2006-07-09 21:15:47 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music
I got these two comments from the following website:
http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=6421
This is what it means, in Nik's own words (from his website)
What's the answer to "The Riddle"?
It amazes me that people are still asking me this question. I spilled the beans a few years ago now so this isn't exactly news.
My producer (Peter Collins) came over to my house just before we commenced recording on the second album to hear how I was getting on with the writing. He went away saying he thought it sounded great but didn't think I had the first single. Incensed by this, I went straight up to the spare room and got the chords and melody together for the Riddle. This must've taken all of twenty minutes. Knowing time was short before we started recording I jotted down some jibberish with the intention of writing the real lyric as we were recording it.
About a week later we started recording and I threw a rough guide vocal down using the jibberish lyrics. As the album progressed, I tried various different lyric ideas but nothing seemed to fit as well as the guide lyric. So we decided to stick with what we had. "Let's call it the Riddle", I thought. Then people would think it was actually about something.
I had completely underestimated the fuss this would cause and, to make matters worse, the marketing and promotions people at MCA decided to make a competition out of it (without telling me). The response was unbelievable. We got sack loads of mail with elaborate and detailed analysis of the song. Line by line, word by word. Some were the size of small novels. Some even made sense!! People stopped me in the street to give me their thoughts and theories. On one occasion I arrived to do a live Radio 1 interview with a certain DJ only to find he'd told the great British public that I would be "revealing all" on his show. He was most put out when I wouldn't (couldn't) co-operate.
It all got a bit out of hand and, very quickly, passed the point at which I could come clean without pissing off a lot of people.
In short, "The Riddle" is nonsense, rubbish, bollocks, the confused ramblings of an 80's popstar.
Please forgive me. I knew not what I did.
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I also believe Kershaw is lying, for the same reason he gave up being a public performer; he is, by his own admission, an extremely shy and private person. The Riddle is about war, specifically, war fought over oil.
I think the problem with The Riddle arose from people assuming that the song itself is a riddle (partly the fault of record promoters). I think the title was meant to describe the overall theme of the original album: Why fight over oil? (The Riddle) Why have a Cold War? (Don Quixote) Why destroy the planet? (Coming up Roses) Why not find a better way? (Wild Horses) etc. etc.
As for the "nonsense" lyrics of The Riddle, they are not nonsense at all. Aran is an ancient region in what is now Azerbaijan, between the Kura and Araks rivers. Like Babylon (Iraq), it has been fought over for thousands of years, and also like Babylon, Aran has some of the world's richest oil fields. Aran was, at the time the song was written, one of the most important oil refining centers in the Soviet Union.
Aran was also the stronghold of the ancient Zoroastrian religion, where many famed fire temples burned beacons to symbolize the wisdom of God ( Azerbaijan means "Land of the eternal flame") It is possible that "old man of Aran" refers to Zoroaster (Zarathushtra). The core precepts of Zoroastrianism are human equality, fairness, environmental responsibility and the ethical treatment of animals (pretty much the same as Kershaw's songs). It is therefore very ironic that Aran has become a center for oil refining, the ultimate fuel for war, empire-building and environmental devastation.
2006-07-09 22:34:55 · answer #1 · answered by MissBehave 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Nik Kershaw The Riddle Lyrics
2016-11-09 01:04:42 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nik Kershaw himself said that it's just a nonsense rhyme. There was no answer, and there never will be. Good song, though. :)
2016-03-16 22:00:23 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The riddle is a song if i remember rightly not sure if there is an answer though.
2006-07-09 21:19:25 · answer #4 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The question is: What possessed anyone to buy that saccharin nonsense?
The Answer: It was the eighties and we knew no better.
2006-07-09 21:26:48 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its Aran light house in Ireland
2016-05-21 13:52:23 · answer #6 · answered by Peter Lovell 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Theres a tree in the vally theres a hole in the ground
dumbass
2016-02-08 12:03:28 · answer #7 · answered by JEM 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Riddle - sounds like the Iraq war.
I Won t Let The Sun Go Down On Me - sounds like Hiroshima
2017-02-12 15:56:00 · answer #8 · answered by PJ 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
what is the riddle?
2006-07-09 21:16:52 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
was there an answer?
2006-07-09 21:19:33 · answer #10 · answered by break 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