They didn’t play this song at last weekend’s Lallapalooza concert, but for some unknown reason, I can’t get this Poi Dog song — or maybe more precisely, this PDP song’s message — out of my head:

“Praise the Lord,” he said to me.
And he seemed quite happy,
He seemed quite at ease.
And I said “Yeah.”
Cause I was just down at the sea
And it occurred to me,
That I like to feel it knock me down,
Twist and throw and churn me around,
‘Cause it’s the mother ocean
And I’m just one of her sons.
And she can do just what she wants to me
And I know she does nothing purposely.
I must respect, that goes unsaid,
But it’s all just a twist of fate.
And I know about heaven’s gate
‘Cause I’ve seen it, but not up close.
And I know it ain’t no pearly white
And I know that I’ll be nothing there.
Just food for fish and twisting worms,
But that’s just fine with me,
‘Cause when I’m being tossed by the sea
I can feel a force greater than Misery,
Greater than my stupid job,
Greater than our stupid Bomb.
And a time comes to mind without complexity.
And she can do just what she wants to me
And I know she does nothing purposely.
I must respect, that goes unsaid,
But it’s all just a twist of fate.
So don’t tell me about the Land of Nod,
Where we are supposed to sit at the right hand of God,
Where the Lion will lay down the the lamb,
‘Cause you know damn well he’ll eat him if he can.
The Lion doesn’t wanna be pacified
With promises of an endless life
‘Cause he knows it’s not that way,
He’s not detached he sees it everyday -
The birth, the death and the decay,
The birth, the death and the decay.
And he accepts, and sees that it’s OK -
He would eat us for our elitist ways.

Praise the Lord
from Wishing Like the Mountain and Thinking Like the Sea
Columbia CK 45403 1990
Poi Dog Pondering

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