Hi,
I'm new to Arena, and have had The Visitor album for a couple of weeks, its a damn fine album, just having a problem trying to figure out whats its about, any hints?
Cheers
Richard
Seems to be about someone who dies and comes back or who has a near-death experience.
The Visitor seems to be someone who accompanies or guides him through the experience.
Others feel free to correct me if I'm totally off-base
I've always think that the Visitor is the wife of the principal character... That's possible when I read the lyrics...
Hi everybody ! :)
Newbie on this forum but I'm a "long time fan" of Arena.
I discovered the band with the Visitor album and have followed the band's progress since then.
If I remember well, the story of "The Visitor" is the story of a man walking on a frozen lake who nearly dies when the ice cracks under his feet and he falls into the freezing water. During this near-death expercience he will be visited by a strange character (the visitor ::) ) who has different faces : the thief, the priest, the vampire and the clown.
During this experience, The visitor is going to point out all the faults and mistakes that the main character has done and make him realize that is life hasn't turned out the way it should have.
Our charcacter will then hold on to life and come back from the depth of the frozen lake with the will to change and correct what was wrong.
Voilà ;)
I once tried to look at the story from a 'biblical' point of view. Note: I don't say The Visitor is a religious album! I just thought the experiment of looking at the album from a different point of view was/is worth a try.
After all, it has religious references, so I thought, let's try to connect them and see if it makes sense.... and it does... in a way.
http://www.dprp.net/proghistory/index.php?i=1998_01
Quote from: Nic on Fri, 2005-06-17, 12:01:33
Hi everybody ! :)
Newbie on this forum but I'm a "long time fan" of Arena.
I discovered the band with the Visitor album and have followed the band's progress since then.
If I remember well, the story of "The Visitor" is the story of a man walking on a frozen lake who nearly dies when the ice cracks under his feet and he falls into the freezing water. During this near-death expercience he will be visited by a strange character (the visitor ::) ) who has different faces : the thief, the priest, the vampire and the clown.
During this experience, The visitor is going to point out all the faults and mistakes that the main character has done and make him realize that is life hasn't turned out the way it should have.
Our charcacter will then hold on to life and come back from the depth of the frozen lake with the will to change and correct what was wrong.
Voilà  ;)
Hi Nic ;D
"The Visitor" wasn't a bad album to start with, was it..?? ;) :D
Check out some of the polls whilst you're here.
Cheers..!!
Andy
JJII,
I think your interpretation of "The Visitor" is quite interesting and quite plausible. As has been posted here before, Arena lyrics can be read in many ways from many points of view. It is apparent from other Arena songs that the lyricists are familiar with biblical concepts and stories and like to incorporate them into their songs.
Keith
Well, the interpretation I give is based on an interview of Clive Nolan that I red at the time "The Visitor" was released.
In this interview, Clive also said that many interpretations were possible ... ;)
I started with 'The Visitor'. I heard "A Crack In The Ice" on a magazine CD, and thought "I gotta get that album". Then when I got the album, I thought "I have to get every Arena album." :)
Good aint it! ;D
Clive wrote to me in an email once that near death experience was the clue. But that's just the seed, or the core. There is a great big story spun about it, which in turn can be metaphorical or reflecting different aspects of life or society. It is a goldmine! :)
I like the idea of the other characters in the visitor, like the vampire, the boy, the preacher and so on. The visitor to me seemes like a whole song that was split into tracks, because references of other songs on the album can be heard in the visitor. We dont find out about the other characters (not to forget, the clown, and the thief) but if it were a whole story, i reckon it would make more sence. Arena gave the visitor a cryptic plot, and thats what i think they wanted. Anyhoo, i think its a brill album.
Hmmmm... All this talk about "The visitor"... I'm putting it on RIGHT NOW!!!! ;D
Watch out for that crack in the ice!
Quote from: kmorse on Wed, 2005-07-13, 05:13:03
Watch out for that crack in the ice!
**Sigh!** ::)
lol ;D
TO revive this topic for a moment I wanted to ask a few in depth questions that someone here might be able to answer.
1. Who is the Vistor? Is it another one of the characters in the story like the clown and thief?
I have beenlistening a lot to "The Visitor" lately and I have been wondering what some of the tracks and the lyrics are about. For instance what do these lines from The Hanging Tree" mean?
Poison lies too close to us
Reach across the salt and sand
Moving deeper into the land
Any help would be appreciated.
