Head Space Daily Words...

There was a live performance, which I must check out on i-player, on 6Music yesterday, by The Flaming Lips, to celebrate the bands thirty years together. I am not a fanatical fan and have never seen them live but I own copies of The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. The Flaming Lips, with front man Wayne Coyne, seem to live on the extremities of what is considered normal and have a bloody good time doing it. Walking on stage wearing a pair of laser shooting giant rubber hands must be a great laugh. Rolling out across the heads of your audience inside a huge plastic bubble has to be a total buzz.  They are having fun and it all appears to be done with the utmost integrity, providing a comment on how ridiculous life is and begging you to enjoy it whilst you still can. The Yoshimi album is one I often go back to, which is a sign of a great album. It consists of humour and emotion. You find yourself rooting for Yoshimi, who is going to save us all by herself from the evil robots. If you ever have a daughter, please, name her Yoshimi. The Flaming Lips song which to me encapsulates what they are about, is in my opinion one of the greatest songs ever written and is possibly their most well known song, is Do You Realise; a tragic, euphoric masterpiece, which joyfully approaches life and death and confronts our place in the Universe. The message is to enjoy life while you can; love the ones you’re with, and don’t look back. We’re all going to die anyway, so make the most of the experience. The song even tarnishes one of life’s most beautiful, natural experiences – the sunset – with the words “you realise the sun doesn’t go down, it’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round.” It is all beautifully done, leaving you unsure whether to laugh or cry. A modern masterpiece...