High Time
Cymbaline
Oh please, wake me...
I forgot how much this song meant to me. I think it is one of the few songs that can remind you of a lover or another moment of your dreams/reality. I think it is about destiny, and that in life we have to be the brave knights who face the darkness of the world. The darkness consumes, and I think by the end of the song, we get the grim message that some of us become the darkness ourselves. Well all beg, "Oh please, wake me"
On the other hand, it could be about a woman/man haunted by the affection he/she is trying to loose of a lover. I looked at the song in this way when I first heard it, because the ending has a bit of a meadow-ish tone, like damp and dark but wild and alive. I've always wanted to make love when that part would play. its dark, and its sexy, you know?
Then I heard the live version of pinkfloyd in a church, 1971. They play it slower, and with more sadness. Hear it, seriously; It goes from being even slightly sexy to actually sounding like a nightmare; As if the only light in a universe of darkness seems to slip farther away. As if we, the dreamer, chase the light only to find that it disappears completely. I think the ending, specifically, tells us that a true nightmare leaves you with no safety and security and, like in a vast and daunting society of youthful children on the face of reality, we are truly and utterly alone.
"They beg you for mercy, and what do you say?" - Oscar Brown Jr.; "Children of Children" by Oscar Brown Jr.
Here's the link to the church performance. Watch at your own risk; The feel of the original song (not live) may actually change because of this live performance (it is simply the magic of Pink Floyd)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yGepLq77Oc
EDIT: June 15, 1971, Abbaye de Royaumont, France. :)