SHE // BREATHE : THE LITTLE BOOK OF CALM

SHE // BREATHE : THE LITTLE BOOK OF CALM

Literally nothing to do with RBB/SBB, sorry to disappoint already. I just thought the lil wordplay was relevant.

This post is dedicated to She and gender. She is a song that I think really stands out from the rest of the album in many ways. While the song is a big part of Harry’s "self discovery journey", the sound really takes us back to good ole psychedelic rock, very… Pink Floyd.

‼️DISCLAIMER‼️ This analysis deals with gender and identity crisis. When I use the term "queer" in this, I think it’s important to acknowledge its semantic: to be different, weird by society standards. I don’t think there is anything to TW but please tell me if you think there should be !

BREATHE

A lot of people pointed it out: the beginning of She is extremely similar to Breathe. The first 20sec of both songs give it away.

Breathe is the opening song of The Dark Side of the Moon, another concept album by Pink Floyd. The album left such a mark it became their visual brand (that gay prism triangle thingy). Harry even got it tattooed on his sleeve.

This album deals with themes such as money, dehumanization, insanity and the passing of time. All in all, if you combine those themes, you get a blatant criticism of capitalism and… society… the one we live in… damn Murray. There will be a lot of "society" thrown around in this post askdeojdosd

Here’s the tracklist of the album. The songs I’ve highlighted are the ones I’m gonna talk about in this post.

SO before the album dives into total conceptual madness (as usual with PF), Breathe is like a disclaimer, a warning about what life is about:

Breathe.

Don’t be afraid to care.

Leave, but don't leave me,

Look around, choose your own ground.

Inhale, exhale. Take some time to think about the person you are, break from society if you must, so you stay in touch with the real you and the people you love. Because soon enough, you'll be caught up in a restless life, having to work all the time until you're in the grave. Fun, fun, fun.

So what about She and Breathe ? With that similar riff between them both, is it Harry saying "figuring out who you are is exhausting so take a step back and breathe" ? Yeah seems good, but there’s ALWAYS more. Because referencing the opening song of an album is an invitation to listen to the rest of it.

Later in The Dark Side of the Moon, we get the track Time. It is directly related to Breathe in different ways:

Time is what Breathe summarized. You’re chilling, doing nothing, feeling like wasting time and that’s when it dawns on you: time’s ticking for real. So you panic and try to keep up and life goes faster and you get old and… time’s up. FUN FUN FUN.

At the end of Time, there is a reprise of Breathe. Meaning the She-esque riff comes back.

Let’s go for some Time and She parallels:

Nine in the morning, the man drops his kids off at school / Sends his assistant for coffee in the afternoon, around 1:32, She

Ticking away the moments that make a dull day, fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way, Time

The man in She has a routine: first dropping the kids off (getting rid of them for the day so he can work), ticked. Then sending someone for coffee (he doesn’t have the time to do it himself, he has to work), ticked. You can even picture the scene, him waving his assistant off. In an offhand way. And that’s it, morning and afternoon, all in a day work. Work work work.

And not telling his mates, he wouldn't know what to say

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way

There is this idea of a "phantom menace" (pewpew nerd) in both songs: something that isn't tangible, but there is no escaping it. Rather than adressing it, they stick with their routine and suffer in silence, stuck in their own "preset" character (the English man).

HARRY SAID WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY

The man has a very different life from Harry the popstar. The man is your average dude succeeding in life as we know it: he has kids, a job where he gets to order people around, so probably good money. He can easily lead a comfortable and secure life for the rest of his days. However, the man isn’t comfortable with himself, he doesn’t feel secure at all: he dreams of her, the man is queer. He knows it deep down but can’t quite accept it. He doesn’t know how to come to term with this idea of being different from the societal norm, so he separates this part from himself, from the man that society raised. She is seen as a stranger. Maybe in another life, one where he wouldn’t have to work and please everyone around him, a life where he could breathe, he could sort out who (s)he is. But he can’t, so he simply dreams of sailing away, to get away from here.

This struggle to know who you are and the idea of having to separate yourself in different parts can also be found in the song Brain Damage. The track exposes the consequences of society forcing people into one path and keeping them from straying away. In this song, the speaker who starts by identifying themselves as the "lunatic" is completely lost: who’s the real them ? The inadequate person that should not exist by society standards or the tamed, socially acceptable version of them, that is deemed to be good but was molded by the world they live in ? Eventually the speaker says that the real them, the lunatic, was forcefully locked away and the person they present as in order to please society isn’t genuine. Keeping that in mind:

A woman who’s just in his head, She

The lunatic is in my head, Brain Damage

Oh and really quick, if you think Only Angel could be about gender you’re gonna like this one:

End up meeting in the hallway every single time

The lunatic is in the hall

Broke a finger knocking on your bedroom door

You lock the door and throw away the key

Wanna die, wanna die, wanna die tonight [scream]

You shout and no one seems to hear

^This one is the exact opposite of what happened with She and Time (suffering in silence, pretending). Here the speakers are being loud, but it doesn’t change anything: the issue is that people don’t care or don’t want to understand. You’re on your own with this one. So no use in telling your mates.

With Harry, it’s always about the speaker (the man) and a woman whose only attributes are… being a she (or presenting a femininity which is disapproved by society, like a skirt too short or a high sex drive associated to the literal devil). That woman is unreachable but always there, looming in the hallway or occupying his bed, so close yet so far. In Brain Damage, the lunatic may be locked away but is never gone for good: the speaker became pliant with time under society’s pressure, but remembers fondly being themselves before, the lunatic. Lives for the memory.

What is also really… poetic with this comparison is the term lunatic itself: its latin etymology is luna, related to the moon. One was called a lunatic because we used to think the moon changes could affect one’s behavior. The moon is also commonly associated with femininity. She affects him and together, they’re the lunatic.

BONUS REACHING FEST!!!

One thing I’ve always wondered listening to Fine Line and its carefully crafted storyline is: what’s the transition between the deeply introspective She and the lovey dovey Sunflower vol 6 and Canyon Moon ? How can Harry go from "society kills who I really am in favor of a facade" to "domestic sappy love songs" ?

Well remember when I said Time ended with a Breathe reprise ? Same riff that She begins and ends with ? Here are the lyrics to said reprise:

HARRY GET THE FUCK OUT WTF THAT’S IT I’VE HAD IT

So basically. Those lyrics are the continuation of the track "On the Run" where the speaker rushes at the airport because they travel so much all the time (fast life work modern society capitalism you get the idea). Also it’s a little bit funny because the plane they have to take goes to Rome. But eventually they get back home for a break, and at last they breathe.

And then you have Harry writing a song about counting the days until he can come home from work and constant travel (Canyon Moon) and a song where Harry wants to take the time to really know the person who’s like home to him (Sunflower vol 6). And in order to do that he has to… breathe. Take a step back from everything that has caused the flowers to die in the past. [insert inhaling sound effect]

It baffles me how it always comes back to this. Harry is always coming home. Where he feels safe, loved, where he gets to explore and be who he is. It’s a place where time doesn’t apply. He gets to feel like a kid again. It’s a rainbow paradise, it’s a light for when he feels lost. Send in Sunflower vol 6 and Canyon Moon I’m gonna lose it-