Prayer in C: City of Yahweh

"Yah, you never said a word // You didn't send me no letter // Don't think I could forgive you" ~ Prayer in C by Lilly Wood & The Prick

In case you haven't hear it, "Prayer in C", by Lilly Wood & The Prick (lyrics below), is on the radio right now! It's a gorgeous song that pulled me to listen deeper, even if I didn't know why at first. The singer's hoarse and beautiful voice over the melodic electric guitar and rhythmic drumming... it's a great musical piece, pointe finale.

Listening a little closer, the lyrics suggest a prayer to Yahweh, in the singer's address to "Yah". She goes on to name the human and environmental suffering she witnesses. She sings to God, "Don't think I could forgive you", holding Yah accountable for the slow dying and destruction of the earth and suffering of people.

It must be difficult-to-the-core to be so angry at God, to think that God is unforgiveable. To be ready to give up and put on the "mask of the dead". I can only imagine the emotional hurt and spiritual suffering that the singer must be going through to be so disappointed and angry with God.

However, the God I know is a God of creation-and-destruction within the natural cycles of nature, not a God of a one-directional destruction. What's more, the suffering the singer describes ("the world slowly dying", "children are starving"), is human-made suffering, really: poverty, war and environmental damage.

I think the singer feels this way too. At the beginning of the video, she hints at this. She looks at herself in the mirror, reflecting upon herself. And then she sings to Yah. Is it possible that she is singing to the divine within herself? Or at least to her own role in the neglect and destruction of world. Is she singing to the divine in us that is stifled by avoiding our wrong doings, or by party-ing (consuming/dumping/warring/politic-ing) away our lives with our selfish yolo (you only live once) attitude?

Day of the Dead: "The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and help support their spiritual journey." ~ Wikipedia

I think this is where the song's title and the opening of the music video can inform us further: Prayer in C is perhaps a Prayer in Conciousness. This is just my interpretation, here, but I'd offer it as a suggestion. That Lilly's Prayer in C is an awakening or awareness, of the Yah within us, of our responsability in creating and neglecting human and environmental suffering. That the God with us and God within us, must be summoned and walked with to overcome these massive and very real world problems.

This song is sure to generate many interpretations... I'd love to know your perspective and response. xo AM

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Lyrics to Prayer in C

by Lilly Wood & The Prick

Yah, you never said a word You didn't send me no letter Don't think I could forgive you See our world is slowly dying I'm not wasting no more time Don't think I could believe you Yah, our hands will get more wrinkled And our hair will be grey Don't think I could forgive you And see the children are starving And their houses were destroyed Don't think they could forgive you Hey, when seas will cover lands And when men will be no more Don't think you can forgive you Yah, when there'll just be silence And when life will be over Don't think you will forgive you

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