I want your humanist rock anthems!
Daniel Clery
Daniel Clery wonders if you can help him find a few more humanist rock anthems.
Although I listen to a lot of music, I don’t usually listen to the lyrics of songs. But I couldn’t help my ears pricking up to some of the lines in this song by the rock group Keane, entitled Perfect Symmetry (video):
I shake through the wreckage for signs of life
Scrolling through the paragraphs
Clicking through the photographs
I wish I could make sense of what we do
Burning down the capitols
Wisest of the animals
Who are you, what are you living for?
Tooth for tooth, maybe we’ll go one more
This life, is lived in perfect symmetry
What I do, that will be done to me
OK. Someone confused about modern life. Can’t find answers in written texts. Eventually gets to the golden rule. So far, so good.
Who are you, what are you fighting for
Holy truth, brother I chose this mortal life
lived in perfect symmetry
…
And maybe you find, life is unkind
and over so soon
There is no golden gate
There’s no heaven waiting for you
…
spineless dreamers, hide in churches
Rejects holy writ and the idea of a life after this one. All good stuff.
I’ve no idea what was really going through the mind of Keane’s songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley, but it sounds to me like someone thinking about the meaning of life and coming down on the side of the Humanism.
That set me thinking: are there any more humanist anthems? Has anyone else spotted any humanist sentiments in the annals of rock? There must be some out there.
Daniel Clery is a science journalist based in Suffolk who likes listening to music while running.
Lots of Zappa:
Try: http://www.update.uu.se/~fbendz/lyrics/dumb_all.htm
I’ve always thought the lyrics to Jem’s “They” have a skeptical, if not humanist, slant.
A bit obvious: Lennon’s ‘Imagine’.
I’m a closet Rush fan, now ready to come out.
Much of their music has a humanistic theme; prime examples, 1982′s ‘Tom Sawyer’;
“Though his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
Always hopeful yet discontent
He knows changes aren’t permanent
But change is”
I think they’ve become more openly atheistic over the last number of years, probably due to the rise of the religious right in America. Their last album (Snakes and Arrows) has a couple of humanist/atheist anthems;
‘The way the wind blows’
“Now it’s come to this
It’s like we’re back in the Dark Ages
From the Middle East to the Middle West
It’s a world of superstition
Now it’s come to this
Wide-eyed armies of the faithful
From the Middle East to the Middle West
Pray, and pass the ammunition”
and ‘Faithless’
“I’ve got my own moral compass to steer by.
A guiding star beats a spirit in the sky
and all the preaching voices–
empty vessels ring so loud
as they move among the crowd.
Fools and thieves are well disguised
in the temple and marketplace.
Like a stone in the river
against the floods of spring
I will quietly resist.
Like the willows in the wind
or the cliffs along the ocean
I will quietly resist.
I don’t have faith in faith.
I don’t beleive in belief.
You can call me faithless
but I still cling to hope.
And I believe in love
and that’s faith enough for me.
I’ve got my own spirit level for balance
to tell if my choice is leading up or down.
And all the shouting voices
try to throw me off course.
Some by sermons, some by force.
Fools and thieves are dangerous
in the temple and marketplace.”
What about “Shallow Be Thy Game” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers?
Hard to argue what their beliefs are following these lyrics:
“I was not created
In the likeness of a fraud
Your hell is something scary
I prefer a loving god
We are not the center
Of this funny universe
And what is something worse
I do not serve
In fear of such a curse
…
To anyone who’s listenin’
You’re not born into sin
The guilt they try and give you
Puke it in the nearest bin
…
To think that you’re above
The laws of nature is a joke
Purple sashes feeding masses
Smoke on which to choke”
I would also agree with the suggestion of Rush as a humanist band.
NIN and A Perfect Circle have plenty of violently atheistic songs but it would probably take a stretch to call them humanist!
Yes, much easier to think of Nihilistic anthems, and hey I love that sort of thing… but how does Ozzy Osbourne, I Just Want You, fit the brief?
There are no unbeatable odds
There are no believable gods
There are no unnameable names
Shall I say it again
XTC’s ‘Dear God’ is a good ‘un.
And Randy Newman’s ‘God’s Song’ is amusing, like most things he does.
