Sunday, March 16, 2008

Tenth Doc/Rose Love Ballad?

Murray Gold's songs often have two meanings - the meaning the song clearly has, and the meaning it has when taken completely out of context and shown in the actual TV program. A Song For Ten is about the Doctor coping with the events of Doomsday, yet when we saw The Christmas Invasion it seemed just a bit of stuff about the new Doctor. Love Don't Roam is about the Ninth Doctor going back for Rose in the first episode, and when we heard it in The Runaway Bride, it was the Tenth Doctor being heartbroken. The Stowaway is Martha brooding about the Doctor's Rose obsession, yet in Voyage of the Damned, it's just another Christmas Carol whose only connection to the Doctor is the nautical stowaway stuff.

But no one, but NO ONE has worked out what the hell The Angel and the Devil means. It doesn't even have a big resonating vibe in the story it's in. It seems to be just a bit of music. But surely there has to be some Saxon ref locked in there... somewhere?

Thankfully, Murray Gold's put out the full version of the song, had Martha and a pig interrupted (ooh, that sounds so wrong out of context, doesn't it?)

I'm a country girl, I ain't seen a lot
But you came along and my heart went pop
You took a little street car to my heart
And an apple of love fell off my apple cart!

You looked at me, my heart began to pound
You weren't the sort of guy I thought would stick around
Hey, but it don't have to be eternally
My bad, bad Angel put the Devil in me!
You put the Devil in me...

You lured me in with your cold grey eyes
Your simple smile and your bewitching lies
One and one and one is three
My bad, bad Angel, the Devil and me!

You put the Devil in me...
You put the Devil in me!
You put the Devil in me!
My bad, bad Angel, you put the Devil in me...

So, now my dear, I aint the girl you knew
Cause the Angel's got Heaven, but I get you
And the tree of life grows tall, you see
My bad, bad Angel, you put the Devil in me!

Oh, you put the Devil in me!
You put the Devil in ME!
You put the Devil in me...
You put the Devil in me...

(actually this is the rest of the song with various emphasis)

So what the hell does it mean? Well, a straightforward translation of the lyrics: a girl encounters a sinister man with a history of lying and deciet, who awakens similar darkness in the girl. She knows he's bad, but stays with him, corrupted beyond the point of recognition. "One and one and one makes three" has been left open to countless interpretations but the song makes it clear that it is the girl, her lover and the darkness in both of them, so the thing that brings them together is also ultimately the thing that comes between them.

So, who is the girl and who is the man? Martha and the Doctor? Well, the Doctor is hardly seducing Martha - quite the opposite - and hardly awakening any darkness in her. Tallulah and Lazlo? The Captain and her husband in 42? John Smith and Joan Redfern? Sparrow and Nightingale? Jack and anyone?

Well, the "bad, bad angel" seems a bit of a clue. The angels in the latest Doctor Who series include: the Doctor ("the Lonely Angel"), the Lonely Assassins ("the Weeping Angels"), the Heavenly Host (uh... angels on top of trees), and of course Archangel, the satellite network the Master uses. And the Master, often compared to a fallen Angel, seduces Lucy Saxon...

I'm a country girl, I ain't seen a lot
Sounds like Lucy. She's not special or anything according to the late Vivian Rook

But you came along and my heart went pop
You took a little street car to my heart
And an apple of love fell off my apple cart!

Yep, sounds like falling head over heels with someone who turned up suddenly. Like the Master.

You looked at me, my heart began to pound
And we all know what the Master can do with a look.

You weren't the sort of guy I thought would stick around
Does the Master strike you as a long-term relationship kinda guy?

Hey, but it don't have to be eternally
Especially since he'll outlive her no matter what.

My bad, bad Angel put the Devil in me!
The Master corrupts Lucy. She gets some really kinky thrills about genocide in Sound of Drums. She enjoys watching the Doctor being tortured, seeing a tenth of humanity slaughtered, and the look on her face when the American President is zapped, well, I'm surprised they let children watch it.

You lured me in with your cold grey eyes
Yep, that sounds right.

Your simple smile and your bewitching lies
Simple indeed - his falsified credentials only convinced thanks to worldwide hypnosis

One and one and one is three
On the other hand, if there was ever a more disturbing love triangle, the Master, Lucy and the Doctor is one that will go up there forever...

