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in: Songs

Secret Alphabets

Revision as of 13:09, 26 December 2016 by Kasabianempire (Message Wall | contribs)
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Serge performing Secret Alphabets in Cardiff on 22 November 2009

Secret Alphabets was written by Sergio Pizzorno and is the 10th track on West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

Background

The song uses a sample from Helmut Zacharias' Sakura Sakura, making Secret Alphabets the only Kasabian song on which another person receives co-writing credit. According to Serge, it gives the song an "Eastern 'Beatles in India' feel". The title comes from a lyric in the song Soul Kitchen by The Doors and was referenced in Mick Farren's book Give The Anarchist A Cigarette where Serge read about it. While in the book it refers to the obscurity of Bob Dylan's lyrics, Serge changed its meaning to having a secret language between close friends. Lyrically it's about a Jim Jones-type cult travelling to Cairo, looking for the fountain of eternal youth.[1]

Live

Debuted on 24 October 2009 in Lyon, Secret Alphabets was played live only a few times during the European tour and the arena tour in late 2009, with Tom singing backing vocals. The very first performance included a snippet of Domenico's speech from the 1983 film Nostalghia, which was later used an an intro during the arena tour 2009.

Quotes

"This has a real 'opium chasers' feel. It's about this mad expedition to Cairo in the 19th century, lots of mystical weird stuff fizzing around. At the end we sampled Helmut Zacharias' 'Sakura Sakura' - I've always had it in mind to use it."
— Serge (NME, 13 June 2009)
"When you're with people for a while you sort of speak your own language. It's kind of talking about that. It's actually about this guy, a sort of religious guy, that's looking for the fountain of eternal youth and has actually taken his group out to Egypt to find it, but then he sort of gets lost in the end."
— Serge (MSN Juice, 5 August 2009)

Releases

Lyrics

This is the end of the tracks where the fountains fly into your eye
Nobody's hurting and nobody's flying, they fly into your eye
Never to die

They say the man he used to sail on his journey
And lay his traps amongst the pilgrims for their money
He placed his gold all over this world

And in the morning as he looked out over Cairo
He'd mix his poisons and then smoke them in a biro
He could not die and we never found out why

This is the end of the tracks where the fountains fly into your eye
Nobody's hurting and nobody's flying, they fly into your eye
Never to die

This is the end of the tracks where the fountains fly into your eye
Nobody's hurting and nobody's flying, they fly into your eye
Never to die

No one's getting older, everybody's feeling young
This journey's almost over now there's hope for everyone

This is the end of the tracks where the fountains fly into your eye
Nobody's hurting and nobody's flying, they fly into your eye
Never to die

This is the end of time

References

  1. ↑ Q Magazine, December 2009
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