So many religious references here. The whole song sounds like a cult chant or mantra, and there are many obvious references to those things:
"Burn down all your idols/Destroy your idols" - the very first line is obviously religious, suggesting some kind of chaos or even an apocalyptic scenario. Also sang in a chanting manner, with Shirley twice repeating "your idols".
"It's helter skelter/It's not a dream" - the term "helter skelter" means "disorderly haste or confusion"; it's also a rough song by the Beatles, believed by Charles Manson (another cult reference) to have predicted an apocalyptic war between racist whites and non-whites.
"Come down from the altar/Remove your blindfold/What do you see?" - maybe telling the blind followers of organized religion to open their minds and eyes to the actions of the church, and how they're contradictory to the Bible and the morals they teach.
"Hare hare krishna/Was that your sister/A cover girl//A wasted primadonna/She lost her way here/She disappeared" - the Hare Krishna mantra, supposed to open the mind and achieve a higher conciousness; I like how she repeats "hare", like she's chanting. Also, the "wasted primadonna" part could be a Charles Manson reference (echoing the "helter skelter" lyric in the beginning), seeing as his cult murdered an actress. The Hare Krishna mantra was confused with the hippie culture of the '60s, the time the Manson cult was active, so the cult references seem to loosely tie together here. You also have to notice Shirley and Charles share the surname "Manson". Hmmm...
"Come back to your altar/Build a fire" - burn the church?
"Kill the new religion.../A televised confession.../It's all new lies", "Miscommunication/Misinformation/A perfect waste"- now the word "religion" is blatantly used, and not in a nice way. The "televised confession" makes me think televangelists, and how they use their influence and power to get money. They keep twisting the words of the Bible to their own advantage - "all new lies". The "Miscommunication" lyrics seem to repeat this thought.
"Bite the sacred apple/And suck the poison/Enjoy the taste" - In the bible, Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and were doomed to death. This seems to be from an atheist's point of view, telling someone to live their life and enjoy it instead of depriving themselves for the sake of a higher being, which the atheist believes does not exist. But she sings it sort of mockingly, which makes me think it's kind of a backwards attack, telling the religious person(s) to just screw off.
And then we have the chorus: "You're going down, down, down/How low can you go?" - I think that's self explanatory after all this.
Maybe I'm way off, but just the way it's sang with such venom suggests something awful has happened or is imminent. I think the last verse is a good summary of the idea of the song: "Bite the sacred apple/And suck the poison/Enjoy the taste". I love this song.
So many religious references here. The whole song sounds like a cult chant or mantra, and there are many obvious references to those things:
"Burn down all your idols/Destroy your idols" - the very first line is obviously religious, suggesting some kind of chaos or even an apocalyptic scenario. Also sang in a chanting manner, with Shirley twice repeating "your idols".
"It's helter skelter/It's not a dream" - the term "helter skelter" means "disorderly haste or confusion"; it's also a rough song by the Beatles, believed by Charles Manson (another cult reference) to have predicted an apocalyptic war between racist whites and non-whites.
"Come down from the altar/Remove your blindfold/What do you see?" - maybe telling the blind followers of organized religion to open their minds and eyes to the actions of the church, and how they're contradictory to the Bible and the morals they teach.
"Hare hare krishna/Was that your sister/A cover girl//A wasted primadonna/She lost her way here/She disappeared" - the Hare Krishna mantra, supposed to open the mind and achieve a higher conciousness; I like how she repeats "hare", like she's chanting. Also, the "wasted primadonna" part could be a Charles Manson reference (echoing the "helter skelter" lyric in the beginning), seeing as his cult murdered an actress. The Hare Krishna mantra was confused with the hippie culture of the '60s, the time the Manson cult was active, so the cult references seem to loosely tie together here. You also have to notice Shirley and Charles share the surname "Manson". Hmmm...
"Come back to your altar/Build a fire" - burn the church?
"Kill the new religion.../A televised confession.../It's all new lies", "Miscommunication/Misinformation/A perfect waste"- now the word "religion" is blatantly used, and not in a nice way. The "televised confession" makes me think televangelists, and how they use their influence and power to get money. They keep twisting the words of the Bible to their own advantage - "all new lies". The "Miscommunication" lyrics seem to repeat this thought.
"Bite the sacred apple/And suck the poison/Enjoy the taste" - In the bible, Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and were doomed to death. This seems to be from an atheist's point of view, telling someone to live their life and enjoy it instead of depriving themselves for the sake of a higher being, which the atheist believes does not exist. But she sings it sort of mockingly, which makes me think it's kind of a backwards attack, telling the religious person(s) to just screw off.
And then we have the chorus: "You're going down, down, down/How low can you go?" - I think that's self explanatory after all this.
Maybe I'm way off, but just the way it's sang with such venom suggests something awful has happened or is imminent. I think the last verse is a good summary of the idea of the song: "Bite the sacred apple/And suck the poison/Enjoy the taste". I love this song.