Glass founded the Philip Glass Ensemble, with which he still performs on keyboards. He has written numerous operas and musical theatre works, twelve symphonies, eleven concertos, eight string quartets and various other chamber music, and film scores. Three of his film scores have been nominated for Academy Awards.
Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Ida (née Gouline) and Benjamin Charles Glass. His family were Jewish emigrants from Lithuania. His father owned a record store and his mother was a librarian. In his memoir, Glass recalls that at the end of World War II his mother aided Jewish Holocaust survivors, inviting recent arrivals to America to stay at their home until they could find a job and a place to live. She developed a plan to help them learn English and develop skills so they could find work. His sister, Sheppie, would later do similar work as an active member of the International Rescue Committee.
Glass developed his appreciation of music from his father, discovering later his father's side of the family had many musicians. His cousin Cevia was a classical pianist, while others had been in vaudeville.
Glass has composed many film scores, starting with the orchestral score for Koyaanisqatsi (1982), and continuing with two biopics, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985, resulting in the String Quartet No. 3) and Kundun (1997) about the Dalai Lama, for which he received his first Academy Award nomination. In 1968 he composed and conducted the score for director Harrison Engle's minimalist comedy short, Railroaded, played by the Philip Glass Ensemble. This was one of his earliest film efforts.
The year after scoring Hamburger Hill (1987), Glass began a long collaboration with the filmmaker Errol Morris with his music for Morris's celebrated documentaries, including The Thin Blue Line (1988) and A Brief History of Time (1991). He continued composing for the Qatsi trilogy with the scores for Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002). In 1995 he composed the theme for Reggio's short independent film Evidence. He made a cameo appearance—briefly visible performing at the piano—in Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998), which uses music from Powaqqatsi, Anima Mundi and Mishima, as well as three original tracks by Glass. In the 1990s, he also composed scores for Bent (1997) and the thriller Candyman (1992) and its sequel, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995), plus a film adaptation of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1996).
In 1999, he finished a new soundtrack for the 1931 film Dracula. The Hours (2002) earned him a second Academy Award nomination, and was followed by another Morris documentary, The Fog of War (2003). In the mid-2000s Glass provided the scores to films such as Secret Window (2004), Neverwas (2005), The Illusionist and Notes on a Scandal, garnering his third Academy Award nomination for the latter. Glass's most recent film scores include No Reservations (Glass makes a brief cameo in the film sitting at an outdoor café), Cassandra's Dream (2007), Les Regrets (2009), Mr Nice (2010), the Brazilian film Nosso Lar (2010) and Fantastic Four (2015, in collaboration with Marco Beltrami). In 2009, Glass composed original theme music for Transcendent Man, about the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil by filmmaker Barry Ptolemy.
In the 2000s Glass's work from the 1980s again became known to wider public through various media. In 2005 his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1987) was featured in the surreal French thriller, La Moustache, providing a tone intentionally incongruous to the banality of the movie's plot. Metamorphosis: Metamorphosis One from Solo Piano (1989) was featured in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica in the episode "Valley of Darkness" and also in the final episode ("return 0") of Person of Interest. In 2008, Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto IV featuring Glass's "Pruit Igoe" (from Koyaanisqatsi). "Pruit Igoe" and "Prophecies" (also from Koyaanisqatsi) were used both in a trailer for Watchmen and in the film itself. Watchmen also included two other Glass pieces in the score: "Something She Has To Do" from The Hours and "Protest" from Satyagraha, act 2, scene 3. In 2013 Glass contributed a piano piece "Duet" to the Park Chan-wook film Stoker. In 2017 Glass scored the National Geographic Films documentary Jane (a documentary on the life of renowned British primatologist Jane Goodall).
Glass's music was featured in two award-winning films by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, Elena (2011) and Leviathan (2014).
For television, Glass composed the theme for Night Stalker (2005).
The Secret Agent
Philip Glass Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To everyone he meets he stays a stranger
With every move he makes another chance he takes
Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow
Secret Agent Man
Secret Agent Man
They giving you a number
Beware of pretty faces that you find
A pretty face can hide an evil mind
Oh, be careful what you say
Or you will give yourself away
Odds are you won't live to see tomorrow
Secret Agent Man
Secret Agent Man
They giving you a number
And taken' away your name
Swinging on the Riviera one day
And then later in the Bombay Alan next day
I know you let the wrong words slip
While kissing persuasive lips
Odds are you won't live to see tomorrow
Secret Agent Man
Secret Agent Man
They giving you a number
And taken' away your name
The Secret Agent Man is a song that talks about a man leading a life of danger. He is always on the move and every second of his life is an opportunity for danger. He is always on the run, and to everyone he meets, he remains a stranger. Despite the risks involved in his life, he still goes on with his mission. The lyrics talk about the importance of caution and the risk of losing one's life if a wrong move is made. The lyrics are a warning to the secret agent man to be careful of pretty faces he meets because a pretty face may hide an evil mind. In this line, the song warns him to be mindful of what he says as it may be the difference between life and death. The song suggests that the odds are against the secret agent man as he may not live to see tomorrow because of the dangerous life he leads.
The song is filled with vivid imagery that transports the listener to different locations such as the Riviera and Bombay. The song suggests that the life the secret agent lives is not glamorous, as it may seem. Still, it is rather filled with danger, violence and always staying under the radar. Overall, the message of the song is a warning for people to be cautious about their surroundings, the people they meet and what they say.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a man who leads a life of danger
This is about a man who lives a dangerous life
To everyone he meets he stays a stranger
He has to keep his identity secret from everyone he meets
With every move he makes another chance he takes
His actions could have severe consequences
Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow
His job is so risky that he's unlikely to survive
Secret Agent Man
This is the title of the song
Secret Agent Man
Repeating the title to emphasize its importance
They giving you a number
The agency that employs him has assigned him a code name
And taken' away your name
He no longer goes by his real name
Beware of pretty faces that you find
He has to be cautious of people who may be deceiving him
A pretty face can hide an evil mind
Just because someone looks nice doesn't mean they're trustworthy
Oh, be careful what you say
He has to be careful not to divulge too much information
Or you will give yourself away
If he says too much, it could reveal his true identity
Swinging on the Riviera one day
He leads a life of luxury sometimes
And then later in the Bombay Alan next day
But the next day he could be in a very different place
I know you let the wrong words slip
He's made mistakes before
While kissing persuasive lips
Perhaps he's been compromised by someone he was romantically involved with
Odds are you won't live to see tomorrow
This is repeated to remind us of the danger he's in
Secret Agent Man
Final repetition of the title to close out the song
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: P. F. SLOAN, STEVE BARRI
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@aracelyreyes5783
The world is a better place because Philip Glass’s geniality. Thanks Elliot ...
@jbssfl
Perhaps the most traditional piece of classical music that Glass has ever composed?
@rankefsky
Great masterpiece, with own character and minimalist sounds transporting us to the universe, listening it become us the SECRET AGENT in the universe.
@clt242fg
Drunk or brain-dead.
@bodudas8346
this one is outa this world
@bodudas8346
the best that Glass ever did
@bodudas8346
the intensity is overwhelming
@aykuncetinkaya6201
awaken all my emotions
@johnsamurphy
Heard this on the radio today. Beauty tune
@the5555man
Masterpiece! wow am speechless.