Ok, everyone has one theory about Publius Enigma. Here's mine. Hope it helps.
you have to understand that David Gilmour is not McGiver and, very probally, he wouldnt have thought in an enigma so difficult to solve, like the www.flybyday.com site suggest. pink floyd is known world wide, right? that's a fact. it wouldnt be smart design an enigma that only too few people would be able to understand. so, i discard any possibilities of religious connection of any type.
the more "global" the message is, the better. it's important to "open mind" but we need to be carefull to not open it too much or we'll lose the main focus.
if the message is hidden in Division Bell cd, the cd is the most important item and it's where our attention should be.
sometimes, it's more difficult to see the obvious things than to find endless metaphores.
let's try to see the OBVIOUS things first. if that fails, than we go to more complex interpretations.
like all of you, i also hame a theory based on the simple facts and a little of interpretation.
analysing all the lyrics of DB, it's clear that they are all about the same subject or situation. what subject is this, i'll explain soon.
all the artwork in DB has to do with "similarity", "2 sides", "parallelism", "dualism". i think that's pretty clear for everyone, right? (the 2 metal heads, the 2 paper heads, 2 snakes, 2 gloves etc)
so, i assume the center of the message is about 2 people or the relationship between someone or something.
the lyrics enforce this thinking.
i tried to explain the more obvious interpretation of each lyric. here it goes:
1. Cluster One
it works like an introduction to the story that's up to come. a way to prepare the listener to what's coming next. the harmony is very melancolic and it invites you to enter in a place that's not your place. it leads you to what Gilmour has to say. maybe somewhere in the past. something that already happened and, now, he's going to tell you.
2. What do you want from me
it pictures a musician who is in crisis with his work, his life. he's feeling persecuted. something like a paranoia. like if he had hit the limit. he just can't stand this situation anymore.
i hardly believe it's about syd barret. in fact, i'm a believer that all cd is about barret. i'll talk about that later. let's go on.
Syd was a very annoyed boy when he was a kid. the death of his father disturbed him a lot. In WDYWFM, Syd is talking to someone whos already dead but insists in chase him: his father.
i really think he's talking to someone who's already dead because:
"Do you want me to make a daisy chain for you"
"You can drift, you can dream, even walk on water"
it seens he's trying to do ANYTHING to get rid of this GHOST. he's trying to do something to calm him down, but he just can't.
the story continues, telling the syd barret history in pink floyd.
3. Poles Apart
I thing poles apart it's about gilmour and barret and not waters and barret.
Syd was loved by everyone. Everybody always said syd was a great artist, he could play the guitar worse than gilmour and water but he was the best, artistically speaking.
Syd was the Golden Boy. But he sunk himself in heavy drugs till he lost his mind. But he was a huge lost for pink floyd. Gilmour had an enormous duty in replace Barret.
Leading the blind while I stared out the steel in your eyes
this may mean that, while Syd led pink floyd, gilmour had envy of him because his artistic talent.
"I never thought that you'd lose the light in your eyes"
gilmour is regreting the fact of syd had gone nuts and quit music.
pay attention in the "interlude" (the part just before "the rain fell slow") of poles apart. it has a complete "vibe" change. the music gets "darker", a little insane like "the trial" in The Wall cd.
4. Marooned
maroon = to abandon someone in a desert island
this may be Syd barret isolation and slow decay as he grow distant from the band.
5. A Great Day For Freedom
another song about an event of syd's life.
i think it's about his father death.
the wall represents his father.
gilmour suggest that this would be one of the principal causes of syd's madness:
Not life devalues day by day
As friends and neighbors turn away
And there's a change that, even with regret, cannot be undone
Now frontiers shift like desert sands
these "frontiers" could be mind frontiers, representing mental desorder.
6. Wearing the Inside Out
toughts of syd reflecting his madness.
actually, i think the madness could have save syd from the real world that he didn't understand and did not undesrtand him.
the "inside out" would be syd's unconscious.
and when he says he's creeping back to life, and wonder when all the cloud have blown away is a wish for a cure.
7. Take it Back
"her" should be syd's mother or some kind of drug that ruined him.
so, Gilmour is hoping that, someday, "she will take it back"
take syd back to life, to normal life.
and about "G-d knows I've tried" it's gilmour talking about himself
G-d = Gilmour - David
gilmour knows he tried to help syd, but he couldn't.
8. Coming Back To Life
Syd's complaining on the band who left him when he most needed it.
"And headed straight..into the shining sun"
when he finally went really nuts.
. Keep Talking
this music pictures the lack of communication between syd and the band, or the world.
and syd would like to avoid that usign dialog, conversation.
talk to people was the only connection he still had with the real world.
10. Lost for Words
Syd gave up and surrender to it's madness.
11. High Hopes
Gilmour remebering the old times. He and Syd were friends when children.
he still hopes for a recuperation os barret. the music is about childhood.
CONCLUSION: Division Bell is about David Gilmour trying to apolagize by what happened with Syd Barret. Gilmour feels, somehwow, guilty for what occurred and tries to redeem himself with the fans in name of the band.
of course it has to do with lack of communication but it's not the main point.
Well, that's my theory. what do you think?
check this site for more on Syd's life:
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Studio/6741/bio/sydway.htm
regards,
béder k.