St. Philomena & Pink Floyd

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dizzy_dave

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I have a book called “I Ask St. Philomena”, by Rick Medina (Our Sunday Visitor, 2003).

Has anyone read this book? If so was it good?

I see on the page before the table of contents there is a quote:

“Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!”
  • Pink Floyd
I am having a hard time trying to figure our why a quote from this band would be in a Catholic book, I find it very odd.

I had always found them (Pink Floyd) at odds with my Catholic Faith. I found this website that gives the following quote from them:

jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/devils_music.htm

Pink Floyd sings, in the song “Sheep”, :
***“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want . . .
With bright knives he RELEASETH MY SOUL
He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places . .
For lo, he hath great power and GREAT HUNGER.”
 
Yes. That last quote is from the track Sheep from the Album Animals

The concept album is loosely based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm　and the lines not so much a direct attack on Christianity per se as an indictment of the the way the general public allows itself to be mistreated and abused. I am guessing that he parodies prayer to make th point that religion could facilitate this (a kind of “opium for tha masses” idea.) In that way it is anti-Christian I suppose but that isn’t really the point of the song.

These lyrics were written by Roger Waters, who would probably offend you by many of his songs.

Having said that, although he is an atheist and rather insensitive to Catholic sensibilities, he’s not directly anti-Catholic (to my knowledge).

He is very anti-war (he lost his father in WW2 while still baby) and anti-TV and has attacked Thatcher, Reagan, Bush, Blair and Hilary Clinton. He is a supporter of Obama.

He is very much involved with charity apparently.

The first quote you mentioned was from the song Shine on You Crazy Diamond on the Album Wish You Were Here which is a song dedicated to the lost member of Pink Floyd, Syd Barret who suffered from mental illness.

This was also written by Roger Waters and although you might find the use of the term “martyr” odd, I think he meant that Syd was a martyr to his excesses.

I would certainly suggest that Roger Waters solo work be avoided if you are sensitive to lyrical content, but Pink Floyd (with the exception of the Final Cut which is a Waters creation perfomed by Pink Floyd) has some fairly safe stuff.

Wish you Were Here
and
Dark Side of the Moon

I would say wouldn’t offend

Animals
and
The Wall

might

Hope that helps.

God bless
 
I use to have high school class mates that would watch Pink Floyd’s the Wall and get stoned to make the movie more of “a trip.”
 
dizzy_dave said:
I use to have high school class mates that would watch Pink Floyd’s the Wall and get stoned to make the movie more of “a trip.”
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Me too. And as I said then, you don’t need grass to make that movie a trip. Just Gerald Scarfe.
🙂

Ironically Comfortably Numb is pretty much anti-drugs.

Waters lost his friend Barret to LSD so he tends to be pretty down on them.
 
dizzy_dave said:
I have a book called “I Ask St. Philomena”, by Rick Medina (Our Sunday Visitor, 2003).

Has anyone read this book? If so was it good?

I see on the page before the table of contents there is a quote:

“Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!”
  • Pink Floyd
I am having a hard time trying to figure our why a quote from this band would be in a Catholic book, I find it very odd.

I had always found them (Pink Floyd) at odds with my Catholic Faith. I found this website that gives the following quote from them:

jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/devils_music.htm

Pink Floyd sings, in the song “Sheep”, :
***“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want . . .
With bright knives he RELEASETH MY SOUL
He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places . .
For lo, he hath great power and GREAT HUNGER.”
Click to expand...
I would certainly be very leary of Pink Floyd, as you certainly seem to be. However, I would also be careful with the website you included because it also takes issue with various aspects of Catholicism (but that I shall leave for the Apologetics thread). It is probably also why I prefer Classical Music to some of the more “popular” music coming out today. I hope that his helps. :o
 
dizzy_dave said:
jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/devils_music.htm
Click to expand...
You have no idea how many angry words flashed into my head upon seeing that URL. :mad: That is one of the WORST sources to get ANY guidance on faith! It’s an anti-semetic, ANTI-CATHOLIC, anti-music, anti-logic, anti-everything HATE SITE. If not a satire seeing how ridiculous everything is! The freak-out music when you load their pages makes it really unprofessional. And I think this is one of the sites that warns that hell is literally in the center of the earth, and that’s where 90%+ of people are going because they aren’t protestant. Plus it doesn’t even cite any sources! It’s almost as if it’s some website some bored teenager slapped together…
 
CTA1967 said:
You have no idea how many angry words flashed into my head upon seeing that URL. :mad: That is one of the WORST sources to get ANY guidance on faith! It’s an anti-semetic, ANTI-CATHOLIC, anti-music, anti-logic, anti-everything HATE SITE. If not a satire seeing how ridiculous everything is! The freak-out music when you load their pages makes it really unprofessional. And I think this is one of the sites that warns that hell is literally in the center of the earth, and that’s where 90%+ of people are going because they aren’t protestant. Plus it doesn’t even cite any sources! It’s almost as if it’s some website some bored teenager slapped together…
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Sorry about that. It was the first site I came across that talked about Pink Floyd and its dangers. I wasn’t aware of the background of these folks.
 
Back to the original question, does anyone know why that quote is in the book?
 
JFT said:
I would certainly be very leary of Pink Floyd, as you certainly seem to be. However, I would also be careful with the website you included because it also takes issue with various aspects of Catholicism (but that I shall leave for the Apologetics thread). It is probably also why I prefer Classical Music to some of the more “popular” music coming out today. I hope that his helps. :o
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with Pink Floyd in my opinion;, but since you feel there is, please share.
 
Nothing wrong with Pink Floyd in my opinion;, but since you feel there is, please share.
Click to expand...
Indeed, If not please reply intellingently.

John
 
dizzy_dave said:
I have a book called “I Ask St. Philomena”, by Rick Medina (Our Sunday Visitor, 2003).

Has anyone read this book? If so was it good?

I see on the page before the table of contents there is a quote:

“Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!”
  • Pink Floyd
I am having a hard time trying to figure our why a quote from this band would be in a Catholic book, I find it very odd.

I had always found them (Pink Floyd) at odds with my Catholic Faith. I found this website that gives the following quote from them:

jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/devils_music.htm

Pink Floyd sings, in the song “Sheep”, :
***“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want . . .
With bright knives he RELEASETH MY SOUL
He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places . .
For lo, he hath great power and GREAT HUNGER.”
Click to expand...
It’s got nothing to do with who’s saying it and everything to do with the words being said. Authors sometimes quote inspiring things that they’ve heard from the oddest sources sometimes. I mean if he had of put the lyric there without saying where it’s from that would be stealing or disrespectful. It is in no way an endorsement of Pink Floyd, it is an endorsement of a Specific Lyric/line that happened to be said by Pink Floyd… the oddest of sources for such an inspiringly appropriate quote.

Sometimes writers use this technique of quotation as a delibrate contradiction, to make a point in showing that even the oddest of people say the most inspiring things sometimes(but other times not).
 
Wabrams,

At JFT…and I really shouldn’t have exen used it there…My apologies for the lack of clarity and my crankiness…I’m a big Floyd fan.

John
 
wabrams said:
Nothing wrong with Pink Floyd in my opinion;, but since you feel there is, please share.
Click to expand...
Well for starters lots of people use their music for getting stoned, why would that be if they are so wholesome?

And the quote I gave in an earlier post - if they were so wholesome (I realize they may not have written it) why sing someone elses **** lyrics?

What does Pink Floyd have to do with Catholicism and the saints anyway?
 
My guess is they just used that particular quote because they liked the quote and they thought it fit the saint well, not because of anything to do with the band.
 
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