True Meaning Behind Song Lyrics What does it all mean? (Child in Time)

[Watermonkey 0]

There's an old song that came out before I was out and about called Child in Time by Deep Purple. Contained therein are the lyrics,

sweet child in timeyou'll see the line
the line that's drawn between good and bad
see the blind man
shooting at the world,
bullets flying, taking toll
if you've been bad, Lord I bet you have
and you've not been hit by flying lead
You'd better close your eyes
Bow your head and
Wait for the ricochet!

I wanna hear you scream

sweet child in time
you'll see the line
the line that's drawn between good and bad
see the blind man
shooting at the world,
bullets flying, taking toll
if you've been bad, Lord I bet you have
and you've not been hit by flying lead
You'd better close your eyes
Bow your head and
Wait for the ricochet!

I gotta hear you scream!

I know it's a war protest song from the Vietnam era, but that's about all i can figure, well let's take a look:

Don't really know who the sweet child in time is other than perhaps someone born in the US and still relatively innocent of all the wrongdoing committed by his country, or does that symbolize an entire generation of Baby Boomers?
Don't know the significance of the line drawn between good and bad unless it's the 38th parallel in Korea or the line separating North and South Vietnam?
The blind man shooting at the world I think is U.S. Foreign Policy (or you could expand this to mean NATO or The Allies or even Isreal's minions)
Don't know who "you" is, but apparently he's been bad and deserves the consequence of such to the extent he's going to get caught in the cross-fire one way or another.
Don't know why they need to hear someone scream.

Thoughts?

[iGuest 3]

I believe, as the most of "metaphoric" songs, it's just some beautiful words or expressions, that tha author is incapable to tell what do they mean, so any one load his sense on it, some ones could even very surprising for the author. this why , i think, they never explained it, exempt telling that it's about vientnam war.

DP is mostly about music, the songs is just to make Gillan perform his great voice, that's all.

As most of people are to much lazy, so not a lot of them are reading history of philosophies but many are reading the collections of aphorisms that looks beautiful and clever, without being truth, but people don't care about it because it make them look" bohemian" "spiritual" and" intelligent". So this is a stupid song made with beautiful , clever and spiritual words and -YES- great music!

Viktor

[iGuest 3]

As Serge Gainsbourg said once about pop lyrics making - it's not the sense that vehicles the words, but the words that vehicles the sence

viktor

[iGuest 3]

Interesting commentary . The part about baby boomers brought to mind a generation of high divorce rate . When I think of this song , I think of divorce being like a bomb going off in a family . There are many casualties . There are refugees , and there are many traumatised and wounded who maybe experience the "silent scream" . Who find solace in drugs , sex even suicide because they dare not scream aloud about the pain they are suffering . Childen Living in a continuation of the war zone that is the aftermath of divorce , when couples find it difficult to "sign a peace treaty " and move foward , tending to the wounds , and finding hope and healing. Learning the lessons of life and family , the importance of choosing a suitable mate (allie ) and tending to the contract of marriage , drawing on the source of pure love . Not resorting to the enemy tactics of war , lest you feel the "ricochet".