Hozier “Take Me to Church” Official Lyrics & Meaning | Verified

- If it feels right, other
people will feel it, too.

And I think all I did with this,

when I was working on
that demo, it felt good.

(jaunty music)

I struggled to kind of
comment on why it has lasted

or why it's been such a
lasting piece of music.

There is a sort of an austerity

to the way that song was recorded.

I don't mean that in a bad way.

There's a rawness to it.

I recorded it with very, very
bare-bones rig in my attic.

But I think also, the
theme of it is universal.

You know, this idea that
powerful organizations

use people's sexuality

in order to mobilize people against women,

against gay people.

And the justification behind that

is often religious in nature.

(graphic whooshing)

"My lover's got humor.

She's the giggle at a funeral.

Knows everybody's disapproval.

I should have worshiped her sooner.

If the heavens ever did speak,

she's the last true mouthpiece.

Every Sunday's getting more bleak,

fresh poison each week."

I thought the lyrics were humorous.

Not that it by any means is a comedy song,

but it's like a lot of songs of mine

that when read with a kind of a dry voice,

there's humor in them.

A lot of my memories
of like going to church

at somber events

and having like an uncle
telling a joke in your ear,

you know what I mean, at a
time when you really shouldn't.

In a way that's not mean or cruel,

but in a way that's, like,
makes light of the situation,

makes light of a heavy situation.

There's some great freedom in
being able to laugh at that.

"We were born sick, you heard them say it.

My church offers no absolutes.

She tells me, 'Worship in the bedroom.'

The only heaven I'll be sent
to is when I'm alone with you.

I was born sick, but I love it.

Command me to be well."

She tells me, 'Worship in the bedroom.'

That being, yeah,
something tongue in cheek,

something a bit of humor to it.

Also revealing that
this is not necessarily

a traditional worship song.

I think I still see my name

put into playlists for Christian music,

and I'm not adverse to that.

I don't think that two are
necessarily mutually exclusive.

That line I would've thought
would've disqualified it

from something like that.

(graphic whooshing)

"Amen. Amen. Amen."

Putting in the Amens,

it's like a statement of intent
or it's establishing now,

"This is a spiritual act."

This song has, you know,

it has been misinterpreted many times.

And it's similar to, I think,

of "Born in the U.S.A."
by Bruce Springsteen.

You know, it's another classic example

of people thinking it,
celebrating one thing,

and rather than it actually
critiquing or satirizing

or sort of subverting some idea.

(graphic whooshing)

"Take me to church.

I'll worship like a dog at
the shrine of your lies.

I'll tell you my sins and
you can sharpen your knife."

I have to say, yeah, the
magnificence of cathedrals.

But you wonder, "Okay, who paid for that?"

And it's everybody, it's
everybody who lived in its shadow.

And look, there's
somewhat misunderstanding

as well about where I come from.

Like, I've come from a Catholic family.

But the idea of confession

in that there's one person in a community

who hears everybody's secrets

is such an outrageous power imbalance.

"Offer me that deathless death.

Good God, let me give you my life."

Offer me that deathless death

could be the church
offering everlasting life,

a death without a death.

But then it also nods to the
idea of the French expression

or the little death.

French call it la petite
mort, which is like...

Basically, it's an orgasm.

(graphic whooshing)

"If I'm a pagan of the good times,

my lover is the sunlight.

To keep the goddess on my side,

she demands a sacrifice.

Drain the whole sea, get something shiny,

something meaty for the main course.

That's a fine looking high horse."

Drain the whole sea, get something shiny.

If there is a controversial line in song,

I think it's that one.

The Vatican City refers to itself

as the Holy See, -H-O-L-Y-S-E-E.

It was kind of playing with
this idea of taking back,

taking back that wealth
that was essentially created

by people who showed up to
church every week and donated,

you know, bronze, silver, and gold.

So playing with sea and see,

and just going in there and
getting something shiny.

I have memories as a teenager
visiting the Vatican City.

And I mean, the ceilings
are paved with gold.

"What you got in the stable?

We have a lot of starving faithful.

That looks tasty, that looks plenty.

This is hungry work."

From what kind of moral authority

does this organization
have given its legacy,

given its legacy of abuse?

On what grounds does it imagine itself

to be able to speak on anything

from any sort of moral standpoint.

And so to take that
supposed moral high horse,

and then it yeah, imagines
with this idea of butchering it

and using it to feed people.

(graphic whooshing)

"No masters or kings
when the ritual begins,

there is no sweeter innocence
than our gentle sin.

In the madness and soil
of that sad earthly scene,

only then I am human,

only then I am clean.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen."

It's tough being a human, you know,

and find finding another person

and sharing your own humanity,

that is when you feel at most yourself.

It's when you feel at most
connected to someone else.

And so that line, only then I am human.

That's when I'm at my most ordered,

that's when I'm at my most in step

with what it is to be
a being on this earth.

(upbeat music)

Recently, to see one of
the Iranian protestors,

Sarina Esmailzadeh,

singing that song and sort of went viral

in the aftermath of her
being beaten to death

by forces of the Iranian state.

With women who wanted the right,

who were trying to seek the right

to just show their hair in public.

In an example like that, with
a teenage girl like Sarina,

you have somebody who has far more courage

and far more bravery than
I will ever have to contend

with somebody who paid an ultimate price.

I come up very short
against courage like that.