"This was the song that started it all. I felt so inspired at a viewing of 'Pan' at the Art Gallery of NSW, I felt the urge to write a song about it. Go take a look at it and I'm sure you'll understand.
There were a lot of things I loved about that painting. First, was that Sydney Long and his contemporaries had taken the most sensual of European figures from the pagan tradition, and placed them in the context of the Australian bush. It was my favourite two worlds coming together.
More so - I loved that the young bathers in the painting were revelling in their natural world without any hint of restraint or shame.
I have read that Long's painting was controversial at the time. it didn't particularly please the establishment, who felt it too exotic for Australia's brand of Christian conservatism.
In recent years I have felt anger for the wrongs committed in the name of institutionalised religion, and the various ways it still warps our politics, incites wars and excuses hatred.
I love very many religious people. What I've lacked for a long time was the means to explain to them that while I reject their Gods and those pedalling those Gods for profit, I don't reject my friends. I am not out to ridicule their devotion.
So how do you approach such a subject in a positive way? My answer was 'Maypole': to detail the joy I feel at being free of those constraints. That freedom should be celebrated with the same exuberance as the naked nymphs and satyrs in 'Pan'."
-- Brett Winterford
lyrics
LYRICS
Pity our poor heathen souls
There'll be no fifty virgins and no gates of gold when we die
Well, we die, there's so much we can't know
We have much to live for here let alone some place else we're supposed to revere
It's not much of a life if you're living in fear of what comes after
I don't want to die, but not 'cos I'm scared of hell
Let's you and I make peace tonight with life itself
I will marry my dear girl for the good hearted creature she is to the world
For the choices she makes, not the faith of her ancestor's dreaming
And our child, born free of sin, will dance around the maypole, and instinctively love everything
This world that we find ourselves in is a miracle enough to believe in.
I don't want to die, but not 'cos I'm scared of hell
Let's you and I make peace tonight with life itself
With you and I, my darling, I'm beside myself.
credits
from The Greenthumb EP,
released June 10, 2012
Written by Brett Winterford (c) 2012
Produced by Josh Schuberth
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