I woke up today to a very tough decision: Picking a song that has meaning in my life. First, understand there isn’t a dearth of songs for me to choose. That is exactly why the choice is so hard, coupled with the fact that a blank page is the bane of the writer. Pink Floyd’s “Fearless” rung in my head, along with The Velvet Underground’s “Heroin”. I listened to an alternate version of Willie Nelson’s “Funny How Time Slips Away”, and Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” (often confused with the album, Harvest). The answer came to me in the place where all the world’s great minds have always found inspiration: frying eggs for breakfast. That answer was “Race For The Prize” by The Flaming Lips.
Wrong album, I know…
My history with The Flaming Lips is on the shorter end of the spectrum, and isn’t one of total respect. I admire their wackiness because if they are anything, it is unique. At the same time, they are a little too avant garde for me at times (see their remake of Dark Side of the Moon). Despite all of this background, they have made a few songs that have really touched me. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is on my classic album list with the crown jewel being “Do You Realize”. This essay isn’t about my opinion of The Flaming Lips or their discography or anything but “Race For The Prize”. So Here Goes.
P.S. I actually do like this ^^^
Describing songs is always a hard thing to do, at least for me. It is like describing color or emotion. This is subjective stuff, and it takes a adroit paper to objectify it. The song opens up with pounding drums and an absolutely soaring synth. If I had to give the song an emotion, I would call it hope with a melocholly heart. It earns the title of hope for the lyrics “Two scientists were racing / For the good of all mankind / Both of them side by side / So Determined / Locked in heated battle”. These two scientists are working for the cure, running against one another. One is bound to lose, if not both. “Theirs is to win / If it kills them / They’re just humans / With wives and children” That may be the most beautiful chorus I have ever heard. It isn’t bright, but it is trying to make a hopeless situation hopeful. It is also a slower, softer contrast to the blaring synth and drums before it.
If you have ever had an existential crisis, this song will touch you.
I kn\ow I have. There is no emptiness like sitting in a class room and suddenly feeling that he world has no meaning,
Rene Magritte, “The Banquet”
and there is no awe like asking yourself why anything is. So I understand the plight of the scientists. They want to mean something. They give themselves a reason. But they are just human. I am just human, and that is the most beautiful and most terrifying thing about life. I can’t help but wonder if at the end of this race for the prize, will there be a prize? the final chorus changes from “theirs is to win / if it kills them” to “theirs is to win / it will kill them”.
This is a thin first draft for a school paper. Feel free to give me comments. I will be expanding on this.
pelirojoguitar 