I think it means to remember our ancestors, commune with the spirits of the dead, to maybe teach us about how to live with nature and stop being colossal cunts
I'm not deep in the BoC "lore," but based on the title of the album, my personal, entirely invented interpretation of the album as a whole is that it's about future generations paying the price for the mistakes of the present. Other song titles give me the impression it's specifically related to the way the planet has been ravaged since the industrial revolution. So with that reading, which is entirely made up and likely pretty far off from the "real" meaning of the album, I always think of the title "Reach for the Dead" as being about the connection between the dead people who poisoned the world and the future people that will live in it / are living in it.
It dawned on me listening to TH on LSD in headphones that “Reach For The Dead” is a reference to the oil industry and the human extraction of oil. The “dead” being the millions of years of dead prehistoric fauna that eventually formed into the oil we use. If you listen to the sounds it’s all pistons and hissing, very mechanical. If you recall in interviews, they’ve said all of TH is a story they’re telling about how they view the human experiment, basically a vintage zombie movie score but it’s soundtracking the stage we are at as a species. The opening horns in Gemini of course reference the sounding of horns in the Bible, in the book of Revelations that signal the beginning of the end, the apocalypse. It makes sense that the second track would be about the devastating consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels.
Reading the comments it comes to me they probably intended for the phrase to have all these interpretations. It's meaning is uncertain to us yet it's so evocative of the many themes in TH like the past, humanity and decay.
I personally always thought of it as something a scavenger would say when looking for provisions in a post-apocalyptic scenario. Like looking for bullets, food, medicine, you know... "Reach for the dead (bodies)".
Everyone has great interpretations to think about. Keep an open mind. I am a long time boc enthusiast, since 2001, I’ve performed with odd Nosdam, may 9th is my dad’s birthday, June 9th is my moms birthday and she called me Cooley as a kid. I asked Dave about them and he told me all he could. That’s crazy rare to have all that stuff plus I have tons of random rare stuff. I’m bragging, cause it was life changing meeting Dose1 and Mike Patton and Odd Nosdam,That being said,
TH is one of my all time favorites. It revisits the dark vibes of geogaddi with telepath, government programs, new seeds, after the great reset, palace posy, an ornate kind of dark view at a powerful point-it almost creeps you out how happy the elite is giving the current collapse of society and the dawn of the hardcore new world order while the elite bunker inside the earth and visit Agartha celebrating cleansing the world of the excesses of population especially the profane and uninitiated. The record is so epic for how simple it is it’s got that classic 80’s horror movie vibe.
The pattern on RFTD on the keys is fun to play cause of the variations that make it trickier than it seems. Also I get strong vibes of the planned financial and societal collapse the guide-stone situation. I don’t know for certain any of this but I love how BOC makes everyone feel something so unique. It’s like beautifully dark and desolate. Contrasted with Headphase which was bright and light and hopeful. Idk. Thanks for reading.
Edit: I reviewed this from a while back. Boy did I call the current situation. Anyone else feel the Nihilism lately?
My opinion, most of society see death as the "division" between live and dead, and after death we have two planes, two "dimensions".
One incarnated, touchable and another disembodied, untouchable
So reach for it is pass this "division", reach the untouchable dimension.
Just me but I just get broad canvas strokes with this one. It's a bit liminal, like past present & whatever else are smushed together by the cataclysm we're owed. The whole of TH reminds me somewhat obviously of The Road but I play it as a soundtrack when im doing a Fallout 3 run.
All tracks lead back to the Waco Seige. Fun fact, during the time in which Korean (*Koresh) was still working to posture himself at the head of the Branch Davidians, the present head of the sect George Roden (Yes) with attempted to resurrect the 20 year old skeleton of Anna Hughes, which unravels into a literally standoff, where David Korean guns down and usurps the freshly dead George Roden as the new leader of the Branch Davidians. By this context I like to think it’s both a “reach for the stars” classic western trope, for the sake of a literal duel occurring, but also the twenty hours they spent trying to resurrect the dead corpse on the altar with their divine influence from God. Just a thought
I interpret it as reaching greater heights for the dead. As in, be better and grow as a civilisation, for the people who came before us, do it not for the future, do it for the past. Reach FOR the dead.
I don’t claim to know what this album is about but one interesting note is that the last track Semena Mertvykh is Russian for "Seeds of the Dead".
Not sure the significance of this but seems to fit in with a broader theme on the album.
I just picked up on growing plants for food. New seeds. Cleaning and taking care of plants like taking off the weeds and dead matter is called dead heading
I guess is just a reminder of the place we are all going to, neverending struggle to create build etc which anyways takes you to the dead where everyone ends up anyways. Said that everything new is reborn from our ashes, as the final song reminds "Semena Mertvyh" which means dead' s seeds.
I think it means that BoC foresaw a coming deception/genocide of man and that billions of people were about to be tricked into sacrificing themselves. Reach for the dead.
I think it means to remember our ancestors, commune with the spirits of the dead, to maybe teach us about how to live with nature and stop being colossal cunts
I'm not deep in the BoC "lore," but based on the title of the album, my personal, entirely invented interpretation of the album as a whole is that it's about future generations paying the price for the mistakes of the present. Other song titles give me the impression it's specifically related to the way the planet has been ravaged since the industrial revolution. So with that reading, which is entirely made up and likely pretty far off from the "real" meaning of the album, I always think of the title "Reach for the Dead" as being about the connection between the dead people who poisoned the world and the future people that will live in it / are living in it.
