anglophilia January 28th, 2006 04:25PM  
The lyrics posted are for 'gravity rides everything' not third planet. I'm interpreting the lyrics that should be here.

The song is about an abortion. ‘Third Planet’ refers both to the third planet, Earth, and the unborn child, who would be a third body in the union of two. After the deed has been done the protagonist is swept up in all the potential that has been lost. At that stage of life there is, literally, a world of possibilities. The pattern of the lyrics is disjointed, suggesting stream of consciousness, and filled with flashbacks to the moment of conception, which is not regretted. Examples: “Outside naked, shivering looking blue, from the cold sunlight that’s reflected off the moon. And baby cum angels fly around you reminding you we used to be three and not just two.”

There can be no question of the amount of love held for this man’s lover. The unbridled guilt in Brock’s voice makes it clear that the mother is gentle and innocent, and above blame. In the reference to God and heaven: “The 3rd planet is sure that they’re being watched by an eye in the sky that can’t be stopped. When you get to the promise land your gonna shake that eyes hand.” The man is absolutely sure of his lover’s acceptance into heaven. There can be no way of knowing whether the abortion was the man’s idea or if he just takes on the blame because he had the power to stop it.

There’s no reason to labelt his an anti-abortion song, but it does let us feel what the guilt might be like. The song is prefaced with “My boss just quit the job says he’s goin out to find blind spots and he’ll do it.” Which suggests that God had to be ‘on vacation’ for this to be able to occur. The protagonist clearly feels awful, and so he screams blame at god for not stopping the abortion.

In general the common modest mouse themes creep up. References to the planets and gravity, and calling on God to explain His actions.

azn_lep May 31st, 2007 02:16PM  
I love this song because it has both a personal and universal interpretation. Anglophilia already posted the simple interpretation, where an individual is trying to cope with problems in his life. (Specifically an abortion or stillbirth) The tricky thing about this song is from the universal view, the narrator and point of veiw changes from stanza to stanza.

So now I'm going to try and tackle the philosophical and universal ideas of creation, destruction, and infinity that Brock may have intended regarding Christianity, Atheism, and Agnosticism.

"Everything that keeps me together is falling apart
I've got this thing that I consider my only art of fucking people over."

Brock begins the song incredibly complicated. The speaker in this case is life itself. Purpose is what keeps life together. However, Brock recognizes that no matter what your purpose is, the only thing that life ultimately accomplishes is death, or as Brock so eloquently put "fucking people over." Thus, the purpose for life dissolves into death.

"My boss just quit the job
says he's goin out to find blind spots and he'll do it."

The boss of life is the individual, and the job is his or her purpose. Since Brock already made clear that regardless what your purpose is, in the end, it's irrelevant with death, the individual has given up. The blind spots present quite the conundrum. Later on Brock compares God to an all seeing eye, yet the individual wishes to hide from God, which of course would be impossible if God were truly the omnipotent being he's believed to be. Yet Brock clearly says "he's goin out to find blind spots and he'll do it," which infers one of the following: the individual can escape God's power, or there is no God to begin with. Both of which infer that God isn't omnipotent.

"The 3rd planet is sure that they're being watched
by an eye in the sky that can't be stopped.
When you get to the promise land
your gonna shake that eyes hand."

The 3rd planet refers to Earth, being the 3rd away from the sun. Brock recognizes that the majority of people believe in some sort of higher being and an after life. He relates God to an "eye in the sky that can't be stopped," since God is widely regarded as an omnipotent force that can "see" everything. Brock proceeds to describe the Christian interpretation of death. The only way to truly become one with God is through death and ascension to heaven, which Brock has substituted with "the promised land."

"Your heart felt good
it was drippin' pitch and made of wood.
And your hands and knees
felt cold and wet on the grass to me."

This passage is particularly difficult as it can be interpreted from two different narratives. The first speaker could be God speaking of Adam. From this view, "pitch" refers to black and "wood" is symbolic of hard. Seeing as Man betrayed God, his heart was black and hard, yet God could still forgive him. The next lines just elaborate God's appreciation for Man.

The other speaker can be inferred as the Earth. In this case "heart" refers to the heartwood of a tree (center of the trunk), and "pitch" means sap. Even in this interpretation, the heartwood is symbolic of Man's heart, and the pitch is symbolic of blood, portraying the Earth's appreciation for the life it has created.

"Well, outside naked, shiverin' looking blue, from the cold
sunlight that's reflected off the moon.
Baby cum angels fly around you
reminding you we used to be three and not just two.
And that's how the world began.
And that's how the world will end."

This is the Christian point of view. The first two lines of this stanza just tell us that some people were naked and cold. It's not until the line "we used to be three and not just two," do we realize who these people are. Adam and Eve were created in God's image, and of course, being the first human's, were naked. When they "used to be three" was when Adam and Even lived with God in Eden. When Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree they separated themselves from God, becoming just two. The world began with the Alpha and will end with the Omega. The two of which are one and the same.

"A 3rd had just been made and we were swimming in the
water
didn't know then was it a son was it a daughter.
When it occurred to me that the animals are swimming
around in the water in the oceans in our bodies
and another had been found another ocean on the planet
given that our blood is just like the Atlantic."

This stanza represents the scientific, Atheist view of the Earth. "A 3rd" refers to evolution, seeing as all creatures started in the water and evolved to land. The other ocean refers to human blood. It's "just like the Atlantic" in the sense that there are a billions things swimming around within us, just as there are billions of creatures in the ocean. This gives a feeling of insignificance of one cell to the body, on creature to Earth, and one planet to the Universe.

"Well, the universe is shaped exactly like the earth
if you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were.
And the universe is shaped exactly like the earth
if you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were.
The universe is shaped exactly like the earth."

Christians believe in creation, and Atheists in the big bang theory. This particular stanza is derived from an Agnostic point of view. Whether or not the Universe it literally shaped like the Earth is nongermane. Relevantly speaking, the idea that there is no end or beginning remains constant between the Universe and the Earth. Brock identifies that there is no distance that can be traveled to reach the ends of the Earth, just as there is no time that can be traveled, infinitely positive or negative, that will reach an end of the universe. In essence, although there is no amount of time that will arrive at infinity, if it could be done, there would no difference in traveling an infinity forwards or backwards in time.

Everything that keeps me together is falling apart
I've got this thing that I consider my only art of fucking people over."

Everything comes full circle. Even at the end of the song, “if you go in a straight line long enough you’ll end up where you were.” Nothing was really accomplished, life is still falling apart and at the end is still death.