Post subject: The best...song about religious faith
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:40 pm
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Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
Sometimes vs. Faithfull vs. Marker In The Sand
Sometimes Large fingers pushing paint You're god and you've got big hands The colors blend... the challenges you give man
Seek my part... devote myself My small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf Sometimes I know, sometimes I rise Sometimes I fall, sometimes I don't Sometimes I cringe, sometimes I live Sometimes I walk, sometimes I kneel Sometimes I speak of nothing at all Sometimes I reach to myself, dear god
Faithfull
Plaque on the wall says that no one's slept here It's rare to come upon a bridge that has not been around Or been stepped on Whatever the notion, we laced in our prayers The man upstairs is used to all of this noise I'm through with screaming
And echoes nobody hears, it goes, it goes, it goes Like echoes nobody hears, it goes, it goes, it goes like this We're faithful, we all believe, we all believe it We're faithful, we all believe, we all believe it We're faithful, we all believe, we all believe it We're faithful, we all believe, we all believe it
And echoes nobody hears, it goes, it goes, it goes And echoes nobody hears, it goes, it goes, it goes We're faithful, we all believe, we all believe it We're faithful, we all believe, we all believe it Were' faithful, we all believe, we all believe it So faithful, we all believe, we all believe it
M.Y.T.H. is Belief in the game controls that keeps us in a box of fear We never listen Voice inside so drowned out Drowned you are, you are, you are a furry thing And everything is you Me you, you me, it's all related What's a boy to do? Just be darling and I will be too Faithful to you
Marker In The Sand
There is a marker, no one sees it cause the sand Has covered over all the messages it kept Misunderstanding what original truth was And out expanding in a faith, but not in love
What went wrong? Walking tightrope high over moral ground Seeing visions of falling up somehow Do come down With the living, let what is living love So unforgiving, yet needing forgiveness first
God, what do you say?
Those undecided needn't have faith to be free And those misguided there was a plan for them to be Now you got both sides claiming killing in Gods name But God is nowhere to be found, conveniently
What goes on? Walking tightrope high over moral ground Walk the bridges before you burn them down Do come round With a living, let what is living love So unforgiving, yet needing forgiveness first
God, what do you say? What do you say?
I feel a sickness a sickness coming over me Like watching freedom being sucked straight out to sea And the solution, well, from me far would let it be But the delusion is feeling dangerous to me
What goes wrong? Walking tightrope high over moral ground Seeing visions of falling up somehow Do come down With the living, let what is living love So unforgiving, yet needing forgiveness first
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
3 strong options here, each doing something a bit different, which makes this interesting.
Sometimes was the band’s first real stab at addressing religious faith, and the music is appropriate for this kind of quiet confessional. It is hushed, gentle, and soothing while still being just discordant enough to be appropriate for someone who doesn’t yet have all the answer.
Lyrically it is good, but a bit generic. Eddie isn’t really covering any new ground here, even though this is his first time explicitly addressing this subject matter. The world is challenging, and we can’t expect to always come out on top. Nor can we look to God to make things better (this fits in nicely with the general theme of Ten—there is no one we can really count on to always be there beyond ourselves). In the end the best we can hope for is to fight for the sake of fighting, because it is by doing so that we can define who we are. This is actually a bit more insular and inward looking than most of the later catalogue, where the message is usually one of solidarity instead of self-reliance.
I have a slightly darker interpretation of faithful than some others on the board (frank—I’m looking in your direction here), a rejection of faith in god that gets replaced with a faith in love. The fantastic opening verse (one of the best he’s ever written and easily the highlight of the song for me) has him questioning the efficacy of prayer. Is god even listening? If he is, do we have any reason to ever expect an answer? In faithful he’s tired of waiting for an answer that he no longer expects to come. He still recognizes that we need to believe in something, however. We’ve got to have faith in something larger than ourselves, and rather than look to God, he looks to love, which manages to be both immediate and transcendent at the same time. We find it in the people that matter to us, and it still takes us beyond ourselves. Unfortunately after the first verse I don’t think the lyrics are equal to the sentiment.
Musically it has a great riff, and it has the quieter/questioning, louder/defiant verse chorus structure that works with the mood of the song, but in the end I feel that the music and lyrics don’t fully match up with each other, especially compared to the other two in the song.
