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Title: No Dice words Post by Bic Pentameter on Today at 13:17 For thirty-odd years now I've puzzled over the meaning of the third stanza to 'No Dice', but no dice, and if I'll do it ever... We hit the secret trails towards thin air Aware we'd never live to tell the story And at the last deep lake before the snow We rigged the slings, chipped out the water-stair Swung out the holy gold and let it go It sank so far it didn't even glow And if the priest died too to share our glory I just don't know Now I've found this forum, maybe someone can help? Cheers, Bic |
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Title: Re: No Dice words Post by Keith Busby on Today at 23:25 (Iam)Bic, I think this refers to the Incas disposing of their gold so as to avoid it being misappropriated by the conquistadores. I'm not sure about chipping out the water stair, though. Anyone? Keith |
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Title: Re: No Dice words Post by Theo Clarke on 13.05.05 at 00:38 I imagine the water stair to be an analogy with ice steps, being (as we are) just below the snow. Theo |
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Title: Re: No Dice words Post by S J Birkill on 13.05.05 at 22:20 There's a little more background on this in our Year 1 archive: http://www.peteatkin.com/mv/mvdigyr1.php -- open the page and search it for "holy gold" or "water stair". There may be some good stuff on the Web too now -- it's a few years since I searched these terms. "Titicaca" gets over 500k hits on Google! [But of course Clive's "Last Deep Lake" may have been a higher one!] |
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Title: Re: No Dice words Post by Andy Love on 13.05.05 at 23:04 Hi Chorus In addition to what Steve found I can point you to MV3921 et seq. -- it's in MV Digest Year 3 -- for further exchanges on water stairs and Andean geology and climatology! The consensus seemed to be: a stairway chipped from steeply-sloping ice at the edge of a lake - possibly itself frozen over -- affording not only general access to the lake but providing a platform so that the holy gold could be slung out to the deeper part together with the Indians doing the slinging. They were unlikely to have been Inca, it was thought, though other tribes came into the reckoning : Pete suggested the Muisca, citing: http://www.lamp.ac.uk/tairona/a5eldor.html Don't know if the link still works - I'm off to check it out again! Cheers Andy (trailing into thin air in Milton Keynes, MK) |
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Title: Re: No Dice words Post by Andy Love on 13.05.05 at 23:07 Only Me! No, the link doesn't work. Steve - can you remind us of the address of that site (there may be more than one) which archives web pages. Maybe we can get back to it that way? Andy |
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Title: Re: No Dice words Post by S J Birkill on 14.05.05 at 00:08 It's the Wayback Machine at www.webarchive.org. The earliest record (March 2000) of the page you're seeking is here: http://web.archive.org/web/20000311171738/http://www.lamp.ac.uk/tairona/a5eldor.html, and the latest (April 2004) here: http://web.archive.org/web/20040422191805/http://www.lamp.ac.uk/tairona/a5eldor.html. They may be identical. |
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Title: Re: No Dice words Post by Bic Pentameter on 14.05.05 at 12:44 Thanks, all, for bringing enlightenment. I guess that human (or self) sacrifice was part of the deal, viz. Priest and sharing glory. Either that or an unfortunate accident while lowering the gold... cheers, Bic |
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Title: Re: No Dice words Post by uglycustard on 29.05.05 at 06:08 I dont know about the words,but Herbie Flower's desending bass line at "it sank so far it didnt even glow" duh duh uhhh(something sliding down)/ dum dum du dum dum dum (falling and bouncing off things) fits the line great! hear the little chuckle in petes voice as he hears that. "strings that create tension and release" indeed...... steve |
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