Elton John’s “If there’s a God in Heaven” from the Blue Moves album:
Torn from their families
Mothers go hungry
To feed their children
But children go hungry
There’s so many big men
They’re out making millions
When poverty’s profits
Just blame the children
If there’s a God in heaven
What’s he waiting for
If He can’t hear the children
Then he must see the war
But it seems to me
That he leads his lambs
To the slaughter house
And not the promised land
Dying for causes
They don’t understand
We’ve been taking their futures
Right out of their hands
They need the handouts
To hold back the tears
There’s so many crying
But so few that hear
If there’s a God in heaven
Well, what’s he waiting for
If there’s a God in heaven
What’s he waiting for
Franz Ferdinand – Bite Hard
Fantastic rock song for an atheist
Or a bit of Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy)
Priests and fools say
We are but animate clay
Rude vessels
Housing immortal souls
But the dead only quickly decay
They don’t go about being born and reborn
And rising and falling like soufflé
The dead only quickly decay
It would be swell
To see some folk burn in hell
But when they go
It’s just pleasant to know
That the dead only quickly decay
Actually there are quite a lot of Divine Comedy songs questioning the hypocrisy of religion.
How about The Levellers One Way on Levelling the land
not quite a rock anthem, but Rod Clements (ex Lindisfarne) existentially yours on Odd Man Out is worth a listen.
The Thermals – ‘The Body, the Blood, the Machine’ is all about religion. It features lyrics such as this:
“God reached his hand down from the sky
He flooded the land then he set it on fire
He said, “Fear me again, know I’m your father
Remember that no one can breathe underwater”
So bend your knees and bow your heads
Save your babies, here’s your future
Yeah, here’s your future
God reached his hand down from the sky
God asked Noah if he wanted to die
He said “No sir, oh, no, sir”
God said “Here’s your future, it’s gonna rain”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPsdjlPVaJU
Check out the band “Bad Religion”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Religion
Yeah, a lot of NIN songs are “violently atheistic” (e.g. Heresy, God Given, Closer, The Hand That Feeds, ), but I’d say some have Humanistic overtones too.
The year zero album is a great example, where Reznor looks 15 years to the future and writes songs about what the world will be like if we continue on this path, from different people’s perspectives. Sometimes the songs sound negative, but they’re a warning about the dangers that lie ahead, Reznor is clearly concerned about the future of humanity.
e.g. Survivalism
“I should have listened to her,
so hard to keep control.
We kept on eating but our
bloated bellies still not full.
She gave us all she had but
we went and took some more.
Can’t seem to shut her legs our
mother nature is a whore. ”
Right Where It Belongs
“What if all the world’s inside of your head
Just creations of your own?
Your devils and your gods
All the living and the dead
And you’re really all alone?
You can live in this illusion
You can choose to believe
Keep on looking but you can’t find the woods
While you’re hiding in the trees
What if everything around you
Isn’t quite as it seems?
What if all the world you used to know
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection
Is it all you want to be?
What if you could look right through the cracks
Would you find yourself…
Find yourself afraid to see?”
All of the songs mentioned in brackets above should be checked out though – they are excellent pieces of music
Not a serious suggestion but how about the The Good Book by the Australian comic Tim Minchin …
Life is like an ocean voyage and our bodies are the ships
And without a moral compass we would all be cast adrift
So to keep us on our bearings, the Lord gave us a gift
And like most gifts you get, it was a book
I only read one book, but it’s a good book, don’t you know
I act the way I act because the Good Book tells me so
If I wanna known how to be good, it’s to the Good Book that I go
‘Cos the Good Book is a book and it is good and it’s a book
I know the Good Book’s good because the Good Book says it’s good
I know the Good Book knows it’s good because a really good book would
You wouldn’t cook without a cookbook and I think it’s understood
You can’t be good without a Good Book ‘cos it’s good and it’s a book
And it is good for cookin’
I tried to read some other books, but I soon gave up on that
The paragraphs ain’t numbered and they complicate the facts
I can’t read Harry Potter ‘cos they’re worshipping false gods and that
And Dumbledore’s a poofter and that’s bad, ‘cos it’s not good
Morality is written there in simple white and black
I feel sorry for you heathens, got to think about all that
Good is good and evil’s bad and goats are good and pigs are crap
You’ll find which one is which in the Good Book, ‘cos it’s good
And it’s a book, and it’s a book
etc. etc …
Tim Minchin is a great suggestion, although he doesn’t really do Rock Anthems. Storm is an absolute classic
I won’t write the whole thing since it’s 10 minutes long
But the ending is particularly fantastic :
“Does the idea that there might be truth
Frighten you?
Does the idea that one afternoon
On Wiki-fucking-pedia might enlighten you
Frighten you?
Does the notion that there may not be a supernatural
So blow your hippy noodle
That you would rather just stand in the fog
Of your inability to Google?
Isn’t this enough?
Just this world?
Just this beautiful, complex
Wonderfully unfathomable world?
How does it so fail to hold our attention
That we have to diminish it with the invention
Of cheap, man-made Myths and Monsters?
If you’re so into Shakespeare
Lend me your ear:
“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw perfume on the violet… is just fucking silly”
Or something like that.
