There are certain songs that just resonate with you. Whether that song recreates a moment in time or is just one that you really like, these songs are the songs that helped create the person you are and were a constant companion in the journey called life.
Today we continue exploring those songs in my life and what they mean to me. This is Those Certain Songs. Today we discuss the song Severed Goddess Hand by The Meat Puppets.
The Song:
Title: Severed Goddess Hand
Artist: The Meat puppets
Album: Too High To Die
The Lyrics:
The horizon breaks to pieces
And the mainline is the twilight
And the giant net has a perfect window
Passage through has the ticket screaming
I want a mind
I’ll tell you what I find
No severed goddess hand
No plaster in my eye
No picture of a lamb
No goddess hand have I
I’m a picture of a goddess
Of a planet in the window
Through a tiny hole in the giant curtain
I have watched as it stood undressing
I want more more eyes
I want to see more lies
No severed goddess hand
No plaster in my eye
No picture of a lamb
No goddess hand have I
In the silence of the neurons
Where the pathway has been printed
There’s a gleaming hope for an understanding
Timing’s gone and there’s been no planning
Two heads, one dream
Two-thirds a crowd it seems.
No severed goddess hand
No plaster in my eye
No picture of a lamb
No goddess hand have I
No severed goddess hand
No plaster in my eye
No picture of a lamb
No goddess hand have I
What it means to me:
It was through Nirvana that I, like so many others, was introduced to this band. In late 1993 we were treated to the sounds of the Meat Puppets via Nirvana’s most remembered (and final) television appearance, Nirvana Unplugged. In that setting the brothers Kirkwood would provide us with music that would change the course of our listening habits for years to come.
The next year, after the death of a certain frontman, I found the latest released from the Puppets and found what would soon become a mainstay for me in my musical collection, an album called Too High To Die. While this album is filled with incredible songs that could be considered instant classics, it was the fourth track on the album, Severed Goddess Hand, that struck me.
I was not sure what the song itself was about other than it felt different than the rest of the lineup, more ethereal and, because of that, felt special. It made me think of the greco-roman mythologies blended with my games of Dungeons and Dragons. For some reason I had associated the Severed Goddess Hand with the Hand of Glory which, if you know what that is, was a pretty morbid connection to say the least. What could possibly sever a Goddess Hand? Then it dawned on me. The lyric ‘Through a tiny hole in the giant curtain/I have watched as it stood undressing’ he, the singer, is peaking through a keyhole at a woman undressing and all he can see is her hand. That hand has become his entire world for that moment and this song describes the feelings he has as he longs to see the rest of this goddess he has spied upon. His entire understanding of this person is based on this hand and it is his Severed Goddess Hand that gives him hope that one day he will be privileged with a view of her entire being. While this revelation doesn’t make it much better, the singer is a peeping tom at best, at least it isn’t about severed limbs and dark magicks.
That being said, every time I hear this song, I am transported back to the mid nineties, to a time where I was still discovering much about myself and where I belonged in the greater scheme of things. In a way, I too was just glimpsing the Severed Goddess Hand of the future, only catching the faint glimpse of what my future looked like in full, making me want it all the more.
To this day, this song continues to be one of my favorite.
Late to the Game 9/26/2020
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed Those Certain Songs. If you would like to read more about music you can find my Music Reviews Here.
Additionally, I have a weekly series called Key Movies Of My Life that comes out every Thursday and also check out some retro tv goodness with the ongoing series Retro TV Reviews.
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