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An Audience with the Pope Lyrics

Sweet Jesus, I'm on fire
She has the sweetest, darkest side
And when it comes into her eyes
I know iron and steel couldn't hold me

Good God, I'm easy bruised
But so often a moth to her flame
And the things that she's asked me to do
Would see a senior saint forgetting his name

I have an audience with the Pope
And I'm saving the world at eight
But if she says she needs me, she says she needs me
Everybody's going to have to wait, ah, ah

Where could she be?
Was that a minute or an hour?
Where could she be?
She turns the hours into days
Kill the phone, cover the cage
And wait for the doorbell to ring

Where could she be?
No, she won't come running
Where could she be?
The world is turning at her pace
Gonna kill the phone, cover the cage
And wait for the doorbell to ring

I have an audience with the pope
and I'm saving the world at eight
but if she says she needs me, she says she needs me
Everybody's going to have to wait

I have an audience with the Pope
And I'm saving the world at eight
But if she says she needs me, she says she needs me
Everybody's going to have to wait

I have an audience with the Pope
And I'm saving the world at eight
But if she says she needs me, she says she needs me
Everybody's going to have to wait

I have an audience with the Pope
And I'm saving the world at eight
But if she says she needs me, she says she needs me
Everybody's going to have to wait
Everybody's going to have to wait
14 Meanings

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Cover art for An  Audience with the Pope lyrics by Elbow

no. simple catholisism vs sex i used to struggle as a boy

Cover art for An  Audience with the Pope lyrics by Elbow

If I were you guys I would pay attention to what Mr Munroe Kelly says about any of these songs...

Cover art for An  Audience with the Pope lyrics by Elbow

Guy's comments at the Wembley gig about this song is pretty much what has been said. It is about a relationship with a girl who basically kept him dangling on a piece of string. He would basically drop everything the moment she called, hence the lines.....

I have an audience with the pope And I'm saving the world at 8 But if she says she needs me, she says she needs me Everybody's gonna have to wait

He's waiting for her all the time, she calling all the shots.

Cover art for An  Audience with the Pope lyrics by Elbow

I was always reminded of the relationship between the Doctor and Rose Tyler from Doctor Who when listening to this song. Is that mad? lol The chorus mostly... that the Doctor would drop everything for Rose (and he frequently did).

Anyone else or was that just me? xD

My Interpretation
Cover art for An  Audience with the Pope lyrics by Elbow

Actually, the first commenter is right. Guy has said in numerous interviews that this song is - though not exclusively - about recovering from Catholicism. One example:

"Mostly I write about life and love and death and friendship and desire and frustration, temptation. There’s a song on the record about overcoming Catholicism in order to enjoy sex, which took a while.” To overcome it, or to write about it? “To overcome it… But that was years ago. The song’s called An Audience With The Pope, and it’s deliberately blasphemous. I just remember at 16, as a frustrated Catholic, really enjoying sex and feeling terrible about it afterwards.”

Song Meaning
Cover art for An  Audience with the Pope lyrics by Elbow

I thought it was about the singer being madly in love with a girl who wasn't in love with him, but was involved with him when it suited her. Hence he is the moth to her flame but the world his turning at her pace.

Cover art for An  Audience with the Pope lyrics by Elbow

Err, this is hardly about religion, mate. The singer is madly infatuated with this girl, right? And suddenly being with her is the most important thing in the world. So, even though he's "got an audience with the pope" and is "saving the world at eight", none of it is more important than being together with her- and ironically he has everything else in the world waiting for him while SHE's keeping HIM waiting. Awesome song.

Cover art for An  Audience with the Pope lyrics by Elbow

It was like an Audience with the Pope, when after the concert, people who had come to see and listen, began forming a polite queue, everybody in line, waiting in awe for the privilege of a brief meeting and to give words of thanks. It was about catholisism, it was about sex, it was about being a superhero on stage at eight, when the girl the superhero was really waiting for, was not there.

Memory
Cover art for An  Audience with the Pope lyrics by Elbow

"And the things that she's asked me to do Would see a senior saint forgetting his name"

is very similar to

"What she asked of me at the end of the day Caligula would have blushed"

if you ask me. Not so original after all. Mercury prize?! Meh.

Oh yeah for sure. What are they thinking giving the Mercury Prize, which everyone knows is the prize for the album in which every single lyric is ground-breakingly original, for this album? It's almost as though they listened to the music as well. And the other tracks.

I mean this is a song about love - that's so unoriginal! Therefore Elbow sucks.

I too saw the similarity but he has hardly stole the inventive part of Morrissey's lyric, just made a similar point with a different comparison.

Cover art for An  Audience with the Pope lyrics by Elbow

I always had the line down as "she has the sweetest of kisses", no?

 
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