"The all time winner has got him by the balls" is a reference to the impersonal corporate management that keeps him locked into his position as a broken cog in the corporate machine, a position from which he can only escape by dying.
He loses his family and friends in his downward spiral. Gideon's Bible is a reference to the motels he must live in, and when he "opens at page one" he is seeking some salvation from the train-wreck his life has become.
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The context of this song is the album Aqualung. In the late '60's and early '70's, rock albums were thematic modern operas. This was the age of Godspell, Hair, and Jesus Christ Superstar. The theme of the Aqualung album as a whole was the failures of the modern industrial society. Not the failures of the system, but the people within it, or falling out of it. (Cross-eyed Mary, the sexually abused teen, and Aqualung, the homeless alcoholic are examples of this.)
@brian333 A few misunderstandings I see, though you may have changed your views in the preceding 8 years.
This song, like a few others on the album, is a critique of organised religion. In the song, God is seen as capricious and not to be relied upon to deliver justice (rather like the Greek view of their gods), which is the only rational way to see him in a world where innocent children are routinely maimed or killed, to name but the most obvious injustices.
Several years before the movie Speed, Anderson imagines a runaway train with the "all time loser" aboard. He hasn't done anything wrong (that we know about) but he is condemned to die. Injustices are heaped upon him. His best friend is in bed with his wife.
He picks up the bible to start praying but it is fruitless as it is God who has engineered the disaster and there is nothing that he can do to stop it. This reinforces Anderson's assertion that organised religion is a waste of time (cf Wind Up). You can pray all you want to but it will make not a jot of difference. God, whatever he is, cannot be propitiated - he is indifferent to human suffering whether or not he is the creator.
Locomotive Breath can be seen as a parable, but within the story, I am not sure that there is any overt symbolism to current corporate life, the guilt or otherwise of the protagonist and find that any ideas about drug addiction entirely fanciful.
@brian333 Old Charlie, according to I. A., is God who has stolen the handle, removing any control the protagonist has over his life, which is marred by an unfaithful wife, spiritual bankruptcy, & estrangement from his children & must make the best of it.
This song is about modern man ("the all-time loser"), who can hardly keep up with the pace of life (chase for profit) in our society ("locomotive breath"). He suffers from all kinds of desillusions, alienation and solitude, cannot get hold of his own life and in the end resorts to religion: "he picks up Gideons Bible, open at page one", in the hope to find a solution. The verseline "The train won't stop going, no way to slow down" symbolizes his/our life that goes on and on without a pause until we inevitably die. At this place in the bible one will find the book of Genesis in which is described how the universe, the world and all living beings on it were created. Roland Tarmo points out that "old Charlie" is a reference to Charles Darwin and his evolution theory, that offered a scientific alternative for the unconditional belief in creation as worded in Genesis, thus alienating man from god (old Charlie stole the handle) "Gideon" is the organisation that aims at spreading the Bible by having it placed in public buildings like hotels.
Locomotive Breath is a reference to the de-personalization of the modern industrial society which treats people as parts of a machine.
He (the protagonist) is the all-time loser, who has tried and failed at gaining control of his life. this headlong chase for profits...
"Crawling down the corridor" is his struggle to keep going, though crushed by the weight of his failures. corridor is lovely imagery the doors might open to gardens of eden but we keep going down the corridor seeking the farthest door (to happiness)
"The all time winner has got him by the balls" is a reference to the mad merry-go-round of mantle of winner (and his greed) that keeps him locked into his position as a broken cog in the corporate machine, a position from which he can only escape by dying
"He feels the piston scraping Steam breaking on his brow" (he feels all the thrills and pain of the ride - headlong rush to madness)
"The train it won't stop going No way to slow down." the greed fuels the rush for profits there is no stopping one or the other
"He sees his children jumping off At the stations one by one". all his efforts to earn profits fall by the way side there is someone else ahead in the rush for profits, the mantle of winner that has captured vitality of his soul.
"His woman and his best friend In bed and having fun." his soul ( wife) and his happiness ( best friend) are estranged to him by the same act (in bed and having fun)
"He hears the silence howling Catches angels as they fall" the answers to big questions are unavailable to the point that their silence starts howling. and faith catches the angels (those who give up greed) as they fall by wayside ALT silence of soulless march gathers more following as angels (kindred souls) fall to temptations of this march.
