| The Mountain Goats – Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Really interesting interpretation, and I think I agree with the vast proportion of what you say. I read it that the character's use of drugs IS his attempt to reconnect with God! In the bliss he finds in the grip of meth or heroin or whatever, he is pure and without sin. He is communing with his better nature, and seeing tantilising glipses of a life lived well. His car is a cathederal, his use of drugs takes him high as the clouds and while he has tied the hands of God as he has tied the hands of his victim, God is always there watching, caring, his companion. I believe John is saying that we can all find 'God' in our own way, be it music or poetry or drugs, and that even as we run from the real, genuine love into anger and hatred and selfishness, nevertheless we will be drawn time and time to love, and will seek to find it in any way left open to us. I feel very sad for the protagonist, and his folly, but I also find this song incredibly uplifting. To the point where I could almost cried tears of joy first hearing it. The Permanent Efficacy of Grace: that even in this darkest of men, at the darkest of times there beats the faintest heartbeat of compassion, like his victim, not quite dead! :) |
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