Immortal?

Suddenly I had it right in front of me: the first new lyric. It’s rather strange to analyse a lyric without having heard the song first. But the lyric speaks for itself. I can imagine what the song will sound like though: grand, with many breaks and an impressive finale. But maybe I’ve got it all wrong. Anyway, Clive has told us that the lyrics on Immortal? are interconnected very strongly and that taken together they form a ‘conceptual’ album, albeit not a concept album like The Visitor. This lyric also indicates this: it mentions a ‘ghost in the Firewall’ and this is the title of one of the other tracks on the album (which deals, according to Clive, with an alien who wants to be part of the system on earth; Moviedrome is also about whether you’re a part of the system or not). Very promising indeed.

The first thing that attracts my attention in this lyric are all the references to technology and progress: monitor screens, T.V. screens, fax machines, Internet – an obvious break with the previous albums. Songs... and Pride both have an ancient ambience and are filled with historical, biblical and mythological elements. The Visitor doesn’t have a particular place or time, it’s a timeless album, as a manner of speaking. The song Moviedrome on the other hand, is clearly set in the present or in the near future.

The lyric draws on the classical theme of the individual, the outsider, versus society, the system. A few book titles immediately come to mind: 1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and This Perfect Day by Ira Levin. All these books are about a protagonist who doesn’t feel at ease in the society in which he lives, because he can’t relate to the principles on which society is founded (nationalism, consumption, technology). Therefore he tries to escape and/or to fight it. The lyric also reflects Clive’s interest in The X-Files. Big conspiracies and an almighty, omnipresent government, which an individual (Agent Mulder) tries to fight against.

The lyric is filled with contrasts: the individual versus the collective, nature versus technology, desire for progress versus longing for the past. Society is founded on technology (The human race has found its own true home/The dwelling places of these high tech lies) and the omnipresent and almighty media. They determine how we should live, what we should look like, what we should think (Letting all the pictures be the/Guide to our fragile lives). Technology is being propagandised as the future for everyone (‘Formulas are set’, declares the optimist/’This is the road for everyone’).

The powers that control all, who or whatever they may be, enter the living room through the media. More and more people submit themselves to this indoctrination and thus the power of the ones in control grows:

He has the face of a friend
And shall reach across the world into every home
We invite him in and offer no defence
And with every given soul he reaches for his throne
He has the face of an Angel
As he leads us in the dance

This propaganda is a means to keep everybody under control and to steer society. Everybody’s quite willing to submit himself, because it's the way to belong to the group, it’s the way to the future, the way to prosperity. People derive their identity from it:

We’re all sucked in
Part of the core collective
We’re all dragged in
Blind to the cause we’ve been selected for.... Elected for

Once you’ve surrendered, you’re trapped in the system and escape is no longer possible (‘Prisoners forever in the Moviedrome’). This really reminds of 1984 by Orwell. In this book, every house has a T.V. that’s always on and which continuously broadcasts propaganda and which is used to glorify the big leader, Big Brother. At the same time, it’s also a means to look inside everybody's homes to see what people are doing.

The obsession with the media is also illustrated with references to reality T.V., real life soap and talk shows like Jerry Springer:

Ordinary people
Objects and events
Now is a time of foolish fears
Emotions run high and needless tears are shed

Something else is hidden in this fragment (‘To think it has come to this’ to ‘Emotions run high…’). If you read the capitals at the beginning of each sentence after each other it says ‘Trust no one’. You can’t trust anyone in this society, you’re on your own.

The character in the lyric doesn’t feel comfortable with all this. He doesn’t believe in technology and progress (and is therefore a pessimist in the eyes of the others). He’s a dreamer and wonders whether this is the right path for humanity:

To think it has come to this
(...)
Too far we have travelled out
(…)
Oh no.... I can t go there again
Oh no.... Was this ever meant to be?
(…)
Did we ever really learn?
Did we never really learn?

The obsession with technology and the media produces individualisation, anonymity and loneliness:
Ruled by indifference
Underlying waves of doubt
Such arrogant self reliance
(...)
Nervous in our sentience
(…)
Until we find ourselves.... alone! 

The protagonist longs for the past:

And it hurts to be away from you
From the world you made so well

It’s not exactly clear whom ‘you’ refers to. Maybe it’s someone who was dear to the protagonist whom he lost, because this person did submit to the system. Maybe it’s his former self, whom he’s slowly losing under the influence of the media and social pressure. It might even be man in general and the world as it used to be.

He also dreams about nature:

What will I be hen winter comes again?
And we’re wrapped in furs, and life has begun again
(…)
What will I be when summer comes once more?
And we’re naked and weak in the eye of the sun once more

And about fairytales and fantasy:

Waiting for some sign of a ghost or a little green man
(…)
I’m sitting on the floor with a book in my hand
Dreaming of the world in a way that only children can

A child is a clear symbol for innocence and purity. And I can hardly imagine a better symbol for the past than a book in these days of Internet and multimedia!

The protagonist tries to escape from the media and the controlling powers, in order to survive and to save what’s left of his true, innocent self. Therefore he hides:

Stay down! Like a shadow in a hallway
Watching all the blues and greens
As I hide from the glare of the monitor screen
Run fast! Like a shadow in a subway
Try to remain unseen
As I hide from the glare of the T.V. screen

This is the only way to maintain his freedom. When you surrender to the media and the propaganda, you lose your soul and you’re lost. In the eyes of the others the powers have ‘the face of a friend.’ But the protagonist sees the danger. When you look too long they will take control over you:

Try to survive – Don’t look into his eyes
Try to stay alive – Don’t look into his dead, dead eyes

To flee and to go underground is the only solution:

Maybe there’s a way to save the pessimist
He could make it to the hills and ride out the storm
(…)
Maybe we can hide, continue to exist
With a crate of bottled water and a sawn off shut gun

The perspective shifts from he to we. Throughout the lyric, we represents society, mankind. Here it refers to a smaller group of people; the few persons who don’t fit in society and who see through the media and propaganda:

The few that see the world beyond the Moviedrome
Must march on through the wilderness
Of fantasy, False images, And pride

This reminds me of the box office hit The Matrix of last year. In this film, reality as we know it is actually a computer programme, designed to keep people satisfied, while they’re in fact subjected. A small group of people has managed to escape and sees the horrifying truth: people are used as a power source for machines that rule the earth. They fight this and try to give humanity its freedom and dignity back.

It’s not clear what happens to the group of people in Moviedrome. The lyric has an open ending and everybody's up to himself to decide what happens. Are you an optimist or a pessimist?

By: Erik Beers