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Unto Caesar Lyrics
Accident or intention
It's already history
Random or intelligent
The mute march in to victory
Innocent or innocent enough to say
I did what I did
I did what I did only
Render unto Caesar
Scrawled and all illegible
You kept yourself hidden well
Sprawling and inflexible
The world asked you for nothing else
So and forward
Lifelong in a gentle breeze
Moral as a leaf
To fall and to decease, you
Render unto Caesar
(when should we bust into harmony)
Where the grayscale conjurers (flip it)
Where the lifelike perjurers (ride it)
Where the vested spectators (watch it)
Where the weapon chancellor (gun it)
Where the twilight mandolin (play it)
Where the high custodian (mop it)
Where the panic violins (panic)
Where the crabby handmaiden is (scrub it)
Down the line
Down the mercenary barbary
Down the line
Dead the martyrs' morbid poetry
(What are we singing?)
(uh, that doesn't make any sense what you just said; hey can you-)
Down the rampart
the vandals given to defeat
And down the landscape
The linemen plastered for a, for a, for a week
Render unto Caesar
Render unto Caesar
It's already history
Random or intelligent
The mute march in to victory
I did what I did
I did what I did only
Render unto Caesar
You kept yourself hidden well
Sprawling and inflexible
The world asked you for nothing else
Lifelong in a gentle breeze
Moral as a leaf
To fall and to decease, you
Render unto Caesar
Where the grayscale conjurers (flip it)
Where the lifelike perjurers (ride it)
Where the vested spectators (watch it)
Where the weapon chancellor (gun it)
Where the twilight mandolin (play it)
Where the high custodian (mop it)
Where the panic violins (panic)
Where the crabby handmaiden is (scrub it)
Down the mercenary barbary
Down the line
Dead the martyrs' morbid poetry
(What are we singing?)
(uh, that doesn't make any sense what you just said; hey can you-)
Down the rampart
the vandals given to defeat
And down the landscape
The linemen plastered for a, for a, for a week
Render unto Caesar
Render unto Caesar
Song Info
Submitted by
j0nnynoname On Jul 10, 2012
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Alright, I took a crack at this one. I love this song.
I think the song is trying to say that we all keep our heads down ("you kept yourself hidden well…the world asked you for nothing else") and often choose to be "moral as a leaf" ("Innocent or innocent enough to say I did what I did, I did what I did only") when really no one is innocent of the deeds of their society because "accident or intention, it's already history", in other words it doesn't matter if you want your country to go to war with whoever, you are part of the cause.
Life is easy when you just go along doing what you are supposed to ("when the high custodians mop it"), but all that you get from it is the right to "fall and to decease". We think that everyone acting in their proper place will lead "the vandals" to give in too defeat, and "the mute [to] march into victory", but ultimately we can't keep their force at bay, as the romans did not.
To render unto Caesar is to serve the society that nurtures you. The song points out how common people feed the institutions that govern them and how that indirectly implicates them in the institutional crimes, and how simply walk "down the line" and render unto caesar (aka doing what you are assigned to) will lead to the downfall of our society, as it claims the romans did.
I think it's "render unto Caesar", not "when done onto Caesar"
I think the poster got it right. Think about the line, "I did what I did only..." before the chorus. It makes more sense to be "When done unto Caesar".
I think the poster got it right. Think about the line, "I did what I did only..." before the chorus. It makes more sense to be "When done unto Caesar".
@semoss50 I also thought it was render. I thought it was a reference to the line in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle "Render therefore unto Caesar"
@semoss50 I also thought it was render. I thought it was a reference to the line in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle "Render therefore unto Caesar"
@semoss50
@semoss50
' The words were a paraphrase of the suggestion by Jesus: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's." Bokonon's paraphrase was this: "Pay no attention to Caesar. Caesar doesn't have the slightest idea what's really going on." '
' The words were a paraphrase of the suggestion by Jesus: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's." Bokonon's paraphrase was this: "Pay no attention to Caesar. Caesar doesn't have the slightest idea what's really going on." '
Incredible song.
So uh, when should we bust into harmony??