I'd like to start a discussion on this topic. Please do not think it's limited to the artists I listed, feel free to express your thoughts openly on any music that conjures in you anything that would fall under the spiritual or religious umbrella.

(I'd like to apologize now for the length of this. I felt it necessary just to get it started.)

Here are a few prompts that I've used in my courses:

1. Madonna's "Like A Virgin" song and video. What and how do you interpret the lyrics and images?

2. I know that a good portion of you are unfamiliar with Dylan and the Grateful Dead, so here are a couple of lyrics for you to consider:
A) "Days Between" (How would you describe the narrator's spiritual perspective?)
There were days
and there were days
and there were days between
Summer flies and August dies
the world grows dark and mean
Comes the shimmer of the moon
on black infested trees
the singing man is at his song
the holy on their knees
the reckless are out wrecking
the timid plead their pleas
No one knows much more of this
than anyone can see anyone can see
- Words and music by Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia

3. "Tangled Up In Blue" (imagine the narrative as told by Jesus; imagine the female character is Magdalene; imagine the setting is Israel)
Early one mornin' the sun was shinin',
I was layin' in bed
Wond'rin if she'd changed at all
If her hair was still red.
Her folks they said our lives together
They never did like Mama's homemade dress
Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough
And I was standin' on the side of the road
Rain fallin' on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues gettin' through
Tangled up in blue

She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam, I guess,
But I used a little too much force
We drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out West
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin' away
I heard her say over my shoulder,
We'll meet again someday on the avenue,
Tangled up in blue
I had a job in the great north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much
And one day the ax just fell
So I drifted down to New Orleans
Where I’s lucky ‘nough to be employed
Workin' for a while on a fishin' boat
Right outside of Delacroix
But all the while I was alone
The past was close behind
I seen a lot of women,
But she never escaped my mind, and I just grew
Tangled up in blue

She was workin' in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer
I just kept lookin' at the side of her face
In the spotlight so clear
And later on as the crowd thinned out
I's just about to do the same
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me, "Don't I know your name?"
I muttered somethin' under my breath
She studied the lines on my face,
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe,
Tangled up in blue

She lit a burner on the stove
And offered me a pipe
I thought you'd never say hello, she said
You look like the silent type.
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin' coal
Pourin' off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you
Tangled up in blue

I lived with them on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafes at night
And revolution in the air
Then he started into dealing with slaves
And something inside him died
She had to sell everything she owned
And froze up inside
And when finally the bottom fell out
I became withdrawn
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keepin' on like a bird that flew,
Tangled up in blue
So now I’m goin’ back again
I got to get to her somehow
But me, I'm still on the road
Headin' for another joint
We always did feel the same
Tangled up in blue
Tangled up in blue
Tangled up in blue
Tangled up in blue
Tangled up in blue
Tanlged up in blue
Tanlged up in blue
-Words and music by Bob Dylan

3. "My Brother Esau" -- Lyrics: John Barlow; Music: Bob Weir
My brother Esau killed a hunter
Back in nineteen sixty nine
And before the killing was done
His inheritance was mine
But his birthright was a wand to wave (note 1)
Before a weary band
Esau gave me sleeplessness
And a piece of moral land

My father favored Esau (note 2)
Who was eager to obey
All the bloody wild commandments
The old man shot his way
But all this favor ended when
My brother failed at war
He staggered home
And found me in the door (note 3)

Esau skates on mirrors any more (note 4)
Meets his pale reflection at the door
Yet sometimes at night I dream (note 5)
He's still that hairy man
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
And wandering the land
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
And wandering the land

Esau holds a blessing
Brother Esau holds a curse (note 6)
I would say that the blame is mine
But I suspect it's something worse (note 7)
The more my brother looks like me
The less I understand (note 8)
The silent war
That blooded both our hands

Sometimes at night (note 9)
I think I understand
Way late at night
Oh, I feel I understand
It's brother to brother
And it's man to man
And it's face to face
And it's hand to hand
The shadow dance
The silent war within
The shadow dance
Never ends, never ends, never ends
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
Yet again, yet again
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
And wandering the land

Notes:
(1) I believe Weir once sang "When at first my brother walked away" here
(2) the sheet music has "Our father ..." but Barlow's lyrics have it as "My father ..." and that's what Weir sang
(3) the sheet music has "... at the door" but Barlow's lyrics have "...in the door." Weir sang both versions
(4) in place of these two lines, Weir sometimes sang

Esau, he's on rollerskates today
Selling real estate to someone in LA

or (from 14 July 1985)
Esau he’s on rollerskates today
He gets around the darkside of town, way down around LA
(5) the sheet music wrongly has "But sometimes at night ..."
(6) this is what Weir sings, and the sheet music has, but Barlow's lyric site has "Brother Esau bears a curse"
(7) the sheet music has "I suspected something worse" but that seems to be another mistake
(8) Weir sometimes sang "the more I understand," eg on 30 December 1986
(9) The version here is as on "In The Dark." Live versions differed in this last semi-ad-lib section.

*Thank you if you've made it (read) to this sentence!*

A lot of MM videos are filled with Biblical references. Long Hard Road Out of Hell has a clip in reference to the goat in Chapter 7 of the Book of Daniel. A lot of Revelations and a bit on the Flood in Disposable Teens. The list goes on.
As for Madonna, I always thought her most spiritual album was Ray of Light. There are amazing Sanskrit chants that are very refreshing.

.

