| Dave Matthews Band – Seek Up Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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There are quite obvious references to religion here, particularly the prevalent idea of sin (humanity's guilt). Now, Dave is a pretty outspoken atheist (do a Google search for reference). His lyrics here reflect this: "Inside a crowd, five billion proud Willing to punch it out Right, wrong, weak, strong Ashes to ashes all fall down" --the absurdity of humanity, our willingness to fight over anything and everything, never realizing the fact that it is all quite trivial--we will all meet our deaths in the end ("ashes to ashes, we all fall down", "we will all find our lives swept away"). particularly interesting are the verses: "If at all God's gaze upon us fall His mischievous grin, look at him" --In other words, if God is looking down at us at all, it is with a mischievous grin (the expression of one who has done something deceptive or cruel, apparently misinterpreted by a few of you here who do not understand the meaning of this word; see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mischievous). The lines "Forget about the reasons and the treasons we are seeking...forget about being guilty we are innocent instead...Intentions are not wicked, Don't be tricked into thinking so" -- clear references to the theme among the major religions of sin, of you and me "being guilty". Dave is saying "forget about that, it is false". Now, the second of the two major themes here is an extension of the first: the idea that we are making a mess of life here on our planet. Our cruelty toward one another, not the least of which is the indirect harm of ignoring suffering ("TV's hungry child"), needs to stop, and indeed can stop if we are willing. He speaks of our bellicose ways, "Inside a crowd, five billion proud, willing to punch it out", "You seek up a big monster, For him to fight your wars for you But when he finds his way to you, the devil's not going"--these monsters we create through each and every war of ours will always find their way back to their creators, the ones who manifest them and urge them on. This is a song about changing our ways as a species, about learning that this ridiculous fighting over right and wrong, your god and my god, "weak and strong" is pointless. We will all be swept away in the end. We need to learn to change the only world we have, what we have right now. |
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