Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb Song Meanings 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)
 Top Rated Interpretation
2006-05-03 12:06:06
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.
YourFan
2007-03-29 00:30:14
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.
anonymous
2007-03-31 21:30:18
K whoever is arguing about the song shut up. I know for a fact that it is about some IV drug use. Don't even argue about the Heroin/ morphine issue! They are both from opium. They both cause one to become COMFORTABLE and NUMB. Opiates tend to cause a stomach restlessness. Vicodin, Hydrocodone, Morphine, Opium, Herion... It doesn't matter which drug Pink is taking. They are all opiates with the same general effect. The drugs isn't even the main issue with the song. The principle behind having to escape from such a "Glamorous" rock star life, and a crappy childhood memory is the real issue here!
anonymous
2007-04-08 04:57:52
Though it's supposed to be a conversation between Doc. and patient inspired by a real event, I believe once it got down on paper the lyrics were generalized so fans could relate.
I could visualize a man getting doped up to be able to get through a show. I can also see someone suffering from deep depression and is completely disconnected from everything including himself, to the point where he talks but can't hear himself. That's where the "drugs, food, sex, alcohol, constant daydreaming... (choose your addiction)" comes in to numb the pain and get through the rest of the day (show). This becomes a cycle which repeats itself in shorter intervals to the point where you are numb all the time. Numbess becomes familiar, thus becomes comfortable.
Maybe the glimpse he saw as a child was normalcy. maybe, he has felt disconnected since childhood. He knows something is missing but can't find it, maybe he feels he's too far gone.
anonymous
2007-05-01 05:36:00
i think this song is clearly about Syd Barret, whose drug use eventually drove him crazy. In fact, the whole album the wall is dedicated to him, and to his influence on the band. His creativity drove him into insanity, but none of us really forgot his part in Pink Floyd. He was the inspiration to many other songs as well. listen to the albums wish you were here, dark side of the moon and the wall. you'll see that they all refer to the same-Syd Barret. and although I don't really like Syd's works (the first album) I worship him because he was the inspiration for the best three albums in the world.
anonymous
2007-05-12 17:07:41
This song is really about Roger Waters getting treated for hepatitis by receiving a shot in order for him to perform a concert that night. But I think, just as you can with so many of Pink Floyd's songs, take a couple of hidden meanings away from the lyrics. The one about losing your dreams and ambitions you had as a child is definitely there, as well as the one about using heroin. In that one, the doctor/patient conversation that exists in the song is really more of someone convincing someone else to use heroin to make them forget about the pain in their life and make them feel good again. The song is really about the first thing I mentioned with Waters, but what makes it so good as you can interpret it in many different ways, and none of them are really wrong.
anonymous
2007-06-21 11:06:40
This song is completely around Roger Waters getting massive stomach cramps before a live performance... A doctor injected him with some substance which made him numb, but the fans didn't care at all that Roger was "in pain, and numb" but the injection helped soothe the pain, making it "comfortably numb" . The Wall entirely is based on Pink's connection with previous negative experiences in childhood, and with various crowds of pink floyd fans who were constantly "building up the wall" with their actions.
chadwyck
2007-07-06 04:15:12
The song is about the abuse of HEROINE and its use to escape problems. Becoming "comfortably numb" makes this very obvious that the persons abuse of the drug leads to euphoria and escape from life's many problems/difficulties.
anonymous
2007-07-09 02:06:19
In 1980 roger waters (the song writer) went on to a Los Angeles radio station and explained the meaning of the song. He says that he was very ill as a child and had the same symptoms as an adult and called for a doctor before a show. little did he know it was not a flu bug, but hepatitis. The doctor gave him a shot for a stomach pain and when he got on stage his hands felt numb and swollen like balloons but he knew the fans did not care about his pain, they were "comfortably numb" to the situation.
anonymous
2007-07-10 19:38:39
Well first of all Roger Waters didn't have the idea for this song in the first place. David Gilmour (who is the real Pink Floyd) came up with the song for one of his solo albums. So this about drugs and how it effected not only Waters but the rest of the band who had little say or little influence in the making of The Wall. The song's original title was Come On You Big Bum, but changed when Gilmour brought it into the Wall recordings. So all of you who think this is about Waters and nothing else think twice and get your damn facts straight.
anonymous
2007-07-15 15:25:28
Syd was schizo...thats why he had a "break down"
I think the song is about schizophrenia.
