Don’t touch me[1]“Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father” -John 20:17; indeed, nor have any of us.
Hands all over[2]Second single from their 1989 major-label debut Louder Than Love; the warning shot just before Grunge blew up the mainstream. the eastern border
You know what, I think we’re falling[3]“Adam fell that men might be…” Yet we also “believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.” That is, we must always be … Continue reading
From composure
Hands all over western culture
Ruffling feathers and turning eagles into vultures[4]“Turning eagles into vultures”. We collectively transform from Isaiah’s own “mount up like eagles” to seek after the higher thoughts and higher ways of the Almighty, to … Continue reading
Into vultures
Got my arms around baby brother
Put your hands away
Your gonna kill your mother, gonna kill your mother[5]Phoenix just shattered the American record for most consecutive days in a row with temperatures above 110 F, amidst which even cacti have died. A fourth of America just suffered under a … Continue reading
Kill your mother
And I love her, yeah
I love her
Hands all over the coastal waters[6]“I reign from the rivers to the ends of the earth…” I don’t need to remind you who first said that.
What is worst, but we have been enabling that rule of “blood and … Continue reading
The crew men thank her
Then lay down their oily blanket[7]The Exxon Valdez spill had occurred off the coast of Alaska the same year this song was released; we’ve had plenty of others since, like Deep Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, which unfortunately … Continue reading
Hands all over the inland forest[8]Soundgarden was based out of Seattle, WA, near where the lumber industry has been felling and clear-cutting trees for generations.
In a striking motion trees fall down like dying soldiers
Yeah like dying soldiers[9]Joseph Smith urged against killing a rattlesnake found by Zion’s Camp, arguing: “Let them alone–don’t hurt them! How will the serpent ever lose his venom, while the servants … Continue reading
Got my arms around baby brother[10]Absolutely killer riff, by the way, I hope y’all are listening along, too.
Put your hands away
Your gonna kill your mother, gonna kill your mother
Kill your mother
And I love her[11]Probably a stretch, but maybe a subtle allusion to the Beatles’ 1964 hit “And I Love Her”, perhaps? Certainly “She gives me everything/And tenderly” is a fair … Continue reading
I love her
I love her
Hands all over the peasants daughter[12]Likely an allusion to the apocryphal practice of Prima nocta, the right of the feudal lord among his serfs to take the bride on her wedding night. The modern word for this, of course, is rape, which … Continue reading
She’s our bride, she’ll never make it out alive[13]None of us will, not even the Lords of the earth.
Hands all over words I utter
Change them into things you want to
Like balls of clay[14]To treat our natural resources as dumb balls of clay to be molded and exploited and violated according to our desires is to commit the sin of unrighteous dominion. If this life is a test of our … Continue reading
Put your hands away[15]That is, we must repent–one of the first principles of the Gospel.
Yeah, put your hands away
Put your hands away
Gonna kill your mother
Gonna kill your mother
Gonna kill your mother
And I love her
I love her
I love her
I love her[16]If we have not love for the earth–just as if we have not love for anything else–then we are nothing (Moroni 7:46).
And she loves me[17]Our Mother Earth loves us as sincerely as our Heavenly Father–they are not opponents (as has often been posited by the Western religious tradition) but compliments–yet still neither … Continue reading, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
References
| ↑1 | “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father” -John 20:17; indeed, nor have any of us. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Second single from their 1989 major-label debut Louder Than Love; the warning shot just before Grunge blew up the mainstream. |
| ↑3 | “Adam fell that men might be…” Yet we also “believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.” That is, we must always be falling. |
| ↑4 | “Turning eagles into vultures”. We collectively transform from Isaiah’s own “mount up like eagles” to seek after the higher thoughts and higher ways of the Almighty, to instead feast upon the dead below–which is also a fair summary for how we presently profiteer off the murder of the earth beneath our feet. |
| ↑5 | Phoenix just shattered the American record for most consecutive days in a row with temperatures above 110 F, amidst which even cacti have died. A fourth of America just suffered under a record-breaking heat-dome, as did northern China and southern Europe–and that only a couple summers after the Pacific Northwest suffered the same, when a billion aquatic lifeforms along the Puget Sound boiled alive.
