Something for the pain…

A number have been asking about the song I played at the end of my talk Sunday evening at All Souls. So voila.

This is probably admitting a serious gap in my musical appreciation, but I knew next to nothing about the singer, Pierce Pettis. A friend only gave me this album on Friday, and I hadn’t had the chance to listen to it until Sunday afternoon while doing final prep on Luke 7:36-50. This song leaped right out at me and fitted the bill perfectly.

Something for the Pain
Pierce Pettis (from the album: That Kind of Love, 2009)

This time you might be cured, you think,
but you’re not sure what of,
Life is a mystery we don’t have time to solve,
Transcendental meditation, accidental medication,
A lot of things can sure screw upyour brain,

Let me give you something for the pain.

Well, you can go to church on Sunday,
You can put on your best clothes;
but God always sees you naked,
with all your sins exposed,
Yeah, down here with the savages,
in a world of freed Barabbases,
Where nuns carry guns to protect themselves from rape,

Oh, let me give you something for the pain.
I can’t make the bad stuff go away,
but I can offer shelter from the rain,
And the wind that blows the candles out,
well, it also fans the flame,
Let me give you something for the pain.

And absence makes the heart grow fonder,
until the heart explodes,
And out beyond the wild blue yonder,
space is dark and cold,
Yeah, but distance is the aphrodisiac
that keeps the sailors coming back
to siren lovers calling them by name,
Said, let me give you something for the pain.

You can’t make the bad stuff go away,
but you offer shelter from the rain,
And the wind that blows the candles out,
well, it also fans this flame,
Oh, let me give you something for the pain.
Let me give you something for the pain.

You can get this and other songs on iTunes here