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Starship Trooper Lyrics
Artist: Yes
Album: The Yes Album
I. Life Seeker
(Anderson)
Sister Bluebird flying high above,
Shine your wings forward to the sun.
Hide the myst'ries of life on your way.
Though you've seen them, please don't say a word.
What you don't know, I have never heard.
Starship Trooper, go sailing on by,
Catch my soul, catch the very night.
Hide the moment from my eager eyes.
Though you've seen them, please don't tell a soul.
What you can't see, can't be very whole.
Speak to me of summer, long winters longer than time can remember,
Setting up of other roads, travel on in old accustomed ways.
I still remember the talks by the water, the proud sons and daughters that,
In the knowledge of the land, spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways.
Mother life, hold firmly on to me.
Catch my knowledge higher than the day.
Lose as much as only you can show.
Though you've seen them, please don't say a word.
What I don't know, I have never shared.
II. Disillusion
(Squire)
Loneliness is a pow'r that we possess to give or take away forever.
All I know can be shown by your acceptance of the fact there shown before you.
Take what I say in a diff'rent way and it's easy to see
that this is all confusion.
As I see a new day in me, I can also show if you and you may follow.
Speak to me of summer, long winters longer than time can remember,
Setting up of other roads, travel on in old accustomed ways.
I still remember the talks by the water, the proud sons and daughters that,
In the knowledge of the land, spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways.
III: Wurm (Instruemtal)
(Howe)
Related:
Yes Lyrics
Yes The Yes Album Lyrics
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Yes - Homeworld Lyrics
Yes - Leave It Lyrics
Yes - Masquerade Lyrics
Yes - Run Through The Light Lyrics
Yes - Shock To The System Lyrics
Yes - Siberian Khatru Lyrics
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Comments/Interpretations
I still find Yes lyrics a bit obscure and cryptic. I encourage anyone who has intesting interpretations to post here.
Best,
Joe
These lyrics are phenomenal.
The story these three men weave is really brilliant.
Wish I could help you with an interpretation Joe, but maybe it's better we don't.
What? Do you live in a closet??
I'm afraid I have to agree with Joe. The lyrics surpass obscurity into some new dimension of anti-logic and non-comprehension. :P
Most of the lines are like "Engrish"—all the individual words make sense, but the whole thing is meaningless.
All i can add is, that "würm" is a beautiful river where i live and also is the name of the last ice age in middle europe. i don´t know what it has to do with this song...
2nd verse - though you've seen THERE ...
KNEW the knowledge of the land
...
RELEASE as much as only you can show ...
Though you see ME please ...
... easy to SAY that this is all confusion [I've hear a live version with "see" but the original Yes Album has "say"]
I can also show IT T'you and you may follow
Much of their stuff comes from Indian prophesy - as in Hindu India, Vedic scriptures and such. "Wondrous Stories" is about listening to a guru speaking prophesy.
Long winters, longer than time can remember? - May be the case for Britain if the salt conveyor flow stops ala "Day After Tomorrow" ...
Read "Autobiography of a Yogi" for background.
if wurm has to do with an ice age then "winters longer than you can remember" would make perfect sense in that context.
They all make sense in your soul, but not in your heart, it's hard to explain, but Yes lyrics are beutiful in many ways, to those who can understand them...
I read somewhere years ago that Jon Anderson doesn't think about lyrics the way most people do. He thinks of the voice as being another instrument in the music. And the lyrics are not always meant to have specific meaning.
It is obscure but not without meaning. This song haunts me.
its it's easy to say
that this is all confusion.
say not see, right?
Obscure? Of course.
Beautiful music. Wonderful fucking music. Awesome, incredible music.
Makes me cry.
Though you see them, please don´t tell a soul. It´s about aliens of course - STARSHIP TROOPERS
Bald Joe, Yes is music you have to feel with your heart, not interpret with your brain. Enjoy.
they are lyrical sounds. the meaning is less important than the fit in the structure of the music. listen to tales of topographic oceans or much of their later work, it is more evident there
I must say I love these lyric more than any Ive heard , could be due to they bring back some great memories as well, I think their lyrics fit their music , I cant see the common lyrics of I broke up with my girlfriend and want her back ..... in a YES song
thrilic song just a great work.....
this song is supposed to be haunting for the profane. But for those who live the path of the great work view it as mythology.... Mystery Babylon
ya can't land saucers on ice fields. ya had to build further south. thus the peruvian landing fields. our ancestors musta knew the language. duh- get offa yous ipods and listen-you fricks
These lyrics are awwwwwwwsome. They speak to me in sweet, accustomed ways.
