The Thought That Went Unspoken

The Flaming Lips “The Gash” (Live in 2011)

Until I heard this live recording, I never noticed how much the keyboard part sounded like something John Lennon might have written – echoes of “Instant Karma” and “I Am the Walrus,” for sure. The studio recording on The Soft Bulletin has an effective maximalist sound – drums that seem physically enormous, vocals multi-tracked into warbling choirs – but this rendition is pared down to the essential elements. To the band’s credit, it still sounds rather epic. I think Wayne Coyne’s vocals are more effective here, allowing his words to ring out with an even greater empathy as he attempts to sell a broken, defeated person on the concept of hope and faith. “The Gash” is a pep talk song that genuinely understands what it means to feel frustrated and despondent, but it demands the listener to rethink their reasons for wanting to drop out of life. The song’s big moment is a rhetorical question: “Will the fight for our sanity be the fight of our lives now that we’ve lost all the reasons that we thought that we had?” It’s a fight, it’s always a fight. You gotta fight to win.

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