God

It makes sense to me, but it'll be hard to explain. For the lyrics, he's taking the role of God. Here's the breakdown:

So each day would be new I build you to sleep That’s the idea of dying but you’ll just have to see

• Pretty self-explanatory first line. God requires you to get sleep so that it seems like a new time period/phase begins when you wake up. The same with death; when you die, it's like sleep in that when you wake up, you are in a new phase of being.

You can do what you want or so you think

• I'm missing any deep meaning here but it's just underlining that you're not free, you're bound by Gods laws (such as inevitable physical death).

But till you stop all your thoughts You are tied to your surroundings

• If he means 'thoughts' in the physical brain sense, then it's saying that you can't escape the physical world until death. If he means 'thoughts' in general existence, then unless you somehow cease to exist, you can't escape it (Lol, I can't explain this last point really).

When the fog spreads out in the rainy season It comes from my insides

• God controls nature, etc... Basic stuff.

When the thunderous lighting strikes down You’re seeing your real I

• Once again about how God is apparent. The second line refers to how, in Christianity at least, God built humans in his own likeness, so God technically 'appears' to be you.

People You blaspheme my name But still I love you Still I love you I love you just the same

• God is merciful.

I hear all your prayers because I’m each one of you

• Once again with how humans are built in God's likeness.

Creation's not something I did It’s something that I do

• Kinda rejecting deism (belief that God created the universe and has a plan but doesn't interfere with anything anymore) here. He's saying that God is actively involved.

The reason for the bad is so that there’d be such things as good

• Nice line here. I guess it's self-explanatory. We'd never have defined something to be 'good' if there was never any 'bad' to relate it to. We'd be content with everything.

Oh I’d do anything for you You all know I would

• God is like that.

Be for me Be for me Be for me

• Once more, humans in the likeness of God. God made us so that we can live in his image (or something like that).

Before me Before me Before me

• I'm guessing this is what it said in the lyrics book. I really don't know how this relates. Maybe he's relating to some of the other songs' (on The Empyrean) meanings, specifically After the Ending, where he says "No thing has ever become nothing/Nothing has ever become something." Time has no beginning, no end; "Before me" doesn't actually exist since God is eternal.

You know that I try to repair and repay As life goes by a thousand times It gets a little better

• God is still involved in the world. As time (what is time really?) progresses, life gets better, living is easier (and don't give me that Global Warming, Poverty, World Hunger crap).

All is belief, All is belief, All is belief, All is belief.

• You just gotta believe.

There's so much wrong with those lyrics...

These are the right ones:

So each day would be new I build you to sleep That’s the idea of dying but you’ll just have to see You can do what you want or so you think But till you stop all your thoughts You are tied to your surroundings

When the fog spreads out in the rainy season It comes from my insides

When the thunderous lighting strikes down You’re seeing your real I

People You blaspheme my name But still I love you Still I love you I love you just the same

I hear all your prayers because I’m each one of you Creation's not something I did It’s something that I do

The reason for the bad is so the there’d be such things as good Oh I’d do anything for you You all know I would

Be for me Be for me Be for me Before me Before me Before me

You know that I try to repair and repay As life goes by a thousand times It gets a little better

All is belief, All is belief, All is belief, All is belief.

I interpret this as John is embracing his belief of God, and his belief of God in every man and woman. Thus creating a strong image of Jesus/God himself when he says "I hear all of your prayers because I am each one of you" among other hints and weaker saying throughout the song.

This whole album is very psychedelic. I recommend eating 5 grams of psilocybin mushrooms and when you're peaking sit in the dark and put this album on. I have yet to do this but you would probably have an amazing experience and hopefully meet god(not what you or any religion thinks

Like a lot of John Frusciante's songs, the main theme is spirituality. Influenced by Buddhism concepts.

"God" isn't referring to the christian god or any known God. "God" in this song is John's way of explaining a few of his beliefs and ideas about what "God" is. To him anyway..

In this song most def and others the spiritual side is very Buddhism influenced, but he obviously has his own philosophy on life/death or "religious views", as he's even stated in interviews. Even though a Buddhist wouldn't refer to what this song refers to as "God" it is very basically their version "God", life/death, creation etc.

Here's a few of examples in this song:

"You know that I try to repair and repay As life goes by a thousand times It gets a little better"

• By trying to repair and repay, John Frusciante is referring to his effort to repair and repay his consciousness' Karma as he lives a thousand cycles of life, death and re -incarnation in Samsara. By repairing and repaying Karma as life goes by a thousand times he gets closer and closer to Enlightenment (Nirvana).
• Karma - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Buddhism
• Samsara - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsara
• Nirvana - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana

"You can do what you want or so you think But till you stop all your thoughts You are tied to your surroundings"

• By stopping all your thoughts he means to meditate (not die). In Buddhism meditating stops all your thoughts and brings your mind to it's calm, natural state (true nature). Through stopping your thoughts you come to the realization of the Buddhist philosophy "Emptiness" (another John Frusciante song!). Emptiness has a lot to do with everything around us constantly changing, nothing lasting forever and everything in the universe being impermanent and is therefore "empty". By comprehending these ideas it allows you to stop being "tied to your surroundings".
• Emptiness: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81
• Meditation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipassan%C4%81#Practice

"I hear all your prayers because I'm each one of you"

" When the fog spreads out in the rainy season It comes from my insides When the thunderous lighting strikes down You're seeing your real I"

• These lyrics seem to imply that God isn't separate from all of us and that we aren't detached from one and other either. We are connected through our deep consciousnesses or soul (Buddha Nature) that we all have inside. This is what he sees as "God".These ideas relate to the Buddhist belief about all Sentient beings', along with nature effecting each other and being one in the same. The other lyrics imply that we are part of nature. The thunderous lighting coming from my (John's) insides and as the fog spreads, it reveals your (our, humans) true self. -Buddah Nature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_Nature

I hope all of that makes scene. A lot of it is very hard to explain with words. Only from recently studying Buddhism have a lot of his lyrics started making a bit more sense to me.

First I must say that Jesus is a hoax.. but the point of the song is to illuminate the fact that there is a god, which is also kind of the point of the whole album.. it just says that no matter what u believe if you can accept a higher supernatural authority, it will help you with your life... God is there

Written from God's perspective, amazing song. I think the line "Be for me/Before me" means human beings should "be god" and help others in need except leaving them for god's mercy.

Wow, I really love to read all these different interpretations people give to those songs. Any song means anything to anyone, as long as it relates to someones perspective and life. What I want to say with perspective is that most hold on to the traditional image they have with the word 'God'. Most of you see the way in witch the common meaning of the word 'God' is deconstructed, but in my opinion you're not taking it far enough. Humans are not created to the image of God, God is created through an image of us. We have created God in our minds, witch makes him real to hell of a lot of people.

So what I think this lyrics says, and what John explains in a 'blog' page about the empyrean (witch has unfortunately been removed), is that WE are the ones who create. 'I hear all your prayers, because I'm each one of you'. And through us, 'creation is not something I did, it's something that I do'. It is Johns inner divine voice who speaks to us, under the pseudonym of God. The album stands for a dialog between the conscious 'I' and the unconscious or subconscious 'I'.

Of course, even given this way of seeing things, there are still a lot of lines witch remain unexplained. But I think that's the beauty of these lyrics and, as I dare to say, literary texts in general. They live.