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I think you're oversimplfying there, Mr Pete. If memory serves, the lyric goes 'I need to be myself...' which to me suggests a more profound sense of urgency, of desperation, than the arguably more throwaway sentiment that 'I've gotta...' would convey. It's too important for the colloquialism, this urge for self-realisation, this, if you like, will to power. Underlying which, crucially, there seems to be a real fear, in existential terms, of being erased. See, for example, the lines
'You need to find a way for what you want to say
But before tomorrow
Cause my friend (who?) says he'll take you home
He sits in a corner all alone
He lives under a waterfall
Nobody can see him, nobody can ever hear him call'
I took this at the time to refer to Christ, the logos - possibly I was reaching a bit, under the influence of teh medication, but the point I feel still stands, that what's being addressed here is the idea that these spiritual 'friends' who offer 'a way out' if relied on, are essentially redundant in the milieu in question (urban, brutalist, albeit filtered through the lens of a certain sort of 'old clothes and porridge' English bathtub psychedelia, see also early Pink Floyd, 'I am The Walrus,' and the raw, lived experience. I'm guessing, of still being 'under the influence' during 'Songs Of Praise.) In this respect, the sentiments on offer would appear to echo Neitzsche, or, closer to home Noel Gallagher's near-contemporary Shaun Ryder, who a few years earlier had observed that
'You know that Jesus is a cunt
Who'll never help you with a thing that you do
Or you done'
The 'or you done' there in particular calling into question the whole notion of Christian redemption.
To the writer at this point, in other words, not being yourself simply isn't an option, for anyone.
And to backtack slightly, the lyric begins 'You need to be youself' - It's not mere coke-fuelled egotism that's on display here (though that is alluded to during the course of the tune, in terms of the 'Alka-Seltzer' that's 'sniffed through a cane on a supersonic train') but rather something more inclusive.
And then we could ponder the irony of Liam declaring, later in the song, 'I need to be myself,' when it was actually his brother who wrote the thing.
It's a more complex piece, in other words, than I feel as yet been recognised. |
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