaker feels trapped and is asking why. Theyâre seeking answers because the cruelty they suffer from is undeserved. Pink was a child caught in the war and Harry was a child caught in the money machine. Both are at the beginning of a long, tiring, dehumanizing journey. And a protective mother figure warns them about it.
Basically in both songs we have a voice who asks a dreadful question and a voice immediately attempting to soothe them somehow.
Why are we always stuck and running from the bullets ? > Just stop your crying.
Mother, will they put me in the firing line ? > Hush now baby, baby, donât you cry.
Once again, I donât think Harry is having a conversation with his mother the way Pink does. But I do suspect the use of motherhood as opposed to the violence and uncertainty regarding the future. Heâs using a motherly tone as a way to cope, a made up inner voice to reassure himself. While Pink associates motherhood to trauma, Harry associates it to comfort. It tells him to Go forth and conquer.
Quick additions to the SOTT parallels with The Thin Ice, another song about Pink in relation to his mother:
We never learn, weâve been here before, SOTT
Dragging behind you the silent reproach of a million tear-stained eyes, The Thin Ice
This voice of the reason reminds them they're carrying history somehow, a legacy. The weight of it adds on the pressure. This war isnât only about them, itâs about a lot of people and itâs been going on for a long time.
And another addition regarding the war imagery in SOTT with Goodbye Blue Sky (Pink remembering growing up during the Blitz).
Why are we always stuck and running from the bullets ? / Breaking through the atmosphere and things are pretty good from here, SOTT
Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue sky ?, Goodbye Blue Sky
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST a parallel between SOTT and Stop (where Pink the rockstar is exhausted and begs for his misery to end).
Welcome to the final show, hope youâre wearing your best clothes, SOTT
I want to go home, take off this uniform and leave the show, Stop
As mentionned before, HS1 starts with MMITH: Harry waiting outside someoneâs bedroom and almost begging for that someone to come out. More precisely, H just left the bedroom: he used to share that space with that person, but now thereâs a wall between them.
In The Wallâs storyline, Pink completely cuts his ties with the outside world and locks himself in a hotel room: his wall is complete. From there, he wonders if he actually made the right choice isolating himself in Hey you.
Yeah, tons of MMITH and Hey you parallels ahead:
Meet me in the hallway, I just left your bedroom, give me some morphine
Hey you, out there beyond the wall, breaking bottles in the hall, can you help me ?
Is there any more to do ? Just let me know Iâll be at the door/on the floor
Would you touch me ? / Would you help me to carry the stone ? / Can you help me ?
I walked the streets all day
Hey you, out there on the road
Hoping youâll come around
Donât tell me thereâs no hope at all
Maybe weâll work it out
Together we stand, divided we fall
Is this not... A dialogue ? MMITHâs speaker is outside the room, staying around just in case the person inside needs them. Theyâre desperate to prove their unconditional support. Hey youâs speaker is inside the room, trapped behind the wall, and questions whether or not the person waiting for them outside would actually be ready to assume the responsabilities that come with helping them with the load.
Which leads us to the end of HS1, FTDT. Now, Harryâs alone, inside his hotel room as well. After a succession of songs expressing frustration, anger, despair, jealousy, which are as many bricks, he built up his own wall, just like Pink. He distances himself from the "you" in MMITH even more. Now theyâre in the same situation:
Played with myself where were you ? / Even my phone misses your call, by the way
Hey you, out there on your own, sitting naked by the phone, would you touch me ?
Still going strong with the hopeless dialogue.
Right after Hey you comes the song Nobody Home, where Pink, fully isolated, gets more and more depressed and can only list the material possessions he bought with that rockstar money. More parallels can be made with FTDT:
Maybe one youâll call me and tell me that youâre sorry too, FTDT
Ooh, babe when I pick up the phone thereâs still nobody home, Nobody Home
AND REAL QUICK IâM SO ANNOYING SORRY THIS IS NOT EVEN HS1 BUT we can all agree that FTDT and Falling have a similar start right ? Alone in his bed, drunk and very sad. Allegedly Harry is at his lowest. Ok. This from Nobody HomeâŠ
All down the front of my favourite satin shirt / Iâve got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains
⊠looks a bit like this ? Though itâs not satin hm.
