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Post by cobriaclord on Aug 22, 2006 2:15:44 GMT
The human race was dying out No one left to scream and shout. People walking on the moon Smog will get you pretty soon. Everyone was hanging out Hanging up and hanging down Hanging in and holding fast Hope our little world will last. Along came Mr. Goodtrips Looking for a new ship. Come on people better climb on board Come on babe we're going home. Ship of fools, Ship of fools. The human race was dying out No one left to scream and shout. People walking on the moon Smog will get you pretty soon. Ship of fools, ship of fools X3 Climb on board Ship's gonna leave you all, far behind.
This song is considered to be an enivornmental awareness song. With the smog and people walking on the moon (because earth has become unlivable) I think it can be looked at on many different levels. 1) Pollution 2) Moral Degradation (Goodtrips?) 3) Morrison's own downfall?
From Wikipedia: The ship of fools is an old allegory, which has long been used in Western culture in literature and paintings. With a sense of self-criticism, it describes the world and its human inhabitants as a vessel whose deranged passengers neither know nor care where they are going. Ships of Fools featured as wagons in medieval Carnival Parades. The actual practice of sending a group of "fools" or madmen off in a ship to another European town was said to have originated in medieval times, but has recently been proven to be a legend.
That's all for now Peace
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Post by matt on Aug 22, 2006 6:17:11 GMT
Grateful Dead did also a song called Ship of Fools.
I just googled and found out that there are at least 6 different songs with the same title.
Could be interesting to compare the lyrics!
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Apr 30, 2011 9:59:54 GMT
Ships of Fools featured as wagons in medieval Carnival Parades. The actual practice of sending a group of "fools" or madmen off in a ship to another European town was said to have originated in medieval times, but has recently been proven to be a legend. Actually that's not quite exactly true as William The Bastard soon to be William The Conquerer took his court jester with him and the man fought with distinction at the battle Of Hastings. So it is indeed possible that Lords and Kings took their court fools with them on important voyages. A nice bit of perceptive writing from Morrison which still resonates to this day and will indeed in the future as we the Human Race sink under the weight of our own stupidity.
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Post by casandra on Apr 30, 2011 19:13:14 GMT
A nice bit of perceptive writing from Morrison which still resonates to this day and will indeed in the future as we the Human Race sink under the weight of our own stupidity. Exactly. Good point, Alex. I love this song because the lyrics have incredibly relevance at present. I think the title comes from a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, "Ship of Fools", which is in the Louvre Museum in Paris. I seem to recall to read that Jim Morrison was interested in this artist, when he visited Madrid, he spent an hour watching "The Garden of Earthly Delights" which is in the Museo del Prado. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Fools_(painting)
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Apr 30, 2011 20:21:32 GMT
Good call m'dear I am sure you are correct. We know Jim was interested in art from this thread when he reproduced an El Greco painting with one of his drawings. Jim Morrison Art Also from this thread that he was interested in that particular style of painting. Morrison Triptych PaintingIt shows the level of smartness of Jim Morrison when it came to his lyric work. The band themselves mirror him with their smartness when it came to their music. Both borrowed from a wide variety of literature, film, myth, history, theatre, art and musical form. It is incredible when you think just how intelligent these 4 were. I am sure there were other bands who did similar things but The Doors are without doubt up there with the very top echelon of really smart musical artists. Arguably on a platform by themselves.
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Post by casandra on May 2, 2011 19:14:04 GMT
Many thanks, Alex. I agree with you.
