AI has received a lot of flack and probably correctly so. We have had enough conspiracies, people believing fantastic things that go against science. But while we have it, I thought that I could get some help with songs, literature and all that. I'm not in college anynore, so a little rusty on the arts side. Actual college students have been using AI to write their term papers for some time. That is why this Google AI is experienced in lyric and poetry analysis ("The Kite as a Symbol of Resilience") and breaking down parts.
There is one more catch about doing this. If you have a favorite song, something that may have memories and personal meaning, don't do this AI analysis. Wigwam recorded a single prior to the album they made, and I had the single but not the album. I have been carrying the Must Be The Devil 45 with me for 55 years. I am never doing those lyrics.
I asked Google AI to explain the lyrics to this song:
The lyrics go:
When I close my eyes I think about it
When I woke today I thought about it
When I dream so bad I think about it
When I feel so bad I wanna shout it
Chorus:
Don’t you know you’d be all right
Don’t worry ‘bout tomorrow night
The time will come to see the light
And when does I’m only dreaming
I’m only dreaming
Things with wings and bats that sing surround me
Girls with nails and snails with curls around me
Snakes with teeth with gold beneath astound me
Apes with saws and dogs with claws have found me
Repeat chorus.
[(Sax solo) Repeat second verse and chorus]
It came back sort of like an English Professor:
The song explores the blurred lines between reality and a surreal dream state, utilizing a shift from repetitive anxiety to psychedelic imagery.
Obsessive Thought (Verse 1): The opening lines ("When I close my eyes... when I woke today") depict a state of persistent, intrusive thought. The speaker is haunted by an unnamed idea or feeling that persists through both waking and sleeping hours.
False Comfort (Chorus): The chorus offers a seemingly optimistic message ("don’t you know you’d be all right"), but it is immediately undercut by the revelation "I'm only dreaming". This suggests the comfort found in the lyrics may itself be an illusion or a mechanism to escape a "bad dream".
Surrealist Imagery (Verse 2): The second verse transitions into "Alice in Wonderland"-style surrealism.
Inversions of Nature: Creatures are given unnatural traits—bats that sing, snails with curls, and snakes with teeth.
Threat vs. Wonder: The imagery oscillates between the wondrous ("gold beneath") and the predatory ("apes with saws and dogs with claws"), reflecting the unpredictable and often frightening nature of deep subconscious dreaming.
The same songwriter, with what I took to be life in a basement apartment. Remains to be Seen. (The next song on the album is Subterranean Sunrise)
REMAINS TO BE SEEN (Pembroke) Well, as the day it breaks he wakes and slowly turns To see the door ajar and a distant light that burns Down a winding hall to somewhere far away While in his head he’s out to lunch somewhere todayAs if enchanted by this lasting longest flight He follows on to find the day has turned to night Is it the same old tale, or is it something new Or is life a dream we drift through?Chorus: Y’drag yourself up You dust yourself down Stick your chin in It’s time to face the world Yuh pull that comb Yuh brush that tooth Yuh lift that bag Call your best girlJust when you think you have it It’s the part Someone comes along And upsets the apple cart (Short chorus) And now the stairway’s empty, dreamers still in bed He’s sitting with the keys to try and unlock his head And when he thinks he’s finally got it in his sight Someone down the hall turned on the light(Repeat chorus with variations)Remains to be seen, remains to be seen(Hello honey, is that you? Can you buy me an ice-cold beer? ... Why, I feel better already. Well, I think I’ll go out and buy a newspaper ... Bye bye ...)
I have not cut and pasted it that well. The lyrics with lines go more like this:
Google AI:
The song explores the surreal, often disorienting transition between the internal world of dreams and the external demands of reality.
The Dreamer vs. Reality: The opening verses depict a protagonist caught in a "dream we drift through." The imagery of a "door ajar" and a "winding hall" suggests a mind that is physically present but mentally "out to lunch." The passage of time is fluid and confusing, as a "lasting longest flight" causes day to turn into night without the protagonist noticing.
The Ritual of Mundanity: The chorus shifts tone, using rhythmic, colloquial language ("Y’drag yourself up," "Yuh pull that comb") to describe the mechanical nature of daily routines. It emphasizes the effort required to "face the world" and the performative nature of adulthood.
