Men go crazy in congregations, they only get better one by one
Sting, All This Time. And that isn't just about churches, it's about humans in groups and our tendency to engage in madness when we assemble a mob.
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Reminds me of a quote from Men in Black, of all things:
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Interesting. That's based on a quote from Charles Mackay. To wit:
"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."
The whole song contains some of the most skeptical lyrics I've ever heard from a mainstream pop artist. Sting questions task the idea of the meek inheriting the earth, the reality of Jesus, and the very existence of gods at all in this little gem. I posted the lyrics on an atheist web site some time ago here.
In my opinion, Sting is the finest songwriter of his generation, and Soul Cages was his finest solo album. The lyrics on that album are wonderful in almost every song. There's an interesting story behind that album, though. At the time, Vinx had just recorded his first CD, produced by Sting, called Rooms in My Fatha's House. That CD was largely about the death of his father, who was murdered. Sting's father had died around the same time, but when he went into the studio to work on that album he had complete writer's block. They recorded Vinx' album and that is what triggered Sting to write songs about his father's death (as his previous album, Nothing Like the Sun, addressed his mother's death a couple of times). And Sting actually delayed the release of Vinx' CD until after the release of Soul Cages. Vinx ended up opening for Sting on the Soul Cages tour, doing two more CDs for Pangea records, then leaving and starting his own record company.
In my opinion, Sting is the finest songwriter of his generation
Yikes
"Soul Cages" is indeed a fine and thought-provoking and sobering album, and people are always amazed when I tell them that. Unfortunately, many folks I know consider Sting not just bad but also... BAD.
Yes, Sting has become an easy man to mock, and given his megalomaniacal personality and ego the size of the Amazon, much of it is justified. But he's a brilliant songwriter. One of the things I particularly like is how often and how well he has reinterpreted his songs.
Could it be a pheromone thing?