Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb Song Meanings
Send "Comfortably Numb" ringtone to your cell
Lyrics:
Hello.
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?
Come on, now.
I hear you’re feeling down...
See the rest of these lyrics
Comfortably Numb Lyrics on KOvideo
 Top Rated Interpretation
anonymous
May 3rd, 2006 12:06PM
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This is my interpretation of the song, broken down verse by verse or line by line as appropriate.
Hello... Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone home?
Someone, probably a doctor, is talking to Pink (perhaps a reference to Syd Barrett's descent into insanity, but probably a reference to the fact that Pink is in a semi-catatonic state and is withdrawing from the world.)
Come on, now, I hear you're feeling down I can ease the pain get you on your feet again
Relax, I need some information first
just the basic facts
can you tell me where it hurts?
Pretty self explanatory - he isn't responsive, they are going to shoot him up with a drug to get him to the point where he (Pink) is capable of performing
There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
This paragraph refers to Pink's state of mind - he isn't feeling pain, the world around him is becoming more distant, more hazy, less real as Pink withdraws farther from the real world. The reference to the ship smoke is simply a poetic reference to the way Pink is viewing the "real" world - it is drifting away from him.
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I have that feeling once again
I can't explain, you would not understand This is not how I am.
This paragraph seems to be, first, a reference to what many of us probably remember from childhood - being sick with a high fever your head and body can start to feel hollow, for lack of a better term. It feels almost like a dissociative experience. Sometimes when I am in a position of EXTREME stress that same feeling overcomes me. Pink is making a reference to the fact that he is feeling disassociated with the world yet that really isn't who he is - the constant pressures of stardom have changed him.
I have become comfortably numb.
His state of withdrawal has made him numb to the world.
Okay, just a little pinprick
There'll be no more AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
But you may feel a little sick
Can you stand up? I do believe it's working good that'll keep you going for the show, come on it's time to go
Nothing more than a reference to the fact that the doctors/concert producers/etc. don't give a f*** about the performer, they just want to get him on stage.
There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse Out of the corner of my eye I turned to look but it was gone I cannot put my finger on it now The child is grown, the dream is gone
This one leaves me a little puzzled. The best interpretation I have is that when Waters was a child, he experienced a fleeting glimpse of the promise and happiness of life - but his father was killed in the war, stripping Waters of the innocence and happiness of childhood before Waters had a chance to experience it. Now he is a jaded adult, the innocence of youth is gone and was never really experienced, the dreams he had as a youth are gone - and to escape this rather tragic reality, he has withdrawn into a semi-catatonic state where he does not have to face reality.
Lamarcus
December 24th, 2005 12:11AM
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This song (and the scene in the movie) is about what happens after Pink the rockstar goes on a crazy trip about World War II. At the end of the previous song (Bring the Boys Back Home) and the beginning of the Echoes version of this song, you hear Pink's manager banging on his hotel door going "Time to go!"
Pink has passed out, and the manager calls the doctor. He's talking to the doctor, and the doctor gives him some kind of quick-fix drug (possibly heroine?) that sends him shortly on another trip about his childhood.
Wintermut3
January 4th, 2006 12:29AM
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Heroin? maybe not... I'd bet Morphine.
The song even DESCRIBES the physical side-effects of Morphine ("Just a little pinprick/ but you may feel a little sick" may refer to the fact morphine and other opiates usually make you feel nauseous).
In my opinion it's about a doctor that gives a performer painkillers (probably an opiate) to keep him on stage and performing. The descriptions of Morphine's effects are very accurate, I was given the stuff after shattering my foot in a sports accident and I remember CONCIOUSLY thinking how much it reminded me of dear old Floyd.
anonymous
February 19th, 2006 02:12AM
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Ok, guys stop thinking of the movie for god's sake. The song is about becoming numb to everything around himself. In fact the whole album is about the progresstion to his insanity. This song is simply one stage. The movie was after the music people and its hard to show a person simply going insane so they used symbolisim(sorry about the spelling issue)
anonymous
March 1st, 2006 04:48AM
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I have to agree with the last Anon, music before the movie and who wouldn't think drugs were involved. But it's not doing drugs for the trip, he needed a push to get on with the show. I also think it is a fading away from reality and a mental withdrawl. He wanted to be numb to the rest of the world and did not want to face it any longer.
anonymous
March 13th, 2006 07:19PM
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Couple of Facts:
Roger Waters suffered/suffers from diabetes since childhood.