Disruption and Loss of Control: The bridge ("upsets the apple cart") highlights the fragility of this forced stability. Just as the protagonist feels they have a grasp on reality, external forces or sudden realizations disrupt their progress.
The Search for Clarity: The final verse finds the protagonist alone, trying to "unlock his head." The "empty stairway" contrasts with the earlier "winding hall," suggesting a return to a starker, lonelier reality.The closing line—"Someone down the hall turned on the light"—serves as a metaphor for a sudden, perhaps unwanted, awakening or realization that shatters the dream state once more.
I gave some hints about the basement. It came up with this:
The "Distant Light": In a basement apartment, natural light is often limited or comes from a distance (like a window-well or a street lamp above). Seeing a "distant light that burns" likely refers to the streetlights or the first rays of morning hitting the pavement outside at eye-level.
"The Day Has Turned to Night": Living partially underground can distort one's sense of time. Without direct, sweeping sunlight, the transition between day and night becomes blurred, making it easy for a songwriter lost in their work to find that hours have slipped by unnoticed.
The Literal "Apple Cart"
Street Life at Eye Level: With windows at ground level, the protagonist's view of the "world" is quite literally the feet of passersby, car wheels, and street activity.
Then we get to a well known song: GRASS FOR BLADES
I had asked AI before about "debag Goliath." We are pulling off the trousers from Goliath.
[Verse 1]Atomic man embossed on hues of
Money greens that swell and ooze will
Scratch his chin as if to muse that
All this winning meant to lose
'Though he worked and paid his dues
Here he was, no time to choose
A way to change and try to fuse him-
self into the way the queues around him
[Verse 2]
"Attack you fools!" the captain bawls
"I'll have your heads upon my walls!"
Rows of heroes crouch to crawls
They bomb the bamboo huts and village halls
They smash ping-pong bats with cannon balls
Ali-Baba's and the sheiks and the Sauls
They debag Goliath as he falls
While the Statue Of Liberty climbs and mauls everything
[Verse 3]
I said "Champagne for the hero whore
Watch your step, man, in all that gore
Not too much, he will scream
For more
Though he's filled from skin to core
It's not enough he will whine for sure, so
Say it's we who keep the score, and
Nail him back upon the floor, that should do it"
[Verse 4]
So there he works, and he's still at large
Behind his smiles and his camouflage
Nice white coats and the college grades
That hide blue suits and golden braids
And though I hope that smell just fades
It does not go but it leads to raids on
Bamboo huts on the country glades
Where the people use the grass for blades, ain't that something
AI ANALYSIS
The lyrics provide a surrealist critique of global power dynamics, military aggression, and the dehumanization of war:
The "Atomic Man" and Modern Greed: The opening depicts an "Atomic man" obsessed with "money greens". This figure represents a modern, powerful industrial or political leader whose drive for "winning" ultimately leads to loss, suggesting the hollow nature of capitalist or military victory.
Military Imperialism and Dehumanization: The song describes a "Captain" demanding the "heads" of his enemies and "rows of heroes" bombing "bamboo huts". This imagery strongly evokes the Vietnam War era, contrasting high-tech military force ("cannon balls") against rural, peasant life.
Cultural Absurdity: References to "Ali Baba," "sheiks," and the "Statue of Liberty" climbing walls create a chaotic, "Alice in Wonderland" style landscape where global icons and stereotypes are mangled by conflict.
The Title's Core Meaning: The phrase "grass for blades" refers to the victims of these raids—people in "country glades" who are so impoverished or peaceful that they use "grass" in place of weapons (blades), yet they remain the targets of the "blue suits with golden braids".
The Persistence of Evil: The final verse describes the aggressor "still at large," hiding behind a "camouflage" of respectable titles, college grades, and "nice white coats" while continuing to orchestrate raids.
BITESIZE
I did not ask AI about this. This is probably my favorite song on the album. But its lyrics are all over the place. There have been some sinister lyrics in this album, and a bit of it makes it through here. It started with word play. Doug's scullery came from skullduggery.