Hehe, I must confess, I never went into the lyrics that deeply. It's enough for me to know the words most of the time... :)
Peter,
I must confess that I, too, do not always get deep into the lyrics to understand the song completely. On this song these lines did rouse my curiousity because I would love to know what the "poison" is and what "reaching across the salt and the sand" means. Thanks for your comment.
Here are some of my ponderings, originally written for the Cage magazine;
In A Crack In The Ice the protagonist is walking over a frozen lake. His life has reached a deadlock and he sees no way out, he basically wants it to end. But then he is addressed by an entity that may be his alter ego, his guardian angel, God?: the Visitor, who challenges him ('I defy you...') to stand on the crack in the ice. Not to end things (to commit suicide), but to enter into a confrontation with his inner self. The only way to make a new start.
The protagonist sinks through the ice, it is getting dark and he loses consciousness. Things are taking place inside his head now. The Visitor warns him not to go to the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel; his time has not come yet ('Don't walk towards the light...'). He still feels 'pins and needles', tingling, life in him. He wonders whether he is ready for the confrontation ('Am I ready to be judged like this?'), but then the Visitor reveals himself completely (symbolised by the great way in which Pins And Needles segues into Double Vision) and makes clear that he does not have a choice at all. It is all or nothing, he cannot run away from the confrontation with his inner self ('No where to run, no where to hide').
Now it also becomes clear that the protagonist and the Visitor have faced each other before ('We've played this game before'), but then the protagonist walked away from the confrontation. He cannot do this again now and the journey inside begins with the dark sounds of Elea. Since this song has no lyrics I can only guess. Maybe Elea is a lost lover?
In The Hanging Tree the journey into the dark depths of his mind continues ('Moving deeper into the land'). He starts to wonder what is hidden in the dark corners of his mind ('Wonder where the river flows, and the blood on the river bed'). He surrenders completely now to find it out ('Take me to the hanging tree'), while a man and a boy - the protagonist himself at different stages of his life - point and stare at him reproachfully, because of all the mistakes he has made in his life. The song ends with the cry 'I'm falling...falling down again!'. He sinks deeper and deeper and the real confrontation with his true self is now to begin.
He meets the personifications of his dark sides now: his perverted, hypocritical side (A State Of Grace), his criminal side (In The Blink Of An Eye) and a macabre, bloodthirsty side (Don't Forget To Breathe). Again it is made clear that he did not want to face these things before ('You turned your back on all the signs that bode the words of warning' and 'Do you close your eyes on me, you've made that mistake once before'). During these encounters the Visitor menacingly stays present in the background (Blood Red Room).
After these rather unpleasant acquaintances there is a short pause, a moment of peace (Serenity). Then the time has come for the last encounter (Tears In The Rain), with his fragile side, who is laughing on the outside but cries on the inside. Who has given his heart and soul and then ended up disillusioned ('Now I'm living in the rain').
These encounters slowly cause the protagonist to realise ('Something growing stronger in me all the time') that he wants to stay alive ('Don't let the child die'). Okay, he may not be perfect, but he accepts his dark sides; after all, they make him human. Nobody's perfect. He is also tired of being judged, it is so easy to judge if you have not been through what he has been through ('You cannot judge me...'), whatever that is exactly.
Now the Visitor reappears (the abrupt reappearance of the 'Visitor-riff' at the end of Enemy Without) and makes clear that it is not over yet. After the confrontation with his inner self, the protagonist will also have to fight to come back to life (Running From Damascus). The Visitor stimulates him and orders him to open his eyes, 'Open your eyes now!'.
After that one of the few actual silences on the album follows. You can almost see the protagonist wake up again and rub his eyes. And then (in the song The Visitor) he wonders: was this real or a dream? Am I living now or not? Does it matter?
No, it does not matter. The point is that he has straightened things out with himself and that he can start again, and whether that is in this life or a new life (reincarnation, afterlife) does not matter. He is not alone. In that new life the Visitor will also be watching over him ('You're never alone')...
Of course, this is only my view on the fourteen-piece jigsaw puzzle called The Visitor. There are probably as many views as Arena have fans. What do you think about the album?
Quote from: erik on Tue, 2005-09-27, 22:17:54
Here are some of my ponderings, originally written for the Cage magazine;
In A Crack In The Ice the protagonist is walking over a frozen lake.
...........................etc, etc.
. What do you think about the album?
That is one great post i will listen with 'new ears' next time I play it however i just love it for the music.
Does that make me shallow?
Quote from: johninblack on Wed, 2005-09-28, 19:43:19
That is one great post i will listen with 'new ears' next time I play it however i just love it for the music.
