Good post, thermo. Even if Tweedy doesn't aim these lyrics at the music critics, there's definitely a parallel.
I'm under the opinion that one can take the lyrics more literally. Being "literate" on a subject as abstract (and subjective) as faith is an impossibility. Anyone who claims to be one is probably drawing upon the oft-spat platitudes cemented in the minds of the blindly faithful, relying on their frequency for credibility.
Perhaps Tweedy finds his heart "thinned" by the formalities of organized religion. He's diluted by the importance of the "little things", i.e. the traditions hung like ornaments onto the idea of a higher being.
This idea is rehashed later on: "Where I'm going you cannot come," the singer's own introspective, soulful universe unique from all others.
I think Tweedy and Emerson would have really hit it off.
Good post, thermo. Even if Tweedy doesn't aim these lyrics at the music critics, there's definitely a parallel.
I'm under the opinion that one can take the lyrics more literally. Being "literate" on a subject as abstract (and subjective) as faith is an impossibility. Anyone who claims to be one is probably drawing upon the oft-spat platitudes cemented in the minds of the blindly faithful, relying on their frequency for credibility.
Perhaps Tweedy finds his heart "thinned" by the formalities of organized religion. He's diluted by the importance of the "little things", i.e. the traditions hung like ornaments onto the idea of a higher being.
This idea is rehashed later on: "Where I'm going you cannot come," the singer's own introspective, soulful universe unique from all others.
I think Tweedy and Emerson would have really hit it off.