Brave - Intro

Introduction: Brave was the third Marillion album with Steve Hogarth. A brave album in many respects, in that it is a concept album with eleven tracks, many of which are subdivided even further. Like Misplaced Childhood, many of the tracks segue into each other or are linked by spoken passages (often performed by the band's families). 

Wave

'Statue of Liberty'
Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia says: "The giant statue titled Liberty Enlightening the World has become a symbol of freedom to oppressed people everywhere. It stands on Liberty Island in New York harbour. The statue was a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States commemorating the alliance of the two nations during the American Revolution."

Mad

'Amazon and Eskimo'
Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia says: "In Greek mythology the Amazons were a nation of female warriors ruled by a queen. No man was permitted to dwell in their country, which was located on the south coast of the Black Sea. They occasionally had sexual relations with men form neighbouring tribes. Male infants were sent to their fathers, in a neighbouring land or killed. The girls were trained in agriculture, hunting, and the art of war. 

The Opium Den

'My Opium Den'
'The Opium Den' was what Steve H christened his orientally-styled room at Hook End Manor, where the band recorded Season's End and Holidays. In an interview with musicplayers.com by Scott Khan entitled, 'Marillion: Right Here', h recalled, "We recorded Seasons End in Hook End Manor recording studios, and by some freak of nature the day we moved into that studio the sun came out and, very rarely for England, it stayed out for nine solid weeks. It was the most wonderful, early, early summer that kicked in, in April. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I was living literally in the lap of luxury, I felt like Lord Byron. I was sleeping in this big oriental bedroom, which I christened 'The Opium Den' which later surfaced during Brave."

Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia says: "The dried juice from the immature seed pods of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) is a narcotic drug called opium.

The Hollow Man

Introduction: Marina Lenti from the Web Italy interviewed Steve Hogarth about this song in August 1999. h said: "A statement about what I sometimes fear I might become. The corrupting effect of being a 'star' I suppose... I'm very self-analytical and I try to examine my own behaviour a lot. And, you know, I can't still try to decide whether I like myself or not! (Laughs)... 

Alone Again in the Lap of Luxury

'We could make a pillow of sand and sleep’
Sand and sleep are commonly connected images. One of the main ones is the folk legend of the Sandman, who used to place little grains of sand in the corners of the eyes to induce sleep or dreams - the dried muck in the corner of your eye when you wake up is said to be the remains of his sand. That was before Neil Gaiman reinvented him though!

Now Wash Your Hands

'Now wash your hands'
Arjan Dasselaar said: "This is a reference to when Jesus is judged by Pontius Pilate. There after he washes his hands as a symbol of his innocence. After all, he didn’t take the decision to have Jesus killed, the crowd did, didn’t they?"

Paper Lies

Introduction: Mark Dempster said: "Some newspapers in the UK (and presumably elsewhere) seem to base their big stories on bought-in from ordinary people who have made national news for some reason, usually related to some form of personal tragedy. UK Freaks will probably recognise 'The Sun' as the most active publication in this area. They are always prepared to offer huge amounts of money (‘we can print our own money’) for the rights to the story, which is typically turned into a sort of mini-series which runs for a couple of weeks and attracts large sales figure.

The Great Escape

'Icarus'
For Icarus, we must start with his father Daedalus. Brewer's: "Mythical Athenian Craftsman. His jealousy of his nephew, Perdix of Talos, who was said to have invented the saw, caused him to throw Perdix from Athene’s temple on the Acropolis. Having thus committed murder, he fled to Crete.

Here he arranged the liaison between Pasiphae (wife of King Minos of Crete - ed) and the Cretean Bull which created the Minotaur. Then, to conceal what had transpired, he built the famous labyrinth to hide the Minotaur. When Minos discovered the truth, he imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the labyrinth.

Winter Trees

Introduction: Max Rael wrote to say: "Winter Trees on the bonus disc of the remastered version of Brave, is also the title of another Sylvia Plath poem."

Steve Rothery said, "At one point I did write Winter Trees, a B-side for one of the Marillion singles [The Hollow Man]. It was the idea that each of us would write some stuff on his own to use it as B-sides. In the end it looks like I was the only one actually doing it."