Andy Partridge is a man who knows how to write lyrics. As great as "Dear God" is, I love many of their other, less screed-like songs more—songs with lyrics that are a bit more subtle, and more humanistic than atheistic. Here are some examples.
Excerpt from "The Wheel and the Maypole" (Wasp Star)
Maypole
Maypole you've spun me round and knocked me off my axis mundi
Maypole
Maypole
Maypole the ties that bind you will unwind to free me one day
And everything decays
Yes, everything decays
Forest tumbles down to make the soil
Planets fall apart
Just to feed the stars and stuff their larders
And what made me think we're any better
And what made me think we'd last forever
Was I so naive?
Of course it all unweaves
Pyramids and palaces to dust
Empires crumble in
Wedding cake begins to must and molder
And what made me think we're any better
And what made me think we'd last forever
Was I so naive?
Failing to perceive
Holy cow, am I ever in love with this song! What I take from it is probably pretty obvious. I too wonder how I ever accepted that I was somehow an exception to the rule we can easily perceive by looking around: everything breaks down eventually. Everything except me? It's a nice thought (maybe), but if you believe that extraordinary claims require proportionally extraordinary evidence, then what a stretch it is to wantonly believe it!
Reading these lyrics, you might assume the song is sad, but it's some of the happiest-sounding music I've ever heard; I love that he is singing about the dissolution of all things in such a carefree tone, almost as if to say, "Yeah, we die, isn't it great!" To me, this song is full of rejoicing—not about death, but about the fact of having come to terms with the reality of death.
Excerpt from "Season Cycle" (Skylarking)
Darling, don't you ever sit and ponder
darling did you ever think
About the building of the hills a yonder
all this life stuff's closely linked
Where we're going in this verdant spiral
Who's pushing the pedals on the season cycle?
Round and round and round and round
I really get confused on who would make all this
is there a God in Heaven
Everybody says join our religion get to Heaven
I say no thanks why bless my soul
I'm already there!
What I take from this one: yeah, it's amazing that all this stuff exists, isn't it? But every author of religious dogma tries to take that wonder and twist it to his own ends. I'll just take the wonder itself please, with no added dogmas or sweeteners. You can keep all the extra trappings that try to adorn that basic sense of appreciation with rules, or demands for donations, or any other such lily-gildings...as if the sheer beauty of existence is somehow lessened for being ultimately unexplained. I don't buy it.
Excerpt from "Garden of Earthly Delights" (Oranges & Lemons)
Welcome to the Garden of Earthly Delights.
Welcome to a billion Arabian nights.
This is your life and you do what you want to do,
This is your life and you spend it all.
This is your life and you do what you want to do,
Just don't hurt nobody,
And the big reward's here,
In the Garden of Earthly Delights.
What I take from this one: Life itself is its own reward. Live it well and fully while you've got it, and be as free as you can while still respecting the freedom of others.
Excerpt from "Merely a Man" (Oranges & Lemons)
I'm all religious figures rolled into one,
Gaddafy Duck propelled from Jimmy Swaggart's tommy gun.
Don't promise rainbows with some golden pot,
In fact what I can offer I know you've already got.
I'm merely a man,
And I bring nothing but love for you.
I'm merely a man,
And I want nothing that you can't do.
And you know it's true.
That with logic and love we'll have power enough,
To raise consciousness up and for lifting humanity higher.
Higher!
And you know it's true.
We should chase superstition and fear from our hearts,
If we're going to survive and take levels of sanity higher.
Kick it up... Higher.
What I take from it: I'm a man, and contrary to what you might have been told, that's a great thing to be. I'm full of potential, and basically good. Many religions deny this.
Most religions have a core of truth, encrusted with often-illogical teachings that have to be repeatedly force-fed. These are mostly worthless; they engender a lot of superstition (which is an enemy of truth) and they often use fear as a power source. That core of truth composes most of what we actually need to be happy, and it is so simple and intuitive we can often instinctively grasp it. For example: "treat people kindly".
On the other hand, I believe that for finding real truth (which is crucial for our future), logic and reason are our only hope, and they do take some learning. So we have a lot of work to do.
Wrapped in Grey (Nonsuch)
Some folks see the world as a stone
Concrete daubed in dull monotone
Your heart is the big box of paints
And others, the canvas we're dealt
Your heart is the big box of paints
How coloured the flowers all smelled
As they huddled there, in petalled prayer
They told me this, as I knelt there
Awaken you dreamers
Adrift in your beds
Balloons and streamers
Decorate the inside of your heads
Please let some out
Do it today
But don't let the loveless ones sell you
A world wrapped in grey
Some folks pull this life like a weight
Drab and dragging dreams made of slate
Your heart is the big box of paints
And others, the canvas we're dealt
Your heart is the big box of paints
Just think how the old masters felt, they call...
Awaken you dreamers
Asleep at your desks
Parrots and lemurs
Populate your unconscious grotesques
Please let some out
Do it today
Don't let the loveless ones sell you
A world wrapped in grey
And in the very least you can
Stand up naked and
Grin
What it means: being a human is awesome. You aren't a born sinner. Shrug off the grey shackles of drab doctrine that others may have given you before you could think to protest, and fill your life with color. Don't spend it kneeling in front of a stylized torture device, begging forgiveness from no one for evils you never committed. Do some good, create some beauty, and then you can spend it naked and unashamed!
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