Five Lines

[Simonp]

Love it though the lyric is slightly perplexing. Anyone any ideas as to what is about??

[Haldeman Gracie]

I've only heard it once but here goes:

The track appears to be about Manafon, the album itself.

'Five lines' is a reference to musical notation, 'ovens' refers to the creative process, the 'ribbons' could well be a visual metaphor for the treble clef (which is being abandoned in favour of musical anarchy). The reference to 'his mother' is probably to do with Shree Ma and the like (Small Metal Gods?)

Quite what he's saying about Manafon is open to question, although he seems to acknowledge going back to old school songwriting afterwards ('return the birds to their singing') and unsure of what he wants to do with Manafon now: let it be, or rework it (which is what he's apparently doing, not co-incidentally with the co-creator of this piece).

Manafon is further referenced by mention of a stag (which is the cover image of the album) and the fact that the track begins with what you may call a melodic sample of Snow White In Appalachia - the opening line of each are absolutely identical.

[Simonp]

Interesting thoughts. Having heard it only once, what do you think about the music itself? Woould you like to hear more like this from Sylvian?

[baht habit]

Interesting thoughts. Having heard it only once, what do you think about the music itself? Woould you like to hear more like this from Sylvian?

More like this? Definitely Simon. I have always greatly enjoyed the sound of a string quartet, plus the more creative and unconventional, then the better. I'm estimating that I have listened to it about a couple dozen times so far and in my opinion, the piece sounds as if it were a slight continuation of the challenges posed to Sylvian by Derek Bailey...yet this time the music was written down and Sylvian is being pushed by the sound of violins, viola and cello rather than an elder ragtime and swing guitarist who chose to eschew any typical sort of structure in favor of expressing himself with the most random manner of improv possible.
I do believe that this musical concept could point to a promising future if Sylvian should choose to follow further within the archaic experimentalism of contemporary orchestral music.
And I can easily assume that we will actually hear at least a bit more music in this vein. I've been informed that Dai Fujikura has kept mentioning on some blog that he is either composing and recording more musical ideas with members of the International Contemporary Ensemble with the plan of submitting the material to Sylvian, or is presently remixing and rerecording selected tracks off of Manafon. I'm not sure why they would feel the need to redo any of Manafon (the alterations to Random Acts didn't really impress me all that much, and actually suffered in my opinion due to how it covered up the strikingly beautiful minimalism contributed by pianist John Tilbury).
But it appears as though we will indeed hear a mixed bag of fresh material and reworked material, as mentioned above by Haldeman G.

[kitaj]

I interpret it as being an accusation of classical music (the five lines) as used/abused to nazism's advantage (the ovens).
also, I picture the sun-turned-stag to be something like the power of music, and the man who found it dead in the woods might be a Hitler-like character - having access to something so valuable only to find it dead on his hands.
this interpretation somehow works on all levels for me (the very form obviously included, being a string quartet composition to begin with). I like that it seems that David extracted a charmingly straightforward inspiration from Dai's piece in this way - maybe in a matter of seconds.

[kitaj]

the character referenced near the beginning of the song may be a classical music composer or conductor ("five lines with which he marked out time").
was this why David was uneasy about Dai's first reaction to the finished piece as he was about to play it for him?

[missouriman]

IT IS ALL ABOUT INGRID!!!! I kid.

I love this track. Never been the type to appreciate string sections like this, but it really put one on me. Especially when it was melodic. So powerful and beautiful. I could take a few more, Sir.

[Haldeman Gracie]

The interesting thing about some Sylvian lyrics of late (for me anyway) is that they work almost like a puzzle. When you realise what he’s doing in one (in Manafon, say, by disguising himself as a female), you can apply it to other tracks and it’s suddenly quite obvious.

I’m assuming that Five Lines is about the album he’d just released and his new musical direction (not definitively the case as this thread proves). And when listening to Jean The Birdman earlier, a track that seemed to be fanciful goobledigook for nearly 2 decades, it was suddenly much clearer: another track lyrically dealing with the album it had immediately followed.

It appears to be about his battle for control of Rain Tree Crow from Jansen / Barbieri / Karn. Right from the opening. I’d stake my Weatherbox on it. And it’s quite a revelatory picture it paints in regards to David’s opinion of his bandmates / record label and more importantly himself. He doesn’t appear to give them much of a backbone.

That said, the lyrics become more obscure the longer the song goes on. And if it had been the line ‘three hearts cut short’ it would have been a no brainer. Seems like Big Dave upset a further three people by taking the project into his own hands or he was employing a bit of misdirection there.

Has Sylvian ever discussed what this song was about? Or, more importantly, has he ever performed it live with Jansen in the band?

[Adrian]

if the lyric is indeed 'five lines with which he marked out time' the obvious interpretation for me would be literal, so like people in prison counting the days by scratching a line into the wall and one across for each fifth day, to make counting later on easier. So it deals with isolation, a feeling of being locked up? I haven't heard it yet so can't comment further at the moment.

[Adrian]

see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_marks

[heartofdavid]

if the lyric is indeed 'five lines with which he marked out time' the obvious interpretation for me would be literal, so like people in prison counting the days by scratching a line into the wall and one across for each fifth day, to make counting later on easier. So it deals with isolation, a feeling of being locked up? I haven't heard it yet so can't comment further at the moment.

I think there is some degree of literalness to it - 5 lines perhaps meaning 5 decades, a reference to Sylvian's age. I took "the sun fell" as not 'sun' but 'son', meaning himself - where he once was long ago 'in the sky' (spotlight, popstar) to where he finds himself now, the stag deep in the forest, and the blow referring to significant changes in his current circumstances (musically, family, spiritually).

[karnsculpture]

Its always been possible to read multiple meanings into Sylvian's lyrics, another is that Sylvian is writing about how Japan became something he hadn't really meant it to be, so he killed it. Then, the latter part of the song could be about how he has effectively deconstructed his own career (also maybe a reference to RTC there). We are the foxes, feeding on the corpse of the stag (Japan/RTC - something that's more than the sum of its parts IMHO), and Sylvian is left to us foxes too.

It could also be about the music industry in general, how the corporates and artists got big, and are now being nibbled at by the foxes, lost in the forest, mythical but out of touch with people. Like the foxes, we take what we need, killing it.

[Six One Cynic]

Why do we assume he's still writing about his ex-wife? They have been divorced for some years now; I'm certain he has moved on romantically, he's too good-looking and above all, intelligent, not to want to share himself with someone.

[Haldeman Gracie]

Why do we assume he's still writing about his ex-wife?

Because the evidence is overwhelming. He'd been ditched for five years by the time of The World is Everything, possibly the most single-minded obsessive song I've ever heard by a man who had no intention of leaving the relationship in the past.

[Adrian]

a different question - why should I care? The music and lyrics (not just Five Lines) are beautiful and I don't need to know the precise meaning to love them - far from it I actually believe. Knowing too much is the death of magic...