JulioBiason.Net

(Did I already wrote about it? Or it was just some talk over IM? Anyway…)

There is something really strong with good songs. You can feel there is something in there, even when you don’t get it. Today I was hearing “When The Tigers Broke Free”, from Pink Floyd. This music always touched me, even if I didn’t pay any attention to the lyrics or the meaning. So I did a quick search, got the lyrics, got really really impressed

It was just before dawn
One miserable morning in black ‘44
When the forward commander
Was told to sit tight
When he asked that his men be withdrawn
And the generals gave thanks
As the other ranks
Held back the enemy tanks for a while
And the Anzio bridgehead was held for the price
Of a few hundred ordinary lives

And kind old King George sent mother a note
When he heard that father was gone
It was, I recall, in the form of a scroll
With gold leaf and all
And I found it one day
In a drawer of old photographs, hidden away
And my eyes still grow damp
To remember
That his majesty signed
With his own rubber stamp

It was dark all around
There was frost in the ground
When the tigers broke free
And no one survived from the Royal Fusiliers, Company C
They were all left behind
Most of them dead
The rest of them dying
And that’s how the high command
Took my daddy from me

So I decided, out of nowhere, put the title of the song on Wikipedia and just got this:

“When the Tigers Broke Free” is a Pink Floyd song by Roger Waters, describing the death of his father Eric Fletcher Waters, during World War II in Anzio.

Now the whole song made sense, and its meaning become even more clear and the music, a whole lot more beautiful. I think you must be someone really creative to let a lot of anger get out in such creative way.