Jim listened to things and would capture a word or phrase. Bitesize you would hear in TV ads. Doug is cooking up a storm in his scullery and suddenly we have Fred the Budgerigar.
Here we have, finally, something bitesize. It's Fred, being fed to the pup.
GREASY KIDS STUFF
I was listening to this song again, a fun little thrown together b-side. It struck me that the phrase had to be something in the 60s. It was. Mostly it is connected with a Vitalis hair tonic. The common hair product was greasy and Vitalis was marketed as not "greasy kid stuff." The phrase is Greasy Kid Stuff. The phrase was picked up for a song then and few times later, such as Steve Vai instrumental. Jim seems to have referred to it as something connected to childhood, such as blowing bubbles. Railroad Sam and Simon Brown are presumably kids. Who else would ride a "hot rod" made out of a pram? He just did not want to name the song I Wanna Blow Bubbles. The bubble blowing is in the lyrics as just an example of a fad. Here is the 60s song:
I tried to follow all the trends
Imitate all my friends
Buy my gear just the same
To find that they’ve all changed
I asked my friend Bill what’s the score
He said, man don’t worry more
Just blow bubbles everywhere
Then you won’t be square
[Chorus 1]
I wanna blow bubbles, I wanna blow bubbles
I wanna blow bubbles, blow bubbles everywhere
I wanna blow bubbles, I wanna blow bubbles
I wanna blow bubbles, blow bubbles everywhere
[Verse 2]
I lent somе cash from Railroad Sam
Jumped into my hot rod pram
Ran the enginе to a roar
Down to Henry’s candy store
Felt the wind go through my hair
Bubbles, bubbles everywhere
What goes up must come down
Thank you kindly, Simon Brown
[Bridge]
Yeah, this is the part
So bubbly... so greasy... So sticky...
(Yuck, eugh so sticky, I can’t believe it. Everywhere sticky, oh)
[Chorus 2]
I wanna blow bubbles, I wanna blow bubbles
I wanna blow bubbles, bom-bom-bom-bom-bom-bom-bom
I wanna blow bubbles, I wanna blow bubbles
I wanna blow bubbles, blow bubbles everywhere, whoo!
[Guitar Solo]
AND BACK TO THE 1975 HIT ALBUM...and KITE
Pine your so lonesome sighs
As murmured questions rise in line
And weave their voices and entwine
As breezes their disguise . . .
Willow cast your silent souls I see them ride on every beam Spirit from the forest teem And reassume their roles
Spiders roam your jewelless nets Empty void of morning's haul Where diamonds hung now missing all With the thief, the sun, who sets Willow cast your silent souls I see them ride on every beam And spirit from the forest teem
Reassume your roles
I asked Google AI. Spoiler: it may ruin the song for you. It breaks it down to pretty much "fluff" lyrics.
Context within Wigwam
"Kite" is a standout track for its unique blend of progressive rock and "psych-folk" influences. While Wigwam's music often dealt with socio-political themes (especially on the album Being), "Kite" leans into a more internal, poetic space that allows for multiple interpretations ranging from reincarnation to the simple loss of innocence.
Key Themes and Imagery
The lyrics employ "word painting" to create a melancholic, almost spectral forest landscape.
Personification of Nature: Trees like the "Pine" and "Willow" are given human emotions—sighing and casting "silent souls". This suggests a world where the environment is an active witness or a repository for spirits and memories.
The Passing of Time: The sun is described as a "thief" who steals "diamonds" (morning dew) from spider webs. This highlights the fleeting nature of beauty and the inevitable transition from light to dark.
The Kite as a Symbol of Resilience: The recurring refrain "No wind, no light / No sun in sight / Love hold me tight / I'll fly my kite" serves as an emotional anchor. The "kite" represents the narrator’s attempt to find joy or purpose even when conditions (the "wind") are unfavorable.
Structural Analysis
Atmospheric Verses: The verses focus on external, almost mystical observations of the forest, using words like "teem," "entwine," and "reassume their roles" to suggest a continuous, hidden natural order.
Simple, Urgent Chorus: In contrast to the complex imagery of the verses, the chorus is direct and rhythmic. It shifts from observing nature to a personal plea for connection ("Love hold me tight"), emphasizing human dependency in a vast, indifferent world.
