4 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Mission (A World Record) Lyrics
For many days we traveled from a distant place and time,
To reach a place they call the planet Earth,
There was to be a celebration,
On the mission of the sacred heart
The planet Earth from way up there is beautiful and blue
And floating softly through a rainbow,
But when you touch down things look different here,
At the mission of the sacred heart
Watching all the days roll by
Who are you and who am I?
How's life on Earth?
(Living on the Earth, Living on the Earth, Living on the Earth, Living on the Earth)
On a dirty worn-out sidewalk, sits a mother with a baby,
In her vale of tears she sees no rainbow
And someone's singing from a window
In the mission of the sacred heart
Watching all the days roll by
Who are you and who am I?
How's life on Earth?
(Living on the Earth, Living on the Earth, Living on the Earth, Living on the Earth)
And when the stars above,
Lay hazy fingers down on me
(Living on the Earth, Living on the Earth, Living on the Earth, Living on the Earth)
There's a building on a corner, in a city, in a land,
On a place they call the planet Earth,
My orders are to sit here and watch the world go by,
From the mission of the sacred heart
Watching all the days roll by
Who are you and who am I?
How's life on Earth?
What is it worth?
To reach a place they call the planet Earth,
There was to be a celebration,
On the mission of the sacred heart
And floating softly through a rainbow,
But when you touch down things look different here,
At the mission of the sacred heart
Who are you and who am I?
How's life on Earth?
In her vale of tears she sees no rainbow
And someone's singing from a window
In the mission of the sacred heart
Who are you and who am I?
How's life on Earth?
Lay hazy fingers down on me
On a place they call the planet Earth,
My orders are to sit here and watch the world go by,
From the mission of the sacred heart
Who are you and who am I?
How's life on Earth?
What is it worth?
Song Info
Submitted by
songmeanings On Feb 06, 2012
More Electric Light Orchestra
Mr. Blue Sky
Telephone Line
Don't Bring Me Down
Livin' Thing
Can't Get It Out Of My Head
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
Advanced civilizations and most certainly, God, stare down on us sentient, unenlightened beings, and make the conscious decision not to interfere in our troubled lives. They have the ability to intervene, but, keep with the original mission of creation, and study us from a distance, all-the-while they are in-awe of the beauty and complexity of what it is to be human. One street-level person is in peril, while another is singing from his/her lofty position in society. The disparity of life on Earth is tragic, yet beautiful; thus our lives are worth analyzing and reflecting-upon, and seen by God and advanced societies as a very 'sacred' thing.
In 2011 Randy Blazak wrote the novel 'The Mission of the Sacred Heart: A Rock Novel'. The Mission of the Sacred Heart is a novel that follows a group of young creatives, a homeless girl and a visitor, who may or may not be an alien, through life in Portland, Oregon. Their journey centers around the themes of love and suicide and the crucial question; Why stick around? Blazak began writing The Mission of The Sacred Heart when he was 13, in his bedroom in Stone Mountain, Georgia, while listening to an album by the Electric Light Orchestra called A New World Record. He believed it was a concept album about opera singers and aliens.
The song starts with someone calling: This is Yreffej Ennyl calling you from planet Earth. The name of this person is Jeff Lynne written backwards. Well, almost (Jeffery Lynne; his Christian name is 'Jeffrey').
I associate this song with Iain M Banks's 'State Of The Art', which is about aliens visiting our planet in the 1970s and decide not to intervene and reveal themselves to us but instead just to watch us as a kind of control group experiment to see what will happen if a species like us isn't contacted. It's not that far-fetched that it was a source of inspiration for this novella as the author does refer to rock quite a lot in his writing, such as 'Clear Air Turbulence' by the Ian Gillan Band.