Ozzy Osbourne - Revelation (Mother Earth)
From the album Blizzard of Ozz 1980

MOTHER PLEASE FORGIVE THEM
FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO
LOOKING BACK IN HISTORY'S BOOKS
IT SEEMS IT'S NOTHING NEW
OH! LET MY MOTHER LIVE

HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES
AND HELL IS FULL OF FOOLS
STUPIDITY, NO WILL TO LIVE
THEY'RE BREAKING GOD'S OWN RULES
PLEASE LET MY MOTHER LIVE

FATHER, OF ALL CREATION
I THINK WE'RE ALL GOING WRONG
THE COURSE THEY'RE TAKING
SEEMS TO BE BREAKING
AND IT WON'T TAKE TOO LONG

CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE
WATCHING EMPIRES FALL
MADNESS THE CUP THEY DRINK FROM
SELF DESTRUCTION THE TOLL

I HAD A VISION, L SAW THE WORLD BURN
AND THE SEAS HAD TURNED RED
THE SUN HAD FALLEN, THE FINAL CURTAIN
IN THE LAND OF THE DEAD

MOTHER, PLEASE SHOW THE CHILDREN
BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
TO FIGHT EACH OTHER, THERE'S NO-ONE WINNING
WE MUST FIGHT ALL THE HATE



Give it a thought...

the word

this garden universe, vibrates complete;
some we get a sound so sweet..
vibrations, reach on up to become light;
& then through gamma ~ out of sight..
between the eyes & ears there lay,
the sounds of color & the light of a sigh..
& to hear the sun, what a thing to believe;
but it's all around if we could but perceive..
to know ultra-violet, infra-red & x-ray;
beauty to find in so many ways..
two notes of the chord, that's our flourscope;
but to reach the chord is our life's hope..
& to name the chord, is important to some;
so they give it a word, & the word is ~ OM..

moody blues (1968)
in search of the lost chord..

To delve a bit deeper into what I had conceived in starting this thread, let's begin with some specifics:
1) Madonna's "Like A Virgin" lyrics and video. Assuming most have seen it and can recall it fairly well, what do you think of the spiritual, religious, or sacrilegious/contradictory imagery in the video when compared to the lyrics?

2) If anyone is truly interested, I have a short essay, "On Dylan's "Tangled Up In Blue" as a Postmodern Allegory of Jesus, Magdalene, the Apostles, Biblical Judaic Culture, and the Aristocracy of the Temple"--which I'd gladly post for discussion.

3) Likewise, I have other short essays on REM's "Losing My Religion," "Spirituality and the Oral Tradition in the Music of the Grateful Dead," and "Theological Representations in the Lyrics of The Beatles" just to name a few. Some others include Nine Inch Nails, The Who, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin.

mklsgl check out Black Sabbath "After Forever" it's also a christian song.

Let me guess, Magadlene was the girl "in a topless bar" bc she was a prostitute. Sigh. WEll, she wasn't. I wish that myth would go away.

This is a huge reach for one of my favorite Dylan tunes. But he does indeed have a lot of religious imagery in his music. In fact he did a stint in the 80's of producing nearly unlistenable gospel albums. I shudder to remember.

JennRose, Dylan is actually referring to Magdalene in the "topless place" because most during the time of Jesus didn't congregate in a formal temple. "Topless place" refers to the roof a house where it was common to have social gatherings.

REE-ally? Huh... well, that's a new twist on things. Interesting.

Yele: Love those MM videos. Extraordinary imagery. Also, I like his intellect, that scene in Bowling for Columbine ("I'd listen, because that's something no one bothered to do") is priceless; and his appearances on Maher's show have been some of the best.

JennRose: A little more Dylan for you... "Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues gettin' through
Tangled up in blue" - East Coast refers to where the Essenes live (near the Dead Sea, Quumran); "Paid some dues gettin' through / Tangled up in Blue" refers to the "price" he's had to pay teaching the Essenic Ways (more purely orthodox Judaism) because Jesus himself wasn't confident in his own "purity." On his way to the East Coast also refers to when he stopped to be Baptized (in the river Jordan) and then Baptized John, also an Essene. And, remember, the Hebrews/Israelites at that time had already factioned into sects; he was trying to reunite them, as were all of the Essenes.
Tangled up in Blue = melancholy, sadness; Blue = Jewish, Judaism: see the plurality and implicit/explicit dual meaning of the word/color/symbol/metaphor?

This is Christ in a Baphometic pose

MM in the Baphometic pose

There are far too many references to Biblical scriptures in the videos for me to name.
"And as I was considering, behold, a goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes."
-Daniel 8:5
"Therefore the goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken...And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great..."
-Daniel 8:8-9

Many times music and songs keep their meaning hidden and use symbolism for their words, and some other songs tell it straight foward. One of the bands I listen to, 'Epica' (I don't know if any of you are familiar to this band, but I like them well enough to tell you) but one of their songs Cry for the Moon is very religious. In the song, they say how Christianity is lying to us. Here are the lyrics...

Follow your common sense
You cannot hide yourself
Behind a fairytale forever and ever
Only by revealing the whole truth can we disclose
The soul of this sick bulwark forever and ever
Forever and ever
Indoctrinated minds so very often
Contain sick thoughts
And commit most of the evil they preach against
Don’t try to convince me with messengers from God
You accuse us of sins committed by yourselves
It’s easy to condemn without looking in the mirror
Behind the scenes opens reality
Eternal silence cries out for justice
Forgiveness is not for sale
Nor is the will to forget
Virginity has been stolen at very young ages
And the extinguisher loses its immunity
Morbid abuse of power gets a youthful face
Where the apple gets a youthful face
You can’t go on hiding yourself
Behind old fashioned fairytales
And keep washing your hands in innocence

(In fact there are a ton of songs that are very religious and relate to this subject by Epica themselves; this is only one.)