"Amen" (Paula Cole Band, Amen)
. . .Amen for the drivers in their garbage trucks
Amen for our mothers, for the lust to f*ck
Amen for the child with innocent eyes
Amen for Kevorkian and the right to die
Amen for NASA, The NSA
. . .
Amen for Marilyn Manson, Saddam Hussein
Amen for America and the Milky Way.
Amen for Elvis, for Betty Page
Amen for Gloria Steinham and Ronald Reagan
Amen for O.J., Clinton too
Amen for the Republican witch hunt coup
Amen for Gandhi, for Malcolm X
Amen for the uprising of the weaker sex
Amen for Babylon, the third world's call,
Amen for the unity of us all
. . .
Can somebody say Amen?
. . .
I've been a fan of Paula Cole since her "I Don't Want to Wait" of Dawson's Creek era and "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone" of her first grammy nomination. I've been trying to find this album everywhere online, it is not available on Yahoo! Music Unlimited and, well.. I was thinking that I might sample some before actually buy the CD (yes, I finally bought the CD). I remember "Amen" (here, she paid an appreciation to her band for having been following her through the tour by putting her name as Paula Cole Band) had this radio hit called "I Believe in Love." It was quite a strong material for a follow up on her succesful "This Fire." I didn't know that there's an even stronger material in this album, which is "Amen."
Lyrically, it is very heavy, which I like. It sounds like she put all her serious thoughts to create a song that will not only phonetically pleasant but also intellectually challenging. All the references to Ptolemy, Kevorian, NASA, Republican with the witch hunt coup, they're all politically conscious yet at the same time unconsciously smart and actually, very subtle in expressing what she actually meant.
Why would she amen Saddam Hussein, the Republican, the lust to f*ck as well as Gandhi, the uprising of weaker sex and third world's call? What the he*l does this chick actually want? Where does she stand? Well, she doesn't take any stand, really. She simply wanted to say, "Hey, there's these kind of people, all kind of desires, various kind of kindness as well as evil deeds. It doesn't matter. It's happening in the world. Just let the history presents them wide open: what's good, what's bad, who's the evil, who's the saint. In the end, it's up to us to decide what we think of all those people. And whatever it is that we decide, it's up to us whether we want to make the same mistake and/or willing to sacrifice the same good deeds to make this world a better place. For those who choose the first one, amen for them. For those who choose the last one, amen for them. At least they're learning from the past and make their decision based on that.
Because really, it doesn't matter. Just say amen, and pray that whatever happens, it happens for a reason.
UPDATE!!
Gosh.. I just read some reviews on Amazon.com about this album, and I didn't realize that this particular album was seen as being "too Christian" or "too religious." Well, I don't see it that way, I think someone who thinks of someone else expressing her/himself as being too religious is simply someone who is uncomfortable of his/her religiousity. It comes to the borderline of paranoia sometimes when you feel threatened by someone who is religious. Chill out, Paula was just being open-minded and accepting. Why can't everyone else be the same?
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