I tuned in to my weekly discover on Spotify, absentmindedly listening to songs while I weeded through tangled thoughts. Midway through folding my laundry, the words from my stereo harnessed my focus into one single line of thought. I ran to my phone to check the name of the song “Praying to a God” by Mr. Probz (LUKE remix). I listened closely.
Her faith is dying to tears aside, she’s going off track
She’s praying to a god who won’t talk back, won’t talk back
Down on her knees said praying to a god who won’t talk back
So she’s out on the town tonight, she got her best on
Her daddy believed that the needle was a highway
So she powders her nose, she’s just looking for direction
It gets hard to feel the friction underwater
As she’s breaking down, she’s tearing out the borders
And too deep to save herself, she takes a pill that seems to help
Close her eyes, forget she standing at the alter
There was a story. The song writer uses euphemisms to gently describe a callous life, softened descriptions an intensely painful lifestyle surrounding drugs and hopelessness.
Her faith is dying to tears aside, she’s going off track
She’s praying to a god who won’t talk back, won’t talk back
Down on her knees said praying to a god who won’t talk back
So she’s out on the town tonight, she got her best on
Her daddy believed that the needle was a highway
So she powders her nose, she’s just looking for direction
It gets hard to feel the friction underwater
As she’s breaking down, she’s tearing out the borders
And too deep to save herself, she takes a pill that seems to help
Close her eyes, forget she standing at the alter
Then, I began pondering the meaning of the title. How curious it is that people have faith…and keep faith even when their god doesn’t respond to them or decide to let go. I dug up the novel song published in 2015 originally by the Norwegian duo Nico & Vinz. I’d heard of these guys! They did the radio hit “Am I Wrong?” that anyone with remote exposure to contemporary R&B music would know, but how come more people don’t hear this one? I always wonder what merits a radio hit. Praying to a God includes expressive language about the absence of peace and order, like what one would see without the presence of, for many people, God. Statistics show an obvious decline of organized religion. Why this is the first time in history that “no religion” dominates the results of surveys of Americans’ religious identity?
Throughout college, I’ve spoken with people who live with an absence of religion or are deeply grounded in one.
Hello Jenna – Thank you for sharing your view on the lyrics of Praying to a God. Would you consider an interview on the topic?
I am writing my capstone paper for my doctorate at Vanderbilt. The topic of declining religion in the United States, with a focus on Christianity. Id certainly like cite a couple of your interpretations, but also interested on feedback you received from people, “who live with an absence of religion, or are deeply grounded in one”.
If you would consider speaking with me, please reach out to my email below.
Best
Mike
Thank you for sharing your view on the lyrics of Praying to a God .
https://www.myeasymusic.ir/
I interpreted a little bit differently, and I am a person of faith. I think that I agree with you that there is multiple imagery in the language. I see a portrait of a young woman who came from a broken home. I do think that the dress refers to infidelity and that she takes that infidelity or that sexualization on to be able to cope and that she followed in her footsteps and powered her nose by using cocaine.
It was very interesting because when I first heard the lyrics, I thought that he was saying guy not God because of the way that this was pronounced. I was very interested if alter actually means as you go and alter or if it perhaps means standing at the altar, wishing for marriage or wishing for something that she didn’t have. The god could also be drugs could be her pills. In any event, it’s a very interesting song, but I didn’t see it as necessarily a repudiation of God but of God that we create don’t necessarily help us or save us.
I did write a poem after listening to the song about how I felt about the recent election.
I thought you may enjoy this poem I wrote.
of mountains and men
by michelle milam
i am reopening my rock, replacing it with a heart
repenting from
my latent worship
of mountains of men
prehistoric hands preserved
in amber waves of grain
of golden calves of majesty
masquerading as
exploding
reddened
stars
twinkling
as they build ladders
to a golden age
to make her great,
again
it was a greatness i, too, sung
dark and comely, sitting outside the table
and a house of white columns
watching —
wanting to belong
to human castles built of dust
they thought themselves
more numerous
than the glory
of father abraham’s sons
more worthy
than the diadem
of pain they inflict
as they reclaim
the calf and fatten her
for the great feast
of their return
instead, i will simply
come,
knowing you came in a manger
not a mountain
born of dust and divine
hope unalived
only to be resurrected
the king of kings
a foreigner in a foreign land
with nothing to offer but
yourself
for in these days
kingdom rises against kingdom
and nation against nation
humanity sings hymns of anthems
perplexing perpetual
butterflies disguised
as caterpillars
stinging like the removal of flesh from mosquitoes
praying at the altar of
porcelain
as we release all that is holy
to her gods
i will no longer
pray to gods that won’t talk back
that will not lift a finger to save
those who drown
in their self-created splendor
cradled in thorny crowns created with blooming pride
and the bloodshed
that our Father warned us of
instead, i ask for forgiveness;
for seeking love
in the carved faces of stony fathers
former giants
towering monuments of pride and stone,
who can claim to save nations
but cannot save the soul