Does that make me shallow?
Of course not, the music is already great on its own! But with a band like Arena (ie. with lyrics by Mr Nolan), music and lyrics are mutually reinforcing and to delve into the lyrics does enhance the listening experience ;)
Quote from: erik on Tue, 2005-09-27, 22:17:54
Here are some of my ponderings, originally written for the Cage magazine;
In A Crack In The Ice the protagonist is
<snip>
Of course, this is only my view on the fourteen-piece jigsaw puzzle called The Visitor. There are probably as many views as Arena have fans. What do you think about the album?
What a profound in-depth analysis, erik, thank you. I guess I should listen with the booklet in hand more often...
As I'm not a native English speaker (I know you also aren't, but somehow I reckon you Dutch are closer to the English language), wordplay and hidden meanings are even more difficult to understand. That's no excuse, just an attempt for an explanation for my nescience.
Quote from: johninblack on Wed, 2005-09-28, 19:43:19
That is one great post i will listen with 'new ears' next time I play it however i just love it for the music.
Does that make me shallow?
I agree that was one great post!!! I like to delve into lyrics somewhat but I admit to being baffled by The Visitor and the premise and I was unable to get much out of the lyrics. They were probably too deep for me! I am still wondering about the song "The Hanging Tree", what it is all about, and how it fits into the concept.
Quote from: erik on Tue, 2005-09-27, 22:17:54
Here are some of my ponderings, originally written for the Cage magazine;
In A Crack In The Ice the protagonist is
<Edit> ;D
Of course, this is only my view on the fourteen-piece jigsaw puzzle called The Visitor. There are probably as many views as Arena have fans. What do you think about the album?
Marvellous. I have my own view on this, as you stated! But your view has given me something else to think about.
Thanx! :)
Quote from: Wilford Jr. on Wed, 2005-09-28, 22:27:02
I agree that was one great post!!! I like to delve into lyrics somewhat but I admit to being baffled by The Visitor and the premise and I was unable to get much out of the lyrics. They were probably too deep for me! I am still wondering about the song "The Hanging Tree", what it is all about, and how it fits into the concept.Â
This is what Clive has stated about
The Hanging Tree in an interview about
The Visitor for the Cage magazine (the full interview can be read on the Cage Page in the Follow The Signs section):
"It’s something from my childhood, where the basic idea came from. The hero arrives in this kind of barren wasteland, to experience the things that he’s experiencing; it’s almost like having a taste of the after life without being dead, a near death experience. I just wanted to have a very strong image. Something that would really kind of make this place have a personality.
And I remember when I was a child living in a particular village in England, there was this field opposite and there was this big, big, big, well it seemed that way at the time, big old tree that had been struck by lightning, and it was dead. I think it was an elm. They all died in England; Dutch elm disease in fact, so I think it was your fault!
Anyway, it was enormous. I used to go sneak across to this field, even when I was young. I probably wasn’t allowed to go there, but this tree seems to have a life of its own. It was sort of dead and it was like this enormous monster. I used to wonder what he could see, ‘cause my mum told me that this tree was probably like say 400 years old. So when this tree was young, Dick Turpin was robbing people and before that kings were having their head chopped off. And I just had this idea about this history that this tree would have seen. I used to believe that the tree had a kind of malevolence about it as well, where the tree actually wanted to take control of certain situations. On the other side, I felt the tree was a protective thing. Sometimes when I got into trouble, I used to go and run to this tree.
I suppose the man and the boy are probably me. It’s the fact that the tree has seen the growth of man, from boy to man. I went back to this field with this tree and it’s still there, 20 years later. It’s still enormous and dead. Then I thought any farmer would have knocked it down or cut it down and I just remembered having this very strong feeling that I could see myself when I was a child with this tree. That’s the reason I started with the lyric and obviously it develops from there to be something more.
And the man and the boy, they are the hero. The tree represents something that has been watching him from the moment he was born and will watch him till the moment he dies. I chose the tree as the image to do that."
There are also many biblical references in the album and particluarly this song, I refer to JJ II's post and the article he and I wrote;
Quote from: JJ II on Fri, 2005-06-17, 13:53:13
I once tried to look at the story from a 'biblical' point of view. Note: I don't say The Visitor is a religious album! I just thought the experiment of looking at the album from a different point of view was/is worth a try.
After all, it has religious references, so I thought, let's try to connect them and see if it makes sense.... and it does... in a way.
http://www.dprp.net/proghistory/index.php?i=1998_01