“It’s a Miracle” is a creepy, scary, bitter, sad song in more ways than I think I can count. The last verse is a personal rant by Roger Waters on Andrew Lloyd Webber – and God forbid I ever feel like that about anyone on earth – but the rest of the song is so… sad, because it recounts good things that people can do or might do or might have done… and then says “It’s a miracle,” like someone being kind to someone else is so rare and precious that it’s a miracle that it happens at all.
They had sex in Pennsylvania
A Brazilian grew a tree
A doctor in Manhattan
Saved a dying man for free
It’s a miracle
Holy…
An honest family man
Finally reaped what he had sown
A farmer in Ohio has just repaid a loan
It’s a miracle
I can’t hear that without getting tears in my eyes. I have to be really careful if I’m driving. The thought that those things could be considered miracles – and they would be – is terrifying.
The last verse is the rant, and it’s incredible:
We cower in our shelters
With our hands over our ears
Lloyd-Webber’s awful stuff
Runs for years and years and years
An earthquake hits the theatre
But the operetta lingers
Then the piano lid comes down
And breaks his f**king fingers
It’s a miracle
Nowhere else have I ever heard such a cruel sentiment issued with such drama – cowering, the earthquake offers hope, but the operetta survives, vampirically, until the hand of God sweeps in and smashes the fingers. Incredible.
Roger Waters is one of the few ‘stars’ I’d really like to meet someday, but I have to say I’d be afraid to actually do it.
Author’s Note: Yet another repost!