Prince Caspian Lyric thoughts
Daniel Ritchey
Hope everyone had a fun halloween!
Just for kicks the other day, I dug out my copy of Prince Caspian and read
it. One possible analysis struck me, although it may be stretching it to
say that this is definitely what was on Trey's mind.
Prince Caspian goes on a voyage to the end of the world, accompanied by
some loyal and trustworthy friends. After much adventure, they come
to the edge of the world (the world is flat in Narnia, where this is all
happening) and see beautiful things, and an area which they think is the
fabled Land to the East from whence Aslan (the traditionall alpha-male
god-figure) comes. Many good times and amazing, magical events occured
on this voyage, and the line "Oh! To be Prince Caspian, afloat upon the
waves" obviously expresses a longing for this kind of adventure.
One island they land on is inhabited by these invisible beings called
Duffelpuds. Lucy (a human in Narnia) sneaks into the magician's castle
and find the spell to make them visible again, and it is revealed that
these were once men, but now are the tops of men with one big-ass stalk
with a big foot at the bottom instead of two legs. Not exactly a "stump"
but these one-legged creatures did have to hop everywhere, and perhaps
this was the inspiration for the stumps instead of feet thing.
At the end of the voyage, when they can go no further in the big ship,
Caspian wants to continue over the edge in the little boat they have
with them. He is disuaded by his cohorts, who argue that as King of
Narnia he can't just up and drop off the edge of the earth, possibly
never to return. Two humans and a two-foot talking mouse end up
going, and Caspian returns to Narnia. Perhaps this is where the
"nothing to return to but the demons" line came from. Maybe Trey
wants to go off on his own, but feels tied down by his fans because
they would freak if Phish took a couple years off to go on a
personal adventure that didn't involve playing any shows. This adventure
might be the raising of his daughter in her formative years.
Well, take that for what it is worth. Anyone else read this and have
any thoughts?
Daniel Ritchey
http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~dritche1
Mike Gatewood
All that you are talking about is not in the book "Prince Caspian", but in
"The Voyage of the Dawn Treader". Anyway, I think the lyrics go like this,
but I am not sure:
"O, to be Prince Caspian, afloat upon the waves.
With nothing to return to but the deamons in their caves.
O, to be Prince Caspian,
And the children in the field also excede in chafing wheat,
O, to be Prince Caspian, with stumps instead of feet."
OK, I have some questions. I don't think the "And the children . . . . .
wheat" line is correct at all. Do you know what it is supposed to be?
And, Prince Caspian never had "stumps instead of feet", so what is that
supposed to mean.
One last thought: I think the line "with nothing to return to but the
deamons in their caves" is supposed to be a good thing. The book "Prince
Caspian", which the book before "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", is about
Caspian's struggle to overthrow the "humans", who ran all the talking
"deamons" out of Narnia. Caspian loved the talking creatures, and wanted
to restore them to their proper heritage. So, I think Phish is relating
how good Prince Caspian had it, "with nothing to return to but the deamons
in their caves", to how we humans have nothing to return to but other
humans.
The whole song is about yearning to be somewhere else, and to have that
hope of something better ahead of us. It might relate to Phish wanting to
stop touring for a while and vacation in some far off magical place, but I
am not sure. Anyway, don't we all want to get away from everything
sometimes; isn't that the reason we follow Phish.
I cuss, you cuss, we all cuss . . . . for asparagus,
Mike "Hee Haw" Gatewood
Mike Gatewood
Chris Nicolai <ad...@freenet.buffalo.edu> wrote in article
<ad033-11119...@rn2648.resnet.oberlin.edu>...
> In article <55qpf0$s...@agate.berkeley.edu>, "Mike Gatewood"
Patrick Allen Farrell
Mike Gatewood (hotl...@cleaf.com) wrote:
: <snip>:
: "O, to be Prince Caspian, afloat upon the waves.
: With nothing to return to but the deamons in their caves.
: O, to be Prince Caspian,
: And the children in the field also excede in chafing wheat,
: O, to be Prince Caspian, with stumps instead of feet."
i thought this song mentioned in the last line, Fee.
who stops instead of Fee. you know, the whole thing went
down on a ship. . . and come to think of it, Free is about
drowning. . . and hey, the Sloth hangs out in bars like Millie,
and wait a minute, he'll slice you on the nipple. . .
:-)
Pat who needs to get a life;-)