Sean is right. Anderson usually chose words that are pleasing to the ear. You also gotta remember that he did a LOT of acid and other psychedelics in the early years, so not much of the stuff he wrote made sense.
"so not much of the stuff he wrote made sense"
Depends on what you interpret as sense. If you look to blanket the imagination with clouds of sense, don't be surprised if you see nothing.
"Speak to me of summer, long winters longer than time can remember,
Setting up of other roads, travel on in old accustomed ways.
I still remember the talks by the water, the proud sons and daughters that,
In the knowledge of the land, spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways".
This part incredible match the voice of Anderson in a perfect way, like a instrument.
When I read or watch anything about old civilizations, specially the Atlantis I remember some of the YES songs like this.
this song is too f*in amazing, beautiful lyrics
As a budding songwriter, I consider Yes to be the mecca of lyrical greatness. The way their lyrics are cryptic is what makes them so great. The writer has an image in mind when writing, but the beauty lies in the variety of interpretations from different people. Yes are the masters of having a message in mind, but leaving their words open to interpretation.
Jon Anderson is the Master!
I always thought that their lyrics were similar to their album art - beautiful and interesting, yet contrary to the laws of logic that we are accustomed to.
I'm a 12th grade english student studying poetry. I'm doing an interpretation project, and I chose this song to interprete. In line 2 of II: Disallusion it translates to be, "There is no proof for what i saw, other than the fact that the information I have shown you is there to be heard." This obviously means that there IS a certain message he is trying to convey.
Keeping the title, "Starship Trooper" in mind, the artist could very well be talking about other beings. There knowledge of the land goes beyond this civilization, and before the "setting up of other roads" which in my opinion means religion. Being that there knowledge of the land is so vast, beyond human accountance of time, the line "Speak to me of summer, long winters longer than time can remember" would have to mean summers as in a chance for earth to flourish, and even longer winters (Ice Ages) in which nothing survives, there for there is no accountance for TIME.
Also, MORE logic that this song is NOT just "open for interpretation" is the simple fact that in lines 3 and 4 of stanza 5, it states "Take what I say in a diff'rent way and it's easy to see that this is all confusion." This guy frreal had a message he wanted to get out, sometimes just saying it bluntly can NOT be fully understood by the observer, and IS open to MISINTERPRETATION, which is excacly what the artist is trying to avoid.
;) Notice how everyone in the valley of the blind thinks the other guy has tumors on either side of his nose....
Obscurity is in the tumor....er, eye of the beheld.
great lyrics mystical
so time will remmember
I don't know, I imagine the actual Heinlein novel could shed light. After the first two movements, I hear "Wurm" as the period when the Starship Trooper starts to trod across the landscape in his robotic suit and begins to lay waste to everything in sight. Thus, the first two movements may be people on the ground awaiting the attack; or perhaps the second is the Trooper contemplating his/her possible death during the upcoming battle.
the song lyrics are a prayer or homage to a higher extra-terrestrial civilization (though you see them THEM)..who travel through space time and share higher knowledge with primitive native cultures to help them become more civilized (setting up on other roads).
If you do not understand (take what is said in a different way) the story then this is all confusion.
"All summer" is time spent learning Long winters longer are excursions between stars or time between visits.
well I guess it meant something to whoever wrote it- I like YES music but the lyrics are a bit odd. but I guess I have seen people so high that they were making alot of sense- college days of course.
"stoney grounds we once knew"
A qoute from one of the early yes interviews either 1 band member stated or Eddie Offord stated " Think of it as a sort of a movie sound painting". Yes uses poetry and many art forms. Also Jon Anderson is very spritual in nature according to his daughter who appeared on channel 2 PBS. The Relayer album has a terrific poem in the cover. Author Donald Lehmecle(Name spelling may be incorrect but the lines of the poem are unforgetable.)You need the sheeth the lp came in.
I want Wurm to be played at my wake. It reminds me of the journey to the next life....
This is about soul eternal and the many journeys when we lived in times of goodness as opposed to these times of evil and how the Starship Troopers would stop by and talk in sweet accustomed ways. So it is now and so it will be.
Godspeed!
they are about the alternative views of reality and the wholeness inherent in seeing things as such.... ancient wisdom commonality of energy in all things, brotherhood... get out of your head and get experiential
You have to let yourself see and realize the shapes that the music is making and then u will be able to see its actually alive through itself and through you and your expanding mind..I find the lyrics celebrating this beautiful occurrence and it cannot make any sense outside the music as its part of the shapes in the moment
STARSHIP TROOPER, GO SAILING ON BY..
