Pirate Jet Lyrics
Because we left the taps
Running
For a hundred years
So drink into the drink
Drink with the purple the people
The plastic eating people
Surely the taps running for a hundred years are the oil pumps, fueling the modern, plastic world we've created since the early twentieth century, when it became our main fuel source (plastic of course, being derived from oil). I'm not sure if the song is optimistic so much as nihilistic - that perhaps it's already too late to really do much about global warming, soil degradation, oil shortages, over-fishing and pollution so we can and should all stop worrying about it and enjoy the (toxic) fruits of our plastic world before it all falls apart and the nature we've despoiled and corrupted revenges itself upon humanity. So we may as well drink from the plastic cup [the poisoned chalice?] now while we still can - we've already binged on oil via our fun fast cars, our cheap, superficially-clean electricity, our speeding jet planes (pirate or otherwise), our effortlessly microwaved mass-produced ready-meals and of course our fun disposable (but sadly extremely durable) plastic goods, so much so that we're now beyond salvation. Drugs, alcohol, gambling and bad, addictive relationships can all be seen both as symbols and, perhaps, as symptoms of the unnatural, superficially fun but somehow soulless existence we now lead in the modern world, wrapped-up in our plastic civilisation, knowing it's not sustainable but refusing to change our behaviour - just like any other kind of addict. So drinking from the plastic cup is both a metaphor and a literal action - party now to forget the future consequences. And because deep-down, many people feel this to be true, between periods of shallow, frantic fun the album is suffused by a sense of unease and mournfulness. For me, the whole thing is a kind of a requiem for the doomed modern world. But perhaps things are not quite so bad - perhaps we will be 'forgiven' as it were, for our crimes against the planet. But maybe we never will.
This is not my real-life view of the world - at least not my logical one. But on an emotional level I do agree with a lot of what I draw from this song, and album. Feel free to comment away:
Official lyrics from the iTunes LP:
Its all good news now Because we left the taps Running for a hundred years So drink into the drink
Plastic cap drink Drink with the purple The people, the plastic eating people
Still connected to the moment it began
This song is basically what all the album's about. Damon Alburn gave this telling remark:
"I've always felt, I'm trying to get across on this new record, the idea that plastic, we see it as being against nature but it's come out of nature. We didn't create plastic, nature created plastic. And just seeing the snakes like living in the warmth of decomposing plastic bags. They like it. It was a strange kind of optimism that I felt... but trying to get that into pop music is a challenge, anyway. But important."
Whether you disagree or not, apply this to Pirate Jet and it makes sense. The sound is dark, but yet optimistic. The image of the taps left on for a hundred years is a terrifying concept in our enviromentally concerned media fuelled, lets all fly to Copenhagen to save the world and fail miserably. The fact that 2-D sings that this is 'good news' is not ironic, but reflects Alburn's own strange optimism.
I also think the lyric is the 'plastic creating people', which again portrays plastic as a creative force rather than a destructive one.
For this to be the last song on the album, short and odd, totally turns everything we've heard on the album upside down; we've heard all kinds of awfulness about the Plastic Beach, and the concluding note is that, despite what we might think, it's actually a good thing.
This makes me appreciate the song even more.
This makes me appreciate the song even more.
The begining noise a sorta boing boing is actually saying pirate jet !!! That's increddible
This is such a cool song to end the story with.
Remember how old 60's cartoonists would sometimes show a funky old car just bopping along to a beat, like it was a living thing? Well, that's how this pirate jet is flying through the clouds above the ocean.
I can't shake the feeling that these miscreants on the jet, a motley group of pirates, are the only survivors of a ruin that has happened to the world, maybe to even the Plastic Beach. We hear how they made thing all good now...maybe they didn't like the world as it was...maybe not even the plastic part. And here they are, after it's all done, partying on their sky-jalopy.
Still connected to the moment it began...maybe we met these guys at the beginning of the story somewhere.
the pirates on that Jet are 2-D and the crew :D
the pirates on that Jet are 2-D and the crew :D
i got a completely different take from this song sort of nihilistic that there was so much pain the protagonist felt throughout the album, that he left the taps running which would flood the island and end his world. a very childish image but also quite dark and a bit of pathos
Here's some proof that the lyric is "the purple, the people, the plastic eating people" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62AKnkgFf-4
gah this song needs to be longer for the Plastic Beach finale. it's got a very marching in time sound.
this song is a groovy feeling, but i still don't count this as the final song, since i count the last two bonus tracks in the deluxe edition the final songs and i'm guessing those would be a perfect ending :D, other than that this song sounds incomplete but its a great song
this song is a groovy feeling, but i still don't count this as the final song, since i count the last two bonus tracks in the deluxe edition the final songs and i'm guessing those would be a perfect ending :D, other than that this song sounds incomplete but its a great song
I think that the simplicity of this song is what makes it so great.
I think that the simplicity of this song is what makes it so great.
The second to last song "Pirate's Progress" is really just the actual, full length version of the opening theme.
The second to last song "Pirate's Progress" is really just the actual, full length version of the opening theme.
"Three Hearts, Seven Seas, Twelve Moons" has something very sinister about its sound. Almost like it's not actually the ending bit to the album.
"Three Hearts, Seven Seas, Twelve Moons" has something very sinister about its sound. Almost like it's not actually the ending bit to the album.
I thought the 1st line was "So good is now, because we left the taps running for a hunded years"
I thought the 1st line was "So good is now, because we left the taps running for a hunded years"
Damon also stated this is Gorillaz's equivalent to "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life"
Hmmm...i think maybe they CREATED the Plastic Beach...by leaving the taps on. But I still see them as seperate from it, bopping along above it all.