I acknowledge help from interpretations of brian333 mar 21, 2013/ taobeth dec 16, 2004/ track nov 22 2009
ps: 1. to fail you just need someone else to succeed more not necessarily drugs or alchohol
I first thought was of Waiting for Godot from Samuel Beckett and its overwhelming sensation that time never stops. And the issue of no solution neither with God or without God, nor winning or losing.And the handle is like Godot, something that could stop the suffering but never comes or was stolen, the same. An ilussion, even if it comes the suffering will not stop.
At a universal level, all of us with different intensities, including the author of the song, feel somehow that way.It could be better or worse, with drugs, death, religion, modern life, old life or any addiction, winning or losing, with good or bad wife, victim or victimary. Whatever.
The all time winner could be God or a human winner but could also be inside oneself, the image of winner we all have in mind (and cannot stop having it) and that makes a slave of us to it throughout our life. We all have an all time loser and an all time winner inside.
We all have children jumping at the stations, for god or bad, who knows?We all have woman and best friend in bed hurting us in our mind, whatever it means (like low self esteem in some cases, for example).
I love the image of someone stealing the handle: God or Darwin or whoever is Charlie. But remember also that we (you who are reading this, myself, etc.) stole the handle and we have to face it. We are also responsible at some level.
Very-very interesting: I googled "Old Charlie" and found "MTA" in Wikipedia. It talks about a song written in 1948 called Charlie in the MTA: "The lyrics are about a man named Charlie trapped on Boston's subway system, then known as the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA)... It has become so entrenched in Boston that the city's subway system named its electronic card-based fare collection system the "CharlieCard" as a tribute to this song...The song's lyrics tell of Charlie, a man who gets aboard an MTA subway car. Charlie CAN'T GET OFF the subway as he didn't bring enough money for the "EXIT FARES" that were established to collect an increased fare without upgrading existing fare collection equipment.
In the Kingston Trio recording, after the final chorus, the song's lead singer Nick Reynolds speaks the words: "Et tu, Charlie?", an echo of Julius Caesar's famous "Et tu, Brute?" ("You too, Brutus?")."
(my comment: This sounds to me like that Charlie is at the same time a victim ("poor") and a victimary ("the one who killed". "That's all humanity" as is said in Waiting for Godot. Life moves and neverreturns for us, like Charlie)
I'm as suprised as Mojo, although I only have 15 years into Tull. I had assumed that the song was somehow describing a soldier going to his death. I find this belief structure interpretation much deeper and more true to the lyrics. I knew this site had to be good for something. :)
@smiledownuponyourson: What?? He doesn't say "thank God he stole the handle," it's just goes, " I said, God, he stole the handle." There is nothing in there to indicate a move towards spirituality, & he is definitely NOT thanking God for his circumstances! But of course if that's what you get from the song then by all means, go for it, but don't think it's what most ppl think.
Damn! When I first really heard this song I was on 55 mgs. of 2ci, and was tripping balls. Instead of saying no way to slow down, I thought he was saying you know it puts lord down. I thought and the train it wont stop going was saying something about a watchtower boy. In other words taking too much trip and ending up on a watchtower all the time. I figured this song was about a man who tripped too much and already had severe mental disturbances, such as depression and self-defeating personality. I was much more comfortable with that, but I still think it is one of the greatest songs ever made
This song is about a man who is experiencing a spiral downward, "headlong into death". The imagery in the song revolves around the "fall", "catching angels as they fall", and the book of Genesis. Through a stream of consciousness reverie, we catch glimpses of the man's personal fall - "crawling down the corridor on his hands and knees", and his woman is in bed with his best friend. As he heads towards his death, - given the times, most likely drug induced - the silence (death) is howling. Locomotive breath may refer to the stench of death and the smell of a drug addict. "The piston scraping" and the spraying steam "on his brow" shows all coming to ruin. His way of living not only destroys himself, but also those with whom he comes in contact or to whom he's close - "children jumping from the train one by one." 152ee80cbc