Spiritual Impulses in Rock and Pop Music Lyrics
This song may be catchy partly because it relates to a deep level of the soul: the initial separation from the field of unity. On the way back we may be confronted with wounds from the past.
Oh Sister, like many Dylan songs, can be interpreted on various levels: a relationship of siblings, a love affair, possibly with biographical references? From a spiritual perspective, it may be the spirit aspect addressing the soul aspect in man.
Harry Styles' Sign of the Times may remind us to accept lessons of karma, let go of our old life, and break through to a new state of being.
Cohen's Ballad of the Absent Mare is the most spiritual rock and pop song I have encountered because it describes the full path rather than certain aspects.
Jethro Tull's Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day can be read as a description of how a seeker leaves his old life behind and overcomes karma.
Dylan's song about death and grace may hint at a maturing spirit-soul that leads to a renewed state of being.
With his song The Ferryman, Ralph McTell made a memorial to Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and its timeless Hindu and Buddhist wisdom.
What sounds like a tragic love affair, can be seen as instructions on how to purify one's soul to regain the majestic soul-garment.
It is a crucial moment for a seeker to realize: Nothing in this world can satisfy my deepest longing. I have reached the border - time to embark on a new path.
This song may be regarded as presumptuous: God talking directly to Leonard Cohen. We can also read a very humble attitude from the lyrics.