BREATHE (Waters, Gilmour, Wright)
[Gilmour]
Breathe, breathe in the air
Don't be afraid to care
Leave but don't leave me
Look around and choose your own ground
For long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be
Run rabbit run
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down it's time to dig another one
For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race towards an early grave.
After the climax of ‘Speak to Me’ comes the smooth, airy sound of ‘Breathe.’ The narrator of ‘Breathe’ gives advice about life. It seems to be an older, somewhat jaded individual giving advice to the person just born, possibly a parent. The song begins appropriately with the word ‘Breathe’ just as that is a person’s first action in life. Much can extrapolated from this first line. This line implies the advice that one should take in as much in life as one can, just as one breathes in air. Also however, it emphasizes the importance to simply breathe; not to get so caught up in the rest of life that one forgets to relax. This first line foreshadows the message of not only the song, but the entire album.
The first verse continues with further advice. “Don’t be afraid to care,” while a simple message, is a very important one. Many people go through life afraid to get too close to other people because they are afraid they will be hurt. The next line implies to me that the speaker is a parent. Parents often have a hard time with their children growing up and leaving home. All parents want their children to grow up to be successful adults, and live their own lives. In this sense they do want them to leave, however no parent wants to be truly left by their children, and often may selfishly wish their children to remain with them. This line encapsulates this aspect of parenthood. Finally the speaker instructs to “Look around, choose your own ground.” This line clearly tells one to make your own decisions based upon information you observe, not merely what you are told. This is the scientific way to go through life, using logic and reason to make one’s decisions. This line could be viewed as a subtle criticism of religion, which is based on faith rather than reason. There is certainly irony in the idea of telling someone to make your own decisions and not do what you are told. I think it is clear however, that regardless of being told to make decisions that way or not, that it is the reasonable thing to do.
The first chorus sums up life very simply. This could be construed as a pessimistic view of life, saying “This is all that life is; this is what you’ll amount to.” What I get out of this chorus however, is a more positive message. “Yes, this is all there is to life, so make the most of it. Smile, cry, see and touch everything you can. Live your life as fully as you can. Seize each day.” The ultimate outcome of our lives when all is said and done is the effect we have had on the people and environment around us.
The next verse discusses the bleakness of work in life, the repeating grind that lasts until we are almost expired. While certainly pessimistic, this is an observation that many people can relate to, working full-time for all the productive years of one’s life. A fellow Pink Floyd fan offered another interesting point. “I think it’s important that Waters chose to say ‘Run, rabbit, run.’ If he’s only referring to people working, why doesn’t Gilmour sing ‘Run, office worker, run?’ (aside from the obvious poetics of the lyric). Could it be suggesting that, even though we think life is tedious, that work is tedious, that such tedium is inherent in nature? That even rabbits must work and work and work, and when they think that the work is over, it’s time to dig another hole? That there’s always something else to do until we die? It’s also interesting that he chose to use ‘rabbit,’ an animal that is, more often than not, thought of as prey…or simply as a nuisance by farmers. Does the fact that Waters is already equating mankind with rabbits, with prey, hint at some underlying ‘dark forebodings’? Are we not only all doomed to repeat the same life, but also doomed to be killed and eaten (by time, presumably)?”
The line "Dig that hole, forget the sun" is important because it introduces one of the main recurring symbols on the album, the sun. The sun is used on the album as a symbol of good and truth. In contrast to the sun, the symbol of the moon is used. The moon is a very important symbol in this album, which will be further explored in 'Brain Damage.' It is a symbol that represents the dark forces in life, more specifically the "pressures" that we all are exposed to, which may even drive one to insanity. This is very much what the album is about as a whole, hence the title. The line is a command to succumb to the moon (specifically the "pressure" of work) and "forget the sun."
Then comes the line "And when at last the work is done, don't sit down it's time to dig another one." As one Floyd fan mentions, "I believe that the other hole represents your grave. When you are done working all your life, you might as well dig your own grave at the end of it. Which, once again elaborates on the idea that we must stop and breathe every now and again."
The last chorus begins like the first, but then changes to a metaphorical discussion. This metaphor compares life to the ocean waters coming into shore. It suggests that one will succeed (live long and fly high) if one takes it slow and conservatively (travel with the tide into shore), but if you try to live too much too fast (riding the biggest wave) you will reach an early grave (as you will reach the shore much more quickly). Not only is this a great metaphor, but it also gives a moral. This moral somewhat contrasts with the moral given in the first chorus however, which was to do as much as you possibly can in life. I believe that this means for us to understand that both of these morals are important, and that in life we must strive to find the balance between getting as much we can out of life, and not trying to get so much that we live carelessly and frivolously. This harks back to the very same point suggested by the first line of the song. Another important thing to note is that tides are caused by the moon. This further implies that in order to succeed in life that we need to try to live harmoniously with the pressures, because they will always present.
Roger Waters’ friend and Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett left the band after he went insane due to overuse of drugs. “There has been considerable speculation that Barrett may have had pre-existing mental problems that were merely exacerbated by drug use. As Pink Floyd's popularity grew and Syd's consumption of psychotropic drugs (especially LSD) increased, his concert performances became more and more unpredictable, and his general behavior became a hindrance to the success of the band.” (wikipedia.org) This event clearly has had a major impact on Roger as it has been recurring theme in his lyrics on many Pink Floyd albums. I think the line about riding the biggest wave is another example, a warning against making the same mistake as Syd.
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