YES, THE BEST BAND EVER!
You really need to drop some Orange Sunshine. It then all becomes clear and is quite easily understood......
I agree with an earlier post that Anderson was using the words as lyrical sounds, without intending them to be understood. Yes was meant to be a soundscape to be absorbed from your headphones, not analyzed. Only Yes was complex enough to do that and only Yes fans are complex and deep enough to understand it. GOD, that band was complex; I play bass and often find learning ONE Yes song more challenging, musically, than three songs by another band. It takes genius to use simple words that make little sense to create a feeling that clear lyrics could not.
what i dont know ,i have never shared
Think of this, and other pieces of Anderson's work, as a series of images, portrayed by words and phrases, to create a movie of sound in your head. -- The sound movie most people hear in this song is that of higher beings traveling between civilizations and dispensing knowledge. -- I disagree that the words were written without intent to mean something. I think they were meant to mean different things to different people, to create a movie of sound that all could enjoy. No matter who you ask, they will have something of an opinion as to the meaning of the lyrics. If you truly want a good interpretation of Anderson's work, try three or four orange sunshine and when it gets going good, then sit down, get really comfy and really start listening with your eyes closed. I guarantee you'll see the sound movies Anderson meant you to see, and then you'll finally understand.
FWIW, the Wurm river runs through Dachau.
I know this isn't at all what it is supposed to be, but I remember my college instructor told us that we should come up with a story fr instrumentals that we think fits the music, even if it doesn't make sense, because that's what composers did. They made music and injected feelings, emotions, and stories in it, but we weren't guaranteed to discover what they meant.
In wurm? I always envision an orgasm or something. It just seems that way. I'm not a pervert and not trying to make their work perverted, there's a massive buildup that just climbs up your throat during that whole movement. I don't even necessarily mean it sexually. It's just that when it climaxes at 8:33/8:34 I feel like I should scream along with it because it gets to be so overwhelming (but of course i never do because that would drown out the beautiful composition). That's my interpretation.
Haven't listened to this album since a teenager in the late 70's, just got it again and am loving it, a lot of the stuff I loved back then sort of grates and shows it age today, but this is an exception.
im 14 years old and I find these lyrics to be the most powerful ive ever heard. I like this whole kind
of mysterious music, and it doesnt have to make sense for it be great.
an old friend introduced me to Yes and since that moment I am fascinated by their music and lyrics. I think Andre (my friend) still listens to it in heaven.
It's at least partially a refence to Robert A. Heinlien's "Starship Troopers" in which he expouses his beliefs for how a society should treat the role of citizenship. The book is very different from the movie made in the late '90s...
these lyrics are difficult to interpret but here are a few keys wurm- its a river, it is the name of the last ice age, and in germanic it means dragon. starship troopers could mean extra terestrial life forms. long winters and all summers winter can refrence to the ice age, or a time of travel all summer could mean the rebirth like nature after a long winter or a time of learning. go ahead and interpret
Some topics of thought can be so vast that they can not be put into words but only alluded to. This level of thinking is generally called 'visions'. When you trickle vision down into words you lose it's vastness. What some of Anderson's songs are trying to do is guide the listener's thought up to the higher level of vision. Trick is don't try to explain it with words..but 'see' it through the higher level of vision. Also the original album cover had several paintings that help to understand
...it's impossible to only 'interpret' bits and pieces? I feel this song is meant to be FELT as a whole, not dissected like a damn lab experiment. Anderson was clearly a High Priest, preaching his good word carried on the vibrations of his fellows to the masses. Just b/c the lyrics don't fit into the lines of your preconceived reality doesn't negate the power of meaning they have. It's probably one of those songs you'll never really figure out, and that's why you'll never forget it either. And it's absolutely gorgeous uplifting music...wow
I really do agree that the lyrics of Anderson are meant to be pleasing to the ear, or like another instrument.
Realistically most of us aren't on the same wavelength as him as far as what he's trying to convey, but honestly that's okay. I don't really mind, and it makes it easier to listen to.
Amazing song, by the way.
The Bluebird and trooper are starships. They are seen as bright, beautiful, and mysterious. They carry men to war. The soldiers within the two starships are contemplating life, families and love. They are also experiencing the lonelyness that comes from deep space travel and the military in general. The poetry in these lyrics is way beyond what was comonly heard on rock albums of the time.