Feeling numb and detached from the world is a symptom
and when the doctor gives him medicine and says there will be no more ahh...it would probably be a tanq or anti-psychotic.Plus he developed diabetes which would probably make him feel sick from the meds..even if he wasnt it could still make him feel sick.
JolHarro
2007-07-31 19:56:09
People who believe this song is about heroin and drugs don't have a clue. Its a story told by waters about when he had a fever when he was younger and got the same felling when he became an adult. He went on stage feeling sick and it reminded him of him as a child. When he was on stage he wasn't able to focus but the crowd didn't care which made him feel 'comfortably numb'. I believe peopl shouldn't just think that Pink Floyd is a stoner band they are a band of morals and beliefs.
AlfreRH
2007-08-08 19:36:48
Comfortably numb is based on a true story, one day, Roger Waters had a terrible illness. That same day had to play, so they called the doctor, and gave him some pills. All the same in the concert he almost couldn´t move his hands to play.
In the wall he changed the story, and Pink is like gone until the doctor comes and drug him.
anonymous
2007-08-28 20:58:40
The song is definitely about injecting cocaine.
anonymous
2007-10-08 05:50:45
This is not a true story you can find interviews of roger waters saying its just another example of how alone pink really is because the concoction of drugs he is given was actually given to the doctor by pinks musical manager because all he cares about is pink performing so he can get paid which further proves the fact of the cd's and the movie pink builds a wall to separate himself from life because no one thinks of him everyone thinks about themselves and how he can help them so he pushes them all away. I think pink tried to kill himself in this song and while he is sleeping (or dying its hard to tell) he is comfortably numb because there is no reality that's why he is thinking of his childhood because he has never been normal since childhood he was fatherless and his mother was very overbearing passing off her fears onto her son but he was not a psycho like he has turned into later in the movie so him being comfortably numb is him dying or trying too until the doctor gives him the shot and tries to bring him back whick ultimately does nothing but push him further into the spiral down to his breaking point
anonymous
2007-10-17 14:17:24
For all you fuckin dumbshits who think that this song is about drugs like morphine, heroine or even those of you who think its cancer are all just fuckin stupid. It's about the music, when he gets on stage he feels such a connection with the people that he just gets comfortable, like he feels numb, he sais that in an interview you dumbass'. Its not drugs that he gets that from, they also give him that feeling he sais but he's refering to the music in the song not drugs. Thats just what everyone is led to believe.
alice
2007-11-27 22:36:00
Comfortably numb is obviously about the use of heroine but it seems to me that its not so much about numbing yourself so you don't deal with it, its more about getting to the point to where all of the things are happening around you and you controlling it like a game actually the lyric to dominoes is about the same thing "its an idea some day in my tears my dreams don't you want to see her proof life that comes of no harm you and i, you and I and dominoes the day goes by, you and I in place waisting time on dominoes ...etc.". but in general I think its a gigantic blatant discription of what happens to people when they start "following the rabbit" all of it from shine on to see emily play it all very much agrees with the concept of introspection and self discovery which well coincides with madness. and Pink Floyd aren't the only ones to map it, everything from alice in wonderland to the bible is about the same thing, or at least that's my take on it.
anonymous
2007-12-20 23:15:33
Mmm.. actually, the drugs in question are not opiates, but barbiturates
anonymous
2008-01-05 09:50:34
The song is about how roger waters felt like as a child when he was sick with a fever and then when he was a adult he would get those same feelings again sometimes entering a state of delusion. He thought of the song cause when they did a concert in Philadelphia roger became sick the doctor then gave him sedative to help the pain then to realize he had hepatitis but waters didn't no. Then on stage when he was playing the guitar his hands became numb "like two toy balloons" but the fans didn't realize cause they were rocking out hence "comfortably numb"
Gaz
2008-01-14 14:01:02
Pink Floyd have a way about them! Their songs can mean a number of different things but instead of looking for there meaning look for your own. The Dark Side of Pink Floyd Means different things to different people If anyones ever experimented with Acid then they'll already understand what I mean. For example the laughing at the start of "Speak To Me" Your hands feeling like 2 balloons, the lunatic is in my head!! It all sums up the drug when put together. I realise that may not be there intention but that's what I think about when I hear them.
Therestofuarestupid
2008-01-22 19:03:43
You are all full of shit. I bet none of you have even done heroin. Watch the wall and then try to make that point.
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