What does 'unifaun' mean?

[JimT]

From the opening of Dancing With the Moonlit Knight, by Genesis: "Can you tell me where my country lies, said the unifaun to his true love's eyes". I've never found a definition of it anywhere. Did they make it up? Is it on a par with Steve Miller and his "pompitus of love"?

[AndThenSome]

Im not too sure but i found this nugget of information for you...


i dont know what song youre referring to (i loathe genesis - sorry) but it might be a whimsical combination of the words 'unicorn' and 'faun', both of which are mythical creatures, a unicorn being a horse with a single horn coming out of its forehead, and a faun being half-human (top half), half goat (lower half), rather like pan, the classical god.

that would give the line a certain poignancy (or, if i am to be more brutally honest, mawkish sentimentality), since such a creature does not exist and therefore has no home .. and perhaps such a question risks bursting the bubble of its own existance, since analysis is incompatible with myth ..

[JimT]

You don't have to apologise for not liking a band, you know. You could spend all day apologising. Though it makes it all the more conscientious that you've given such a considered answer about a song by a band you don't like.

I suppose it could be what you said. To be honest I don't really know what the song as a whole is about but it's from a 1973 album called Selling England By The Pound that has a number of songs with a general sense of yearning for an older England and/or feeling disaplaced from the modern one. The song in question has references to Wimpy and green shield stamps, very 'English' things. So it's likely there's some sentiment about wanting to feel at home. Thanks for the response. Couldn't get to work on 'pompitus' now, could you?

[AndThenSome]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompatus


http://www.derekwalde...ompitous-of-love.html


http://everything2.com/title/Pompitous+of+love



I googled it but there's 56,000 answers! lol,

[JimT]

Thanks, I read the 1st couple but had previously seen the 'puppetutes' references. I don't think those fully explain it but I suppose the upshot is: it's made up. Nice to see its taken on a life of its own.

[AndThenSome]

Ok good luck anyway!

[JimT]

More sensible perhaps, Zacs, but less interesting.