Fundamentally Wrong

Download “Fundamentally Wrong”

Story

As far as the lyrics are concerned, the song is basically a different take on the generic “Religion sucks” angle. Unlike almost everyone I know who went to a Catholic school, I don’t believe religion is inherently evil. I don’t even believe Catholicism is inherently evil. However, within Catholicism (And any religion really), there is a small group of Fundamentalist nuts who feel that anything that is unfamiliar to them or that they don’t agree with is automatically spawned from hell. This is what I’m ranting against in this song.

Musically, The song is strange, to say the least. It has all the weird time signatures (5/8, 7/8, and 9/8, to name the primary ones) and abrupt changes of progressive rock, while at the same time dispensing with the three-minute solo section found in so many prog tunes.

Listening to this song again reminded me just how buried in progressive rock my songwriting was at the time, lyrically and especially musically. Two fun notes on this song are: 1. I clearly had no idea what I was doing when it came to choosing tone for both the bass and guitar here–yikes, listen to all that treble on the bass at the start of the song! 2. I believe the verses are about as low as my voice ever goes on a recording, at least one that I’ve done. I may also have recently read Dante’s Inferno when I wrote this (Hence the line about “icy Hell” near the end of the song).

Lyrics

1. In the beginning
The light shone through
Then came the creatures
And human beings
He set them loose
Gave them free will
This was the being’s
Grave mistake

Chorus. You may not want me
You may not need me
You may reject me
You may condemn me but
You can’t deny it
It eats inside you
You’ve warped the message
Corruption drags you down!

2. In time they grew
To use the thought
They saw the power
That they’d been granted
So they began
To twist the teachings
So they’d destroy all
Opposition

Chorus

(Whispers) Preaching the basics
Interpreting none
Exerting their message
Their will be done
You judge all the others
Exempting yourself
You say those that differ
Are going to hell

They persecute those who are different
They seek to create the divine
You only trail your own dogma
You feast on your own bloody wine

3. But in the end
Death comes for all
They will be sentenced
Eternally
To dwell with Satan
In icy Hell
And cry in torment
For their misdeeds

Chorus