God Told Me To (song)
| "God Told Me To" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| A-side | "God Told Me To" |
"God Told Me To" is the first single from Australian songwriter Paul Kelly's album Stolen Apples.
The song deals with a fictional character called John Johanna, on trial for murder. To explain his actions, John defends himself by saying that God told him to do this. The song continues Paul Kelly's affair with using biblical imagery in his songs.
In an interview Kelly explains
The way for me into a song often is to imagine someone speaking. Sometimes that's the way the song starts, once you get the voice of that character. God Told Me To is an angry song, imagining a character that's kinda crazy and then writing in that voice. He sees evil and needs to wipe it out. And that's a form of acting, writing that way.[1]
— Paul Kelly, 2007
Kelly explains that he borrowed the opening line - "My name is John Johanna" - from American folk antiquity but points out that John is also the name of the author of the Book of Revelation, the apocalyptic last book of the New Testament.
The last verse of the song is pretty much directly from Revelation, which is sort of the text of fundamental Christianity. George Bush, the religious right in America, they're all over it. But fundamentalist Islam is the same craziness.[2]
— Paul Kelly, 2007
Video
The video for the song was first aired on ABC music video show rage in June 2007. The controversial video was directed by Natasha Pinkus, and is done in a single shot.[3] The camera zooms out slowly from Paul's eye, eventually revealing him to be tied up in a glass case in a pool of blood. Pinkus explains that the blood was Kelly's idea
He said, ‘I’ve got a vision of blood, Tash’... He said, ‘I want to ask the question about how religious fanaticism can lead you to spill blood’.[3]
— Pinkus, 2007
The video was nominated for a Dendy award at the 2007 Sydney Film Festival[3] and won the 2007 Inside Film Award for 'Best Music Video'.[4]
Personnel
Credits:[5]
- Paul Kelly - acoustic guitar, lead vocals
- Dan Kelly - electric guitar, banjo, vocals
- Dan Ludscombe - electric guitar, keyboards, vocals
- Peter Ludscombe - drums, percussion
- Bill McDonald - bass
References
- ^ McMahon, Bruce (2007-07-07). "Paul Kelly has no answers". The Courier-Mail. Retrieved 2008-09-03. [dead link]
- ^ Dwyer, Michael (2007-07-06). "Divine ideas". The Age. Retrieved 2008-09-03.
- ^ a b c Collins, Simon (2007-08-02). "Kelly courts controversy with new clip". West Australian. Retrieved 2008-09-03. [dead link]
- ^ "IF Awards (2007 winners)". IF Awards. Retrieved 2008-09-03.
- ^ Holmgren, Magnus. "Paul Kelly". Australian Rock Database. Passagen.se (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2014.