written by Mark Brown
prepared for html by Eric Spierings
Here's a review of some general discussion and speculation about Division Bell lyrics, art, and music; and the supplemental materials such as the Take It Back single, the concert booklet, and the videos. Many curious newcomers have asked for this "rerun", in which the focus is on my speculation about Publius's clues and the enigma in TDB. A lot of this is familiar to those who have followed the discussion all along, but there's some new thought here as well.
I'm sorry if this seems to dwell too much on detail, when we are supposed to be at the stage of relating general themes in order to find the "central purpose and designed solution" mentioned by Publius. My metaphor here is that you have to examine the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to see how they fit with each other into the final grand design.
I have given a lot of thought to the notion that Publius and TDB are pointing us toward the Cambridge area, perhaps to follow a trail there, so there's a lot of attention paid here to what I call location clues. I haven't had time to look into it yet, but it occurs to me that it'd be appropriate to find a sequence of bells (or some bell references, like rings) to be followed, as in the DSotM Breathe Reprise lyric:
Home, home again [to Cambridge]
I like to be here when I can.
When I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire.
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell [The Bell is calling]
Calls the faithful to their knees [the faithful fans]
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.
The Division Bell's statues were photographed near Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire, about 16 miles north of Cambridge, where several band members and their friends, like Storm Thorgerson and Tim Renwick, grew up. That's Ely Cathedral visible between the mouths of the statues. A tree in the background is featured in Take It Back artwork. The last two photos from the cd booklet that show men with banners are apparently from a location somewhere in that vicinity, as well.
I think the same statues are pictured on the front and back of the cd, despite differences in the riveting seen. The several photos in the concert booklet indicate to me that the photo on the cd front cover has been airbrushed to smooth over the rivets. I think the waves of light between the mouths of the statues on the back, symbolic of the "Keep Talking" theme, are long exposures of someone moving along while raising and lowering a light source. The stone heads in the concert booklet and on the cassette appear to be a separate work.
The words Cluster One, said quickly, resemble "close, two are one." (That song title was changed at the last minute from "Nearly Touching.") If you fold a copy of the statue art, the two heads seem to become one heart-like figure -- a broken heart mended. The eyes, which look like archery targets, might be targets for the arrows of Cupid (more about him later). This imagery may refer to the breakdown of David Gilmour's marriage during the MLOR tour and his new marriage with Polly (Samson), the journalist he wed last July. She helped with TDB lyrics, and is the mother of Charlie, the little boy telephoned by Dave at the end of TDB. Maybe it's also Charlie in the High Hopes video with the teddy bear. All of this may introduce a strong love relationship theme in TDB.
Many people see a resemblance between the TDB statues and the ones done long ago by Easter Islanders, and Craig McGee has posted quite a bit about that idea. The Easter Island connection may fit into a theme of revitalization or rebirth -- a Coming Back To Life theme -- because Easter and pagan holidays that preceded it celebrate renewal of life. (Coincidentally, an Easter Island statue is featured in the art of a Syd Barrett collection, and several are in a recent Sony headphone ad.)
From looking at the shadows in the statue photos from the cd booklet and the concert booklet, it's plain to me that the statues are placed more or less east of Ely Cathedral. Publius says, "Orient yourselves a first time ..." and, "... a few more hints to orient your research." The word orient is from the Latin verb "oriri", to rise, so it refers to sunrise or generally to the direction east. High Hopes and A Great Day For Freedom have explicit "dawn" lyrics. (It may be worth noting one looser connection: Coming Back To Life's "headed straight into the shining sun" seems to be about a dawning relationship with Polly.)
John Take talked about looking east from Ely Cathedral toward the statues, to "stare out (through) the steel in their eyes" to see what's behind the camera. What would be seen in that direction?
Several landmarks are referred to in TDB lyrics, art, and videos. The River Cam, which gave Cambridge its name, is one. From High Hopes,
"The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river"
may refer to the sight of the Cam River in the east, with the mist aglow because of the rising sun behind it. Maybe it's not in sight from the statues, but the concert booklet clearly shows a waterway near the road or runway where the large bust of Syd (yes, I state flatly that the bust is of Syd) is carried by about fifteen bearers.
(Side note: In the High Hopes video scene of this bust, we see that it's a hollow stage prop, which I see as symbolic of the one-dimensional view that fans have of pop stars: we see them as having heroic stature, and forget the fragile humanity behind the public image.)
Perhaps a Causeway is in sight, but I'm not certain. High Hopes has the lyric, "Along the Long Road and on down the Causeway/Do they still meet there by the Cut?" A causeway is a dike or levee of raised earth. Many old Roman roads are raised and are called causeways. The Cut might be a place to go around the Causeway, or a place where it has a sudden change of direction or has an intersection or swerves around something.
It's not clear that High Hopes is referring to anything seen from the statues' site. David Tratt relayed word from a friend in Cambridge, who said that in this case,
"The Causeway is the FEN causeway, a long road, near Long Road, which goes across the fen in the centre of CB. The Cut? Don't know this one; nor my accomplices."
