Joan Osborne - One of Us
One of Us is a song written by Eric Bazilian (of The Hooters) and originally released by Joan Osborne. Released in March 1995 on the album Relish and produced by Rick Chertoff, it became a top 40 hit in November of that year.
Bazilian discussed the song in an interview, saying "I wrote that song one night — the quickest song I ever wrote — to impress a girl. Which worked, because we’re married and have two kids. But we were in the middle of writing Joan’s album, which was a group effort with Rick Chertoff and Joan and Rob and I, and I did a demo of “One of Us,” this wacky little demo which I ended up putting as a hidden track on the CD of my first solo record, and I played [it] for them. And it really hadn’t even occurred to me that it was something that Joan might do, but Rick, in his wisdom, asked Joan if she thought she could sing it. And I think it was better that he asked it that way rather than “Do you want to sing it?” Because the answer to that might not have been yes. But she definitely said she could sing it, and we did a little live demo of a guitar and her singing it. And when I got into my car and popped the cassette in, I started practicing the Grammy speech that I should’ve gotten to give."
About lyrics
The song deals with various aspects of belief in God by asking questions inviting the listener to consider how they might relate to God, such as "Would you call [God's name] to his face?" or "Would you want to see [God's face] if seeing meant that you would have to believe in things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets?" The title of the song comes from religious statement, "What if God was one of us?"
The album version starts off with four lines from a Gospel music song "The Heavenly Airplane":
Oh, one of these nights at about twelve o'clock
This whole earth is gonna reel and rock
Saints will tremble and cry for pain
For the Lord's gonna come in his heaven airplane.
Music video
Directed by Mark Seliger and Fred Woodward, the video was mainly shot on Coney Island, with various attractions like rollercoasters, ferris wheels and the New York Aquarium shown, interchanged with the vintage-looking shots in sepia and Joan singing in front of the camera.
The lyrics:
If God had a name, what would it be
And would you call it to his face
If you were faced with him in all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question?
And yeah, yeah, yeah, God is great,
Yeah, yeah, God is good,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home.
If God had a face, what would it look like?
And would you want to see
If seeing ment that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus, the saints and all the prophets.
And yeah, yeah, yeah, God is great,
Yeah, yeah, God is good,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
He's trying to make his way home
Back up to heaven all alone
Nobody calling on the phone
Except for the pope maybe in Rome.
And yeah, yeah, yeah, God is great,
Yeah, yeah, God is good,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
Just trying to make his way home
Like a holy rolling stone
Back up to heaven all alone
Just trying to make his way home
Nobody calling on the phone
Except for the pope maybe in Rome.
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu