To me the meaning of this song is pretty obvious. I think gha188 is right, I think it's about mankind and the Gulf Oil Spill or rather the destruction and pollution of nature done by mankind. Also this song has some religious undertone to it maybe making this topic sound more serious and intense.
"Old Mary, full of grease,"
'Old Mary' refers to Mother Nature. He's saying 'old' because the earth is very old. If it would've been about religion, he could've said e.g. 'holy'. 'Full of grease' refers clearly to the Gulf Oil Spill or more generally speaking of environmental pollution and global warming.
"Your heart stops within you,"
So Mother Nature is getting really sick and it won't take much longer until she is completely destroyed, she dies and 'her heart stops within her'.
"Scary are the fruits of your tomb,"
'The fruits of your tomb' clearly refer to her children, so speaking mankind, humanity. Humanity is scary because it destroyes the place it's living in, meaning 'mad' or 'dangerous'.
"and harsh are the terms of your sins,"
So Mother Nature has done something wrong, probably the genesis of mankind. If there weren't any humans, the world wouldn't be destructed. Therefore the penalty for this 'sin' is very 'harsh'.
"Old Mary, sister of mine, mother to the world,"
This is the one line I don't quite understand. He's probably saying that everyone belongs to the world, 'was born' by her, is related and dependent to her.
"carry this burden now until the moment of your last breath"
'Burden' refers either to the 'sin' she did with creating mankind (if she willingly and conciously did that haha) or the pollution ('grease'). The oil is still there on the bottom of the sea. The pollution is there and won't reduce and she will have to carry this problem until she collapses.
I really love this song. At first I thought this was just a prayer Jack was reciting 'cause I'm not a native-speaker. It definitely has a religious touch and I very like this.
To me the meaning of this song is pretty obvious. I think gha188 is right, I think it's about mankind and the Gulf Oil Spill or rather the destruction and pollution of nature done by mankind. Also this song has some religious undertone to it maybe making this topic sound more serious and intense.
"Old Mary, full of grease,"
'Old Mary' refers to Mother Nature. He's saying 'old' because the earth is very old. If it would've been about religion, he could've said e.g. 'holy'. 'Full of grease' refers clearly to the Gulf Oil Spill or more generally speaking of environmental pollution and global warming.
"Your heart stops within you,"
So Mother Nature is getting really sick and it won't take much longer until she is completely destroyed, she dies and 'her heart stops within her'.
"Scary are the fruits of your tomb,"
'The fruits of your tomb' clearly refer to her children, so speaking mankind, humanity. Humanity is scary because it destroyes the place it's living in, meaning 'mad' or 'dangerous'.
"and harsh are the terms of your sins,"
So Mother Nature has done something wrong, probably the genesis of mankind. If there weren't any humans, the world wouldn't be destructed. Therefore the penalty for this 'sin' is very 'harsh'.
"Old Mary, sister of mine, mother to the world," This is the one line I don't quite understand. He's probably saying that everyone belongs to the world, 'was born' by her, is related and dependent to her.
"carry this burden now until the moment of your last breath" 'Burden' refers either to the 'sin' she did with creating mankind (if she willingly and conciously did that haha) or the pollution ('grease'). The oil is still there on the bottom of the sea. The pollution is there and won't reduce and she will have to carry this problem until she collapses.
I really love this song. At first I thought this was just a prayer Jack was reciting 'cause I'm not a native-speaker. It definitely has a religious touch and I very like this.