Or what about Satchmo?!
I see trees of Green,
Red roses too,
And fine, if you wish to
Glorify Krishna and Vishnu
In a post-colonial, condescending
Bottled-up and labeled kind of way
That’s ok.
But here’s what gives me a hard-on:
I am a tiny, insignificant, ignorant lump of carbon.
I have one life, and it is short
And unimportant…
But thanks to recent scientific advances
I get to live twice as long as my great great great great uncles and auntses.
Twice as long to live this life of mine
Twice as long to love this wife of mine
Twice as many years of friends and wine
Of sharing curries and getting shitty
With good-looking hippies
With fairies on their spines
And butterflies on their titties.
And if perchance I have offended
Think but this and all is mended:
We’d as well be 10 minutes back in time,
For all the chance you’ll change your mind.”
How about this bit from Love Action (I Believe In Love) by The Human League? Not really rock, but still…
I believe, I believe what the old man said
Though I know that there’s no lord above
I believe in me, I believe in you
And you know I believe in love
I believe in truth though I lie a lot
I feel the pain from the push and shove
No matter what you put me through
I’ll still believe in love
The Flaming Lips – Do you Realise?
http://www.suffolkhands.org.uk/node/1096
Certainly XTC’s dear God – and there’s a particularly haunting version of that on a tribute CD “A Testimonial Dinner” sung by Sarah McLachlan.
And never leave out “Religion” by Public Image Ltd… Rather vitriolic…
“Stained glass windows keep the cold outside
While the hypocrites hide inside
With the lies of statues in their minds”
Love Tim Minchin. Also not rock but one of my fave songs is Monty Python’s Meaning of Life song. The one that starts:
” Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving
And revolving at 900 miles an hour”
The Last Resort from The Eagles is one of my favourites – last few lines
Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
‘Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here
We satisfy our endless needs and
justify our bloody deeds,
in the name of destiny and the name
of God
And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it’s like up there
They call it paradise
I don’t know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss earth goodbye
Strikes me that a fair proportion of these suggestions are more anti-god than pro-humanist.
Have any of you heard ‘Here comes Science’ by They Might Be Giants?
It’s a fantastic album aimed at children that teaches the basics of science and the scientific method:
Science is real
From the Big Bang to DNA
Science is real
From evolution to the Milky Way
I like the stories
About angels, unicorns and elves
Now I like those stories
As much as anybody else
But when I’m seeking knowledge
Either simple or abstract
The facts are with science
The facts are with science
Science is real
Science is real
Science is real
Science is real
From anatomy to geology
Science is real
From astrophysics to biology
A scientific theory
Isn’t just a hunch or guess
It’s more like a question
That’s been put through a lot of tests
And when a theory emerges
Consistent with the facts
The proof is with science
The truth is with science
Prog rock/metal band from the UK called Threshold recorded a song on their album Subsurface called, aptly, The Art Of Reason. Another prog metal band, Dream Theater, have done a song called In The Name Of God.
If you want (likely not, but some may enjoy it) something a bit heavier, the thrash band Artillery have a wonderfully brash and unapologetic song called Damned Religion… Does exactly what is says on the tin.
Superstition, Stevie Wonder..
‘if you believe in things you dont understand, you’ll suffer… superstition ain’t the way’
And The Sabbs, … my fave: Volume 4, Under the sun.
I don’t want no preacher telling me about a god in the sky
I don’t want no one to tell me where I’m going to go when I die….
etc
Top stuff
Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone. Musicians are obviously a godless bunch. Maybe someone should compile an atheist/humanist playlist?
Daniel
@Daniel – Would that be just a flat list in plain-text, or using one of those websites I think I’ve seen that can turn a play list into an audio-stream? I think we’ve got a way to go before we could organise a disco
No spiritual by Adrian Borland & The Citizens … My only faith, lies under the sky ….
I can think of a number, but seeing as you asked for ‘rock’ classics here’s three off the top of my head -
Pixes – Monkey’s gone to heaven (for the irony factor)
Billy Bragg – Waiting for the great leap forward
Bad Religion – Sorrow
ps.
The Pixies- Monkey Gone to Heaven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRRrTl2J2w8
Billy Bragg – Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7d6ZwAp28Y
Bad Religion- Sorrow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Hb4bxF12E
Other people recommended NIN & flaming lips which I think are also good suggestions, enjoy!
On a more folksy, Gothic theme, Voltaire is pretty damning about religion. Some samples below:
“God thinks you’re a waste of flesh,
God prefers an Atheist”
From “God Thinks…” by Voltaire (voltaire.net)
He also gets bonus points for rhyming Copernicus in the same song:
“God thinks the sun revolves around the Earth,
God thinks there was something very wrong with Copernicus”
From “They Know Me”:
“And each Sunday that passes he’s rid of his sins,
and he’s ready to do them all over again.