There is a BBC radio interview where Anderson say's the song is about contemplating life and our existance throughout recorded history, and losing yourself in the perspective of all creatures you encounter and imagine. You take the images the lyrics present to YOU, and personally create your own journey and meanings.
That's the brilliance of this song, it is your very own experience, every time you listen. It cannot be dissected, it can only be imagined.
does any of you know which beat this song has?
Re: "I agree with an earlier post that Anderson was using the words as lyrical sounds, without intending them to be understood."
BINGO!!! If you're trying to interpret Yes lyrics, you're wasting your time. They aren't completely meaningless, but conveying a deep meaning isn't the band's intention.
I am doing a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition, and all I can tell you is that this lyrics do have a subliminal standardized message, but at the same time it could mean anything or nothing, depending on where you at in your life. We could do analytical thinking for days and days, but only if you feel goose bumps when you hear this song, you will know what it means.
I don't know the meaning to this song, but what I do know is this, if it comes from inside you then the song will always have meaning. All you have to do is close your eyes and your gone, gonna take you on trip far from here, all you have to do is BELIEVE.
Just because the lyrics are obscure does NOT mean they're not good. And personally, I think that it's better if a song is a little obscure - it can have multiple meanings.
It's a hell of a lot better than what's playing nowadays, that's for sure.
The lyrics are meant to sound good, yes didn't hold themselves back by having to make understandable lyrics
I'm happy to see so many people still listen to Yes. :) I was one of the "orange sunshine crowd" in the 70s, and in those hearings the lyrics/music made perfect sense and told me, in stunning pictures, many secrets.
I still get goosebumps hearing them. To this day, I wonder about the magical chanting cadence of Anderson's voice: it seems pre-Christian, Celtic, maybe Welsh, maybe even Elven. :) It's how I imagine being in middle earth might have sung. I love the slow, inevitable progression of Wurm. It reminds me of following a fractal image as it spirals down in inumerable iterations.
Rereading the Heinlein book, Starship Troopers. Thought the lyrics would have something to do with it, but I don't think they do.
Love the song, though.
Man...I wish I could go back to the 70's and relive my life... I would do it way different... So much amazing music that I never really listened to... I wonder if people have ever lived wonderful, completely fulfilling, happy lives? Modern life is such a bummer... All this technology and information, but the daily routine is such a drag, and there's never enough time to do what you really want to do...
I had read or heard an interview where Jon likened a Starship Trooper to a guardian angel.
In Yours Is No Disgrace, he writes "on a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place" he is talking about Earth.
My opinion is Jon is very spiritual and writes symbolically. When he writes of wind, the context to me infers time.
Long live the music of YES
It's for the individual to decide what it means to them
Sister Blue Bird is the Blessed Mother Mary, she's pictured dressed in blue.
Mother Life - again a reference to the Virgin Mary - hold firmly onto me.
As I see a new day in me - he turns away from sin and follows the commandments.
I can also show if you and you may follow. He tries to get his family and friends to follow.
The last paragraph seems to be a longing for the innocence of youth. Speak to me in sweet accustomed ways.
Joe, et al.: It helps if you're blitzed when you hear Yes - all the meanings will become crystal clear.
lyrics close, but not exact...maybe they should be updated...I mean this song is over 40 years old...
Anderson has said that the lyrics are like the colours on an artist's pallette. They use them to paint the mood of the song. Its true; they're meant to be felt, not heard.
had an intense physical workout on a tradmill today with S.T. in my headphones...the endorphines from the workout and my absolute love for this music resulted in pure and unadulterated joy...
I'm glad to see nobody else has a clue either. The song is pleasure for the brain, in an intoxicating way, but is just too cryptic. I'm thinking that was the whole purpose to the writing. Don't sweat it, just zone out with Wurm.
For me, this song is about the mystery of life - the meaning we all feel at the heart of life, which can't ever be put into words.
"Sister Bluebird" and "starship trooper" are keepers of the mystery: though you've seen them please don't say a word.
The singer is also a keeper of the mystery: "What I don't know, I have never shared"
But the mystery can be glimpsed in childhood joys "speak to me in old accustomed ways"
The singer accepts the confusion and inarticulateness of life, and calls to the listener to "follow"
The rest is joy in the music.
"Though you've seen
Okay, two words:
Doctor Who.
