No, this is not going to be about what you think. Not entirely, at least.
The word gospel refers to the belief of something, an absolute truth, and according to Panic! At the Disco’s Brendon Urie, this gospel belongs to those that aren’t heard.
Urie is considered being the modern Freddie Mercury; a man with a vision and musical diversity that could be found beyond any other one-man-band, group, or whatever you want to call it. This is also a man that uses religious symbolism, and even though I might not completely follow his belief with this, it is still interesting to discuss about. “This is Gospel” is the song I want to share with you today.
Brendon tells Genius the reason behind the song, and says the following:
“My oldest friend, Spencer, was our drummer, but left the band this year for personal reasons. When I wrote this song, he had been going through alcoholism and pill addiction. It was a very confusing time for both of us, trying to assess what we were feeling. I felt helplessness and anger. I couldn’t help my friend. I had tried to inquire of what I could do and what I was supposed to do. And the anger really came from watching him kind of destroy himself. That was really sad. So I wrote this song about him.”
Having this is mind, I would like to give a brief explanation of different parts of the song, the ones that I consider most important:
This is gospel for the fallen ones
Locked away in permanent slumber
Assembling their philosophies
From pieces of broken memories
As I said in the beginning, gospel refers itself as the belief of something or absolute truth. I think what this is trying to transmit is that those that were once great have now “fallen” from that greatness and have no one to hold on to or to receive help from. “Assembling philosophies from broken memories” refers itself as the fact of remembering certain parts and ideas of a situation, which is something that can happen after nights of drinking (and it’s accurate according to Spencer’s addiction).
This is a brief explanation on one of Urie’s favorite lines that was given to the American Songwriter magazine: “I like ‘assembling philosophies from pieces of broken memories,’ I thought it was kind of a cool idea, where you only remember so much of your past, and then you build up who you are from those memories that you’ve created for yourself — but how true are they from what really happened and I just thought it was an interesting idea.”
The gnashing teeth and criminal tongues conspire against the odds
But they haven’t seen the best of us yet
I found a lot of possible meanings to “Gnashing Teeth” and “criminal tongues” and this is the one that made most sense to me: It could refer itself to a prisoner in hell. In Matthew (and in different parts within the New Testament Gospels in the Bible), there is a verse that says, “And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It tries to transmit how they were to be imprisoned and tortured for eternity. As told in a story in Luke 16:19–31, such a person would do whatever they could to get out of hell. This interpretation makes sense since in the music video that follows this, is found with the next albums best hit single The Emperor’s New Clothes where the music video literally takes the same person to hell. Then when it refers itself to “but they haven’t seen the best of us yet” This is the mindset of all of the different imprisoned people, who are determined not to give up fighting for their freedom.
Don’t try to sleep through the end of the world
And bury me alive
Cause I won’t give up without a fight
I see this part as a conversation between the person facing the addiction and the person that is trying to help, yet the addict is trying to shut everybody out and burying himself alive. The friend still asks him not to ignore or forget him, because he won’t let his friend destroy himself without holding onto him.
If you love me let me go
If you love me let me go
Cause these words are knives that often leave scars
The fear of falling apart
And truth be told, I never was yours
The fear, the fear of falling apart
This is the most significant part of the song. According to Urie, during a Reddit Q&A he said, “I started to cry when I was demoing the vocals. That was an incredibly honest moment for me.”
He tells Genius the following:
“The chorus flips between both of our points of view. Spencer’s struggle was physically killing him and it was figuratively killing me. When I wrote this, I didn’t show it to anybody for a month at least. I finally sent it to Spencer and I asked what he thought. He just said, ‘I appreciate you writing that.’ I felt validated.”
“If you love me let me go” seems as if the person that is struggling says this to a loving person that’s trying to help; this person obviously gets hurt, and the words leave scars like knives do. When it describes the fear of falling apart it could be a fear of not making it out if this situation.
There are far more details to analyze in the song within other parts of the lyrics, the beats, and music video production, but these verses are the ones I want to talk about to make a point. Feel free to highlight those parts I left out and give me a feedback, I’d love to know what you found.
You might reach this point of the entry and think, “Why?! Why did Sara talk about this and why is she giving a full explanation on a random song?”
1. There’s a reason to my madness.
2. Panic! At the Disco is the jam. (Do kids say “the jam” these days? Idk.)
3. My conclusion is as follows:
You probably have people in your life that you love and that are going through difficult situations. Situations that probably don’t involve you, but because those things are happening to that one person that really matters to you, it still hurts. Even though they shut you out, you need to have the capacity to bring yourself together and be that shoulder they could lean on, even if they don’t ask for it. They need you more than they admit they do. We need to be there for the ones we love, even more when it’s during their dark moments.
If you are one of those friends, those that are going through those dark moments, just know that there are people that love you and that want to be a part of what you’re going through.
If you are the Brendon Urie in someone’s life, I encourage you to be patient, loving, and persistent. And trust me when I say that your support will mean absolutely everything to them.
Here’s my favorite version of “This is Gospel”
Enjoy.