Common Symptoms of Diabetes:
Numbness
Fatigue
Nausea or Vomiting
Many times children with type 1 diabetes find out they have it after getting sick.
The beginning of the song is someone, a doctor perhaps talking to Roger Waters and goes on to gather the proper information about his current condition.
A common side affect of having diabetes is numbness and if you go without insulin you go into a very lucid state.
Then he reflects upon growing up and being first hit with the condition and how he is going through that same thing again and that he usually is okay with the condition. The comfortably numb line I think is about the constant pricking of the finger in order to check glucose levels and he doesn't even feel it anymore.
Now the distant ship line that he refers to twice I think is the close call with death. At the end of the song he goes on to say that when he had the fever and almost died he got very close to seeing the end and then he woke up and thought it all was a dream.
Boogieman481
May 24th, 2006 03:04PM
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Don't think too much into this song. Roger Waters said in an interview about the song, "I think it's funny how everyone thinks so much about 'comfortably numb'. It was actually all written about a time when I was a child and got a horrible fever. I got rushed to the doctor and after him shining lights in my eyes and making sure I was coherant, he jabbed me with a shot of something. Then I got better."
anonymous
August 23rd, 2006 11:23AM
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Hello?
Is there anybody in there?...
A person doped, has lost his image...State of let go!
And now he is approaching himself...Romanticizing his awareness...So reaching out his own pains(memories) there’ve become just a fact for him!
I hear you're feeling down
well I can ease your pain
get you on your feet again...He himself flying out and talking to the image that we all leave with (our name …existence…memories…past…that is what make you feel ‘u’)
'a distant ship, smoke on the horizon.' this is shear romanticism of doped state...Everything that come out of your memory is beautiful...Everything that you see...
And he comparing these feelings 'fever'
...This song a series of thoughts running out one after another...The way we think even consciously…sitting in a classroom…and having sex somewhere out in the mind…
'a distant ship, smoke on the horizon.' this is shear romanticism of doped state...Evrythng that come out of your memory is beautiful...Evrything that you see...
And he comparing these feelings 'fever'...This song a series of thots running one after another...The way we think even consiously
anonymous
September 21st, 2006 08:59PM
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If anyone has watched the movie the wall it tells the story of how he was sick when he was a child, (when I was a child I have a fever, my hands felt like two baloons). And when it says "hello hello, is there anybodi in there, just nod if you can here me, is there anyone at all,) that is the doctor that pink's manager has hired to do anything to make him go on stage and earn money
anonymous
October 11th, 2006 11:50AM
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I have listened to this track on numerous occasions. I agree with some of you with your own meanings. There is a real story behind this and I have tried to understand the "patient's" words and linking them both together. Where he says he had a fever and his hands felt like two balloons, I thought about what balloons do and they basically go up so what if he were dreaming he was rising to heaven ie. Dying but was saved and this would link up with "fleeting glimpse" in the second part. Ie he feels he is at death's door again and remember's about the last time he had the feeling as a child with the fever ?? He caught a glimpse of death and obviously he didn't want to go there again but he has come full circle and is there again. His hectic life style, and I do believe it is connected with drugs etc, has had it's toll on his body and soul and instead of a fever - he has inflicted this on himself with the same result. I think he doesn't care anymore - he has failed himself. A bit of self pity in this song ? And a warning to others ? Maybe I'm way off the mark but it is everybody's interpretation isn't it ? A truly brilliant song with great music.
anonymous
November 16th, 2006 12:12PM
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Actually, contrary to what the person above me said, the album came out in 1979...The movie came out three years later in 1982.
