If the mother goes to sleep with you
Will you run and tell Geraldo
If the mother bears your children without tears
Without the usual costs of labor
If the mother goes to bed with you
Will you run and tell the neighbors
Will you hide behind that get up that you wear
Or will you take the first ear that comes into contact with you blade
Like peter did on the hill
Will you call her a freak?
Will you call them freaks?
If the mother goes to bed with you
Will you run and tell the papers
How she picked you from a line up in downtown Philadelphia
With a cigarette hangin' out of your mouth and Henry Miller in your
Back pocket
You little fucker
If the mother goes to bed with you
In the bowels of the cathedral
Will you render her asunder with what she really needs
Or will you crash that beautiful silence with some talk about
Finding yourself in your mother's arms
Will you call her a freak
Will you call them freaks
Or will you call the gods
Will you call them freaks
You know your sperm is weak
You never looked, so high
To ever find him, so low
You did not have to go, that far
Now you know they're gonna come for you
And drag your silly name into the mud
If the mother bears your children without tears
And the usual cost of labor (labor, labor, labor)
Will you call her a freak
Will you call them freaks
Or will you call the gods
Will you call them freaks
You know your sperm is weak
You never looked, so high
To ever find him, so low
You did not have to go, that far
To show you were, show you were a man
To show you were her man, baby, baby, ah, ooh
Will you run and tell Geraldo
If the mother bears your children without tears
Without the usual costs of labor
If the mother goes to bed with you
Will you run and tell the neighbors
Will you hide behind that get up that you wear
Or will you take the first ear that comes into contact with you blade
Like peter did on the hill
Will you call her a freak?
Will you call them freaks?
If the mother goes to bed with you
Will you run and tell the papers
How she picked you from a line up in downtown Philadelphia
With a cigarette hangin' out of your mouth and Henry Miller in your
Back pocket
You little fucker
If the mother goes to bed with you
In the bowels of the cathedral
Will you render her asunder with what she really needs
Or will you crash that beautiful silence with some talk about
Finding yourself in your mother's arms
Will you call her a freak
Will you call them freaks
Or will you call the gods
Will you call them freaks
You know your sperm is weak
You never looked, so high
To ever find him, so low
You did not have to go, that far
Now you know they're gonna come for you
And drag your silly name into the mud
If the mother bears your children without tears
And the usual cost of labor (labor, labor, labor)
Will you call her a freak
Will you call them freaks
Or will you call the gods
Will you call them freaks
You know your sperm is weak
You never looked, so high
To ever find him, so low
You did not have to go, that far
To show you were, show you were a man
To show you were her man, baby, baby, ah, ooh
Lyrics submitted by Caverna[RR]
"Freaks" as written by Chad David Taylor Chad Alan Gracey
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song was on Secret Samahdi, so it was before Ed went all bornagain. It seems like its about trust in relationships in the face of sex. Either the other person can stand by his woman ("Will you render her asunder with what she really needs"), or he can ruin her ("Will you call her a freak?"). What its saying is, hey, if I'm gonna get into this with you, are you going to strike out at the first sign of trouble ("Like Peter on the hill at dawn")? It really gets gritty too, all those selfish fears you feel as a man letting yourself get into a relationship ("You know your sperm is weak","You know they're gonna come for you and drag your silly name into the mud"), and also all the nasty stuff you can throw back - ("How she picked you out of a lineup", "Will you run and tell the papers?").
Sometimes I also think there's a birth of Jesus angle to it. Like, if Jesus were born today, out of supposed immaculate conception ("Without the usual cost of labor"), would you call him a God or a freak?
I really LIKE what Kowalczyk says about lyric meanings -- that he won't discuss it as he thinks people should be able to make of it what they will so that's what everyone here is doing --- making it mean what they want it to mean. I like that he doesn't just assign a meaning and then we're all stuck with it. Our own brains will assign a meaning that is perhaps, to us, far more interesting than anything he might have intended. Way to go Ed! Power to the people!
I really LIKE what Kowalczyk says about lyric meanings -- that he won't discuss it as he thinks people should be able to make of it what they will so that's what everyone here is doing --- making it mean what they want it to mean. I like that he doesn't just assign a meaning and then we're all stuck with it. Our own brains will assign a meaning that is perhaps, to us, far more interesting than anything he might have intended. Way to go Ed! Power to the people!
Kowalczyk's comments that these lyrics are purely from subconscious agree with that view, in my opinion.
"The mother", I think, is not the addressed person's mother. The text is not "your mother" after all. More likely "the mother" is a woman held in high regard (the Virgin Mary comes to mind), perhaps an older woman than the usual fling, who has expectations of a relationship.
If this is the case, then the very fact that she is interested in him, the "little fucker" as the addressed person no doubt sees himself, brings her down from her pedestal and makes him want to call her a freak in panic.
Although I feel like I'd probably need to mull over the lyrics for much longer before coming to any sort of concrete conclusion, I definitely get a strong sense of religious allegory here. References to the Virgin Mary, miraculous births, cathedrals, holiness, etc etc.
It's possible that this is a song about the Madonna/Whore complex that seems to afflict so many men in modern society. It seems to say, what if that virgin you put on a pedestal and pursued/worshiped for her virtue and unattainability finally gave into you? Would you shun her, deem her a whore, publicly shame her, so forth? Or would you accept her as a human, mortal woman, on equal ground with yourself?
I don't think it's a coincidence that such a freaky ass song also includes a bunch of religious allusions - it's about the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, or rather, about the blurring of that boundary.
... okay, I just read the lyrics again, and now they seem like an ode directed to Joseph about his wife. LOL.
Whatever this song is about, I appreciate that Ed left it up to mystery.