Psychédélices

[Matze]

The day before yesterday I got that the angel Gabriel is the angel of death in the Jewry. I think that's interesting because so the hero of the story thinks that the angel of the death is coming, it's another link to his impression that he'll die.

[Toc De Mac]

Originally Posted by Matze

From where is, from where comes the human?
Little walker in the reality
From where are his atoms?
From which star, which spark?

Here we have again this question of the beginning. From where are his atoms. I mean, that is another suppostion. It comes from some star or something like that. But I think it's interesting that we have still this feeling of a sky, of a universe in the whole text. And actually the topics religion and drugs aren't that far away from each other in this song, because both have this sky, this infinity in itself.

We're all made out of the stars' atoms.

So she could be wondering from "which star" do man's atoms come, and by "which spark," that is, which supernova (or even which Big Bang) did man come about?

[Tiwaz]

Psychédélices
There is just Alice
To believe in miracles
After the awakening

Alice can also have some drug connections

Go Ask Alice is a controversial 1971 book about drug abuse that is considered a classic of American young adult literature. The book purports to be the actual diary of an anonymous teenage girl who died of a drug overdose in the late 1960s and is therefore presented as a testimony against drug use. Alice is not the protagonist's name; the diarist's name is never given in the book. A woman named Alice is mentioned briefly in one entry; she is a fellow addict the diarist meets on the street.

The title is from the lyrics to the Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit". Grace Slick wrote the song based on perceived drug references in the classic novel Alice In Wonderland. (On July 14 [page 36 of the 2006 edition], the writer says she "feel[s] like Alice in Wonderland" and "maybe Lewis G. Caroll was on drugs too".)

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Recall Alice
When she was just small

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said;
"FEED YOUR HEAD

[Idéaliser]

Speaking of Go Ask Alice I just read that book a few days ago. It was pretty good but was depressing at the end. She (Alice) was a heavy drug user.

[Nikita]

Go Ask Alice is a very good book, you should read it if you already haven't.

[Deepwaters]

My turn.

This song is deep. It's a mistake to think it's primarily about drugs. It's primarily about enlightenment, the Mysteries, penetrating the illusion to see the reality underlying it. Secondarily it's about drugs, as a symbol of and/or a method of achieving that penetration. There are some hidden drug references in the lyrics (written by Jean Fauque) but they themselves are a hidden reference to something else.

Fauque wrote the lyrics, but Alizée approved them, obviously. This is another clue to something I've said about her before: she's more mystical, more magical, more occult than a lot of people may realize. (However, I don't believe she's a druggie; there's no sign of this that I can see. Although Fauque is old enough that he may have been in the past.)

I'm going to give a loose translation here, trying as best I can to reproduce in English what Fauque did in French. This will not be literal. See above for translations that will better give the literal sense of the French words.

Where did man come from
This is the needle that we thread
Whence comes the soul
And so who invented the code

"The code" is in part a reference to the DNA code, but more the code of reality, the riddle of our lives.

Before you so many others have sought
To touch the sky
Even artificially

To touch the sky is a metaphor for enlightenment; so is flight (below). "Artificially" is the first drug reference -- use of drugs for spiritual purposes, it means. But it can also mean to fake the experience of enlightenment, or to force it (which psychedelic drugs sometimes do).

Gifted with flight
The bird excites your jealousy
Close the shutters
You could become it

Very important, flight as metaphor for enlightenment, the flight of the soul. Closing the shutters = closing the eyes, removing the mind from the bondage of matter -- you could become the bird within.

Acid is the life which surrounds you
The love around you
Has such fear of emptiness

I think this may be another cryptic drug reference playing between English and French (unless of course "Acide" is French slang for LSD the way "Acid" is in English -- I'm not sure). Thus I left the translation of "acide" as "acid," which in English can be either a noun or an adjective. More important is the idea of life being bitter, acrid, or sour, and of love fearing emptiness, the emptiness of separation.

Psychédélices
The helix eclipses itself
You drink from the chalice
Until the kill

Now let's look at that title word. It's a mix of the two words "psychédelique" (psychedelic) and "délices" (delights). Mind-expanding delights. Note that "psychedelic" does NOT necessarily mean drugs, although that's one of the meanings. It refers to a spiritual mind-expansion, cosmic consciousness. Psychédélices can be roughly translated as "mind-expanding delights."

