The Song of the Sea Goat is the opening song on the album. Themes from the D
major Lute Concerto by Vivaldi invoke the ebb and flow of the waves, and a
fragile exquisite beauty is shaped by many layers of imagery.
There is a numinous sense of timelessness, even though it contains many
contemporary references. The balance between the mythical and the topical
creates a framework that enables listeners to project their own interpretations
upon the song. Thus a song built upon a social foundation also contains a sense
of personal development. How can so much be achieved in so few words?
Jon Green:
It is a magnificent performance on every level.
Stirring, majestic, enigmatic, provocative; it is everything the old King
Crimson used to be - and more. Like all of the songs in the first four King
Crimson albums,
The Song of the Sea
Goat
is full of hidden symbolism. But what is even more fascinating
about the song is that it is also very significant to Peter's personal
life and career. It is, as far as I know, Peter's first deeply personal
song, very much unlike anything he had done before while, in a sense,
also very much like what was to come. It is interesting to note that
this new personal dimension to Peter's work was foreshadowed in
the "sailors' words" of
Islands
.
Neil Ingram:
The position of songs on Peter Sinfield's albums is always interesting.
The
Song of the Sea Goat
has the pole position on
Still
, a distinction
it shares with
21st Century Schizoid Man
,
Cirkus
and
Formentera
Lady
. The first two songs are political reflections of contemporary society
that use stark images as symbols of modern turmoil.
Formentera Lady
,
in contrast, is more pastoral and uses small details of personal observation.
Jon Green:
The first song on each album is very important because it defines how the
narrator sees the world and, therefore, himself. In other words, in a Peter
Sinfield song the outer world always mirrors the inner world. In
21st
Century Schizoid Man
, the world is at war because the narrator is
completely at odds with himself. He, like the world, is dominated by the will
to power (over the disowned parts of the self). This is projective
identification - or, as an old Jewish saying goes..."We don't see the
world as it is. We see the world as we are."
Because on side two of
In the Court of the Crimson King
our
protagonist acknowledges his shadow (Eros),
In the Wake of Poseidon
the will to power has subsided (or, more accurately, gone underground),
replaced by love, or Eros. As explained in Eros and Strife, Eros has a dark
side (poverty or desire) and this becomes the filter through which the
narrator sees the world. The narrator now worries about his own desire (or
fallen Eros) which has risen to consciousness, rendering unconscious his
Promethean impulse, his will to power (as represented by
21st Century Schizoid
Man
). This overwhelming sense of desire is projected out into the world
as depicted in
Pictures of a City
. Please note: the world has not
changed from one album to the next. It is only his perception of the world
that has changed and his perception of the world is very much colored by his
own internal state. Your description of these two songs as "political
reflections" is accurate because our "politics" is always
reflective of who we are as a society (i.e. our spiritual condition or where
we are on the continuum between the paranoid-schizoid and depressive
positions). I don't know of any governments that operate from the
transcendent position! I suspect such a government would be called
"anarchy" (or no government at all) in the best Marxist sense of
the word.
In
Hand of Sceiron
, the protagonist confronts the "monster"
of his own will to power, represented by the Mars theme (Aries), the sign of
the
21st Century Schizoid Man
. This is his own shadow rising up from
the depths. In
Garden of Worm
, he reconciles the two opposed poles of
his psyche (conscious Eros and unconscious will to power) to overcome, if
only momentarily, his sense of duality. The two opposed poles are always
specific elements of conscious and unconscious within us. The world is only
as divided as we are within and any sense of unity we feel is nothing more
than the unity (of conscious and unconscious) within ourselves.
And this is where we arrive at
Cirkus
. Having overcome duality in the
previous album, the narrator now feels compelled (qualified?) to expound upon
its vagaries. While, in
The Devil's Triangle
, the narrator came to
understand Logos and Eros (the will to power and desire) as points on a
continuum, he has yet to sufficiently overcome either of these forces. The
will
to power (Logos) is only present if power is desired (Eros) and the motto of
Scorpio, the sign of
Lizard
, is "I desire". The problem of
desire is "mirrored" in the worlds of
Indoor Games
and
Happy
Family
. Desire rises up from the unconscious in
Lady of the Dancing
Waters
(much in the way the will to power rose from the unconscious in
The
Devil's Triangle
) to announce itself overtly as the problem our narrator
is now facing. And so, on side two of
Lizard
, he renounces the world,
makes the journey into the wilderness (within and without) and confronts, in
a last battle, his shadow, his desire and all of the baggage of his ego.
Emerging from this "dark night of the soul" in
Formentera Lady
,
the world is bright and new. He is whole again but the sense of unity does
not last (it never does). The material world (of Maya, the Formentera Lady)
soon intrudes and leads to our protagonists "Fall" (or re-fall, as
it were). This time driven by feelings provoked (brought to consciousness) by
a woman (or women) he again journeys into the underworld of his own
unconscious (
Sailor's Tale
). After several painful experiences with
women, he realizes he has not approached his life with the right attitude.
The "right attitude", as in the previous three albums, is attained
only in relation to the narrator's unconscious. I get the impression that,
after the storms of life depicted in
Sailor's Tale, The Letters
and
Ladies
of the Road
, the narrator seeks (or finds) solace in his own unconscious.
This relationship between inner and outer (the individuation process) is
depicted in
Islands
. The biggest revelation in
Islands
is that
the narrator is using "words" ("sailor's words - pearls and
gourds are strewn on my shore") rising up from the unconscious to know
himself. The sailor is Peter Sinfield.
Neil Ingram:
The Song of the Sea Goat
combines both stark images as symbols of
modern turmoil and small pastoral details of personal observation. It melds
complex imagery from alchemy and astrology with ephemeral images. Like
Cirkus
,
it probably started as a song for and about modern society. At the same time,
perhaps inevitably, an agenda for personal development is spelt out.
Jon Green:
I agree that the song is about modern society but hasten to add that the song
is also "for and about" Peter Sinfield. Peter's
art is always meant for his own personal development (i.e. the
"agenda" is to write poetry, meaningful healing poetry). That said,
I see the overall mood of
The Song of the Sea Goat
, superficially at least, as one of despair
(on several levels) - but we'll get into that later.
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