The fast moving passenger train is taking him and other's, possibly everyone in the dream so far, to hell for murder. - Me, Bristol, UK, Here is our video for the song..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0eb-ddPybw —Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.220.39.100 (talk • contribs) 10:26, 26 August 2012. Turn around, turn around Not an interpretation really but you may notice the background vocals in the last chorus are saying "There's a thing there that can't be found...". Trivia/Info. The paper white mask of evil is a skull head of death. In the third verse, the narrators may have been cowed by an angry conductor ("paper white mask" describes someone in a rage pretty well) telling them to stop trying to get themselves killed. My enterpretation of the second verse is that, since the narrator is dancing at the graveyard, he could easily have begun to dance on someone's grave, in this case the dance instructor's, so the dance instructor's ghost would want revenge. Maybe you're being too literal. The dreamer then tells the ghost to turn around and view the dead body forcing the ghost to realize he is dead. --Second Anonymite. Then you die, and you find out that this is, indeed, an unpleasant thing. In contrast, "Turn Around" seems to say, "You're going to die. I thought that the line wasn't "heavy and pointed," but "happy and pointed." I think TMBG are a little ambivalent about the skull, and this might be why: Contemplation of death is not supposed to make us somber and morbid, but energetic and virtuous. The narrator may be feeling guilty that he left his dance instructor's lessons behind, so her "ghost" haunts him in his mind. In the first verse, a murderer (hardly the squeaky-clean Doris Day-style speaker) faces his victim, and attempts to remind him that he's dead. Very believable, since the John Henry CD also uses skull imagery. As in, he was about to refer to something hitting the back of his pants, which rhymes with dance, as if he changed at the last second. ), About your comment that he was probably going to say "pants": Hardly any of the lyrics in the song rhyme, so I doubt that the word "neck" was substituted for the word "pants". In any case, I think that most people are reading too much into it, because I think that TMBG was just playing a game of non-sequitur with their audience. --An Anonymite. It seems the simplest explanation to me. This, to me, sounds like a song version of an experimental film, such as Un Chein Andeleu. It's a human skull on the ground The call was probably not litterally the phone, but him yelling. ", "Turn around, turn around The moral of "Enjoy Yourself" is "You're going to die, so be happy now," and the moral of "Que Sera, Sera" is "What happens, happens - so be content now." I picture a kinda ruthless captain of industry. The Train could represent how people go through life having a ball, acting irresponsible thinking it's just going to go on like that, but then the realising too late that the train driver is death. More whistling in the dark. Why a ghost, though? Human skull on the ground Summary: You try to ignore death when you are alive, but the reminders are always there. From my mishearing of the lyrics, I just concluded that they were referring to the only "happy and pointed" thing that would strike you in the vicinity of the back of your pants -- a penis. he dozed off in his office and had a nightmare where a man he either really killed, or killed earlier in a nightmare(boss I'd guess) calls him. And, appropriately, he is stabbed from behind - as befits an office murderer. You know, from the Ku Klux Klan. To me it is an almost light-hearted look at death and how you sometimes may take a dislike to someone for a reason and maybe fantasise about them being dead. The dancing in the graveyard would to some be seen as disrespectful particularly if on a grave, however, the narrator does not seem like the kinda guy who would care :) It's likely he killed the dance instructor as she didn't like his dodgy interpretive dancing :) The heavy and pointed thing I took to be a stick as a lot of old fashioned dance instructors use sticks for timing, the stereotypical idea of the 'mamoiselle ballet teacher' banging it on the floor etc. And what's the heavy pointed thing? Not a nice guy. Death does not have a sense of humor. There's a thing there that can be found It all ties into guilt better than death, I think. I mean, if you're dancing on the grave of your dance instructor when you were a bad dancer, next to an open grave, you're just ASKING to get pushed in. The Predator wears a pale mask, collects human skulls, and one of the few English phrases it knows is "turn around". Lines like "To calm my nerves, I sang this song to him," and the brightly inane "There's a thing there that can be found!" "Turn Around" and "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" both use the memento mori -- a reminder of death. The other dead attempt to clown around a bit on the way, perhaps to relieve the tension, and are immediately silenced by Death. I don't think it matters; the point is that the narrator was knocked into the grave. "Turn Around" and "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" both use the memento mori-- a reminder of death.I think TMBG are a little ambivalent about the skull, and this might be why: Contemplation of death is not supposed to make us somber and morbid, but energetic and virtuous. Or is it worse because it's always waiting I figured TMBG had decided to be teenagers again. It is like an experimental film where the image of a skull and death just ties the images together with a happy go lucky melody in contrast to the darkness of the lyrics. For example, in the first verse, the narrator does say "killed", but "killed" and "terminated" are often synonyms, as are "terminated" and "fired". the interpretive dance is him pretending to be sad when he Turn around. Also he has had someone killed. Back, back!" The Train Conductor, is perhaps Death himself coming to collect the irresponsible, young and carefree possibly sociopathic narrator :D or he just represents old age...getting older, being boring and sensible. Or I could just be way off. Second verse? Don't think about how you nearly killed yourself and how stupid you were being, think about something else. We get a double meaning in the chorus; the line "Human skull on the ground, turn around" could either mean, "Look at the human skull. I think because essentially they play because they love experimenting with music and art that this piece is just what that is. That is to say, you are not supposed to conclude that nothing matters, but escape materialism and remember what matters most. Has the instructor been murdered too? The "obsequious manner" (the reason the narrater had him killed) shows obvious correlation to that one eye that freaked out the narrater in the story by Mr. Edgar Allen Poe. He freaks out when he realizes it's really him by his "same obsequious manner" that irritates the dreamer. I'm not sure why everyone is wondering what the "heavy and pointed" thing is. Where your eyes don't go? John Linnell in an interview with The Music Revue, May, 1992:; We have this song called 'Turn Around' on the record, and this sounds sort of odd, but I just sang these melodies into my sampler and had each key triggering a different two or three note melody, and I just messed around with it. I think this one's a gleeful spoof of the cheerful, upbeat, inspirational sort of "Don't worry, be happy" school. He felt something heavy and pointed, (possibly a gunshot) in the back of the neck. Memento mori," or "You're a human skull on the ground! I think people may look too much into the true meanings of TMBG's songs. The narrator may be using "killed" to say "I got this guy fired", and now either the man himself or the narrator's conscience are nagging at him. --Mark. Can't make much of it, though. Overall, I think the song ventures into the realm of the absurd and is not meant to be interpreted too seriously.