Pink Floyd: Keep Talking Meaning

Keep Talking Lyrics

For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals
Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination
We learned to talk

There's a silence surrounding me
I can't seem to think straight
I'll sit in the corner
No...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   Dude_ag

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   Jul 8th 2014 !⃝

   I feel, this song tells us about the extreme anguish a socially awkward person has to go through during a social occassion. By social occassion I mean literally any kind of event in which that person meets new people. He subsequently feels outcasted due to his shy and sensitive nature. He feels ignored, but desperately tries to fit in anyway. What choice does he have? Humans need approval.
   He tries and tries again, but every once in a while one of them cracks a joke about him and he feels humiliated. He loses hope but keeps on continuing with a crippled soul inside, feeling painfully self-conscious at the same time, himself judging every step he takes, every work he utters, ever careful, as if someone might lethally attack him. All that anxiety eats away at his insides.
   Well, or maybe, after all that, he just gives up and sits in the corner where no one can bother him. All that bullshit avoided. Now he is one of those poor weird loners. It's not his choice, he can't help it, it's punishment either way, and that is why it sucks.
   Why is it necessary to keep talking?
   
   I know none of that has been spoken about in the song. I was just expressing the background mindset of the socially awkward person. I feel the song just describes a particular situation in which the person has to keep talking to be perceived as a sane human. :)

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   Greekguy

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   Mar 27th 2010 !⃝

   This is a song about how communication between a husband and wife has just failed entirely. It culminates in the ultimate realization "We're going nowhere. We're going nowhere," repeated twice not so much for effect, but for the sheer truth of it all. It's exclamation point is his wife pleading "where do we go from here?" The answer is revealed a few tracks later with "High Hopes"; not only an end to the relationship, but an absolutely fantastic end to an epic band. There are songs that end an album and then there are songs that end a career. "High Hopes" fills both.
3. anonymous

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   Oct 8th 2023 !⃝

   A lot of Pink Floyd deals with madness and other mental issues. This one, I think, is trying to describe the remedy: "It doesn't have to be like this. All we need to is KEEP TALKING".
   
   Human interaction is necessary for his continued survival.
4. anonymous

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   May 7th 2021 !⃝

   Depression.
   
   After the song 'Coming Back To Life', which is about someone coming back to life after a relationship had failed, this is a second depressive strike that can hit someone straight after they see how their ex is doing.
   
   'I feel like I'm drowning' is him expressing how he feels, trapped in a sea full of sadness and sorrow, trying to rise above the waves but they keep coming back stronger and stronger.
   
   'Where do we go from here?' is him trying to find another way to get out of the spike, trying to keep himself alive before he does something irrational because of his sorrow.
   
   'It doesn't have to be like this, all we need to do, is to make sure, we keep, talking.' is his way of coping with it all, if he stays busy, he can't feel saddened because his mind is preoccupied with something else.
   
   This entire song is about the secondary depressive episode someone could have after a relationship and how they typically keep their sadness to themselves. Later in the song, when the chorus constantly asks 'Why won't you talk to me?' and it's randomized noises instead of a returning voice, it's him trying to find the voice he can't use, which is why the final words of the song is 'Make sure, we keep talking.'
5. anonymous

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   Aug 11th 2017 !⃝

   All are excellent interpretations. I had similar thoughts. I would add that I also get the feeling that he is talking to the world and world leaders. Given the level of conflict, political discourse and devisiveness, it doesn't seem that there is much hope for the planet. What makes me think most about this is the voice over by Professor Hawking. Based upon some of his concerns for the human race, his statement that "all we need to do is keep talking" means (to me) that he believes that we can solve our problems if we work together

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. anonymous

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   Sep 10th 2013 !⃝

   Depression.
7. anonymous

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   Dec 10th 2012 !⃝

   My interpretation of this song pertains largely to death. Immediately following the single entitled "Coming back to life" I believe David Gilmour was going through existential despair and anguish upon writing this album.
   
   In my mind the phrase "Where do we go from here" means, where do we go after life? The fact that this lyric is cited at the last line of the verse also indicates that this is the ultimate point; the point being progressed towards which Gilmour is trying to make.
   
   In the following verse, on the last line the phrase "We're going nowhere" seems to indicate Gilmour's rational view of no afterlife; that there is no purpose to life because once you die you lose your existence for all eternity.
   
   This seems to be the main point being made in the song, since it is emphasized at the crescendo's and final lines of verses. The whole album seems to indicate a sort of existential despair, at least in my opinion.
   
   The title of the song "Keep talking" seems to link in with the advice given to most depressed people with death constantly on their mind that they need an "activity" or something to do to get out of their head. In my interpretation "Keep talking" implies that, while focused on conversation, such desperate thoughts of an inevitable terror cannot possess him.

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