#'no navigator to find my way home' yea cuz youre ur own navigator compass louis king

[swimmingleo]

leo i have been wondering and i feel like you’re the only one i can trust to tell me. if each half of larry were a pf song. which would they be. and why

aw man aw meg that's such a great question

when I checked my notifs at breakfast and saw your ask my mind went blank cuz???? suddenly I can't remember any pink floyd song~ but now i'm in a pickle because so SO many songs can be related to them I love them all so much (the songs, pink floyd, larry, everything).

So I made my lil pink floyd shopping list and made choices based on:

how i perceive Louis and Harry (so basically the personas they project as artists/performers who occasionally give away a bit of themselves in interviews)

how well i could see them write and sing something in a similar tone (because my perception of them relies on the music they write mostly lol)

Ok starting with LOUIS:

Echoes, damn. Echoes, tears in my eyes. Echoes is my Pink Floyd Louis anthem.

What we know of Louis depicts someone who went through so many hardships and who took so many blows and it's so unfair, life is so damn ugly and you definitely expect all of those tragedies to show in his writing. And it does, in some kind of way, but Louis' writing, most of the time, is about chasing love and recovery, keeping himself in check and making everything he can better and good, because even though some things are out of his control, he still wants to do the best of what he has. When he feels down, he literally gives to others, whose sweet creatures is this ??

And so I latch on any positive song Pink Floyd has ever made, and there are not many lmao but Echoes is utterly beautiful and even more so regarding their discography: when a band who hates society as much as Pink Floyd does makes a whole 20min piece to celebrate life and human beings, you listen!!

Echoes is clearly inspired by Across the Universe. Well recently I'm very interested in The Beatles' route Louis seems to take (Change being the trigger). The song has this "life is great and nothing's gonna take that away from me". Here are some cute parallels between Echoes and Across the Universe that have to do with the SUN.

Come streaming in on sunlight wings A million bright ambassadors of morning, Echoes

Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns, Across the Universe

So yeah just... Golden boy, literal sunshine, we know the shtick.

More than that, what I love about Louis and what is reflected through his songwriting is how well he perceives the you and me of a relationship. It's like... "I see you and I understand where you come from but let me express how I feel because if I shut down it won't do any good for us". Songs like Defenceless or Too Young feel so considerate yk, like it's part of a conversation and his partner just finished talking and now it's his turn and he expects an answer. He definitely reads as the caretaker, the rock in the relationship.

And no one showed us to the land And no one knows the where's or why's

"We were only kids just tryna work it out", and what the hell are you supposed to do when you meet the potential love of your life at 18 and also your whole world changed overnight and you have to deal with all of that ? (Right Now vibes)

And I am you and what I see is me And do I take you by the hand And lead you through the land And help me understand the best I can?

I love it here??? Two people finding each other and growing and learning to be better and navigating in a confusing world but it's beautiful because they're two. Also reminds me of Through the Dark, Strong, "take my hand, I need you and you need me".

And no one sings me lullabies And no one makes me close my eyes

This part reminds me of Louis' recurrent theme of growing up, leaving comforting young days behind. Growing into his own person all the while being free, one step at a time.

And some fun little things like:

"everything is green and submarine", for his bluegreen state of mind

"You fall upon my waking eyes, Inviting and inciting me to rise" WAKING UP BESIDES YOU I'M A LOADED GUN RJIGRIOGJZRO

"The window in the wall" / "So I throw the windows wide And call to you across the sky" The speaker's walls falling bit by bit, letting the light in first before opening up completely to the world, reaching out for the other. And that's the final verse of the song, mind if I ugly cry real quick SO BASICALLY would I give everything to see a song like this in an album potentially named "Faith In The Future" ? Yes?? It would be such a strong continuation to a first album centered on introspection and reflection on the past, to songs about overcoming the worst and moving forward, like We Made It and Only The Brave. A song where you just get out of your head for a bit and takes in all the beautiful things life gave you, as a reminder of what you're fighting for. Louis' the literal embodiment of "get up you're fine, wait, just know you being down was valid btw but now we gotta keep movin". Echoes really just... makes me think of him and his strong mind <3

HARRY NOW

The first one that came to my mind is Grantchester Meadows.

It's a very calming and surprisingly lighthearted song, in the sense where I don't think there is any ugly hidden capitalism metaphor or anything like that. It's basically a 7min long tribute to the countryside where some members of the band grew up and still live in.

It's all about nature, and nature is the first thing I think of when it comes to Harry's writing. Nature is a metaphor for his feelings, for his relationship, for his lover, it's a reference to poetry, literature, to his actual upbringing... Nature means so much to Harry!!

There is still some angsty mentions, and I think it's very on brand for Harry. Aquarians will always find some way to be dramatic and that's okay lol

"Icy wind of nights be gone this is not your domain" In the sky a bird is heard to cry

If I Could Fly, Sign of the Times. Is it a plane, no, it's Harry flying in the sky where no one will hear him crying his heart out. But no pain here, no harsh dark winter night in this song, it's summer time and all the good feelings that come with it. (Watermelon Sugar, Adore You...)

In the lazy water meadow I lay me down All around me golden sun flakes covering the ground

Okay Harry, take a nap in the comfort of the water and bath under the GOLDEN SUN. Where you feel so good and safe and loved. That's... literally all of his metaphor game put in two lines lmao.

DIGRESSION this is me getting really dark for a moment, but those two lines reminds me a LOT of a French poem "Le Dormeur du Val" (The Sleeper in the Valley). It's... basically about a very young soldier lying dead in the meadows. The poem's progression is made as such as you're led into thinking he's simply resting, with nature thriving around him, but as it goes on it gets more and more sinister until the final verse "He has two red holes in his right side".

This whole verse of the poem in particular:

A young soldier, his mouth open, his head bare, And the nape of his neck bathing in cool blue watercress, Is sleeping; he is stretched out on the grass, under the skies, Pale in his green bed where the light falls like rain.

Bonus bluegreening. Aaand in my ridiculously long The Wall/HS1 analysis, I interprete Harry as a "kid soldier" fighting in a war that... almost kills him in some way. Running from the bullets, I think I'm losing it, yaddi yadda. So yeah. In some twisted kind of way, I associate this poem to Grantchester Meadows to Harry. oof. END OF THE DIGRESSION.

And a river of green is sliding unseen beneath the trees Laughing as it passes through the endless summer, making for the sea

Bonus bluegreening somewhat. No more crying, he's laughing going through an eternal summer (that belongs to someone's creation) towards the sea where he can be whoever he wants and explores everything with no barriers. (Adore You MV, She...)

The song also uses the calming sounds of nature: birds chirping, water flowing, all that jazz. Harry does include some sound effects in his music as well, though more timidly, but it's still there and I wouldn't be surprised if he took that from Pink Floyd. It also reminds me of the gulls and the sea you get to hear in Flowers In The Window so...bonus points.

SO BASICALLY in Grantchester Meadows, I hear Harry's love of nature and all the sick and twisted spins he adds to it: love and sorrow, birth and death, past and future. I see the river in Holmes Chapel (and Changes), the river that flows into the sea where life is so much bigger and the prospects numerous. Harry and nature, man. If he elopes one day in the fields and releases a record made in the countryside, this is what I expect to hear from him.

That was painfully long but that was expected right