His Master's Voice by Monsters of Folk

Album: Monsters of Folk (2009)

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This song imagines Mohammed and Jesus Christ hanging out together and deciding to re-write the bible, because clearly some people on Earth are misinterpreting it. The lead vocal is by Jim James, who told Under The Radar: "That one tries to illustrate or figure out who your master's voice is. I like to think that it's trying to listen to my heart and my gut, and, again, that's why I feel like there must be some kind of God or some kind of other force, because we have this voice inside our heart and head."

"that voice is there for a reason," he added. "Who knows where it comes from. I feel like that is the master that each of us should listen to, that voice that according to what you've learned over the course of your life tells you what's right and wrong."
Monsters Of Folk was a collaboration between Jim James, M. Ward, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis (Oberst and Mogis are both in Bright Eyes). "His Master's Voice" is the last song on their 2009 self-titled debut album, which ended up being their last. Mike Mogis, who was also their producer, spoke to Express Night Out about the track: "That song always felt like it was going to be the last song on the record. The vision, the imagery in the song - it felt like it had a closing feeling to me, for some reason. It's an understated epic feeling that I get from it, and it felt like closure to me. There's a really gratifying feeling to that song and it was hard to put anything after it. Due to the things that go though my mind when hearing that song, I didn't really want to hear anything after that song."
His Master's Voice is the name of a 1898 painting showing a dog listening to a gramophone. That title (sometimes abbreviated to HMV) was used as a slogan for both The Gramophone Company (later owned by EMI) and RCA Records.
The song found a second life in 2017 when it was used in the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Comments: 1

Peter Shaw from Manchester UkMy father and myself loved this song ,since three billboards outside ebbing Missouri. That was his final song at his recent funeral.

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