anonymous
November 16th, 2006 05:03PM
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This song is perhaps about Mental Illness and Depression ie when he talks about being a child and having a fever and having 'that feeling once again'(psychosis) and others not being able to comprehend. Then he sings about the thing he cannot put his finger on, which is happiness, a fleeting glimpse of happiness the ship on the horizon is also the metaphor for happiness which is now unattainable because of Depression.
anonymous
January 10th, 2007 03:17PM
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You're the stupid fricken idiot. What's great about great music and lyrics is that people can have their own way of interpreting it, based on what feeling we get inside by listening to it. You can't say anybody's wrong about how they feel about it, can you? and being real Floydians is not about buying everything they ever give out, it's about to really listen and study to their music
!
anonymous
February 4th, 2007 02:36AM
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I was always under the impression that the song was originally written about a man who remembers that as a child he once got sick and was in a delirious type of state. And that as an adult he sometimes still felt that delirous state he once felt as a child leaving him feeling detached from reality. But when they use the song in 'The Wall' I do believe they use the song in refference to Pink litterally not being able to go and do a show therefore having to take heroin to be able to perform. The original meaning of the song wasnt in refference to heroin but can be translated easily to that scenario.
anonymous
March 3rd, 2007 11:12PM
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The song isn't about drugs (heroin). The song is about Roger Waters who had hepatitis. The part about when he was a child was about him as a child and because he had hepatitis he would feel like he did as a child. Before the concert he was injected with a perscribed medication. The lyrics are a conversation bettwen Waters and a doctor.
anonymous
March 19th, 2007 12:49AM
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dont turn to wikipedia for answers. anyone can get on wikipedia and change what it says
anonymous
March 23rd, 2007 10:19PM
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Read all about it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfortably_Numb
anonymous
March 24th, 2007 02:25AM
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A lot of people think that all Pink Floyd songs are about drugs, they're not. But this one is. It's not about heroin though, and it's not about the wall movie. It's about MORPHINE, which shares a lot of side effects with heroin. I don't know why he was on morphine, I've heard it's because of a hand injury and the morphine helped him play on stage.
If you don't believe this song is about morphine, do some or any strong opiate and listen to this song, you shall see. Nothing can describe the feeling any better than these lyrics. Besides, what else can make you feel a little prick besides heroin, and doctors don't give out heroin.
Now if this song makes you feel good for some other reason. If you think back to your childhood and that makes you feel more content with your adult life and this song helps you with that, then that's great. That's what music is for. Relate it to what makes you feel good. If you're not into drugs then this song probably does seem like more of a release from reality thing.
anonymous
March 24th, 2007 06:50PM
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The album all tells a story about a rock star named Pink. Pink starts to feel isolated by the media, and collapses. A doctor is sent into the room and gives Pink a drug to give him energy. The lyrics are written as a conversation, with Roger Waters voicing the doctor and David Gilmour voicing Pink.
anonymous
March 24th, 2007 09:23PM
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Like the rest of the songs on the album, "Comfortably Numb" tells a part of the story of Pink, the album's protagonist. Pink, feeling completely isolated from society, cannot stand the pressures of life as a rock star and collapses in his hotel room before leaving for his concert. A doctor is sent into the room and gives Pink an injection that gives him the energy he needs to perform. The lyrics are written as a conversation, with Waters voicing the doctor and Gilmour voicing Pink.
Everyone shut the fuck up you don't know what your talking about. I met Pink Floyd in person and I was a very good friends with the band. I know what this song is about ! You little shits you all need to go suck a dick cause you don't listen to songs right. I fucked David Gilmour and he had told me the real meaning. I bet half of you don't read Rolling Stones or actually listen to the music. Learn to listen to music and get the real meanings!
YourFan
March 29th, 2007 12:30AM
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i think this song is about drugs, because you can tell that it feels like a dream world where your numb but you feel good.
but in a sense it's about maturing...yeah but you can tell feeling numb cotradicts that.
i don't really care what the actual interpretation is...this song kicks-ass and we all know. So I don't really care who's righ or wrong.
this song contains one of the best guitar solos I've ever heard!
P.S who ever posted wikipedia as a reference should know that it's not always reliable, because anyone can basically post his or her opinions about the song... just to let you know.
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