First off, the lyrics as printed above are wrong in more than one place. Latchkey Kid got one. "Madness on the way" ...doesn't even rhyme. Try "madness on the wing". "oh lost and by the wind grieved coast"? Come on now, this isn't the first reference to Thomas Wolfe's (the original, not the contemporary Wolfe) work (see "Stranger than Fiction"). The line is "Oh lost, and by the wind grieved ghost, Please come back to me again", a direct quote from Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel". It's not "for science...", but "Poor science in the service of a faith". StarryStarrySkies hit the nail on the head with the sacred and profane concept developed by Durkheim, which was further expanded on in a book by Mircea Eliade, titled (surprisingly), "The Sacred and Profane".
All of that said, I have to agree with the first part of presidentwax's post. Abortion. Not the first time BR has covered this topic (see "Operation Rescue" and maaaybe, "Tiny Voices") and it seems to be a no brainer when you consider the agreed understanding of the term the "quickening" coupled with the question posed in the last line, "Who will bear the mark of Cain?" If you don't already know, part of God's punishment for murdering his brother was that Cain would be marked so that all would know he was a murderer. Not a stretch to imagine the song is about abortion when these things are considered together.
First off, the lyrics as printed above are wrong in more than one place. Latchkey Kid got one. "Madness on the way" ...doesn't even rhyme. Try "madness on the wing". "oh lost and by the wind grieved coast"? Come on now, this isn't the first reference to Thomas Wolfe's (the original, not the contemporary Wolfe) work (see "Stranger than Fiction"). The line is "Oh lost, and by the wind grieved ghost, Please come back to me again", a direct quote from Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel". It's not "for science...", but "Poor science in the service of a faith". StarryStarrySkies hit the nail on the head with the sacred and profane concept developed by Durkheim, which was further expanded on in a book by Mircea Eliade, titled (surprisingly), "The Sacred and Profane".
All of that said, I have to agree with the first part of presidentwax's post. Abortion. Not the first time BR has covered this topic (see "Operation Rescue" and maaaybe, "Tiny Voices") and it seems to be a no brainer when you consider the agreed understanding of the term the "quickening" coupled with the question posed in the last line, "Who will bear the mark of Cain?" If you don't already know, part of God's punishment for murdering his brother was that Cain would be marked so that all would know he was a murderer. Not a stretch to imagine the song is about abortion when these things are considered together.