Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Hozier
Here's some Christmas music from Irish singer/songwriter Hozier ...
I first listened to him when he made the big splash with (and won a Grammy for) his song, Take Me to Church (Protesting Injustice, Accepting Fame). The original music video spoke to the mistreatment of gay people in Russia - it went viral. Here's a version with the lyrics ....
A song by Hozier that I especially like is the one he did for the film The Legend of Tarzan :) ...
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Christmas was a very fraught holiday in our home. So Christmas isn't Christmas for me without the Pogues: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jean. I do like Irish music :)
DeleteReally? Did you even listen to the song? Jaysus.
DeleteYes I listened ;)
DeleteNicely sung! And extra bonus points for wearing the ugly un-Christmas sweater.
ReplyDeleteUgly? What do you mean? ;)
DeleteOk, if we're running with Irish Christmas folkie music, here are bells and a couple of reels (or something equally danceable) by the Chieftains. Sorry, no moving pictures to watch, but as you'll be leaping, kicking and pirhouetting within three minutes, it doesn't really matter.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHXVCqmbXzw&list=RDLHXVCqmbXzw
Thanks, Jim. Look what you guys have started ...
DeleteBe Thou My Vision and Healing Light A Celtic Prayer
Here is a fun one: Good King Wenceslaus by the Irish Rovers.
DeleteThey do seem very happy :) That's my favorite Christmas carol of all.
DeleteI think the Catholic Church has a great deal to answer for when it comes to the oppression of gay people, but I am a little puzzled as to why Hozier's anti-Catholic song was posted here along with Christmas music: "Take me to [the Catholic] church/I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies . . ."
ReplyDeleteI thought it would be strange to post something by Hozier and not mention the song that made him famous and that was so popular. There are a lot of Irish Catholics who have negative feeling s about the church - not surprising given what the church has done there. Here is an interview in which he talks about that song.
ReplyDeleteThe church and the Irish have had their problems, and I'm sure there is some negative feeling. But I can't forget that it was the church which stood by them, and which they would not give up, from the Battle of Boyne onward, in the face of oppression and unrelenting effort by the British rulers to separate the Irish from their faith.
ReplyDeleteFor someone as young as Hozier - I think he's 25 - the church's recent history in Ireland of lobbying against marriage equality, against abortion, the existence of the Magdalene Laundries, the institutional child abuse would mean more. Remember when Taoiseach Enda Kenny spoke out about the church and the Cloyne report on sex abuse?
ReplyDeleteBeing 25 may justify Hozier for being an ignorant superstar, but somewhere in his Irish background he should have learned:
ReplyDeleteAt Vinegar Hill, o'er the pleasant Slaney,
Our heroes vainly stood back to back,
And the Yeos at Tullow took Father Murphy
And burned his body upon the rack.
God grant you glory, brave Father Murphy
And open heaven to all your men;
The cause that called you may call tomorrow
In another fight for the Green again.
People who criticize their history without knowing it deserve to be criticized for not knowing their history. And why did he have to whine God Rest Ye like Leonard Cohen, who knew he was being ironic, sang Hallelujah?
Yeah, I know all the sings, too. The Republic was supported by both Catholics and Protestants. And some Protestants died for it (the enigmatic Roddy McCorley) as well as Catholics, including the somewhat controversial Father Murphy.
DeleteFWIW and speaking of history, Ireland may be one of the few countries where Jews lived since the 11th century without persecution, with the exception of the 1290 expulsion that was enforced by the English, not the Irish. Here: http://www.esra-magazine.com/blog/post/ireland-jews
I don't think we should assume he's ignorant of history. There is no doubt that the Catholic church's esteem is at an all time low in Ireland ... that's not just my opinion ... and people who live there have every right to be critical of it.
ReplyDeleteEverything you need to know about Ireland's disaffected Catholics
"[...] In 1992, the Irish learned that a powerful and beloved bishop, Eamon Casey, had a fathered a son, and that the Rev. Michael Cleary, the "Singing Priest" with best-selling records and his own radio show, had a secret family with his housekeeper. But the biggest seismic jolt came over the last decade, when the priestly sex-abuse scandal horrified the entire country.
How widespread was the abuse?
The scale was greater in Ireland than in any other country. Across the world, the Vatican routinely protected individual priests who were raping boys and, to a lesser extent, girls, responding to complaints of abuse by transferring offenders to other parishes. Ireland had hundreds of such cases, but because of the church's enormous power there, it was not just individual priests who were involved, but large institutions. Until the 1990s, the church ran orphanages and industrial schools that warehoused 30,000 children deemed delinquents — pickpockets, or the poor, or those with unmarried parents. The 2009 Ryan Report found that thousands of children were savagely raped or molested in these homes, while thousands more were beaten and starved and forced to work. Boys described nights of terror, lying in bed waiting for priests to come and molest them. "In some schools a high level of ritualized beating was routine," the report said. A new scandal has rocked the church, with the recent discovery that up to 4,000 infants and children — many malnourished and poorly treated — had been buried in unmarked graves at homes for unwed mothers run by Catholic nuns.
How have the Irish reacted? The string of revelations has undermined the very legitimacy of the church ......"
Hozier's beef against the Church seems to be different from what you discuss above. In all the various videos I have seen and the interviews I have read, he hasn't mentioned the "abuse crisis." He mentions the "absurd promise" of everlasting life. He apparently objects to the doctrine of Original Sin because he is offended that a child needs to be forgiven for being born in sin. He objects to "institutions" that tell people to be ashamed of their sexuality or sexual orientation or that attempt to tell people they shouldn't use contraception. Basically, his message seems to be that sex is good and natural and that Catholicism is bad. One article quoted him at some length as follows:
Delete********************
He went on, stating that the Church has undeniably institutionalized an irrational "aversion to homosexuality" and how that related to his own music. "It is one that has institutionalized gender inequality as well, dangerous policy over contraception and, in this case, it still harbors an irrational aversion to homosexuality," he continued. "Which in my view I think that is why I was driven to write 'Take Me to Church.' I think the church provides an excuse for homophobia."
********************
As an agnostic well over twice his age, what I find annoying about his entirely facile and unoriginal critique of the Catholic Church is how confident he seems pontificating about the true meaning existence. I find the case in favor of Original Sin almost wholly unconvincing, but I am not prepared to preach to a group of followers (should I ever have any) that it is nonsense. I am highly dubious about life after death, but I wouldn't presume to criticize the Catholic Church for teaching it is a fact.
And of course the huge irony of the idea that sex is beautiful and the Catholic Church just tries to ruin it all is that the "abuse crisis," homophobia, gender inequality, sexual harassment (mostly of women by men) and a whole laundry list of other unfortunate facts of life from the dawn of history to the present day are part and parcel of human sexuality. The idea that we would live in some kind of idyllic world if we could all just have sex with whomever we want to whenever we want to is that a great many deep-rooted problems of human civilization spring from the desire to have sex with whomever we want to whenever we want to. A tremendous amount of what we dislike about society is the result of people acting on "natural" desires.
David :)
ReplyDeleteHe's a good singer and an interesting songwriter. I was looking for a Christmas song and remembered he did one. I didn't post his songs because of what he believes about Catholicism, though I think it's kind of topical.