Yes, the song is certainly filled with Biblical imagery. It also contains other symbols of spirituality like "sacred cow." I interpret this song as an account of end times, our times, in which spirituality, art, and religion are all gasping their last great breath before the end (or beginning) of this world. I also like the way this song shows the predestined nature of all life, that we are all in a vast story, and that it is happening right now: we are players on a players stage.
Sufjan is really into this kind of philosophy/world view, which is why he would have chosen to cover it. The way he mixes the sound of the music in the song, stylistically, with a kind of a folk rock mellowness and a grandiose orchestration also adds to the paradoxical meaning of the song.
Yes, the song is certainly filled with Biblical imagery. It also contains other symbols of spirituality like "sacred cow." I interpret this song as an account of end times, our times, in which spirituality, art, and religion are all gasping their last great breath before the end (or beginning) of this world. I also like the way this song shows the predestined nature of all life, that we are all in a vast story, and that it is happening right now: we are players on a players stage.
Sufjan is really into this kind of philosophy/world view, which is why he would have chosen to cover it. The way he mixes the sound of the music in the song, stylistically, with a kind of a folk rock mellowness and a grandiose orchestration also adds to the paradoxical meaning of the song.