| Sir Mix-A-Lot – Baby Got Back Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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This song is intended as a metaphor for Christian worship. When Sir Mixalot (not his real name), states that he is "long, strong, and down to get the friction on," he means that his spirit is inflamed with the love of Jesus and the friction he is referring to is obviously the friction of his knees rubbing against the carpet as he prays mightily. Christian values feature prominently in this song. What could be more powerful that Mixalot's opening declaration that he cannot lie (thou shalt not, after all) about his love for big butts (again, big butts being a rather transparent symbol for the generous, ample, rotund Beneficence of the Lord)? Mixalot here loudly, directly proclaims his love and forswears any attempts by unbelievers to induce him to lie or otherwise obscure the genuine, abiding nature of his dedication to the One True God. Nor does Sir perceive Christianity as being limited to any particular race or ethnicity. In the Mixalot formulation, Christian worship is open to all comers. He perceives of a God that is universal, and whose atonement on the Cross benefits all mankind. Nothing I could say could make this point more clearly than Mixalot's exuberant "Even white boys got to shout [shout hallelujah, one cannot help but infer]." To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, Baby Got Back is a virtual manifesto of a forward-thinking, universalist, ecstatic form of early 90s Christianity. Preach on, Brother Mixalot! |
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| Pearl Jam – Just Breathe Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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It's weird how people take their desire for it to be about (or not about) God as evidence that it is or isn't. No matter how much you love him, Eddie Vedder is a separate guy from you, and has separate thoughts. So the question is not what you wish he meant, but what he is likely to have meant. Clearly, from his statements in interviews, Eddie is at the very least a skeptic about organized religion and probably an atheist of some sort. But does that mean he couldn't or wouldn't write a love song to God? Couldn't he be imagining God as he ought to be, not as the religions claim him to be? Couldn't he be loving the Great Impossibility, the Nonexist One? In the truest sense, EVERY love song is about loving someone who isn't there anyway. What if Eddie is simply making the choice to sing love to God despite God's nonexistence? To me, the song makes most sense like this: The singer is coming clean about his own failings and imperfections. He recognizes that death is coming, and with it the destruction of ego. When his ego dies, he will be subsumed into the Universe completely and finally. He is humbled and sorry for his failure to overcome his own sins (however he defines that religiously charged word). He is overwhelmed by gratitude to the Great It, the It that gives everything and takes nothing, the It whose face is present everywhere in the world, the It that is waiting on the other side. So did he mean the God of your Sunday School lessons? Of course not. There's no fucking way he meant that. But did he mean God nevertheless? Of course he did. If you can't see that, then you are the fool he's singing about. |
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| Pearl Jam – Just Breathe Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| To me, it couldn't be more obvious that the song is about God. If it's any comfort to you, though, "religious" is not a synonym for "Christian." And "God" does not have to be a synonym for "crap they tried to shove down your throat in sunday school." | |
| Love and Rockets – Rock and Roll Babylon Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The Tightrope Walker is a reference to Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra. Nietzsche says man is a tightrope strung between animal and the superman. The tightrope walker is a character in Zarathustra. By expressing his will despite the risk of a fatal fall, the tightrope walker moves forward, evolving toward the superman - which is mankind's destiny. But most people are too timid for Nietzsche. They stand below, gawking, living vicariously or not at all. So the tightrope walker takes their chances for them, and the superman grows closer to becoming reality. |
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