So, now my dear, I aint the girl you knew
At the end, she's a clearly soul-shattered, beaten, broken woman who turns against the Master. Then shoots him.

Cause the Angel's got Heaven, but I get you
The Angel = the Master, heavn = supreme ruler, and Lucy gets left with the Devil = the knowledge of what she's doing and why she's doing it

And the tree of life grows tall, you see
I admit this stumped me, but the lyric is clearly a revelation. The country girl is revealing something is more impressive than expected - the tree makes up for its failings by growing tall. So, the humanity the Master dismisses can turn on him in a way he never thought, the Doctor can fight back without weapons, Martha can trick him, and Lucy isn't quite as beaten as expected.

My bad, bad Angel, you put the Devil in me!
Oh, you put the Devil in me!
You put the Devil in ME!
Now, this is entirely down to the way the singer sings the lines, getting louder and dare I say angrier? Lucy is telling the Master he unleashed her dark side, and it is by that dark side she blows a hole through the guy. Thus, the Master put the Devil in her, and he's responsible for this. He makes his own downfall.

So, there you have it. The Angel and the Devil is not about the Doctor and Rose, but the Master and Lucy.

(Exactly how their relationship was foretold by a broadway musical, I ain't entirely sure, but Love Don't Roam is meant to be a 1960s bubblegum song and The Stowaway a celtic Christmas carol, so we can assume that the whole 'song parrallel business' is one whacking great coincidence. OTOH, maybe it's one of the songs the Master plays in the Year That Never Was, which inspires Lucy to turn on him?)

So, now that mystery is solved, along with the Face of Boe and the War Chief, what's next?

11 comments:

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

... you jammy bastard!

(Wait, is that the right context? I keep trying to use the phrase, because I like it, and people tell me I've got it wrong.)

I trawled through some five-page threads trying to nut out the meaning of that stuff, and just couldn't wrap my head around it. And then YOU pop up, saying "You fools - for once it's NOT about the Doctor and his companion!" and we all look like complete muppets!

You know what really pisses me off though? "Tell me now what's your tale?/I ought to throw you to the whale!" What sort of lyric is that?! Is it Ode to Jonah or something?

Youth of Australia said...

... you jammy bastard!
(Wait, is that the right context? I keep trying to use the phrase, because I like it, and people tell me I've got it wrong.)

"Jammy bastard" is like "lucky dog", and meant to be an expression for admiration/annoyance at another's unreasonable good fortune.

I trawled through some five-page threads trying to nut out the meaning of that stuff, and just couldn't wrap my head around it. And then YOU pop up, saying "You fools - for once it's NOT about the Doctor and his companion!" and we all look like complete muppets!
On the bright side, you and me are the only ones who'll ever know...

You know what really pisses me off though? "Tell me now what's your tale?/I ought to throw you to the whale!" What sort of lyric is that?! Is it Ode to Jonah or something?
It means, "explain your presence or I throw you overboard", and "being thrown to the whales" was a nautical threat, like "sleeping with the fish".

Though I admit the emphasis on the "whale" does suggest it's more significant than it ends up.

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

It means, "explain your presence or I throw you overboard",

... this is officially the end of our friendship.













(Joking. But come on I worked that out for myself easily - I was just saying it was a crap lyric)

Youth of Australia said...

... this is officially the end of our friendship.
I never signed the paperwork bitch.

(Joking. But come on I worked that out for myself easily - I was just saying it was a crap lyric)
Well, you got the lyric wrong, and your normal deadpan demeanour can lead to misunderstandings...

Maybe we've misheard it and she actually sings "throw you to the waves" or "tie you to the sail"...

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

You know, I think I may have started a flamewar between Jon Blum and some other dude on OG. I haven't been game enough to check back on the thread, but it's regularly on top of the list in the Classic Series forum and had almost slipped into the second page when I posted.

But then, it wouldn't be the first time...

Youth of Australia said...

Surely a flame war would keep the thread at the top of a page?

Unless, you know, they all killed each other...

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

It's near the top of the page.

Youth of Australia said...

Oh. Well, you never know...

Cameron Mason said...

There's a double meaning to everything in RTD's take on Doctor Who...

Cameron

Youth of Australia said...

Not in Helen Raynor's though.

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