Bodies Talk: the Web on Robbie Williams

There's been a lot of talk about Robbie Williams in the last few days. Too much talk in fact* Here's a round-up of some of it:

Christian Today quotes Jon from Freelance Theology : “We have a choice in the way we engage with someone like Robbie, But first we have to know what he is singing about.” Jon reckons the new single 'Bodies' is ultimately nihilistic, with a confused hotch-potch of religious ideas but ultimately its the cemetary rather than Jesus which marks the final destination. But despite that, it's a good discussion starter. Same article also picked up by Inspire.

Scribblings from My Desk notes that, in part, the lyrics are there to shock, and therefore attract extra interest. Seems to have worked! He also mentions a radio interview given by Williams In the interview I heard, Robbie confessed that although he'd been raised a Roman Catholic, he no longer knew who to pray to and perhaps the song reflects that confusion.

The Ton agrees with the confusion bit: The lyrics are all over the place with no overarching theme or smooth flow of ideas. The Blog of Kevin is worth a look, has an interesting interpretation: He wants perfection; he wants his reflection to be perfect. Not ordinary. Not mundane. But perfect. His reference to Jesus dying for him is about that – he doesn’t feel healed, perfect, restored, so what was Jesus’ death all about?

Good discussion on Wannabepriest, lots of points of view.

The jury is still out at the Worship Central forums.

There's a reference on this forum to another Williams interview (link broken) which notes:
He (Williams) says, when he wrote it George Bush was sending a lot of people to war in the name of Jesus, and being raised catholic the Jesus he he thinks he knows didn't die so that George Bush could send people to die in a needless war. And the "God save me rejection" bit is about the modern day struggle, people with body dysmorphias, anorexia, bulema, or who are not happy with their own image, have plastic surgery. And he thinks that is how people feel these days. Amen to all of that.

The X Factor performance itself has raised quite a few eyebrows itself, though it sounds like Williams was pretty strung out about it before he even got on stage. Must be a pretty nerve-racking thing to make a comeback after 3 years. Interesting that he dips out of singing 'Jesus didn't die for you' at the end. Deliberate? and that 'God bless you all' to the audience..... maybe it is a conspiracy after all.

*sorry, couldn't resist that. Prize for guessing the reference.