its amazing how far music can come.. 24 years after it released and its one of the most heartfelt songs ive heard
We are jigsaw pieces aligned on the perimeter edge,
Intelocked through a missing piece.
We are Renaissance children becalmed beneath the bridge of sighs,
Forever throwing firebrands at the stonework.
We are Siamese children related by the heart,
Bleeding from the surgery of initial confrontation,
Holding the word scalpels on trembling lips.
Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye, say goodbye.
Stand straight, we've drifted past the point of reasons why.
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today,
The problems always seem to be, we're picking up the pieces on the ricochet.
This is the ricochet...
Drowning Tequila sunsets, stowaways on midnight ships,
Refugees of romance plead asylum from the real.
Scrambling distress signals on random frequencies,
Forever repatriated on guilt laden morning planes.
We are pilots of passion sweating the flight on course
To another summit conference, another breakfast time divorce,
Screaming out a ceasefire, snowblind in an avalanche zone.
Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye, say goodbye.
Stand straight, we've drifted past the point of reasons why.
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today,
The problems always seem to be, we're picking up the pieces on the ricochet.
This is the ricochet...
Are we trigger happy, happy, happy?
Russian roulette in the waiting room,
Empty chambers embracing the end.
Puzzled visions haunt the ripples of a trevi moon,
Dream coins for the fountain or to cover your eyes.
We reached ignition point from the sparks of pleasantries,
We sensed the smoke advancing from horizons,
You must have known that I was planning, considering an escape.
Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye, say goodbye.
Stand straight, we've drifted past the point of reasons why.
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today,
And the problems always seem to be,
We're picking up the pieces on the ricochet.
This is the ricochet,
I'll be seeing you again on the ricochet,
Will you show me the pieces next time on the ricochet, (ricochet)
I'll be seeing you again on the ricochet,
There's a problem, there's a ricochet, (ricochet)
Intelocked through a missing piece.
We are Renaissance children becalmed beneath the bridge of sighs,
Forever throwing firebrands at the stonework.
We are Siamese children related by the heart,
Bleeding from the surgery of initial confrontation,
Holding the word scalpels on trembling lips.
Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye, say goodbye.
Stand straight, we've drifted past the point of reasons why.
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today,
The problems always seem to be, we're picking up the pieces on the ricochet.
This is the ricochet...
Drowning Tequila sunsets, stowaways on midnight ships,
Refugees of romance plead asylum from the real.
Scrambling distress signals on random frequencies,
Forever repatriated on guilt laden morning planes.
We are pilots of passion sweating the flight on course
To another summit conference, another breakfast time divorce,
Screaming out a ceasefire, snowblind in an avalanche zone.
Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye, say goodbye.
Stand straight, we've drifted past the point of reasons why.
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today,
The problems always seem to be, we're picking up the pieces on the ricochet.
This is the ricochet...
Are we trigger happy, happy, happy?
Russian roulette in the waiting room,
Empty chambers embracing the end.
Puzzled visions haunt the ripples of a trevi moon,
Dream coins for the fountain or to cover your eyes.
We reached ignition point from the sparks of pleasantries,
We sensed the smoke advancing from horizons,
You must have known that I was planning, considering an escape.
Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye, say goodbye.
Stand straight, we've drifted past the point of reasons why.
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today,
And the problems always seem to be,
We're picking up the pieces on the ricochet.
This is the ricochet,
I'll be seeing you again on the ricochet,
Will you show me the pieces next time on the ricochet, (ricochet)
I'll be seeing you again on the ricochet,
There's a problem, there's a ricochet, (ricochet)
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He certainly did earn that reputation.
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The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
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This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
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"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Great song. Powerful vocals and a blistering Guitar Solo from Steve Rothery.
Just read on marillionations.blogspot.com/1984/03/jigsaw.html
Fish said: "When you watch kids doing jigsaws, they'll always take the eye of the koala bear or whatever and sit on it, just for the dominating factor of putting the last bit in. You get to the point where you lie about the last piece, you deny that you've got it. The other person is aware that you're lying and they hold back four or five pieces so that you can't put in the last piece. Eventually you tear up the jigsaw and say ' We'll do it another day'. That can grow into relationships - where no matter how important that piece is to the other person or the relationship. In general, the song is about the relationship that splits up and forever comes together again. It gets worse because each time it comes back together, more pieces of the jigsaw have got lost, and you can't get them back."
'Bridge of Sighs' Brewer’s: "Over the bridge, which connects the Doge's palace with the state prisons of Venice, prisoners were conveyed from the judgement hall to the place of execution. The passageway which used to connect the Tombs prison in New York with the criminal court was so dubbed for similar reasons. The bridge over the Cam at St John's College, Cambridge, which resembles the Venetian original is know by the same name. Waterloo Bridge, London was also called the Bridge of Sighs when suicides were frequent there."
'Trevi Moon...Cover your eyes'
Throwing a coin over the left shoulder into Rome's Trevi fountain is supposed to ensure that you return one day. Coins were placed over the eyes of the dead. This is related to the idea of giving the deceased the means of paying Charon the boatman to punt you across the river Styx to Elysium.
There's a strong Pink Floyd influence both to Marillion music and to Fish lyrics, just like "Siamese children related by the heart", e.g. "We sensed the smoke advancing from horizons" seems to reference Comfortably Numb's "A distant ship smoke on the horizon".
I always like the juxposition of battle metaphors with a relationship falling apart