TrogDawn
Janitor of the Void
 Number of posts : 7533
Age : 56
Location : Underground
Registration date : 2007-01-05
 |  Subject: BLACK SABBATH Lyric Analysis #3: "Behind the Wall of...  Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:35 pm | |
| "Behind the Wall of Sleep" (Black Sabbath, 1970)
Visions cupped within the flower
Deadly petals with strange power
Faces shine a deadly smile
Look upon you at your trial
Chill that numbs from head to toe
Icy sun with frosty glow
Words that grow read to your sorrow
Words that grow read no tomorrow
Feel your spirit rise with the breeze
Feel your body falling to its knees
Sleeping wall of remorse
Turns your body to a corpse
Turns your body to a corpse
Turns your body to a corpse
Sleeping wall of remorse
Turns your body to a corpse
Now from darkness there springs light
Wall of Sleep is cool and bright
Wall of Sleep is lying broken
Sun shines in you have awoken
Last edited by on Tue Feb 13, 2007 3:27 pm; edited 1 time in total | |
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TrogDawn
Janitor of the Void
Number of posts : 7533
Age : 56
Location : Underground
Registration date : 2007-01-05
| | Subject: Re: BLACK SABBATH Lyric Analysis #3: "Behind the Wall of... Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:52 pm | |
| - candlemass wrote:
- Man I love this tune! Thanx for the lyrics Randy, now I can sing it correctly at karaoke!
 - criss3o wrote:
- One of my favorites! Like, candlemass I did not know all the correct lyrics before!
Looking at this I would say it is about someone nearly dying from a heroin overdose and coming back!!! - TrogDawn wrote:
- This song is also one of my favorites. It's kind of a mystery to me in some ways though. I read the H.P. Lovecraft story with the same name years ago, and this song really has nothing to do with the story that I can discern.
The story, from what I can remember of it, was about an incarcerated criminal (perhaps a murderer) and the nightmares he apparently had when sleeping. That's all I remember. I suppose the line "Look upon you at your trial" might point to the story, but I remember thinking that the story was completely different from the song when I read it.
When I first heard the song, I just figured it was about being asleep and something happening in a dream. The beginning lines also seem to point to some sort of drug ("Visions cupped within the flower") that perhaps gives you visions while you are asleep. Perhaps the combination of the drug and sleep produced a nightmare and that is what the lyrics are talking about. I know that Geezer often wrote lyrics based on dreams/nightmares he'd had.
I like the way he compared sleep to death with the line "Takes your body to a corpse", and I've always just thought it was so cool that they wrote a song about sleep and also likened it to a "wall". Just a cool subject, a common experience for all, that no one else really seemed to delve into that I knew of at the time. I still love the last two lines of the song best:
Wall of sleep is lying broken
Sun shines in you have awoken
Classic.  - metal caunk wrote:
- I can tell you that a couple of acid trips that I had back in the 70's I had some dreams where it was like trying to fall asleep was like hitting a wall! Then once I entered in to the sleep I had the terror of thinking that I would die and in fact had quite a few vivid dreams of my dying (and I couldn't seem to wake up - must have been the sleep paralysis!) and then coming back to life in the grave and scratching and clawing at the coffin! Finally when daylight would invade my bedroom the dreams would lose their intensity and all would be peaceful.
It probably didn't help that I used to fall asleep listening to Sabbath, Floyd and Led, Zep! - TrogDawn wrote:
- Wow man, that sounds intense!
It almost sounds like you could have written that song based on your experience! 
I never volitionally took acid (there is a slight possibility I may have been given some at one point, I just never got the spinal tap to prove it) but I have experienced that kind of terror at times (without the visuals though). - metal canuk wrote:
- yes they were intense!! These dreams also coincided with my being preached the gospel.
I can tell you that the day that I repented, I was going to partake in some smoke and went upstairs to get something and wham! It was almost surreal, as if the ceiling disappeared and God spoke to me as if audibly, and two scriptures came to mind (during these months I had been shared the gospel many times and many people were praying for me - and I had made it somewhat a habit to wax religious at parties while on certain mind altering herbs and chemicals - but I digress...)
The first scripture was "How can the blind lead the blind?" and the second, "how can a drowning man save another drowning man?" And then as if in a loud voice I heard "GET OUT OF THE WATER!!!" And instantly I repented of my sins - and it was as if I was suddenly clean, and it was if my sins were vacuumed out the me up through the ceiling!!
I made my way downstairs and it was just as my room-mates were about to smoke a spliff and eat a pizza and I come around the corner and tell them "matter-of-factly", I just gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ and you guys are in Trouble!! - TrogDawn wrote:
- That's quite a testimony there, bro!
 - ghosts of athanasius wrote:
- Well I am likely way off but I think the tune is about using opiates.
To me, the flower is likely a poppy flower from which opium is derived. The experiences are similar to opium junkies too. But I want to mean something cooler so let's just say I am wrong - candlemass wrote:
- Man I can relate to the acid trips, the bad trips I had were nothing short of sheer terror!
 - TrogDawn wrote:
- Lucky me...I got all the terror with none of the "fun" part
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