Lyr Add: Postcard Day (Ian Anderson)

Subject: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 06:28 PM

"Well, I may be a hostage to summer
But I'm a hostage not a slave"

What, I ask you, is the difference...

A hostage has nothing to do???

:-)

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 06:34 PM

maybe you should crack open a book called DICTIONARY.

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 06:44 PM

Ya ya ya... blah blah blah guest...

Anybody wanna have a discussion about interpretation, or are we content to endure the cock-offs?

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 06:46 PM

Being a hostage is seen as a more temporary condition than being a slave.

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 06:56 PM

Interesting MGoH...

Temporary condition... Hadn't thought of that...

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: mack/misophist
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 07:08 PM

A hostage has the hope of eventual release but knows his fate depends on the actions of those who gave him up. An element of fearfulness and uncertainty must be involved.

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Tinker
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 07:40 PM

Off the top of my head...A slave has often been seen as an economic transaction based in law. A hostage is a political outrage to provoke response, or demonstrate power.IMHO

Tinker

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 07:44 PM

Neat...

A hostage to summer though...   How do you folks see it in it's context?

;-)

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: mousethief
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 07:49 PM

Perhaps you would like to give us its context? Or should we guess?

Alex

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 07:53 PM

You've got me. I prefer summer and like it the year around. I suppose I could be either a slave or hostage to Mark Cohen. (Er, no, I detest work and I am sure he would have me harvesting coconuts).

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Tinker
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 07:58 PM

Can we have a little more of the lyric ??
With the little bit there I tend towards thinking that summer demands the longest and hardest work days in preparation for the harvest. It is only a hostage situation though because when the ransom is paid and the harvest brought in the speaker once again controls their own life.

Tinker

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 08:16 PM

Hostage to summer..........I have to live with it whether I like it or not. So I try to do whatever it takes to get through the time. This person is waiting for Autumn.

Slave to summer............Summer owns me body and soul. I have to do all the things that summer demands like get a tan,etc. This person may be a slave, but they worship summer.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Amos
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 08:22 PM

Summer is transient -- thus when it goes away, you expect to be free of its temptations toward sloth and indulgence. A "slave" to summer would be completely ne'e'r-do-well.
In this context summer is a time when one is kept warm by an enjoyable environment.

A

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: mack/misophist
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 11:08 PM

To answer the question is to name the hostage. I say the hostage is a flower.

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Helen
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 03:07 AM

Ian Anderson, from his Secret Language of Birds album, 2000.



      Postcard Day



http://www.cupofwonder.com/secrets.html
             Focus on the fine indeterminate line
             where the sky meets the sea.
             Desperate midweek words, banal and absurd
             freely flow out of me.
             Oh, I may be a hostage to summer
             but I'm a hostage, not a slave.
             And I'm clear that I wish you were here
             on this postcard day.

If you look at the start of the song he is doing some work, adding up numbers or something, so maybe it means: Here am I stuck in an office working, trapped in a situation away from summer and all of its joys. But being a hostage doesn't mean that I can't stop work and think about what I am missing out on, including his lover, because he is a hostage but not a slave, i.e. compelled to work against his will.

Just a really wuick think about this - could be wrong. It has been known to happen ;->

Helen

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Helen
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 03:08 AM

....But my typing is never wrong, even when I type wuickly.

H

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Amos
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 10:41 AM

Clearer with context. Sounds like he's hostage because he has to work while his love or his family are out on Block Island for the summer.

A

Subject: Lyr Add: POSTCARD DAY (Ian Anderson)
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 12:27 PM

Well according tho Cup OF Wonder... Ian says this about the whole song...

    "Holiday guilt. Having a simply wonderful time. Wish you were here, but sort of glad you're not".
      * Ian Anderson in the album booklet.

      "The song 'Postcard Day' is really about the point in mid-holiday when that sense of guilt comes upon you and you think 'God, I'd better send some postcards home, cos if I leave it to the end, we'll get home before they do' - which rather negates the point."
* Ian Anderson; from the Papillon Press Release "The Secret Language Of Birds"

So it would appear that the dude in the song is ON holiday...

Postcard Day

My eyes are wide circles above cheek bones on fire:
pale hand gripping my pen.
Rounding up to the zero, adding infinite fractions,
letting nine become ten.
Two pink doves strut the shingles
picking crumbs from the breakfast I saved
for you dear. And I wish you were here
on this postcard day.

Focus on the fine indeterminate line
where the sky meets the sea.
Desperate midweek words, banal and absurd
freely flow out of me.
Oh, I may be a hostage to summer
but I'm a hostage, not a slave.
And I'm clear that I wish you were here
on this postcard day.

Precious cargo of flotsam: mixed memories on an ocean tide
swim madly with spice from the orient
on a mystery watery carpet ride.
But with the sun going down, the wind goes around;
blows them back out of mind.

My eyes are wide circles staring down past the point
of my restless pen.
While the ghosts of my youth all sworn to the truth,
call my name again.
Two brown legs don't make a summer.
But two brown arms couldn't keep me away.
Well, my dear, I wish you were here
on this postcard day.

,-)

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Helen
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 06:33 PM

Oh, that's makes sense - having just been through that exact same thought process while on a month-long holiday in sunny Tasmania, i.e. send the postcards now or it will be too late.

But, given that I didn't know the info from Ian Anderson's comments I still think I didn't do too badly on my interpretation. It's a long, long time since I tried to interpret "litera-chure".

Helen

P.s. I was being a good little ex-librarian by not copying and pasting the whole of the lyrics - copyright and all that, but it is a *lot* easier when it is posted into these discussions, so thanks Clinton.

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 07:04 PM

Ya know... Especially given that there's a refernce to cupofwonder.com here, I don't think Ian would mind much (if at all), his lyrics being copied from one web site to another...

Subject: RE: Lyric Discussion.. Wazzis Mean To You???
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 11:57 AM

Difference between 'hostage' & 'slave'. A payment by a third party sets a hostage free. The same payment merely transfers ownership of the slave. The slave has no real hope of his condition truly changing.

Nigel