Dancing On A High Wire Lyrics
We're toeing the same line
We give in we call it neutrality,
A joke with no punchline
The silver plated hero
Meets the golden hearted whore
The odds'll give you zero
She'll be leaving in a few days more
Movin' on forever, maybe she don't care
Holding on together, maybe it just ain't there
You need to be so sure
There used to be a lifeline
There isn't anymore
We talk at the same time
We believe in freedom and charity
As long as I get mine
The ivory madonna is walking
Through the door
You watch her from a window,
It doesn't matter anymore
Moving on forever, maybe she don't care
Holding on together, maybe it just ain't there
You need to be so sure
There used to be a life-line
There isn't anymore
i'm not good at explaining lyrics but this tells me someone is living life on the edge, you need to be sure before you fall in love. you can fall in love with someone who you shouldnt be with yet still think you are made for each other. i'm surprised no one has commented on this song actually, but i spose the only place most people have heard of alan parson's project is off austin powers heh.
To me this song is narrated by a man conflicted with the way society has degenerated. Through such mediums as television, schools, even stores... the theme nowdays is the common experience. A lot about us despite very very long distances, is the same. ("Towing the same line") "We give in, we call it neutrality"... (complacency?) "We are the same, with no similarity".
"The Ivory Madonna is walking through the door" (the narrator is trying to get us to reflect upon what used to be, by showing us how it is now, previously.) "You watch her from a window, it doesn't matter anymore" We look on her now, from a distance, and she doesn't matter anymore. (return to complacency, apathy)
That is my interpretation, which probably has nothing to do with the song at all. A swing and a miss perhaps, but to me it was a home run.
Much of the album is for me deeply about spiritualistic ideas of the ego vs the higher self, creation and the Creator and mans conflict with these - how we have drifted away from them/reject them/dismiss them - and that of mans dream-like scientific materialistic reality he more and more believes is the only reality, the one he lives and creates on Earth (illustrated by the chemical works here) - "The silver plated hero" This track, in this theme of "the life we live", has the message of how the masses now tow this line of living life without any spiritual connection (believe in freedom and charity as long as I get mine), denied it, rejecting religion/spiritualistic way of life or the "golden hearted whore" ...(the Madonna doesn't matter any more...Maybe she don't care)..and how we now need hard scientific evidence to believe (The odds'll give you zero...You need to be so sure..Maybe it just ain't there) how empty it is to be like this (a joke with no punchline... etc). "We are the same, with no similarity" - we are all connected to everything and everyone - a spiritual message that is being forgotten. We are "dancing on the high wire" for our spiritual selves accepting all this (We give in we call it neutrality), letting the ego dominate, heading for disaster. And we are becoming more and more like this "There used to be a lifeline There isn't anymore"