Shark

Hey, let's go down to hell
When the north wind rings the bell
Bring your sister's shell
Out here, it's so hard to sell

Kill her secrets, one by one
Sacrifice to the sun

Hey, this will surely be fun
We'll never tell the nun

"Shark" is me having a lot of fun with unleashing my inner demon. Lyrically, it's a lot of word-play and tongue-in-cheek stuff, but when I ponder what this character actually means, it's rather disturbing.

You'll notice that my lyrical style often involves stringing together words and images, then figure out what they may mean later, myself. And I'll be the first to admit that my own interpretation of it is just that, an interpretation. Whatever you think I'm saying and what it may mean is just as valid as my own take on it.

Back to "Shark" -- as I said in the previous installment, from the moment this song came to me, I knew it was destined to be an album opener. The lyrics is conscious of that, and is mainly made up of a series of nonsensical, lunatic invitations that set the stage. I do think that it is a bit of a shock, when you pop in an album called "Darkness Reveals the Beauty of Truth" with classy image and all, and out comes this nasty piece of work.

On the other hand, I don't think the chorus is coming from the same place -- it's more of a response to the verses' ramblings. It may be an actual conversation, or it's what takes place inside someone's head, between inner demons and angels, who knows...

This song reminds me of "The Fly" character Bono played in U2's ZooTV tour. They've often commented about how ironic it is that Achtung, Baby is the album where they discovered their sense of humor, as the album is loaded with heavy, personal stuff. The Fly is this ridiculous character who can shoot out blasphemies after blasphemies like a machine gun. But when you stop and think about what his lines actually mean, you start to realize the terrible reach of his words -- how they actually cut straight to the uncomfortable and unbearable truth, the core of the matter.

Similarly, "Shark" is riduculous and silly in its cartoonish delivery, but yet the hidden meaning in it is quite a bit darker and sinister. Notice the image of a sister's shell -- and hear it return in the 3rd verse, and hear the chorus respond with more desperation.

Sometimes you have to wear a mask to tell the truth.

(Please note: complete lyrics and even more hehind-the-song stories will be available to CD buyers in the near future, on Aries9.com.)