Getting ill
Seems my body knows when it's weekend, last Thursday evening I start coughing,
making it just barely through Friday, and then, boom, insta-sicko weekend trip!
Spent the past days coughing, not being able to fall asleep, and just generally
feeling like crap.. Tomorrow is a workday, and I'm not up for it at all :(
Really hope it'll be better by morning, so I'm trying to get some sleep early.
Misinterpreting lyrics to make 'em better
Song: Take Me To Church (The Agonist version, not the original)
Context: The original is a pretty tame love song, the Agonist version omit the
lyrics about the girl, allowing a more free interpretation. I didn't know the
original before hearing the Agonist version, which helped a lot. I think it's
meant to be understood as a sarcastic letter to the actual church (any religion)
and as such it makes a much stronger impression.
These are my arguments, my interpretation and reasoning why this version of the
song is really awesome.
She starts by singing "Amen" twice, mocking its alleged sacredness.
Chorus:
Take me to church - Don't
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies - You're expected to submit
to gods law and will, dogs are submissive. A church is a shrine, and the lies of
any religion stems from their holy books, but are preached actively in churches,
so it's literally what it says.
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife - One of the main tools,
used by almost any religion, to control people, is shame and the concept of sin,
so I think the first part of the sentence is literal, and the last, the knife,
that is whatever punishment the church will fit to the sin. Extremely sarcastic,
no proper person would submit themselves in this way, to let their own life be
judged by other people under guise of god.
Offer me that deathless death - I think again, extremely sarcastic, it's already
stated that it's a shrine of lies, she knows there's no deathless death, that
there's no afterlife, emphasized by the use of "that".
Good God, let me give you my life - Sarcasm, if anything, the books show that a
god is anything but good, so she definitely does not want to give her life.
Then she switches into something more real, stating a different and more
reasonable philosophy:
If I'm a pagan of the good time - The word pagan is used to underline to the
church that it's know they disagree, and it's supposed to be clearly shown.
My lover's the sunlight - Nature
To keep the goddess on my side - goddess, well, there's no god, so who's the
goddess ? With a female singer it may be her own inner-self, everyone is a god.
She demands a sacrifice - Personal desires
Drain the whole sea - of tremendous proportions
Get something shiny - and a materialistic character
Next - We're tearing down the church:
Something meaty for the main course - Substance in the philosophy
That's a fine-looking high horse - Mocking the church
What you got in the stable? - Who are rich
We've a lot of starving faithful - from stealing from the people
That looks tasty
That looks plenty
This is hungry work - So let's take it all back from the church
Next - Sinning, riddance of the church and superstition, this works for anything
that the subject finds sinful in the eyes of the church, anything really would
be a sin, and at this point, any sin would be a ritual:
No masters or kings when the ritual begins - No one shall judge it
There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin - Literally, no matter the sin
In the madness and toil of that sad earthly scene - It might be anything
Only then I am human, only then I am clean - Only by leaving the church.
Conclusion: When taking a more detailed look at the text, it makes it obvious
that it was a rather tame love-song to begin with, the last section clearly
refers to the act of making love (or whoring, as the church would call it), so I
am fully aware that my interpretation is a stretch, but at least entertaining.
