19. Do You Realise The Flaming Lips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPXWt2ESxVY Some of the greatest love songs are deliberately vague, and given the amount of songs written on the subject, it's hard to say anything new - so sometimes a different approach is what cuts through. Hence The Flaming Lips decided to tackle this thorny problem by taking a slightly different approach by focusing on the fact that one day we'll all cease to exist, probably inspired by remembering an English lesson where they heard the phrase 'Memento mori', which literally means 'remember that you will die'. So isn't this song about dying I hear you ask? Well, yes, sort of, but it's not about doom and gloom at all - it's about making the most of the time that you have, especially with the one that you love (or at the very least, the one you love at the moment). So despite all the thoughts of mortality, the song is about the most important thing on the writer's mind, which is the rhetorical question that starts and ends the tune, "Do you realise, that you have the most beautiful face?" Sometimes in a love song such a simple statement is all that needs to be said, and this song positions such a notion - beautifully and quite correctly - as one of the most important things in the world.
Ed Nash
Contributor
What makes music fantastic? Star quality, amazing music, breathtaking lyrics and the ability to bring something new to the table, even if that means a new take on the classics. That's what I love to listen to and write about.
As well as writing for What Culture, I occasionally write a blog http://tedney.blogspot.co.uk and sometimes use Twitter, but sparingly @TedneyNash
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