Canada is also presently having a record-breaking wildfire season, and we are only a few years removed from record-breaking wildfires in California, Montana, Brazil, Europe, and more–when Utah was also choked with the worst air quality in the world–and will surely see more of in the near future. Annual water yields for the Colorado River that serves Arizona, Utah, and Nevada (where so much of the Church membership currently resides) have steadily declined for over two decades now. The Great Salt Lake only recovered two feet of water level this past winter–even in spite of the rare, heavy snows–instead of the eight necessary to stave off its imminent and utter evaporation. That is, it is not metaphor at all, but quite literal, when the Earth itself cries out in Moses 7:48: “Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me?” Our pollution of the earth is itself a great wickedness. We really are gonna kill our mother, because we refuse to keep our hands off her. |
| ↑6 | “I reign from the rivers to the ends of the earth…” I don’t need to remind you who first said that.
What is worst, but we have been enabling that rule of “blood and horror upon the earth” through our own selfish exploitations of the same, taking as gospel truth the literally-Satanic line: “You can have anything in this world with money.” |
| ↑7 | The Exxon Valdez spill had occurred off the coast of Alaska the same year this song was released; we’ve had plenty of others since, like Deep Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, which unfortunately (if ironically) keeps this song evergreen. |
| ↑8 | Soundgarden was based out of Seattle, WA, near where the lumber industry has been felling and clear-cutting trees for generations. |
| ↑9 | Joseph Smith urged against killing a rattlesnake found by Zion’s Camp, arguing: “Let them alone–don’t hurt them! How will the serpent ever lose his venom, while the servants of God possess the same disposition and continue to make war upon it? Men must become harmless, before the brute creation; and when men lose their vicious dispositions and cease to destroy the animal race, the lion and the lamb can dwell together, and the sucking child can play with the serpent in safety.” Yet instead of learning to love nature, we have fought against it, as though soldiers in a war.
The irony, of course, is that the war against nature is the one we are all collectively guaranteed to lose, because we are also a part of nature. We are actively combating our only allies: the trees which fight so nobly to create the oxygen and prevent the soil erosion humanity needs to survive, are the ones we still chop down with ruthless efficiency. It is not just the trees going down like soldiers, but us as well. |
| ↑10 | Absolutely killer riff, by the way, I hope y’all are listening along, too. |
| ↑11 | Probably a stretch, but maybe a subtle allusion to the Beatles’ 1964 hit “And I Love Her”, perhaps? Certainly “She gives me everything/And tenderly” is a fair description of our relationship with our mother earth as well–or at least the relationship we should have with her. |
| ↑12 | Likely an allusion to the apocryphal practice of Prima nocta, the right of the feudal lord among his serfs to take the bride on her wedding night. The modern word for this, of course, is rape, which is also a fair description for how we are currently violating our mother earth with the same level of vicious entitlement. |
| ↑13 | None of us will, not even the Lords of the earth. |
| ↑14 | To treat our natural resources as dumb balls of clay to be molded and exploited and violated according to our desires is to commit the sin of unrighteous dominion. If this life is a test of our stewardship, then we are all failing it–and if we cannot be entrusted with the care of this world, then who will commit to our hands the true riches? |
| ↑15 | That is, we must repent–one of the first principles of the Gospel. |
| ↑16 | If we have not love for the earth–just as if we have not love for anything else–then we are nothing (Moroni 7:46). |
| ↑17 | Our Mother Earth loves us as sincerely as our Heavenly Father–they are not opponents (as has often been posited by the Western religious tradition) but compliments–yet still neither heaven nor earth can look upon our selfish sins with the least degree of allowance. |