⊠And of course heâs in a richly decorated room where he drowns in his sorrow again and again. This room is like a trap he can't escape.
ANYWAY what's interesting is: if Harry identifies to Pink so much throughout this album, to the point where he theoretically almost named the album after him, why is Harry the one beyond the wall in MMITH? Is there someone else who shares similar life experience, traumas, emotional bagage and who could also relate to Pink to some extent ? Someone so similar they could be the ''you'' in the ''we'' of SOTT ? The one Harry wants to get away from here with? Them against the rest of the world ? SOMEONE WHOâS QUITE FAMILIAR WITH A WALL METAPHOR ?
Another big part of The Wall is the famoso Another Brick In The Wall part 2. The song protests against the abusive school system that works like an industry : it formates people and rips one's individuality off... turning them into a copy of a copy of a copy...
âHey, teachers! Leave them kids alone!â
âIf you don't eat your meat you can't have any pudding...â
âAll in all you're just another brick in the wallâ
mh why is that blackboard there, what's on it?
âŠMaybe ?? I can't see very well so it's convenient but.. maybe?
AND I KNOW this is not about Louis but those melted smooth faced masks which all look the same also remind me a lil bit of the concept of the masks in Walls' mv..? a tiny tiny lil bit? coacoac anyone?
⊠and this is just a white brick wall and I suppose white brick walls are very common but itâs still there so Iâll take it.
In Another Brick In the Wall part 2, the kids are kept under control by the teachers with pudding as a carrot and stick approach (If you donât eat your meat, you canât have any pudding). In the film adaptation of The Wall, Pink dreams of the kids rioting and burning down the school. In Kiwiâs MV, there are no teachers or any adult (except H, who also self inserts as a kid). All the children are gathered in a school gymnasium around a gigantic pile of cakes.
So Kiwi the MV could be Harryâs sequel of ABITW p2: the kids successfully got rid of figures of authority and seized the cakes/pudding which were once used as a weapon against them. The MV feels like a dream sequence because itâs so random, therefore it could be Harryâs fantasy just like the kids rioting were Pinkâs fantasy.
What's also interesting is that the persons who make their bread on the speaker's behalf (the woman in Kiwi and the teachers in The Wall) both have a sad love life at home:
When she's alone she goes home to a cactus, Kiwi
When they got home at night, their [...] wives would thrash them, The Happiest Days of our Lives
... Whereas ''home'' is basically Harry's only safe place, his constant, where he always go back to when he feels lost. This love Harry has no matter what makes him superior to them in that regard. "Them" is that external factor that is trying to take his love, his strenght away: the ones that are going to find him soon in Stockholm Syndrome, that made his lover walk away in Happily, that try to force him into submitting by telling him that nothing's ever easy, that the end is near. It's a powerplay between them and Harry, a war.
TO MAKE IT SHORT-ISH, what strikes me is that between the HCU (Harry Cinematic Universe lol) and The Wall, there is this common idea of a war that starts very early in life and results in absolute self-isolation. War corrupts kids, war makes money, war makes the world go round. Pink/Harry were exposed to it very young, had trouble understanding it and accepting it, and had to protect themselves with this metaphorical wall which eventually alienated them from everything.
It would also not be the first time Harry associates with the concept of being involved in a war of some sort: see the tattoo "wonât stop âtill we surrenderâââŠ
⊠or even a war involving kids: see the tattoo "I canât change" inspired by Make It Stop of Rise Against. Bang, bang from the closet wallsâŠ
I don't really know how to conclude this properly so tchuss