The second line has layers of meaning. The helix refers to DNA, but also to the spiral of creation. "Eclipser" in French, like "to eclipse" in English, can mean either to blot out/hide, or to outshine, as we speak of one achievement eclipsing another. The French word has the same two meanings. So: in blotting itself out, the spiral of creation (or of life) outshines itself, becomes something greater.

To drink from the chalice is a metaphor for life, or for spiritual awakening. "Until the kill" (jusqu'a l'hallali) -- man, I love that! Just say it, or listen to Alizée singing that line, the way it rolls off the tongue. Beautiful. Anyway -- "kill" here is a hunting term, until the quarry is caught and killed. Until you achieve the awakening you seek.

Psychédélices
It's just like Alice
To believe in miracles
After the awakening

Alice is a reference to Alice in Wonderland. (I'm really thinking Fauque must be fluent in English, and familiar with English language literature.) There are all kinds of drug references in that story, too, but again, the hidden nature of reality is more important. The second two lines should be clear in meaning in the context of enlightenment and spirituality.

Where did man come from
The little walker in reality
Whence come his atoms
From which star did they shine?

The reference here is to man as a mote of consciousness moving through reality -- the little walker. The connection between the self and the cosmos is also stated, with the physical/chemical connection between our bodies and star-stuff being a metaphor for this -- NOT the literal intended statement.

You believe that your body has wings
That the angel Gabriel
Is here for the announcement

The reference to Gabriel and the announcement is to the end of the world in Christian mythos: the last judgment. You believe it's all over, that your body has put on wings and you are finally free. That is, in fact, what it feels like. Even if it isn't true. In a deeper sense, it is.

Soft is satin
When the dark night is dressed in white
Alladin's lamp
Suddenly burns with five hundred thousand watts

The "dark night" refers to the "Dark Night of the Soul," a concept from the Catholic mystic St. John of the Cross, who wrote a powerful poem of the same name. It's a mystic transformation, the loss of selfhood or lesser identity, to allow the emergence of the greater Identity that is always hidden beneath. One strange thing: the French line is "Quand la nuit noire s'habille de white" -- not "de blanc." Fauque uses the English word. I'm not quite sure why.

The image of Alladin's lamp, the mystic summoner of power, and the incredible burst of light are appropriate here.

Acid is the time that goes by
Wobbling around you
You do not come back the same

Another meaning of "acid" is the idea of dissolving: this is another metaphor for spiritual transformation. Time becomes unsteady; it wobbles around you. You are transformed: you don't come back the same.

Psychédélices
Délisoleil
You drink from the chalice
Until the kill

Another wonderful made-up word: délisoleil. Délices and soleil, I would say: Psychedlic delights; solar delights.

Psychédélices
It's just like Alice
To believe in miracles
After the awakening

[lefty12357]

I love the lyrics to this song. Jean Fauque did a wonderful job on them. I know it's not the most exciting or the most popular song on the album, but I loved it from the beginning. I just wish more people appreciated this kind of work. And Alizée did a great job singing it.

I like your analysis Deep.

"Until the kill" (jusqu'a l'hallali) -- man, I love that! Just say it, or listen to Alizée singing that line, the way it rolls off the tongue. Beautiful.

And I couldn't agree more, when Alizée sings that line, I get goosebumps.

[Deepwaters]

I feel I have to apologize to Her Grace and her mystic poet, M. Fauque, because I initially said I didn't like this song much. I now understand why she likes it so much, and why it's the title song. The power of it is in the lyrics, and the lyrics are not easy to understand, especially for someone like me who is not a native Francophone. As music, there are better songs on this album, I still feel, but as poetry, this is sublime.

[lefty12357]

It’s funny. Before I knew more of what this song was really about, I still had that initial feeling that it was lyrically wonderful, so I gave it high marks expecting to be proven correct once I understood it better. I liked the way Alizée sang it, but I agree that musically it is not the best on the CD.

There are other songs on this CD I didn’t appreciate a lot at first, but have grown on me quite a bit. Isn’t it wonderful that a year later, we are still finding new things to appreciate about this CD. I wish the whole world felt the same way. I know I keep repeating myself, but this CD is better than many of the initial reactions it received would have you believe.

[Tiwaz]

Thanks Deepwater for revealing the meaning of it. This helps me appreciate and accept the album and new style more.