And God won’t be mad for the money he stole,
he put some in the offering bowl.”
It’s interesting how easy it is to find music expressing an Atheistic or anti-theistic sentiment, whereas specifically Humanistic sentiments seem to be rarer, even in all the wonderful suggestions that have been made here (and just try asking Trent Reznor or this contemporary “Voltaire” chap if they self-identify as Humanists). It’s always seemed to me that being “good without god” is a matter of personal choice, whereas the godlessness itself is making a far more fundamental statement about the apparent nature of the universe in which we find ourselves.
My favourite is Talking Heads’ “We’re on the road to nowhere” which I intend to have played at the end of my own funeral some day!
For me The Rolling Stones ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ seems to lean toward a humanist value: “……because after all, it’s just you and me…”
Another addition I just thought of was Rise Against, a metal band from the US. They’re fantastic, and their album titled “Appeal to Reason” is full of humanist sentiment. Their music videos highlight the humanist / environmentalist sentiment even more, with videos about animal cruelty, deforestation, e.t.c. (Ready to Fall – http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=XN2FrUUq-zI),
“Every action has a reaction – we’ve got one planet, one chance”.
Hero Of War is a beautiful song about why we shouldn’t sign up to fight in wars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DboMAghWcA
Prayer of the Refugee is about how badly industrialised countries (e.g. US) treat refugees, and how the refugees want to retain their dignity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=9-SQGOYOjxs
Re-education (through labour) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RYBDTnS7dg – video is interspersed with messages and statistics encouraging humanist thought.
Fantastic band
Lots more XTC than just Dear God – how about Season Cycle:
Season cycle moving round and round
Pushing life up from a cold dead ground
It’s growing green
It’s growing green, well
Darling don’t you ever stop to wonder
About the clouds about the hail and thunder
‘Bout the baby and its umbilical
Who’s pushing the pedals on the season cycle?
Summer chased by Autumn
Autumn chased by Winter
season cycle go from death to life
Winter chased by Springtime
bring a harvest or a man his wife
Springtime’s turning
it’s growing green
It’s growing green, well
Darling, don’t you ever sit and ponder
darling did you ever think
About the building of the hills a yonder
all this life stuff’s closely linked
Where we’re going in this verdant spiral
Who’s pushing the pedals on the season cycle?
Round and round and round and round
I really get confused on who would make all this
is there a God in Heaven
Everybody says join our religion get to Heaven
I say no thanks why bless my soul
I’m already there!
Autumn is Royal
As Spring is clown
But to repaint Summer
They’re closing Winter down
And another favourite of mine:
“The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul”
The man who sailed around his soul
From East to West, from pole to pole
With ego as his drunken captain
Greed, the mutineer, had trapped all reason in the hold
The man who walked across his heart
Who took no compass, guide or chart
To rope and tar his blood congealed
When he found his self revealed ugly and cold
And the sirens that sing
By your nose with its ring
They’ll drag you in
For your sins
Now he sits all alone
And it’s no place like home
It’s empty skin
A bag to keep life’s souvenirs in
The man who sailed around his soul
The man who sailed around his soul
The man who sailed around his soul
Came back again to find a hole
Where once he thought compassion and the truth
Had laid to warm his freezing carcass on return
The man who walked across his heart
Was doomed to journey from the start
Of every love affair he’d broken
All the lies he’d ever spoken
Tattooed on his arm
And the jellyfish stings
Even angels with wings
Who look too deep
And dare to peep
Now he sits all alone
Knowing flesh blood and bone
Is everything
He found the treasure he’d been seeking
The man who sailed around his soul
Maybe this fits the brief of something a little more uplifting?
From The Eels – Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues (last verse) – ironically they had to change “Goddamn” to “oggdamn” for the US single
Well i don’t know how you take in all the shit you see
No don’t believe anyone and most of all
Don’t believe me
Believe you
Goddamn right it’s a beautiful day
Goddamn right it’s a beautiful day
Simon Y,
They had to change “Goddamn”, but they were allowed to keep “shit”???
Sorry if this has been said already, I only skimmed.
Antipope- The Damned
‘Religion doesn’t mean a thing, it’s just another way of being right wing.’
Again though, more anti-religion than pro-humanist.
How about Queen’s “It’s a kind of magic”? Always puts gives an injection of ‘fab’ to my day – though bet the lyrics will get me into trouble.
Not sure that musicians are a god-less lot – they seem to be generally in the ‘thrawl of the rhythm” – ‘Rock Is My God! and all that…..
Has to be John Lennon’s Imagine for this Secular Humanist