Whats "Comfortably Numb" about?

I see CN as a general situation where an individual is fed up and doesn't want to cope with his life, so he becomes numb and lets everything just pass by, hopefully not affecting him. He doesn't care about anything no more. Avoiding conflicts makes it comfortable. Therfore - Comfortably Numb.

/me takes his psychoanalytical hat off and sits down.

Cheers,
Ilan

__________________
You are only comming through in waves

Nicely said!

cheers

__________________

Cancel the apocalypse
Cartons of the milky way with pictures of a missing planet
Last seen in pursuit of an American dream

The beginning scared me when I was little. With all the echoing of the first few lines, I don't really know why just one of those strange childhood fears

__________________
When an aeroplane's engines fail, it is not the end of the flight.

I've finally realised what Comfortably Numb is REALLY about!!!

I wanna know what 'The Wall' is all about.... I have percieved it in a way but wanna know whether its right. All the songs make some sorta sense.... all of the songs are attached and relate to each other.... but I dont know what exactly is the whole meaning of the wall.

Hello Ady
You haven't seen the Wall movie, have you?
The Wall is a compilation of Roger's and other people's experiences. You should search the Middle Years (1976 to 1986) forum for a thread with detailed description. I'm sure it's somewhere outta here.

__________________
In the womb, the baby thinks that it's the universe. And when the baby is born, there is a glimmer of light.
I was there, but now I am here. So there are two things - me and the universe. The universe is there for me.
Then what happens? Other people. But the universe is there for you. Now tell me what happened in the glade.
I did something to myself. Like entertainment, like music, like a daydream. There was nothing there and I saw something.
I saw his head on the bonnet of the car. You can say what you like but I saw the bird of paradise spread its wings.
DO YOU PLAY BRIDGE?

Oh Thanks Neshabur..... thanks a lot..... I think ill go hunting for the wall movie.... anyways thanks a lot again.

Cheers

No problem.

__________________
In the womb, the baby thinks that it's the universe. And when the baby is born, there is a glimmer of light.
I was there, but now I am here. So there are two things - me and the universe. The universe is there for me.
Then what happens? Other people. But the universe is there for you. Now tell me what happened in the glade.
I did something to myself. Like entertainment, like music, like a daydream. There was nothing there and I saw something.
I saw his head on the bonnet of the car. You can say what you like but I saw the bird of paradise spread its wings.
DO YOU PLAY BRIDGE?

Comfortably Numb is my favorite. To me, it means, I wish and long to be Comfortably Numb, so I can't feel any pain.. emotionally or pyshically. It helps me escape when I have a breakdown. Just listen to it loud in a pitch black room is what I do.

__________________
the sun is the same in the relative way, but you're older.. another day shorter of breath and closer to DEATH - p i n k f l o y d

I've always been puzzled by Comfortably Numb, but the one impression I've always picked up is that of the life, death, and rebirth cycle, strengthened after watching The Wall. The progression isn't linear in the song, though. I typically associate the choruses as being death; I suppose that's another definition for the phrase "Comfortably Numb". The first verse, I tend to think, is about dying, perhaps seeing your doctors or friends seeing you off. The Second verse is the coming back to life, whether literally or symbolicly, being ripped out of a literal or figurative grave with your injection: "Okay... just a little pinprick..." and brought back into the world, a world which death may have been a release from.

This is, as I said, strengthened by the scene in The Wall corresponding to Comfortably Numb.

And this is not at all contradictory to other interpretations, seeing as the death could be figurative or literal.

Or I may be making a fool of myself again.

__________________
"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."
-Anthem, by Leonard Cohen

Watching the Comfortably Numb part of the movie is the only time Gilmour's final solo ever frightens me when I hear it...

__________________
what do you teach your children about me?
what do you teach your little children about me?
pimp, thug, bling drug lord of the undergrounded kings
how can you be so sure i won't call down the rain?
what do you teach your little children about me?
you point your gun, wait, hide and run. i see it plain

First, you must understand the wall before this song,

The entire Wall is on a trobled life, combined with Roger Waters experiences and some fiction. Alot of songs on the Wall have many diffrent views to many diffrent people.

It is the story of a life that is full of trobbles. Pink grows up without a father, a father lost to war. In this shitty life with no father, only hearing stories, and such, Pink turns to music. He writes lyrics, words are his way to express himself. Now, he only has a mother, and his music. His mother keeps him under his wing. Shes afraid of loosing him, like her husband. She helps construct a mental "wall."

Through his pains, he realizes that he wont take no shit from nobody. Hes been through a hard childhood with no father, and hes not gonna take no shit. So he hates school, dosent like putting up with it. As he grows older, he gets intrested in woman and needs them. Wants them. He gets one, which helps him escape from his pains. When he looses her when he freaks out infront of her, he has nothing. Nothing. So he tries to kill himself. This part takes over the last song of the first disc and the begining of the secound disc. This is where it gets kind of crazi and mismatched. In this section you deal with the feelings he had that made him want to kill himself, what happens to him as a result of this practice, and so on.

In comfortably numb, hes glad that hes on his way, gonna die, he has noone around him that makes him feel uneasy (fans) and is "comfortably numb" in his experience. Like CN said so perfectly,
.

Now, hes getting shots that are taking away his numbness, that are putting him back where he dosent want to be. Also hes so ****ed up and drowzy when hes half-dead, thats where you get "you are only coming through in waves, you lips move, but i cant hear what you are saying" and also the stuff about when he was a kid and had the same feelings. So its all about him getting patched up after he tries to kill himself. Then the rest you can figure out by yourself.

its all about being numb and high on drugs.

__________________
Stairway scare Dan Dare who's there...

Just staring, breathing calm and almost none at all, the outside world cannot reach you and you will not let it either. Everything inside your head, which was once filled with so much, just completely empty, your body still. The easing of the trouble, the end of the pain, just you alone is what Comfortably Numb seems to mean to me.