An Audience With The Pope

Album: Seldom Seen Kid (2008)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this song frontman Guy Garvey looks back to when he was a youngster battling with his conscience about enjoying sex. Garvey explained in an interview with The Sun March 14: "I was once a good Catholic boy and I'm lucky my mum isn't hellfire and damnation. That song is about sex versus God when I was a kid. The guy in that song is waiting for a girl to come around and he's not going anywhere until he sees her because he's hairy-palmed and wanton. I've had the verses written for about five or six years. The sweet Jesus I'm on fire line. All the characters on the album are all exaggerated parts of my personality."
  • Much of the Seldom Seen Kid album was inspired by Garvey's girlfriend, the writer Emma Unsworth. The Elbow singer told Q magazine April 2009, that this song, "was written when she hadn't made up her mind if she wanted me or not and I was just waiting on her phone calls."

Comments: 1

  • David from Mayagüez, Puerto RicoDid he get an audience with the Pope after beating a bishop? *<:0)X***
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Ramones

RamonesFact or Fiction

A band so baffling, even their names were contrived. Check your score in the Ramones version of Fact or Fiction.

Graduation Songs

Graduation SongsFact or Fiction

Have you got the smarts to know which of these graduation song stories are real?

Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs

Richard Butler of The Psychedelic FursSongwriter Interviews

Psychedelic Furs lead singer Richard Butler talks about their first album since 1991 and explains what's really going on in "Pretty In Pink."

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Julian Lennon

Julian LennonSongwriter Interviews

Julian tells the stories behind his hits "Valotte" and "Too Late for Goodbyes," and fills us in on his many non-musical pursuits. Also: what MTV meant to his career.

La La Brooks of The Crystals

La La Brooks of The CrystalsSong Writing

The lead singer on "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me," La La explains how and why Phil Spector replaced The Crystals with Darlene Love on "He's A Rebel."