Marker has some of Eddie’s finest writing in a long time, and actually covers some pretty interesting new ground. The song is an attempt to save religions from their allegedly closest followers, reminding fundamentalists that any understanding of religion (or at least of the three major western ones) has to begin with three things: love for each other, a recognition of the failings and imperfections of our species, and a willingness to forgive ourselves and others for them. We’ve lost sight of that, and faith has instead become aggressive and utterly devoid of compassion and tolerance. MITS is written from the perspective of someone like MLK, and is meant to be a reminder that there is more to god and faith than Jerry Falwell and people blowing themselves up in the middle east. But that isn’t enough. There is a challenge here to God, demanding that he take responsibility for what has been said and done in his name (and a nice contrast to the modesty that informs the rest of the song) And if God doesn’t do it we’ll just have to do it ourselves which begs the interesting question, where does that leave God?
With the exception of the bridge (which I still don’t care much for) the music does a great job matching the sentiment of the lyrics. There is an aggressive choppiness to the verses that mirror the state of our world, and a contemplative, almost transcendent, sense of hope and promise in the chorus.
Marker takes this one for me. It’s not even close.
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
I voted MITS. Faithfull is excellent and a close second but I had to go with Marker...mainly because of these lines:
Marker In The Sand
Those undecided needn't have faith to be free
And those misguided there was a plan for them to be
Now you got both sides claiming killing in Gods name
But God is nowhere to be found, conveniently
What goes on?
Walking tightrope high over moral ground
Walk the bridges before you burn them down
Do come round
With a living, let what is living love
So unforgiving, yet needing forgiveness first
God, what do you say? What do you say?
I feel a sickness a sickness coming over me
Like watching freedom being sucked straight out to sea
And the solution, well, from me far would let it be
But the delusion is feeling dangerous to me
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:47 am Posts: 27904 Location: Philadelphia Gender: Male
This is an extremely tough vote for me because I consider all of the songs 5-star worthy. I'm gonna have to take the "I can't decide option." I'd feel like a despot if I voted against any of these songs.
_________________ It's always the fallen ones who think they're always gonna save me.
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:26 pm Posts: 736 Location: Sussex by the sea
I went for Faithfull.
I think it reflects my ideas on religion the most and I like the end of the song moving towards the faith you can have for some one you love. The middle bit gets a bit on my nerves though, being a bit repetitive.
MITS just has too many words though although I prefer the music more in this one. Sometimes is probably my favorite song among these three but I cant see how it fits into this category compared to the others.
_________________ I Am Free - I Am Trapped My LastFM
Reading '06, Katowice '07, Wembley '07, Copenhagen '07, London O2 '09, London '10, Arras '10
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 11:36 pm Posts: 25824 Location: south jersey
sometimes is one of pj's most unederrated songs. i love ed's delivery w. the music. i think its a great opener to a show. faithfull is another great one. i love the lyrics and how they combined the ideas of being in a relationship w/ ideas of spirituality and faith. i also love the calm verses w/ the heavier chorus.
but marker is my new favorite pearl jam song. just about everything about it is perfect. the only thing its really missing is a mike solo, but the bridge and ending make up for that.
i vote for marker
_________________ Feel the path of every day,... Which road you taking?,...
This is an extremely tough vote for me because I consider all of the songs 5-star worthy. I'm gonna have to take the "I can't decide option." I'd feel like a despot if I voted against any of these songs.
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2005 3:29 am Posts: 199 Location: US
Marker takes this one, no question and no contest.
For my reasons, see Stip's post, can't say anything better. Musically, lyrically, everything, it's light-years beyond the other two. I love Sometimes, but it's hard to pit a half-song like it up against these other two.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:34 am Posts: 12700 Location: ...a town in north Ontario...
Vedderleaguer wrote:
i really dont think its "you are, you are a furry thing". It's obviously "you are, you are evuuurything"
and i vote faithfull
I always thought that, but the furry thing actually makes sense... I mentioned it in the Faithful thread (I think). The furry thing refers to the fact that the person he loves is tangible and he knows he can believe in that because she's there, as opposed to God, who may or may not be. It kind of fits in with Stip's interpretation.
Anyway... I picked Faithful BARELY over MITS because I don't like not deciding.
_________________ I think we relinquished enough... and it's still dark enough... and it goes on and on and on...
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