LooseCannon said:
No, that's the other people who do that. After all, they tell you black is really white, the moon is just the sun at night...
Those are some of the greatest lyrics ever written. I'm having that particular verse as an introductory quote for my BA thesis. Seeing how it is discussing the conception of dualism in ancient Iran, I felt it is more than fitting.
mckindog said:
I can't believe the man who wrote Stargazer and Heaven and Hell would write meaningless crap and name his debut solo album after it.
Hardly. I'm having a hard time with this one, though. The lyrics raise a great bunch of questions, the primary one, of course, being who
is the Holy Diver? I can think of an interview quote by Dio himself where he described the album cover, saying he wants people to wonder why the hell you would put a holy diver there. So, the Holy Diver is probably that chained priest thrown into the sea - the midnight sea? - by Murray.
So I would wager the first two lines are really just describing the scene shown on the album cover, the narrator being a watcher and asking
what's becoming of me? Does that mean he is in some sort of relation of dependence to the priest? Perhaps he relies on him for spiritual guidance. In that case, the tiger he - the narrator or the priest? That seems ambiguous to me - is riding on could be the mass of followers of religion. They pose a threat to their spiritual guide because as soon as their guide falters, they will look for a new one to take his place, like a strong wolf challenges a weak one for his position of being the alpha male in a pack. Doesn't this remind of some later Dio lyrics like
I could have been a Dreamer or
Lock up the Wolves?
I have long puzzled over the line
You can see his stripes but you know he's clean, but if the "tiger" is to be seen in the above way, the stripes are a symbol of his danger, but the holy diver pretends or believes to know that he is in no way dangerous.
I think the song gets a bit clearer with the next two verses. They are obviously evoking images of deception and delusion. Maybe
you can hide in the sun till you see the light is meant to be understood as a warning of sorts that the truth is so obvious that we can't see it? I think the key to the song's meaning is the bridge:
Between the velvet lies
There's a truth that's hard as steel, yeah
The vision never dies
Life's a never ending wheel!
These are pretty obvious, and I think the last line links it all a bit to
Heaven and Hell (it goes on and on and on)... so maybe
Holy Diver is a bit of a mystical illustration to the points raised in
Heaven and Hell. I wouldn't be surprised if that were so, seeing how Dio has been quite consistent in the imagery and lyrical themes he used.
The Holy Diver being the star of the masquerade is once more a reference to the lies told by people to have you follow them. They put on the disguise of being religious or whatever while hiding their own motives, selfish at best, sinister at worst. And in the web of lies and delusion,
some light can never be seen.
Well, that's the best I could come up with for the moment. When it comes down to it, you should read your own meaning into it. It is quite difficult with this particular song, so maybe this helps you a bit.
Sorry about that.