A Different Interpretation: Take Me to Church by Hozier

Sergei Polunin, "Take Me to Church" by Hozier, Directed by David LaChapelle

If you haven't seen that video, I highly advise watching it and if you have seen it, I highly advise re-watching it because it's pretty good. Admittedly, this video is one of those things that I had a small obsession over at once point, playing it over and over, analyzing every detail. The fact that I was also obsessing over the song too when the video came out didn't help.

But let's not talk about my slightly embarrassing tendency to listen/watch things over and over if I like them too much. Let's instead talk about the song Take me to Church by Hozier.

When this song came out, Hozier told everyone what he had written this song about marriage, specifically gay marriage. At the time when he wrote the song, some people were having trouble obtaining the right to get married due to their sex. From what I can tell, the song compares love to religion in a way that ultimately puts love as being more important/valuable. Of course, I don't believe that Hozier was intending to insult religion, but rather he wanted to show how being in love with someone can be, on some levels, a religious experience.

I'm going to be honest here, it took me a while to decide exactly how I felt about the lyrics of this song. I was certainly more into it when I thought that the words were "I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your life." In reality they're, "I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies," which has a bit more of a negative connotation in my opinion. After all, lies aren't good.

However, I have found that if you listen to this song with the idea that it is about a thing, a passion, rather than a person, it becomes much more meaningful. That's where the ballet dance comes in.

Ballet is an extremely difficult sport. The dancers practically ruin their feet and, debatably, their lives, dedicating everything to this medium of dance. Just as Hozier can compare being in love with a person to a religious experience, one can compare a passion of theirs to a religious experience.

If you love something like dancing or maybe blogging, you may dedicate a horribly large portion of your time to it. In a way, you become married to this hobby. Perhaps the "lies" shrine you worship at refers to the unobtainable level of fame you ultimately desire, but will never have. Yet, despite you will never achieve ultimate fame, you love this hobby and will continue dedicating your time and your life to it.

Now that you've read all my words, I would advise going back to the video and watching it again with the idea of this song being about a passion in mind. Maybe you will find a new appreciation for it like I did.