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 your blade
Like Peter did on the hill at dawn?
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 lineup 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
Will you call them gods
Will you call them freaks
You know your sperm is weak
You never looked, so high
To ever find her so low
You did not have to go, that far
To show her you were holy
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 without the usual cost of labor
Labor, labor, labor
Will you run and tell Geraldo
If the mother bears your children without tears
Without the usual costs of labor
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 your blade
Like Peter did on the hill at dawn?
Will you call them freaks?
Will you run and tell the papers
How she picked you from a lineup in downtown Philadelphia
With a cigarette hangin' out of your mouth
And Henry Miller in your back pocket
You little fucker
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 them freaks
Will you call them gods
Will you call them freaks
You know your sperm is weak
To ever find her so low
You did not have to go, that far
To show her you were holy
And drag your silly name into the mud
If the mother bears your children without tears
And without the usual cost of labor
Labor, labor, labor
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I gotta say, this song is Live at its best: spiritual without being preachy; doesn't take itself too seriously but still gets a point across.
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?
@ballzofsno it's 2020 and this is a very interesting point of view. Thank you.
@ballzofsno it's 2020 and this is a very interesting point of view. Thank you.
This comment applies to all LIVE songs --- Ed Kowalczyk explained in an interview how he writes the lyrics. He starts with the music and then mumbles words - nonsensical at first and then works towards actual words that fit. Seems like it's a very "organic" process, like hurling paint at a canvas. So these songs are largely, it would seem, a product of his subconscious - like automatic writing. Some might be nonsense and some might hint at deeper meaning.
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!
Allow me to quote Ed Kowalczyk himself: "...the song "Freaks" from "Secret Samadhi," which was completely a song about random, abstract notions from the subconscious, not a message of any sort of weight." I think that settles the question of meaning nicely.
@Artemisian I think that sums up the majority of Live lyrics pretty well, actually. They're sung with a passion that belies the thought that they should mean something profound, and yet there's really not much there except what's in the eye of the beholder.
@Artemisian I think that sums up the majority of Live lyrics pretty well, actually. They're sung with a passion that belies the thought that they should mean something profound, and yet there's really not much there except what's in the eye of the beholder.
This comment applies to all LIVE songs --- Ed Kowalczyk explained in an interview how he writes the lyrics. He starts with the music and then mumbles words - nonsensical at first and then works towards actual words that fit. Seems like it's a very "organic" process, like hurling paint at a canvas. So these songs are largely, it would seem, a product of his subconscious - like automatic writing. Some might be nonsense and some might hint at deeper meaning.
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!
Thanks for the great analysis and response. Live songs, like “Freaks”make me want to dance, or at least play air guitar. The last thing I want to worry about is going to hell for unknowingly loving a band that I shouldn’t love.
Thanks for the great analysis and response. Live songs, like “Freaks”make me want to dance, or at least play air guitar. The last thing I want to worry about is going to hell for unknowingly loving a band that I shouldn’t love.
this song makes me feel weird. pretty disturbing lyrics...
this song makes me feel weird. pretty disturbing lyrics...
I think Ballzofsno is definitely on to something. This is about the fears and inhibitions that men can have when faced with a woman who loves them and a possibility of a relationship. 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.
Lots of good points here, especially from ballzofsno.
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.
I really really love the clip of this song. When a dude walks into a bar he first didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but later he discoveres everyoen is drinking white stuff (I think this is ment to represent sperm) This man doesnt want to drink that and orders coffee. Everyone else in the bar is finding him the weird one and they are ofering him the sperm all the time. He keeps refusing and gets mad and wants to leave. But they force him to the ground and make him drink the sperm, you can see his...
I really really love the clip of this song. When a dude walks into a bar he first didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but later he discoveres everyoen is drinking white stuff (I think this is ment to represent sperm) This man doesnt want to drink that and orders coffee. Everyone else in the bar is finding him the weird one and they are ofering him the sperm all the time. He keeps refusing and gets mad and wants to leave. But they force him to the ground and make him drink the sperm, you can see his face change into a blissfull expression meaning hes one of them now. I think its about how you as independend creative person are still forced to swallow what the mainstream/normal people do, even if its dirty and nasty.
@synthpulse I definitely agree that it's most likely about the Madonna/Whore complex. Especially since Ed often uses sacred and profane religious symbolism in his lyrics, music videos and album covers.
@synthpulse I definitely agree that it's most likely about the Madonna/Whore complex. Especially since Ed often uses sacred and profane religious symbolism in his lyrics, music videos and album covers.
i really like this song
Something evil in here; I love it.