Saint Augustine In Hell

This song is irreverent and makes me smile whenever I hear it.

The CD from which this song comes contains other songs in weird time signatures - 7/4 in particular. Have a listen to "Seven Days" or "Love is Stronger than Justice" - you'll hear what I mean.

Another funny song by the Stingster. I love how he describes hell:

"Relax, have a cigar, make yourself at home. Hell is full of high court judges, failed saints. We've got Cardinals, Archbishops, barristers, certified accountants, music critics, they're all here. You're not alone, you're never alone. Not here you're not. Okay, break's over!"

All in all a song of desire, and weekness in front of it. So what else in new?

[Question]: You draw on a lot of religious imagery for Saint Augustine in Hell.

[Sting]: I mean one of the benefits of a Roman Catholic education - there are a lot of downs to it - is, is a, um, is a rich reservoir of imagery and, um, symbolism. Y'know, something about guilt and hell, fire, and bright colors of blood and torture and all this. And saints and archetypal characters. So I, I don't regret it in that sense. I think its very good to be brought up a Catholic. Actually, it's very good to be brought up in, in any religion that's deeply steeped in history, you know? I think most religions are. So, I'd rather be brought up in a religious way, than not be brought up in a religious way. Um, so I'm, I'm grateful. It gives you something to kick against, or something to argue against, or whatever. But, you know, and the same's true of the Jewish faith and the Protestant faith. I'm not sure you should agree with everything they tell you. Saint Augustine, though, was an interesting character. He, uh, he's - my favorite comment of his was, "God made me pure, but not yet." And I think that's kind of the way I feel.

[Question]: Tell us about the character in Saint Augustine in Hell.

[Sting]: Well, he, you know the character in the song is sort of tempted by his best, best friend's girlfriend, who's something else. And, uh, he ends up in Hell somehow. His best friend kills him. That's it! His best friend kills him with a switchblade and he ends up in Hell. And, um, the Devil says to him, "Well, you're not alone. There all here. There's judges, there's, uh, lawyers, accountants, music critics." (laughs) Ah, there's a little bit of revenge there, y'know?

Excellent song, rich with metaphor and artistry. Sting melds culture, history, religion, and his wry wit in this song about forbidden love and personal weakness.

Totally awesome song, although i dont know much about St Augustine as i'd like to. You can so ralate to this song, Catchy as hell too. Makes me think of how i wanted to go out with my best friend's GF. I ended up doing so, the song made me feel better.

I’ll come up with the fanciful idea that this is a story about St. Augustine who meets two angels—his guardian angel and his angel’s guardian angel who arrive by surprise to shake Auggie’s world. Now her angel is the one with the switchblade and murder on his mind because he’s arrived with St. Theresa, the whore of Babylon, Madonna and A’s mother rolled into one, and best friends notwithstanding, angels don’t do this often and he’s enormously protective of her. And they stuck around to do a Not Ready For Prime Time Players’ version of Dickens “A Christmas Carol” letting Augustine play Scrooge while the two angels and their pals played all of the other parts at breakneck speed—okay, break’s over!—and then took off, like bats out of Hell. Fanciful yes, but I was reading between the lines and it came in quite clearly… lol

Nineteen ninety-three saw Ten Summoner’s Tales—a pun on Sting’s real surname, Sumner, and also a reference to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. That fifteenth-century tome includes stories told by, among other figures, a summoner, i.e., a court figure charged with calling others to appear before royalty or for some other important, formal function. The included musical tale “St. Augustine in Hell” found its protagonist caught in his own “eternal fire” of uncontrollable sexual attraction to a woman dating his best friend. In his pique, he proposes a corresponding rightfully earned torturous eternity for cardinals, archbishops, accountants who misuse the investment funds entrusted to them ... and music critics. Augustine’s own prayer to God in the face of temptation, as quoted in the song, was exactly “Lord, make me chaste, but not just yet.”

[From Rock & Holy Rollers: The Spiritual Beliefs of Chart-Topping Rock Stars in Their Lives and Lyrics by Geoffrey D. Falk.]

Until I checked this board, I never caught the line "Francis of Assisi could never be this good." It's very interesting to me since the recently elected pope of the Catholic Church took the name "Francis" in honor of Francis of Assisi.

A little trivia: The interlude at around 2:30 is actually taken from an earlier Sting song titled "I Miss You Kate". You should be able to find it on the CD single for All This Time.

The title caught my eye because St. Augustine was one of the founders of the Just War Theory, and thus IMO he belongs in hell. I guess it's not about that though.