This is a really interesting song - it's upbeat, and yet it addresses some pretty weighty issues. From what I gather, it seems to be about the singer's questions about faith and religion. The chorus is clearly a direct question to God as to where He is when the singer has been looking for Him for so long.
She expresses her dissatisfaction with organized religion, saying that even when she tried to use religion as a way to get to God, they tried to make her feel bad about herself ("they tried to nail me on Original Sin"). This is clearly an implication of Christianity, suggesting that those who seek answers may be turned off by the suggestion that they are inherently bad.
Still, this song has what I consider to be one of Antje's funniest lines:
"With all the sand that gets inside this world //
We should all be motherfucking pearls"
Here she refers laughingly to all the knocks and hard times that everyone faces as part of their life, and likens it to the process of an oyster making a pearl. Oysters produce pearls because an irritant (sand) enters into their shell and, over time, builds up layers which can (under the right conditions) become a pearl. Antje, then, suggests that there is so much bad stuff that happens in our world, that the world should be absolutely full of pearls. It's a wry take on the issue of there being Evil in the world, and whether there is too much evil for a reasonable person to believe in God.
@MatC What a wonderful comment by MatC. I would only add to it a story of something Antje told at a recent concert right before singing this song. She said something to the effect that she was raised by parents who were radical atheists. She said (jokingly, I gathered) that her parents were so militant about their atheism that they used to drive around looking for zoning violations and then complain so they could get churches to move their signs farther from the road. She said, in turn, though she now herself his an atheist, she is only a moderate...
@MatC What a wonderful comment by MatC. I would only add to it a story of something Antje told at a recent concert right before singing this song. She said something to the effect that she was raised by parents who were radical atheists. She said (jokingly, I gathered) that her parents were so militant about their atheism that they used to drive around looking for zoning violations and then complain so they could get churches to move their signs farther from the road. She said, in turn, though she now herself his an atheist, she is only a moderate atheist. Then she sang, Pearls. What a breathtaking song.
This is a really interesting song - it's upbeat, and yet it addresses some pretty weighty issues. From what I gather, it seems to be about the singer's questions about faith and religion. The chorus is clearly a direct question to God as to where He is when the singer has been looking for Him for so long.
She expresses her dissatisfaction with organized religion, saying that even when she tried to use religion as a way to get to God, they tried to make her feel bad about herself ("they tried to nail me on Original Sin"). This is clearly an implication of Christianity, suggesting that those who seek answers may be turned off by the suggestion that they are inherently bad.
Still, this song has what I consider to be one of Antje's funniest lines:
"With all the sand that gets inside this world // We should all be motherfucking pearls"
Here she refers laughingly to all the knocks and hard times that everyone faces as part of their life, and likens it to the process of an oyster making a pearl. Oysters produce pearls because an irritant (sand) enters into their shell and, over time, builds up layers which can (under the right conditions) become a pearl. Antje, then, suggests that there is so much bad stuff that happens in our world, that the world should be absolutely full of pearls. It's a wry take on the issue of there being Evil in the world, and whether there is too much evil for a reasonable person to believe in God.
What a great song for a freethinker!
@MatC What a wonderful comment by MatC. I would only add to it a story of something Antje told at a recent concert right before singing this song. She said something to the effect that she was raised by parents who were radical atheists. She said (jokingly, I gathered) that her parents were so militant about their atheism that they used to drive around looking for zoning violations and then complain so they could get churches to move their signs farther from the road. She said, in turn, though she now herself his an atheist, she is only a moderate...
@MatC What a wonderful comment by MatC. I would only add to it a story of something Antje told at a recent concert right before singing this song. She said something to the effect that she was raised by parents who were radical atheists. She said (jokingly, I gathered) that her parents were so militant about their atheism that they used to drive around looking for zoning violations and then complain so they could get churches to move their signs farther from the road. She said, in turn, though she now herself his an atheist, she is only a moderate atheist. Then she sang, Pearls. What a breathtaking song.