Hymn Of The Big Wheel Lyrics
The big wheel keeps on turning On a simple line day by day The earth spins on its axis One man struggle while another relaxes There's a hole in my soul like a cavity Seems the world is out to gather just by gravity The wheel keeps turning the sky's rearranging Look my son the weather is changing I'd like to feel that you could be free Look up at the blue skies beneath a new tree Sometime again You'll turn green and the sea turns red My son I said the power of reflections over my head The big wheel keeps on turning On a simple line day by day The earth spins on its axis One man struggle while another relaxes We sang about the sun and danced among the trees And we listened to the whisper of the city on the breeze Will you cry in the most in a lead-free zone Down within the shadows where the factories drone On the surface of the wheel they build another town And so the green come tumbling down Yes close your eyes and hold me tight And i'll show you sunset sometime again The big wheel keeps on turning On a simple line day by day The earth spins on its axis One man struggle while another relaxes As a child solemn pray my hope hides in disguise While satellites and cameras watch from the skies An acid drop of rain recycled from the sea It washed away my shadow burnt a hole in me And all the king's men cannot put it back again But the ghetto sun will nurture life And mend my soul sometime again The big wheel keeps on turning On a simple line day by day The earth spins on its axis One man struggle while another relaxes (x2)
This guy didn't format the lyrics right...
The song's meaning is right there in the chorus. We're all stuck on the wheel of fate. But it's not so bad...
Basically I smoke a bowl then reflect on the day while listening to this song, it's great.
Hello there
I have a favour to ask I am an A level Drama student and part of my course was have a certain component to base our our own devised play on , it could have been anything , our was this song.
If anyone knows or has any idea of the meaning of this song could they post it up? Perhaps there are metaphores or symbalism? I have a few ideas and agree with YanYan but I am mainly lost. Any ideas on how I could draw a plot from a play on this song?
Thanks Sophie
It was on the peace not war album, against the war in Iraq.
I love the positivity of this song. (Yeah, I know right? Positivity? Massive Attack? LoL.) But to me, it basically means: the world sucks and is totally unfair. But fuck it -- let's enjoy our lives and look at what beauty there is, because life is going to go on.
I think the song references Buddhism. The Big Wheel is the clock which counts the seconds of each age of the Earth - each epoch separated from the next by an apocalypse or cataclysm of some kind. The reference to 'beneath a new tree' is also Buddhism - the tree is a metaphor for the an epoch of time, or for the world as it exists within that period. Unfortunately I think the song is a reference to the fact that according to this religion, as well as Mayan prophesies, etc. the current age of Man (the current 'tree') is about to come to an end and largely because of the damage to planet humans have caused ('On the surface of the wheel, they build another town, and so the green comes tumbling down'). Great song and very deep.