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 Post subject: What does he mean?
PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 9:43 pm 
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Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:49 pm
Posts: 50
In a slightly different twist to teresa's thread, but following the same pattern, I would like to ask what these lines are about?

Sunset

Postscript you trace colours the sky
Red-letter light fades, is filed away
Sunburst fingers you raise
One last sigh of farewell - goodbye


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 Post subject: Re: What does he mean?
PostPosted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 9:50 pm 
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Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 1:36 pm
Posts: 450
Location: Hamburg
Thank you for opening this thread, Hard Rain. I had the same idea but didn't really know how to put it. "What does he mean?" in its simplicity of course absolutely nails it.

I'd like to add another question. The line that really confuses me most is from Mother of Pearl:

Quote:
But no dilettante filigree fancy beats the plastic you


The plastic you? Can somebody please tell me that Mother of Pearl is not Dreamhome 2.0?!


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 Post subject: Re: What does he mean?
PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 12:02 am 
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Joined: Sun Jul 18, 2010 7:13 pm
Posts: 553
I think of the sinking sun throwing shafts of light into the evening sky.


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 Post subject: Re: What does he mean?
PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 2:00 pm 
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Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 1:20 am
Posts: 425
Location: USA
Thanks for the Great post Hard Rain..

I was just looking at the lyrics to
Re-Make Re-Model

And
Ummmm..
What is he referring to with those numbers
CPL593H?

Is it a car license plate number?

If There Are Many
Meanings the Same
Then Being Specific
Is Just a Game... :)


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 Post subject: Re: What does he mean?
PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 3:47 pm 
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Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:40 am
Posts: 623
Location: Merseyside
Sunset - I've always found these lines amongst Ferry's most poetic and avalon eyes has it spot on.
As for
Quote:
But no dilettante filigree fancy beats the plastic you
I've always thought this an analogy. Dilettante is an amateur passing themselves off as something they're not, so 'no dilettante' means someone capable of appreciating the difference between 'filigree fancy' and 'plastic'. Or maybe it's open to other interpretation. That is, after all, the beauty of prose.


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 Post subject: Re: What does he mean?
PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 4:43 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2014 4:49 pm
Posts: 58
Teresa Yes CPL 593H is a car number plate...
When Bryan was younger he went to the Reading festival with a friend and saw a girl. When they were leaving the festival they got stuck in a traffic jam...Bryan saw the same girl in a mini car and he memorised the number plate... Bryan never got to meet the girl....


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 Post subject: Re: What does he mean?
PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 4:52 pm 
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Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 1:20 am
Posts: 425
Location: USA
Thanks Louize!

Even More Fascinating....
That is such a Sweet story

And UK Richard;

That is a Brilliant analogy!

Looking at his lyrics there you could also interepret the meaning as him referring to both sides of that persons personality, and he prefers the "plastic", or Real one compared to the phony
"Dilettante, filigree fancy"

Ahahaha
I Love Talking Ferry


Last edited by teresa on Tue Sep 20, 2016 4:18 am, edited 2 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: What does he mean?
PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 5:03 pm 
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Posts: 450
Location: Hamburg
Meanwhile I've had the "genius" idea of looking "plastic" up in the Oxford Dictionary (yay, 35+ years after I heard this song for the first time - I'm proud of myself [/sarkasm]).

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/plastic

In German we have two words, "plastisch" for shaped, modelled, and "plastik" for the stuff plastic bottles are made of. Seems like in English the word "plastic" can have both of these meanings:

Oxford Dictionary wrote:
2.2Relating to moulding or modelling in three dimensions, or to produce three-dimensional effects.
‘the plastic arts’


I'm now thinking he's maybe using the word "plastic" in its original meaning here, as it stems from the ancient greek plastikos?

Oxford Dictionary wrote:
Origin

Mid 17th century (in the sense ‘characteristic of moulding’): from French plastique or Latin plasticus, from Greek plastikos, from plassein to mould.


Maybe "the plastic you" is the shaped, modelled form of her body, likening her body to a piece of art?



[edit: corrected typo, L.D.]


Last edited by Lonely Dreamer on Fri Sep 16, 2016 8:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: What does he mean?
PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 6:26 pm 
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Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 2:21 pm
Posts: 390
Hard Rain wrote:
In a slightly different twist to teresa's thread, but following the same pattern, I would like to ask what these lines are about?

Sunset

Postscript you trace colours the sky
Red-letter light fades, is filed away
Sunburst fingers you raise
One last sigh of farewell - goodbye


What a nice offshoot thread, I am so pleased Sunset has got some attention.

My first impression on hearing this (and my feeling hasnt changed after all these years) was Bryan, or me the listener, watching the sun dip down to the horizon after a lovely sunny day that cannot be repeated, it's gone, lost forever.

But you want to remember, so you type or write your memory of the day. Maybe it's been a lovely day with a lover, or maybe you have been alone and instead of being busy, creative, you've just wasted your time...but has it been wasted if you have simply enjoyed being alive and basked in the sunshine?

Then, as the sun tips further below it highlights clouds, flitting across the horizon like the postscript words (each cloud a word) addition to a letter, as in "can I just add this final message before we say goodbye?"

Red letter light....it was a red letter day, a great day. Links to the blazing sun.

Then again, red light leads us into darker territory, maybe the sunny personality has accepted it's going into Hyde territory.

Filed away...into your memory.

Man I love the contributors to this site.

Now give me a few minutes to think about the filigree fancy etc!!!!


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 Post subject: Re: What does he mean?
PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 2:38 am 
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Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:08 am
Posts: 34
PLASTIC to me means pre and post WW2 toys etc were made of metal or wood. 1960s onward everything is made of plastic, throw away, cheap, fake.

Nicely put rendezvous, Sunset is a simple song but cleverly worded and can be interpreted in different ways.
When I check out, Sunset will be played as that is its meaning to me.

MANIFESTO
I am that I am from out of nowhere
To fight without a cause
Roots strain against the grain
With brute force
Oh you'd better
Hold out when you're in doubt
Question what you see
And when you find an answer
Bring it home to me.


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