I believe one cannot point a specific theme. It's just about experiencing life, which in itself is very hard to define. This type of song is based more on images than in logic per si. Another example would be "Wonderous Stories". If I could point a unifying factor to these lyrics, I'd say it's a feeling of joy towards life. "Don't sorround yourself with yourself" is a great line to me. Life is about being in harmony with all beings.
all of the above!
Love this song and can hear the 3rd part in loop forever. It fits soo perfect with the Warhammer 40K that is almost like the creators make the game background listening to this song... It evoces a life away in deep space, where you still miss the earthbond, the sun against the eternal long winter ragins in space, missign the old ways of traveling throug the seas... Epic, infinite interpretations...
Its just pure spirit talking to us . Pure spirit speaks in many ways on many different levels to everyone. At face value it typically is confusion. Listen without the ears and the brain. :)
Greatest tunes ever! Takes me back in time and relaxes me like a mild sedative. I often replay many Yes songs, Starship Trooper is one of the best but their are so many more that are awlsome as well. Wish i could go back in time, I Love Yes Songs!
Although meny people are saying that "Though you've seen them" refers to extraterrestrials or something it seems pretty clear to me that "them" refers to the "mysteries of life" in the previous verse.
So, although the Sister Bluebird have seen the mysteries of live, the singer is asking it to hide them in its way and don't say a word about them.
And Starship Trooper maybe just another way to call that Sister Bluebird
They are spiritual rembering songs . They put into words the reality of having lived before and the knowledge we have lost because of our sleeping and deadening of our souls. It is to intrigue us back into wakefulness thru our exploring thu the music. Can't you just feel the stars and the awe?
What was said can only be interpreted
through acid and at the time.
Couldn't this "I still remember the talks by the water, the proud sons and daughters that,
In the knowledge of the land, spoke to me in sweet accustomed ways"
be a reference from the song "A venture"?
going to Yestival in August where they're going to do this whole album as well as Close to the Edge. It's not Jon Anderson, but should be a good time anyway... This is one of my favorite Yes songs.
Great song... I'm hearing one of the best cover ever by Samurai Prog. Astonishing. Lyrics match the singing?
I want this played at my funeral.
To Hairy Buttocks: "Don't surround yourself with yourself/Move on back two squares" is a chess analogy. In fact, I think it refers to a well known sicilian opening-defence variation in which, having castled queen-side and advancing your queen in a manner most would interpret as premature with pawns on 3 sides and a knight on one, moving back two squares to the starting position, instead of wasting a move, gives the opponent the necessary turn to make his ONLY seemingly sensible move (which is an unrelated rook advance)which, in 2 additional turns, reveals itself to be a tragic blunder, having forced him to sacrifice a rook for a pawn
trying to grasp meaning with exactitude in a song lyric is nigh impossible as sometimes the more one tries to hold the grains of sand of meaning, the more we lose the meaning. mood influences perception. all we can hope for is we get most of it and guess at what is not so apparent. relax and enjoy the view and the ride and thank god for yes. peace....
Once you find your own meaning in the song it resonates...beautiful song!
it seems that its referencing the fallibility and beauty of experience itself!
My son asked me what we listened to when we were tripping before there was Pink Floyd.
I said "The YES Album." (And Firesign Theatre.)
Life seeker represents facing the world as it is with wonder & joy much like youth. disillusion represents the fear or loss of control when realising that everything was simpler and perhaps better in the past and the longing for something that is no more. Wurm is really the most open to interpretation but i think its that dumb and entirely unaware part of ourselves that consumes what is there because its there and it knows nothing else. That unguided part that is neither ego or mind.
First verse ...Lady wisdom, guide me on my path.
Second verse ...higher power, take me when I'm ready for you at that moment. I never need know what lifes answers are, just your will.
Third verse ...keep me in the spirit of your light, keep me on the righteous pathway, never looking back, the moments are in recieving, returning, sharing and freely giving the spiritual nourishment the same unselfish manner it was given to me.
Forth verse ...let me live a spiritual life without want.
Fifth verse ...meditate and share with those who seek the wisdom so i may travel on and in doing so you will also follow the pathway to the spirit of the life.
Of historic and present time and space travel at the speed of thought.Not necessarily all to be relating just to one planet (Earth) and a linear timeline. There is only now that exists. To Understand as much as you haven't understood. Sharing knowledge and understanding with no reference to, or mentioning of any unknown facts. To understand "mother life" and the ability (power) to share knowledge throughout the universe. Starship trooper go sailing on by.Catch my soul, catch the very light. Check out some Alan Watts.