Some time ago, I had this idea that perhaps the song A Partridge is more than just a one off christmas song and actually has some connection to the rest of their story.

 

If you might remember I explained before how the events of A Natural Death are happening in reverse, in Kangarooster Meadows its a warm summer day, in NYC there are fire works because its July 4th. In Face of Bear it says it is autumn, and Hyperborea it is obviously winter. And what happens at the peak of winter, Christmas!!

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There's no official lyrics, but there does seem to be some references to other songs. One that I just realized yesterday is the mentioning of 5 Golden Rings, which is very possibly a reference to Rape Escape "worthless rings, golden fleeces worthless fleeces, golden rings". Also at the beginning of A Partridge he says "hunting my prey", I think maybe this entire song is like a flashback he's having as he's struggling for life in Hyperborea.

 

I think the entire song is going in and out of the Christmas scenario and describing his situation in Hyperborea, because in this reverse time line A Partridge happens right after Hyperborea.

 

In the lyrics for A Partridge, that I read on the internet, there are many words missing, but he says something about searching to the end of the earth. There's too much to explain but that's pretty much how the ending of AND leaves off because its like the character was searching for so long and almost caught up to something (the ghost?).

 

And it is described in Science Police when he says "you’ve got me searchin’ these city streets, these filthy alleys, these quantum leaps".

 

The line "A monster made of fire" is probably a reference to something in Rborlax.

 

At some point a deeper voice says "Take a deep breath (??) it will help you see clear". A big theme in Desperate Living is breathing, I will explain that in another post, but I'll give a few examples.

 

In Cloudwalker he says "I feel it as I feel my breath deep inside". And then the song Arrive ends with "All the breaths in all the world stop breathing and so consumed". In Rape Escape he's going down into water with the ship, obviously running out of breath. And then the line "what was it that the store front man said?" is a reference to the person who tells him the thing about taking a deep breath in A Partridge "Take a deep breath (??) it will help you see clear".

 

The entire album Desperate Living sounds like they are travelling through Super Mario tunnels (or am I the only one that thinks that?). And remember at the end of Black Hole "all these wells", they are water wells right? And then in Shapeshift he says "we would throw rocks and things into our well ourselves as well". And I think in the promo video for Earth Tour he says "Life is a fucking toilet", its like they were making a point with that, "water water water I'm going down".

 

Now back to Hyperborea. So time is moving backwards because of the Black hole, well they did mention once in an interview "The events of A Natural Death happen within the Black-hole".

 

So after Hyperborea then A Partridge happens, and after this intense travelling and nearly dying in the winter snow, he Arrives. "frost invades and steals my breathing" "Don’t stop moving, don’t stop breathing" "Time after time..." I think he "bought a one way ticket back to July" to end up at Kangarooster Meadows, the name Shapeshifter is possibly a reference to Kangarooster, and I think the wells are used for time travelling.

 

"You’ve got me searchin’ these city streets these filthy alleys these quantum leaps", the streets being New York City. I think he's searching through all of time on earth, all the way back to the dinosaurs. I think it was many attempts through time travelling but all paths were wrong. And then finally he Arrives at the Ash Grey Door of Doom.

 

In A Partridge, does he say "Satan Satan Santa"? Maybe Satan and Santa one in the same? If so, then it would make sense in Arrive when he says "speak of the devil and the devil will find you". "I CAN'T HAVE IT ALL, flee the moment and the moment will find you".

 

They once claimed that A Partridge was supposed to be part of a Christmas compilation album, I think that was a lie just to throw us off, they wanted us to think it was just a one-off song so we wouldn't realize it was the key.