There was also a post from David Wales, University of Cambridge -- is that David Tratt's friend? He said,
"'Along the Long Road and on down the Causeway
Do they still meet there by the Cut'
"These lines bothered me for a while because I couldn't work out where "the Cut" is. Long Road is indeed a long road that runs East-West a couple of miles South of Cambridge and the town has two Causeways: Fen Causeway and Maid's Causeway. Consulting a Cambridge Street map reveals that Maid's Causeway terminates only a few hundred yards away from Cutter Ferry Close and Cutter Ferry Lane."
So, perhaps the Causeway and the Cut are far away from the statues. We have it from another Cambridge local, Anthony Sawford, that Ely is north of Cambridge, and if the Long Road is to the south, then what I see in TDB and TIB artwork may well be a different road.
There's a raised earth road, a causeway, behind the statues at the row of small trees. The little tree (pictured in the concert booklet and illustrations for Take It Back on the album and singles) grows in the little slope in front of the road. Perhaps the Long Road leads to this one somehow, and perhaps there's a cut of some sort nearby. As stated earlier, there's a waterway near where the large bust and the men with banners were photographed and taped. (John Take noticed that being on a raised road put them "at a higher altitude with flags unfurled".) The waterway behind those men is not parallel to the road -- it looks as if the road and water might meet near where the bust was carried, so that intersection may be a "cut".
In the TIB video, the camera swoops above some fields and shows a pair of large satellite dish antennas. This may be a general reference to communication, or perhaps that's a place of interest in a path to follow.
The sound effect that begins HH is a buzzing fly. That's a direct reference to Grantchester Meadows, the song on Ummagumma, which uses the same sound clip. Grantchester Meadows is in Cambridgeshire, and "ummagumma" is Cambridgeshire slang.
Many places in Cambridge itself are shown in that video. My guess is that the building shown during the lyric:
"In a world of magnets and miracles"
might be a building used by Professor Stephen Hawking, a physicist who has a credit on TDB. (More about him later.) Or, that lyric might only be a reference to magnetic tape & recording studio equipment.
I see several references in Lost for Words that may have to do with locations in Cambridge. In particular, there are several that remind me of things having to do with monastic life and monasteries, or perhaps some school or university buildings that had a religious connection.
"Stuck in a world of isolation (Cloistered life?)
While the ivy grows over the door" (Academic setting?)
"And I ask could we wipe the slate clean" " "
In the Lost For Words illustration of boxing gloves, perhaps there is a reference to boxing at a school gymnasium. A boxing ring is one place to find a bell, of course, and "ring" is reminiscent of a bell. (It seems to have no bearing on the enigma, but I've posted before about the gloves being symbolic -- three pairs of eyelets on one glove versus four on the other, perhaps meaning three members of the band vs. four. Are those gloves arranged in a "V for Victory"? Looks like it.)
A lyric in WtIO reminds me of monastic life:
"I murmured a vow of silence ..."
There's even a part of Keep Talking art that might have something to do with a monastic location if there's a trail to follow. The monkeys pictured made me think of monk-keys. Could it be that some "keys" or clues are available from a "monk"?
Something else I imagine is a school courtyard or a parade ground where one might "wake to the sound of drums", and see "doves in flight," as in AGDFF. It might feature banners as in the photos and video.
Getting back to the meaning of The Division Bell: when a vote is to be held, a bell is rung for a period of time. The voters have to assemble before the bell stops tolling and the doors are shut. That may make doors important to us. A lyric search turns up that word in Lost For Words several times, using door imagery to suggest separation.
"When the Right One walks out of the door" [Wright one?]
"While the ivy grows over the door"
"So I open my door to my enemies"
If Cluster One is said quickly, it also sounds like "close tour one" -- is that when the Bell stops tolling and the doors close -- at the end of this year's TDB tour? Those words also seem to me to sound like "close door one". AGDFF mentions throwing locks onto the ground, and breaching the Wall "opened the door" between the divided Berlins. Doors appear in the art for both Cluster One and Wearing The Inside Out, and WtIO refers to "standing on the threshold". There's a prominent door out in a field in the High Hopes video. The art for Coming Back To Life was photographed in southern England at Durdle Door, Dorset.
Another thing that interests me about the Durdle Door photograph is that to my eye, it appears to have been heavily airbrushed in certain places. In the rocky background, I see suggestions of the initials RSVP repeated several times, even overlapping. Have a look at the right-hand page, just above the center in the shadowed caved-in area just above the beginning of the beach. Those are most unusual formations. If you see anything there, then look at the rest of the hills. I'd be interested to hear from someone who has both the U.S. and the somewhat different U.K. version of this art.
This is probably a good place to mention some of the water and land references that might apply to an ocean beach. On the little poster with the EMI TIB single, there's a combined image of the stone heads and superimposed breaking surf. WDYWFM says,
"You can drift, you can dream, even walk on water"
-- that could be drifting on the waves, or drifting sand; and walking on water might merely mean walking in the shallows at a beach. Shore sounds (seagulls) introduce the instrumental Marooned, illustrated by "talking whales". The word "marooned" itself conjures up imagery of shallow water and beaches and sand and even beached whales. From TIB, AGDFF, and HH lyrics:
"sounds like the waves on the sea"
"rising from the deep"
"hear the rising tide"
"Ship of Fools ... run aground" [Dave's houseboat/studio?]
