Mark Hollis’ Christianity: Either Real or Real

I became a Catholic—after seven years of teenage atheism—because of the lyrics of the album, “The Colour of Spring,” by the English band Talk Talk. I didn’t know Mark Hollis, the writer of those lyrics, and I don’t claim that he actually practiced what he preached. But preached he did!

First, I should really cool down. I mean, I am really, really worked up. Second, I should just continue grading finals—which is my main job and my primary task at the moment Third, I really just need a year’s sabbatical to write about the English band Talk Talk. The topic: Why Mark Hollis strove to be as Catholic as possible in his lyrics.

After reading the frustratingly stunted and anemic biography, Ben Wardle’s Mark Hollis: A Perfect Silence—which could have been brilliant with another paragraph here or there getting into the soul of the admittedly elusive Mark Hollis—I’ve just finished reading, for a second time, Gary Steel’s Talk Talk On Track.

And, man, am I frustrated or what? Steel gets so many things right, such as noting that Talk Talk is progressive rock, but he completely misunderstand’s Hollis’s lyrics, dismissing them as nonsense. Here are some of his thoughts:

The religious aspect can’t go without comment. Mark has been quoted as saying that “Happiness is Easy” was about the holy wars, hence the reference to the “little ships of Galilee.” From this point on, Mark’s lyrics will be scattered with Biblical references and imagery, leading to suggestions that he was secretly religious. In interviews, he denied the inference and it seems likely that the Christian imagery was simply a mechanism to convey meaning through the cultural references he grew up with. Popular music’s favorite wordsmith, Bob Dylan, and other musical poets like Leonard Cohen, have often called upon such imagery in their work. And, we shouldn’t’ forget the song’s title. Is happiness easy? Of course not. It’s one of the great ironic/sarcastic song titles.”

He’s not the only one. My beloved Steven Wilson in his autobiography, makes a similar statement, and several histories of (progressive) rock do as well. All religious gibberish that means nothing, these critics cry about Hollis’s lyrics.

Most critics seem to think that Hollis’s lyrics are just balderdash, at best sounds to complement the music.

If Hollis had sung about Christianity on only a song or two, I wouldn’t disagree. But, there’s a huge continuity of Christian lyrics in what he sings. He might not mean them. He might not have lived them out in his own life.  But, he clearly strove for something greater than himself. And, if someone were someday to list Talk Talk as “Christian rock,” I wouldn’t completely balk, though I would probably add something such as psychedelic and non-practicing Christian aspirational rock.

I’ve admitted this elsewhere, but let me admit again: Talk Talk’s lyrics to The Colour of Spring significantly affected me. And I became a Catholic—after seven years of teenage atheism—because of those lyrics, so I’m certainly not without my own bias. I had been in love with The Colour of Spring since the spring of 1986, but it wasn’t until the spring of 1988 that, in a London record store, I finally read the lyrics (the lyrics weren’t printed in the U.S. releases). I was, to be certain, totally blown away by them. I could never recount the emotion that overcame me as I read:

Take good care of what the priests say
‘After death it’s so much fun’
Little sheep, don’t let your feet stray

Happiness is easy
(Joy be written on the Earth)
(And the sky above)
(Jesus, star that shines so bright)
(Gather us in love)

Take that cynically if you want, but I read those words as intensely personal. I mean come on, “Joy be written on the sky.” And, “gather us in love.” How dense do you have to be not to realize that Hollis means this?  There’s nothing cynical at all in the song—only a proper acknowledgement of love, specifically, God’s love for us all.

Or, how about April 5^th? Is it also pagan? Oh yeah, but so was St. Francis. Catholicism never rejected paganism, it baptized it.

Here she comes
Laughter in her kiss
Here she comes
Shame upon her lips

Or, again, the finale of The Colour of Spring, “Time it’s Time”:

Babel of dreams unwinds in memory

As bad, as bad becomes
It’s not a part of you

And love is only sleeping
Wrapped in neglect

Time it’s time to live
Time it’s time to live through the pain

Time it’s time to live, now that it’s all over
Time it’s time to live
Time it’s time to live through the pain
Now that it’s over, now that it’s over

Even the following line, “kissing a grey garden” seems like a reference to purgatory.

Then we turn to the mind-boggling album, Spirit of Eden (1988), arguably the finest statement of progressive pop ever written. As Hollis notes on side one, “The Rainbow,” itself divided into three parts.

Summer bled of Eden
Easter’s heir uncrowns
Another destiny lies leeched
Upon the ground

Everybody needs someone to live by
Everybody needs someone
Everybody needs someone to live by
Rage on omnipotent

Everybody needs someone to live by, rage on, omnipotent. Holy Moses, folks, what more do you want? God, take over the world and rule through your might power!

But, the real meaning of 1988’s Spirit of Eden comes in the final song “wealth.”

Create upon my flesh
Create approach upon my breath
Bring me salvation if I fear
Take my freedom

Create upon my breath
Create reflection on my flesh
The wealth of love
Bear me a witness to the years
Take my freedom

Create upon my flesh
Create a home within my head
Take my freedom for giving me a sacred love

Compare this now, to the Prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits:

Dearest Lord,
teach me to be generous;
teach me to serve You as You deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labour and not to ask for reward
save that of knowing I am doing Your Will.

As far as I can tell, Hollis’s version is a re-telling of Ignatius’s. In my head, it’s almost word for word.

And, then, we get to Talk Talk 1991 masterpiece album, Laughing Stock. With innumerable references to Christ and the gospels, Hollis includes:

Lifted up
Reflective in returning love you sing
Errant days filled me
Fed me illusion’s gate
In temperate stream
Welled up within me
A hunger uncurbed by nature’s calling
Seven sacraments to song
Versed in Christ
Should strength desert me
They’ll come
They come

Come on. “Seven sacraments to song.” At this point, it’s no longer even plausibly Anglican/Church of England (with its two sacraments, baptism and communion). It’s either Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. Either way, we’re way out of the realm of “playing” religion here. Either Hollis is serious, or he’s a dead liar. How could we not believe that Hollis is serious about the faith, even if, like all of us, he failed to practice it perfectly?

Again, I didn’t know Hollis, and I don’t claim that he actually practiced what he preached. But, preached he did!

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The featured image, uploaded by Robert at w:Picasa, is a photograph of “Hahoe Folk Village in Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea, taken on 9 October 2005. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.