The cockatoo thing just makes me laugh though-any other song in history that uses the word cockatoo?
I just picture him writing the rest of the line and thinking..not going to buy anyone's..how about cockatoo? Yeah that randomly occurs to most people
It makes me laugh and for that I'm grateful. But it's still a wtf
Isn't that the beauty of what this band has done forever though? Hiding their message behind lyrics that people can think about and digest and have AHA moments long after the songs have been in our heads?
I love that LYRIC - and I agree with Anne - I originally thought - wow he is not giving us great LYRICS - but a month later -
"16th of June, nine-oh-five, door bell rings
Man at the door says if I want to stay alive a bit longer
There’s a few things I need you to know
Three
Coming from a long line of
Traveling sales people on my mother’s side
I wasn’t gonna buy just anyone’s cockatoo
So why would I invite a complete stranger into my home
Would you?"
Its almost to me an evangelist coming to the door and delivering the standard messsge. Originally I thought the three things that were needed to know was the Holy Spirit. But now I think:
“Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.”
St. Thomas Aquinas quotes (Scholastic philosopher and theologian, 1225-1274)
So why would we listen to what the evangelist is saying? He is just a cockatoo - selling me someone elses words.
I feel the song is divided into the three things in a way -
Here is: "to know what he ought to believe"
Every day I die again, and again I’m reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street
With arms out
Got a love you can’t defeat
Neither down nor out
Every day we stumble and make mistakes - but the love that cannot be defeated brings rebirth.
Here is the "to know what he ought to desire" which I think the lyrics emphasize it almost in an opposite way.
16th of June, Chinese stocks are going up
And I’m coming down with some new Asian virus
Ju Ju man, Ju Ju man
Doc says you’re fine, or dying
Please
Nine-oh-nine, St. John Divine on the line, my pulse is fine
But I’m running down the road like loose electricity
While the band in my head plays a striptease
The roar that lies on the other side of silence
The forest fire that is fear so deny it
This verse demonstrates a failure to recognize what we ought to desire. Worried about Stocks (money) Health, Sex.......Ignoring St. John Divine who is on the line.......Ignoring the things we ought to be focused on the things we ought to focus on. St. John on the line brings me an image of a call on hold, that is not being answered.
Finally - to know what he ought to do
Walk out into the street
Sing your heart out
The people we meet
Will not be drowned out
There’s nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now
Yeah, yeah
We are people borne of sound
The songs are in our eyes
Gonna wear them like a crown
Walk out, into the sunburst street
Sing your heart out, sing my heart out
I’ve found grace inside a sound
I found grace, it’s all that I found
And I can breathe
Breathe now
We ought to demonstrate God's grace to others would be the third thing.
If I may steal a line from Wiki about GRACE - "grace is the receipt of a positive benefit that one does not deserve to receive". And how does someone demonstrate God's grace?
I would say go back to Crumbs From Your Table!!!!!
Peace.
Happy Sunday.