“Just random matter suspended in the dark”
In a two week window, I’ve gone from being a nonchalant fan of Father John Misty’s 1970s-style Elton John ballads, to thinking he’s the best lyricist in the game right now. So maybe take this post with a grain of salt.
This one’s a little tune about birth, life, religion and our place in the universe. It gets pretty heady. Sure, I like my AC/DC odes to drinking and partying, but it’s nice to have alternatives like this around too. In fact, who writes like this these days? “Pure Comedy” is more in line with classic Lou Reed or Leonard Cohen rather than anything today. It’s brilliant stuff.
We have a few options for your listening pleasure. The album track on Spotify, and a couple of live versions. The Austin City Limits performance is the one that really sucked me in – the song begins in its straightforward manner, with Josh Tillman sticking close to the album version. But the grandeur of the song eventually builds to a cathartic release as the orchestra kicks in and Tillman opens his voice. It gives me chills every time.
The KEXP video is a quieter but still wonderful voice-and-piano performance that really highlights the lyrics. Of course, singer Josh Tillman can’t stand still and moseys around the performance space, checking out the light show around him.
The lyrics themselves (see below) don’t need much interpretation or analysis. His perspective on religion may make some people uncomfortable, but the payoff is the last line – a glimmer of hope to free us from the “prison of beliefs that we never ever have to leave.”
The comedy of man starts like this
Our brains are way too big for our mothers’ hips
And so Nature, she divines this alternative
We emerge half-formed and hope that whoever greets us on the other end
Is kind enough to fill us in
And, babies, that’s pretty much how it’s been ever since
Now the miracle of birth leaves a few issues to address
Like, say, that half of us are periodically iron deficient
So somebody’s got to go kill something while I look after the kids
I’d do it myself, but what, are you going to get this thing its milk?
He says as soon as he gets back from the hunt, we can switch
It’s hard not to fall in love with something so helpless
Ladies, I hope we don’t end up regretting this
Comedy, now that’s what I call pure comedy
Just waiting until the part where they start to believe
They’re at the center of everything
And some all-powerful being endowed this horror show with meaning
Oh, their religions are the best
They worship themselves yet they’re totally obsessed
With risen zombies, celestial virgins, magic tricks, these unbelievable outfits
And they get terribly upset
When you question their sacred texts
Written by woman-hating epileptics
Their languages just serve to confuse them
Their confusion somehow makes them more sure
They build fortunes poisoning their offspring
And hand out prizes when someone patents the cure
Where did they find these goons they elected to rule them?
What makes these clowns they idolize so remarkable?
These mammals are hell-bent on fashioning new gods
So they can go on being godless animals
Oh comedy, their illusions they have no choice but to believe
Their horizons that just forever recede
And how’s this for irony, their idea of being free is a prison of beliefs
That they never ever have to leave
Oh comedy, oh it’s like something that a madman would conceive!
The only thing that seems to make them feel alive is the struggle to survive
But the only thing that they request is something to numb the pain with
Until there’s nothing human left
Just random matter suspended in the dark
I hate to say it, but each other’s all we got
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