Do you know if Jim visited Toledo? It’s near Madrid. El Greco lived most of his life there.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on May 2, 2011 20:33:36 GMT
Jim and Pam were travelling for nearly a month to Spain and Morroco so it is possible he did. He obviously had an interest in El Greco
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Dec 9, 2011 14:39:08 GMT
I particularly love the bridge section...Mr Good Trips...when we sit on the B chord and ride that sucker. Then we repeat the jazz like progression for solos and a fine one here by Robby our genius guitar player. It's a walking bass line, vaguely Miles Davis 'So What' progression.... at least for my solo.Ray ManzarekMiles Davis 'So What'Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter was the biggest selling American novel of 1962 so it is likely Jim Morrison read it and used the title for the song. It is a study of the way the world had progressed on its "voyage to eternity" looking metaphorically at the rise of Nazism from the point of view of passengers sailing from South America to Europe on a German steamer. The first example of ecology rock. One more first for the Doors. Jim used book titles quite often for his Robby KriegerEcology rock before it's time. John Densmore
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 16, 2012 12:06:21 GMT
Ship of Fools (painted c. 1490–1500) is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch which may be intended to exemplify the human condition. The painting is dense in symbolism and is indebted to, if not actually satirical of Albrecht Dürer's frontispiece of Sebastian Brant's book of the same name. The painting as we see it today is a fragment of a triptych that was cut into several parts. The Ship of Fools was painted on one of the wings of the altarpiece, and is about two thirds of its original length. The bottom third of the panel belongs to Yale University Art Gallery and is exhibited under the title Allegory of Gluttony and Lust. The wing on the other side, which has more or less retained its full length, is the Death and the Miser, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. The two panels together would have represented the two extremes of prodigiality and miserliness, condemning and caricaturing both. The painting is oil on wood, measuring 58 cm x 33 cm (23" x 13"). It is on display in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Nov 16, 2012 12:14:10 GMT
A mysterious painting Born into a family of painters at 's Hertogenbosch, Jheronymous Bosch must have learned his trade in the family studio. Little is known about him, and our knowledge of his development is based on the study of his paintings. He initiated a satirical and fantastical genre of painting peopled with monsters and imaginary figures, and steeped in nordic proverbs that would later inspire painters such as Bruegel the Elder. The painting in the Louvre, the only work in France clearly signed by the painter, is a magnificent example of his work. An unusual journey A group of ten people are gathered in a boat. The main group is comprised of a Franciscan friar and a nun playing a lute. They are seated facing each other. Their mouths are wide open as if singing, but they appear in fact to be biting, like their companions, a pancake hanging from the mast of the little boat. This is an allusion to a folk custom, which consists of eating a hanging pancake without using one's hands. Behind them are seated the two boatmen. One of them has a giant ladle instead of an oar. The other balances a glass on his head while brandishing a broken jug on his oar. On one side, a woman readies herself to strike a young man with a jug. He is holding a flagon that he trails in the water. On the other end, sitting on a makeshift rudder, a little man in the dress of a fool drinks from a cup. Next to him, another leans over to vomit. The whole scene is dominated by a mast topped with a bouquet of flowers in the middle of which can be seen an owl or a skull. Above floats the royal flag of France with the muslim crescent moon. A roasted goose is strapped to the mast. The joyful group appear adrift; a vast landscape in the background stretches toward infinity. Souls adrift It has been suggested that this unusual scene is an interpretation of The Ship of Fools, an allegory by the humanist Sebastian Brant, published in Basel in 1494. This work was illustrated by woodcuts showing ships loaded with fools drifting toward the "fool's paradise," called Narragonia. The sequel, The Ship of the Mad Women, by Josse Bade, has also been proposed as a source of inspiration. Nonetheless, in the illustrations to these books, the fools are clearly recognizable from their costumes and bonnets, with the ears of asses. In Bosch's painting there is only one such figure, and he appears as if to clarify the meaning of the painting. It is probable that a work which depicts people drinking and delirious, obsessed with food and drink, is a satire on monks and an ironic criticism of the drunkenness that deprives them of their reason and their souls. The monks are here represented by the religious figures in the foreground. Anger, a consequence of a predilection for drink, would explain the woman's gesture as she strikes the young man with her jug. The dissolute clergy thus allow the boat of the Church to drift, neglectful of the soul's health and well being. This aspect, representative of criticisms promulgated during the Reformation, appears to be embodied by the man in the water who hangs onto the boat while everyone remains oblivious.
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