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

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    - If it feels right, other
    people will feel it, too.
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    And I think all I did with this,
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    when I was working on
    that demo, it felt good.
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    (jaunty music)
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    I struggled to kind of
    comment on why it has lasted
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    or why it's been such a
    lasting piece of music.
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    There is a sort of an austerity
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    to the way that song was recorded.
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    I don't mean that in a bad way.
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    There's a rawness to it.
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    I recorded it with very, very
    bare-bones rig in my attic.
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    But I think also, the
    theme of it is universal.
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    You know, this idea that
    powerful organizations
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    use people's sexuality
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    in order to mobilize people against women,
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    against gay people.
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    And the justification behind that
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    is often religious in nature.
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    (graphic whooshing)
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    "My lover's got humor.
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    She's the giggle at a funeral.
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    Knows everybody's disapproval.
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    I should have worshiped her sooner.
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    If the heavens ever did speak,
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    she's the last true mouthpiece.
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    Every Sunday's getting more bleak,
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    fresh poison each week."
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    I thought the lyrics were humorous.
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    Not that it by any means is a comedy song,
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    but it's like a lot of songs of mine
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    that when read with a kind of a dry voice,
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    there's humor in them.
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    A lot of my memories
    of like going to church
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    at somber events
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    and having like an uncle
    telling a joke in your ear,
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    you know what I mean, at a
    time when you really shouldn't.
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    In a way that's not mean or cruel,
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    but in a way that's, like,
    makes light of the situation,
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    makes light of a heavy situation.
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    There's some great freedom in
    being able to laugh at that.
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    "We were born sick, you heard them say it.
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    My church offers no absolutes.
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    She tells me, 'Worship in the bedroom.'
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    The only heaven I'll be sent
    to is when I'm alone with you.
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    I was born sick, but I love it.
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    Command me to be well."
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    She tells me, 'Worship in the bedroom.'
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    That being, yeah,
    something tongue in cheek,
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    something a bit of humor to it.
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    Also revealing that
    this is not necessarily
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    a traditional worship song.
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    I think I still see my name
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    put into playlists for Christian music,
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    and I'm not adverse to that.
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    I don't think that two are
    necessarily mutually exclusive.
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    That line I would've thought
    would've disqualified it
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    from something like that.
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    (graphic whooshing)
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    "Amen. Amen. Amen."
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    Putting in the Amens,
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    it's like a statement of intent
    or it's establishing now,
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    "This is a spiritual act."
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    This song has, you know,
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    it has been misinterpreted many times.
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    And it's similar to, I think,
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    of "Born in the U.S.A."
    by Bruce Springsteen.
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    You know, it's another classic example
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    of people thinking it,
    celebrating one thing,
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    and rather than it actually
    critiquing or satirizing
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    or sort of subverting some idea.
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    (graphic whooshing)
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    "Take me to church.
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    I'll worship like a dog at
    the shrine of your lies.
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    I'll tell you my sins and
    you can sharpen your knife."
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    I have to say, yeah, the
    magnificence of cathedrals.
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    But you wonder, "Okay, who paid for that?"
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    And it's everybody, it's
    everybody who lived in its shadow.
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    And look, there's
    somewhat misunderstanding
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    as well about where I come from.
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    Like, I've come from a Catholic family.
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    But the idea of confession
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    in that there's one person in a community
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    who hears everybody's secrets
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    is such an outrageous power imbalance.
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    "Offer me that deathless death.
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    Good God, let me give you my life."
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    Offer me that deathless death
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    could be the church
    offering everlasting life,
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    a death without a death.
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    But then it also nods to the
    idea of the French expression
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    or the little death.
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    French call it la petite
    mort, which is like...
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    Basically, it's an orgasm.
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    (graphic whooshing)
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    "If I'm a pagan of the good times,
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    my lover is the sunlight.
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    To keep the goddess on my side,
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    she demands a sacrifice.
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    Drain the whole sea, get something shiny,
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    something meaty for the main course.
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    That's a fine looking high horse."
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    Drain the whole sea, get something shiny.
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    If there is a controversial line in song,
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    I think it's that one.
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    The Vatican City refers to itself
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    as the Holy See, -H-O-L-Y-S-E-E.
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    It was kind of playing with
    this idea of taking back,
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    taking back that wealth
    that was essentially created
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    by people who showed up to
    church every week and donated,
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    you know, bronze, silver, and gold.
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    So playing with sea and see,
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    and just going in there and
    getting something shiny.
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    I have memories as a teenager
    visiting the Vatican City.
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    And I mean, the ceilings
    are paved with gold.
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    "What you got in the stable?
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    We have a lot of starving faithful.
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    That looks tasty, that looks plenty.
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    This is hungry work."
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    From what kind of moral authority
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    does this organization
    have given its legacy,
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    given its legacy of abuse?
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    On what grounds does it imagine itself
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    to be able to speak on anything
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    from any sort of moral standpoint.
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    And so to take that
    supposed moral high horse,
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    and then it yeah, imagines
    with this idea of butchering it
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    and using it to feed people.
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    (graphic whooshing)
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    "No masters or kings
    when the ritual begins,
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    there is no sweeter innocence
    than our gentle sin.
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    In the madness and soil
    of that sad earthly scene,
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    only then I am human,
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    only then I am clean.
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    Amen.
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    Amen.
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    Amen."
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    It's tough being a human, you know,
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    and find finding another person
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    and sharing your own humanity,
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    that is when you feel at most yourself.
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    It's when you feel at most
    connected to someone else.
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    And so that line, only then I am human.
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    That's when I'm at my most ordered,
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    that's when I'm at my most in step
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    with what it is to be
    a being on this earth.
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    (upbeat music)
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    Recently, to see one of
    the Iranian protestors,
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    Sarina Esmailzadeh,
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    singing that song and sort of went viral
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    in the aftermath of her
    being beaten to death
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    by forces of the Iranian state.
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    With women who wanted the right,
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    who were trying to seek the right
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    to just show their hair in public.
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    In an example like that, with
    a teenage girl like Sarina,
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    you have somebody who has far more courage
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    and far more bravery than
    I will ever have to contend
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    with somebody who paid an ultimate price.
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    I come up very short
    against courage like that.
Title:
Hozier “Take Me to Church” Official Lyrics & Meaning | Verified
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Duration:
06:14

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