I've heard that Michael Stipe called this song a love song. I used to have a hard time understanding how that fit, but now that I'm divorced, I understand it. When you lose the love of your life (or who you think is the love of your life), you lose all of those plans for the future, all of the things you believed in. After a serious breakup, you are never the same person--you never have the same blind trust/faith in love again. In other words, losing my religion means losing all of those hopes, beliefs, and untainted feelings of love. Think about the video--all of the representations of religion that were mere constructs by humans. The angel wings made of iron, the elderly Jesus figure with a wig--it's like the Wizard of Oz, and seeing that there is someone very small and imperfect behind the curtain, instead of the grand entity you believed in.
To the reference to the old man, has anyone ever read the short story, A Very Old Man with Wings? At least I think that is the name of it. But it is about an old man with wings (as the title suggests) who falls into a barn and is found by some people in the town. He seems representative of Christ, or some sort of angel, but no one believes he is an angel because he does not understand Latin (what was believed to be the language of God), but the point of this allusion is there are parts...
To the reference to the old man, has anyone ever read the short story, A Very Old Man with Wings? At least I think that is the name of it. But it is about an old man with wings (as the title suggests) who falls into a barn and is found by some people in the town. He seems representative of Christ, or some sort of angel, but no one believes he is an angel because he does not understand Latin (what was believed to be the language of God), but the point of this allusion is there are parts of the video that seem like a visual representation of this story.
I agrre. It also seems like when you fall in love and keep illusions about someone that is not who seemed to be. You immagine that this person is someone, but in fact, on the inside, it's someone else.
I agrre. It also seems like when you fall in love and keep illusions about someone that is not who seemed to be. You immagine that this person is someone, but in fact, on the inside, it's someone else.
I've heard that Michael Stipe called this song a love song. I used to have a hard time understanding how that fit, but now that I'm divorced, I understand it. When you lose the love of your life (or who you think is the love of your life), you lose all of those plans for the future, all of the things you believed in. After a serious breakup, you are never the same person--you never have the same blind trust/faith in love again. In other words, losing my religion means losing all of those hopes, beliefs, and untainted feelings of love. Think about the video--all of the representations of religion that were mere constructs by humans. The angel wings made of iron, the elderly Jesus figure with a wig--it's like the Wizard of Oz, and seeing that there is someone very small and imperfect behind the curtain, instead of the grand entity you believed in.
That's a pretty good interpretation but its also about being gay too. Tas has it better.
That's a pretty good interpretation but its also about being gay too. Tas has it better.
To the reference to the old man, has anyone ever read the short story, A Very Old Man with Wings? At least I think that is the name of it. But it is about an old man with wings (as the title suggests) who falls into a barn and is found by some people in the town. He seems representative of Christ, or some sort of angel, but no one believes he is an angel because he does not understand Latin (what was believed to be the language of God), but the point of this allusion is there are parts...
To the reference to the old man, has anyone ever read the short story, A Very Old Man with Wings? At least I think that is the name of it. But it is about an old man with wings (as the title suggests) who falls into a barn and is found by some people in the town. He seems representative of Christ, or some sort of angel, but no one believes he is an angel because he does not understand Latin (what was believed to be the language of God), but the point of this allusion is there are parts of the video that seem like a visual representation of this story.
I agrre. It also seems like when you fall in love and keep illusions about someone that is not who seemed to be. You immagine that this person is someone, but in fact, on the inside, it's someone else.
I agrre. It also seems like when you fall in love and keep illusions about someone that is not who seemed to be. You immagine that this person is someone, but in fact, on the inside, it's someone else.
"But that was just a dream..."
"But that was just a dream..."
No! You're WRONG! LOL
No! You're WRONG! LOL