I have a tendency to associate songs with characters. In my younger days I used to make AMVs. I generally focused on either characters or moments, as opposed to shows or arcs in general, because I have a natural inclination towards mentally pinging on songs that fit characters.
I pinged DLZ for Rose sometime around Earthlings and it’s only gotten more appropriate since. So what follows is a run down on how so:
The song is all about the good intentions of the subject going off the rails and creating a disaster. About things getting well out of hand and people getting hurt.
Congratulations on the mess you've made of things/On trying to reconstruct the air and all that brings
The song opens with the first verse consisting of the singer congratulating the subject on creating a disaster of their efforts to do something good.
And oxidation is the compromise you own/But this is beginning to feel like the dog wants a bone
And they did succeed, though not in a way that feels like a victory. The singer assures them that no, they did get what they were after, even if it came at a cost, but also notes that it feels as though this may have been less about the goal and more about the subject.
You force your fire and then you falsify your deeds
Your methods dot the disconnect from all your creeds
And fortune strives to fill the vacuum that it feeds
But this beginning to feel like the dog's lost the lead
The 2nd verse is especially resonant. You do what you think needs doing. You lie about the things you've done. You leave a wake of actions that seem to be in contradiction to the beliefs you profess to have and, while the good you've done tries to fill those gaps you've left, it feels like you lost control of the situation.
This is beginning to feel like the long winded blues of the never
This is beginning to feel like it's curling up slowly and finding a throat to choke
This is beginning to feel like the long winded blues of the never
Barely controlled locomotive consuming the picture and blowing the crows to smoke
This is beginning to feel like the long winded blues of the never
Static explosion devoted to crushing the broken and shoving their souls to ghost
That feeling you get when you start seeing dominoes fall that you didn't expect. When things you didn't think would go wrong go worse than that. That constant fear that your goals, whatever they were, are never to be and all that’s coming is tragedy. Only consequences. And there’s nothing you can do to reverse it or stop it anymore.
Eternalised. Objectified.
You set your sights so high.
But this is beginning to feel like the bolt busted loose from the lever
Lofty aspirations you can no longer lock down or hold back. And then it hits you with the real killer line
Never mind
Death professor
Your structure's fine
My dust is better
Your victim flies so high
All to catch a bird's eye view of who's next
Simultaneously bidding you to forget the concerns you have but in the same breath never letting you distance you yourself from them.
Never you mind
Death professor.
If love is life,
My love is better.
Your victim flies so high,
Eyes could be the diamonds
Confused with who's next
With this verse I have to point out the answer to an unasked question. If I’m associating this song with Rose who, if it were actually in the work, would be singing it. That answer is the internal monologue of PD/Rose. I have to answer that question now because someone else pointed out how well this works as a declaration of the switch over.
This is beginning to feel like the dawn of the loser forever
This is beginning to feel like the dawn of the loser forever
This is beginning to feel like the dawn of the loser forever
This is beginning to feel like the dawn of the loser forever
The repetition of it changes the meaning. A powerful declaration that the underdog is going to have their day slowly fading into a self-castigation of forever being a failure
And that’s about it for my thoughts on that subject. Depending on interest I might do more of these for other characters and shows.
TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and Jaleel Bunton talk about Seeds, staying friends after decades, and why “taking a break” doesn’t have to mean breaking up. “We do what we want when we feel like it — not in a flippant way, but because it’s still supposed to feel good.”
