The sickening despair of ‘Godless’: The Dandy Warhols’ darkest song
The Dandy Warhols aren’t praised enough for their unwavering honesty and versatility, always willing to explore different themes with exciting, engaging, and sometimes sickening songs.
The band already had some success with tracks like ‘Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth’, but they really skyrocketed to fame with ‘Bohemian Like You’. It’s a pretty difficult song to not enjoy, with the catchy chorus, great guitar lines and humorous lyrics. How anyone can go into a song like that and not come out of it tapping their feet is beyond me.
‘Bohemian Like You’ shot to fame because it was used in a Vodafone advert. While that might not be the most rock ‘n’ roll way to get famous, the band were never massively ashamed of this commercial success. The song climbed the charts, and it also meant that they could tour around Europe, performing to sold-out crowds of people who turned up in their masses.
“As far as I’m concerned, any way that works is just fine by me,” said the band’s guitarist Pete Holmström, “And ‘Bohemian’ funded our independence, we have the Odditorium because of that song and that ad. Most commercials have music in them, and I’d rather they had good music.”
The Odditorium refers to a large 10,000 square foot building that the band bought as somewhere to record, write and generally be creative. It was full of memorabilia that inspired creativity, a representation of the independent approach to songwriting that Dandy Warhols had already championed and were going to continue running with.
“I’ve been there many times and it is such a cool and ethereal place,” said film producer Kevin Moyer, who once helped create a 360 visual of the Odditorium, “Full of psychedelia and gothic touches and auras, that it just makes your head spin trying to take all of it in as you walk through the unique rock’n’roll space.”
Having such a big space allowed the band to engage further with their creativity, which meant there was no topic, idea or theme out of reach. Fans likely weren’t surprised when they heard the new directions that Dandy Warhols explored, as they had already made it clear on their album Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia that there was never anything they were worried about writing about. Their track ‘Godless’ is the greatest example of this, as it’s a daring number that highlights the more sickening sides of organised religion.
Any song about religion is always going to be met with controversy, as it’s a topic that draws strong opinions like moths to a flame. As such, a lot of musicians opt not to talk about it, but Dandy Warhols were sick of seeing religion used as a weapon and so decided to write a track about it. In it, they talk about the godly and how many of them don’t seem to follow a God at all. As far as themes are concerned, it’s one of the band’s darkest numbers, and it contains sickening themes that refuse to relent.
“The more shitty and cruel things people do in the name of God, the more Godless they clearly are,” explained Courtney Taylor-Taylor, “I was raised going to a church that was like a club for nice people. Religion should be like that or else it should be criminalised. In some countries, and amongst some races, it’s a club for sickos, sadists and perverts. This world is a mess and was better off before people. Weird, huh?” With such deadening misanthropy attached to the track, it’s hard to not consider it their darkest.
