Augustine (Lyrics)

[manleyj]

From Vienna's Scapbook 5/16/2008 - postcard from the studio, day 1

"One song, “Augustine,” spent three years in purgatory before finally clawing its way out in March, then jostled onto the recording schedule despite my misgivings. Hearing it in the studio today, I think it may have a chance of going on the album. Scrappy little fighter, that one."

[snowyphile]

[quote="roofboy179"][quote="arcsol"]ok. i'm stumped. why 'augustine'?[/quote]

I have no idea if this is relevant or not, nor if it's actually a fact or if I just dreamed it up while procrastinating one day...

But I think I heard somewhere that theres some sort of Augustine out there in the american Southwest. Along some trail in New Mexico, maybe? Anyway, I think it was a sanctuary along that trail where travelers could rest and relax, without traveling along the dreaded, hot, sunny desert.

If not, well... I think it matches the song anyway. :D[/quote]

I think you're onto something:

St. Augustine Mission (Tohono O’odham) Chuichu,
Tohono O’odham Reservation, Arizona

[RhineGold]

Saint Augustine's doctrine holds three major truths:

1) That the Bible and religion are more metaphorical than literal, and we are to interpret what materials we are given based on our own reason, and not to take everything at face value.

2) That Original Sin was not the actual act of disobeying and eating of the Fruit of Knowledge, but the crime of arrogance and pride that precipitated the taking and eating of the fruit. As a result, Augustinian thought holds that the intention is the true weight, not the deed. Therefore, the desire to be redeemed and saved is the first step towards true salvation.

and

3) That the "True Church" is made up of two components - the Church Visible and the Church Invisible - the public act of submission and worship, and the private, internal understanding of God.

Vienna described this song (at a Nashville, TN concert, fall of 2009-ish?) as the story of the "religious experience I haven't had yet."

To me, it is a love song to the concept of private understanding, and of reaching out to faith and spirituality, without necessarily adhering to the confines of religion. The speaker wants to be with God - to know God, and to be loved by God for what they are, and that is the first step in that direction. 'God, please, let the desire to know and understand you carry the weight of the actual deed - let me be your Augustine.'

I am not a religious person, but I am a spiritual person, and I follow Augustinian thought and teachings in a lot of ways.

This song speaks to me in ways I can't even describe - it is every wordless, senseless declaration and desire, every yearning for God and Grace, all the love and hope and want that I could never express, articulated in a way I could never manage to voice.

[Cooler Near The Lake]

"Augustine" struck me as one of Vienna's songs I had, and still have, most difficulties to understand. First I thought that this might be due to the fact that I am a German, and that there might be references in the song only an American listener will understand. (In the two concerts I attended in August in Germany she introduced the song only with references to the bells of Cologne Cathedral, not working out further.) But it looks like you guys are equally scratching your heads.
While as a novice to Vienna's world I may be not overly qualified to discuss "Augustine" lyrics it is my impression that RhineGold has come quite close to the truth.
First, let's assume that the singer and Vienna are the same person and the song is at least partly autobiographic. As we all know, she often slips into other personalities to tell a story, for example into Walter the truckdriver/drifter.
If this is correct, the song is probably best viewed as an attempt to come to terms with her spiritual side. A spirituality that may have been suppressed by being raised in an essentially non-religious environment and family and is now fighting to reach the surface. A spirituality that was probably always present despite her claiming to be an atheist, most obviously expressed in songs such as "Soon Love Soon", "Homecoming" or "Atheist Christmas Carol". Did you notice that "Nothing Without You", although probably written with an entirely different background, can be interpreted completely in religious terms, as a search for God? In other words, as a soft version of "Augustine"?
I think the same way "Stray Italian Greyhound" couldn't have been written without her staying in New York (according to herself), the songs just mentioned couldn't exist without her spiritual side.