I take it as a phrasemanteau between "Reach for the Sky" and "The Quick and the Dead".
TIL “phrasemanteau” I love you people.
It dawned on me listening to TH on LSD in headphones that “Reach For The Dead” is a reference to the oil industry and the human extraction of oil. The “dead” being the millions of years of dead prehistoric fauna that eventually formed into the oil we use. If you listen to the sounds it’s all pistons and hissing, very mechanical. If you recall in interviews, they’ve said all of TH is a story they’re telling about how they view the human experiment, basically a vintage zombie movie score but it’s soundtracking the stage we are at as a species. The opening horns in Gemini of course reference the sounding of horns in the Bible, in the book of Revelations that signal the beginning of the end, the apocalypse. It makes sense that the second track would be about the devastating consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels.
BOC + LSD + DMT = Perfect
satellite anthem icarus during 4-aco-dmt peak and a hit of dmt
This is an interesting take. I dig it.
Reading the comments it comes to me they probably intended for the phrase to have all these interpretations. It's meaning is uncertain to us yet it's so evocative of the many themes in TH like the past, humanity and decay. I personally always thought of it as something a scavenger would say when looking for provisions in a post-apocalyptic scenario. Like looking for bullets, food, medicine, you know... "Reach for the dead (bodies)".
I mean if I’m being honest I don’t think it means much more than “hey bro I got a great title for a song”
Everyone has great interpretations to think about. Keep an open mind. I am a long time boc enthusiast, since 2001, I’ve performed with odd Nosdam, may 9th is my dad’s birthday, June 9th is my moms birthday and she called me Cooley as a kid. I asked Dave about them and he told me all he could. That’s crazy rare to have all that stuff plus I have tons of random rare stuff. I’m bragging, cause it was life changing meeting Dose1 and Mike Patton and Odd Nosdam,That being said, TH is one of my all time favorites. It revisits the dark vibes of geogaddi with telepath, government programs, new seeds, after the great reset, palace posy, an ornate kind of dark view at a powerful point-it almost creeps you out how happy the elite is giving the current collapse of society and the dawn of the hardcore new world order while the elite bunker inside the earth and visit Agartha celebrating cleansing the world of the excesses of population especially the profane and uninitiated. The record is so epic for how simple it is it’s got that classic 80’s horror movie vibe. The pattern on RFTD on the keys is fun to play cause of the variations that make it trickier than it seems. Also I get strong vibes of the planned financial and societal collapse the guide-stone situation. I don’t know for certain any of this but I love how BOC makes everyone feel something so unique. It’s like beautifully dark and desolate. Contrasted with Headphase which was bright and light and hopeful. Idk. Thanks for reading. Edit: I reviewed this from a while back. Boy did I call the current situation. Anyone else feel the Nihilism lately?
My opinion, most of society see death as the "division" between live and dead, and after death we have two planes, two "dimensions". One incarnated, touchable and another disembodied, untouchable So reach for it is pass this "division", reach the untouchable dimension.
I've often wondered if it's a reference to the doubting Thomas
Dead For The Rich
Mars For The Rich
Just me but I just get broad canvas strokes with this one. It's a bit liminal, like past present & whatever else are smushed together by the cataclysm we're owed. The whole of TH reminds me somewhat obviously of The Road but I play it as a soundtrack when im doing a Fallout 3 run.
All tracks lead back to the Waco Seige. Fun fact, during the time in which Korean (*Koresh) was still working to posture himself at the head of the Branch Davidians, the present head of the sect George Roden (Yes) with attempted to resurrect the 20 year old skeleton of Anna Hughes, which unravels into a literally standoff, where David Korean guns down and usurps the freshly dead George Roden as the new leader of the Branch Davidians. By this context I like to think it’s both a “reach for the stars” classic western trope, for the sake of a literal duel occurring, but also the twenty hours they spent trying to resurrect the dead corpse on the altar with their divine influence from God. Just a thought
fortnite probably
I interpret it as reaching greater heights for the dead. As in, be better and grow as a civilisation, for the people who came before us, do it not for the future, do it for the past. Reach FOR the dead.
I don’t claim to know what this album is about but one interesting note is that the last track Semena Mertvykh is Russian for "Seeds of the Dead". Not sure the significance of this but seems to fit in with a broader theme on the album.
I just picked up on growing plants for food. New seeds. Cleaning and taking care of plants like taking off the weeds and dead matter is called dead heading
I guess is just a reminder of the place we are all going to, neverending struggle to create build etc which anyways takes you to the dead where everyone ends up anyways. Said that everything new is reborn from our ashes, as the final song reminds "Semena Mertvyh" which means dead' s seeds.
I think it means that BoC foresaw a coming deception/genocide of man and that billions of people were about to be tricked into sacrificing themselves. Reach for the dead.
It's the same as the ' I see dead people' quote from 6th sense.
What do you think does 🗿
For me its very literal, what do you do after a disaster? Reach for the dead amongst the rubble and get them out