"the force of some inner tide"
The LFW lyric, "spending my time in the doldrums", makes an ocean reference too. (In the doldrums means despondent, or -- the origin of the phrase "lost in the doldrums" -- the zone in the ocean near the equator that's called the doldrums. It's difficult to navigate because of the shifting winds, squalls, and calm periods -- no steady winds.)
Just a thought: might something be hidden by water at high tide but revealed at low tide, as if marooned or shipwrecked? Perhaps there is something stranded, but not forever, in the shallows or in a tidal pool:
"She could/might/will take it back some day" (out to sea?)
The illustration for Cluster One is the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile. If there's a trail to be followed, perhaps this page points to a nagivational tool, a compass of sorts. Notice that the little head containing the page number is at the bottom facing down -- or since Chile is "upside down" with respect to Cambridge, I'd say it faces north, towards Cambridge. Perhaps the little heads that face all different ways are significant, and are indicating a path. They may be indicating it indirectly, so we need to do more than look at the heads.
Some seem to be easy to rationalize, but others are not. I don't know what to say about the one next to the mirror ball -- perhaps looking at the ball represents looking at the steel heads, and maybe the idea of reflection-reversal comes into play.
The meaning of the one by the Poles Apart lyrics eludes me. The one opposite the Marooned sand art looks like it faces north [erratum: corrected in post of 9/28 ^^^^^ ] , if the east side of the steel heads is pictured, and I'll make a wild guess that it is. Suppose that the east side of the statues -- as seen from the U.S. side of the "pond" -- show red eyes, and that the west side of the statues -- as seen from the U.K. side -- are green? That would be in keeping with the difference in the CBS/Sony and EMI cd releases, I think. I have both TIBs, but only the U.S. TDB.
The pair of little heads facing opposite directions on page 11 was difficult to explain for a while. Because of the black-and-white art, I suggest that it means "Look both ways before you cross the street" at the zebra crossing -- an English crosswalk. :-)
No, actually, I think the black-and-white artwork fits the theory propounded a long time ago that the "crumpled paper heads" represent Abraham Lincoln and freed slaves. The paper head on the left has a darker face and has the word "free" on its forehead. The right-hand head is elevated a bit and has the word "great" on the front of its box, which may indicate Lincoln's stature in U.S. history and his position of authority. If all that holds water, then the little page-number heads face apart: the North and the South showing their disagreement. The left newspaper head looks to the northerner for assistance and he looks back attentively. How's that for a division and reunion theme? It goes right along with the interpersonal and international lyrical themes of the song.
The head with the WtIO art has the head facing away from the TV set, so maybe that gives a direction to go from the satellite dishes mentioned earlier. I'm going to just go by intuition and assume for now that the heads generally point north, as a compass needle does.
The one under the Take It Back lyrics, if referred to the tree and Ely in the background, seems to face north. So might the one facing away from the sea at the south of England on the CBTL pages.
For the Keep Talking and Lost For Words pages, I'm not sure. Maybe the "always faces north" theory is no good. However, it seems to work again for the High Hopes page, based on the sun angle.
I posted a few days ago about the idea of using the Marooned sand and seashell artwork as a map to use with the compass, and won't repeat it here.
The sound clip used in Poles Apart is complex, and no one has yet found out what all the sounds are, so far as I know. I call it the "circus music", and it includes whistling, a drumming noise, bells, a squeak, a baby's cry, and perhaps more. Part of it does have meaning to me, though. In Poles Apart are the lyrics:
"Why did we tell you then / You were always the golden boy ..."
That song could be about Syd Barrett. In any case, because of the "golden boy" wording and the "circus music", I think that the sound clip is a reference to London, and in particular to Piccadilly Circus in London where there is a brass "golden boy" -- the statue of Eros. Eros is the Greek counterpart of the Latin Cupid, the god of love that I mentioned earlier in connection with the "target" eyes of the statues. He's ordinarily portrayed as an infant, hence the crying baby's voice. I think the squealing sound is a classis London taxicab. I wonder what the whistling and the "tapping noise with echo" are? I also wonder if London is the place to "waken to the sound of drums" and whether there's a place of interest to us where banners and flags are prominent, and where doves take flight -- could that be Trafalgar Square or some place near the Circus?
There's a Poles Apart synthesizer bit that repeats quite a lot. It's a background moaning just before the circus music and elsewhere that I find interesting. To me it sort of sounds like:
"Pol-ly, Pol-ly, Pol-ly"
The faces illustrating Poles Apart (red/yellow/blue stones) can be seen as a smiling pig's face. Someone else said that the pig appears "startled" and pointed out that his feet or "trotters" are visible. As with Cluster One, there may be a title pun: poles apart = pull us apart.
