Holly Holy

too bad the title is listed as "holly holly", because the actual title "holly holy" is such a giant clue to the meaning. look what happens when you change just one letter.

neil diamond is from a jewish family. i don't know whether he's observant. probably not, considering that he's recorded christmas songs.

his choice of words is explicitly Biblical: "song of songs" being the most obvious example. in the version with which I'm familiar, Neil sings "let it be full with tomorrow," an archaism reminiscent of Old Testament language (and the King James version)

some would consider the song blasphemous, because it equates earthly love with the power of God, or of Christ. these are miracles: the sun rising at night, on command; to heal someone who can't walk (and--by giving him the ability to fly--perhaps overachieving?)

potentially disturbing, also, is how the religious/spiritual themes are combined with primal sexuality. follow the changes in tempo and emotional intensity; they align precisely with the body's response to arousal, climax and release. (it's not as if this is some sort of innovation. it's the crux of the unspoken objection to rock-and-roll from its very beginning.)

maybe you won't go quite so far as that. but we'd likely agree the song has the feel of a ritual.

Thank you, Zen911, for your most informative comments, and thank you everybody for your input. My legs have been partially paralyzed for over 60 years--since I was a baby, and I love the line about the lame man gonna fly. I interpret the song from a romantic and a Christian perspective, and I see the two as compatible. Christian theology sees a husband-wife relationship between G_d and Israel in the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) and between Christ and his church in the Greek scriptures (New Testament). FWIW, the sun/Son play on words is used frequently, as is the reference to Jesus as the seed or offspring of Eve in Genesis 3 and the offspring of Mary in Luke 1-2. As to a Jew using Christian imagery, I would look to Neil's song "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show." I played piano for three years in an Assemblies of God church, so I'm very familiar with the religious version of tension, climax and release. Thanks for this great forum!

I've not heard that Diamond has definitively explained the song, kinda guess he offers different explanations at different times, if he even does explain it.

But the song is not religious. Like Kenneth Burke, he couches his thoughts on secular things and relationships in religious terminology. The song's about his love for a woman, the religious terminology it intended to bring thoughts of redemption, sanctification and healing to the relationship between him and his beloved. His love for her is considered as a sacred thing, and sacred words are being used to express it.

Holly Holy (correct spelling) is not a religious song, rather a testament to the spiritual power accessible thru the love between a man and a woman. The song is a long rising crescendo (like having sex), culminating in the ultimate product of love and the truest meaning of life... a child between them... "And the seed, Let it be filled with tomorrow"

This is a good example of inspired lyric, above even what the poet himself, and the listeners, understand, a song that takes us up. First, Holly is similar to evergreen, symbolic of life in winter and is used at Christmas in association with the crown of thorns. The song as a whole is also a good example too of how, in lyric poetry, the music is essential to the communication.

   This is a Psalm, written in the pattern revealed by the Biblical Song of Songs, as human love follows the pattern of the imago Dei, the image of God in man.

   Note that true love- rare if not extremely rare- is of only one. In the beginning, it is a call of love, the natural function of love songs reaching into the reptilian nature of organic life, i.e, the songs of songbirds. Commentators on Songmeanings note the deep sensuality of the song, but that is to approach it from below. His own participation in the fullness of love allows him something like a vision of the Most High, manifest in both action- his love- and words- this poem.

   The unity of the object love in its true form explains everything else about love, that follows from this for we mere nobles, who seek but never find such love. For example: The law against adultery is based upon the same in the soul- that true love is of one. It would support literal monogamy, if Abraham and Sarah were not the first historical example, as the Hebrews learn to pick up those Chaldean girls from over by the well.

   The center of the song is addressed to the Most High, upon bursting through into His presence. He is the one who calls the sun to rise in the dead of the night, like a Holly in winter, and the Sun, he's gonna rise. Just as when Jesus touched a man who could not walk upright, and that lame man not only walked but could fly- the sort of soaring that is the high activity of the singular image of God in man. In this way, love is the first rung in the ladder of the philosophic ascent, and can awaken the soul to salvation.

I honestly think it is about religion. I mean all you have to do is look at the dead of the night verses to see it. The "she" could be regarding the virgin Mary.

I think it is religious, too. In fact, much of Neil's work does. For me, this song soars. It really stirs me up.

The song title is Holly Holy

I think the song is meant to make you think of both simutaneously. Religious and earthly love. The relationship between the two. And maybe the relationship between the holy and the profane (sexual) as well.

I agree with foreverdrone the tempo of the song certainly has a primal intensity to it... both describing "ecstasy" (whether religious or otherwise) and capable of inducing some form of it as well, both lyrically and musically.

Holly Holy - she which is earthly, and yet holy, as well.

Holly holy love Take the lonely child And the seed Let it be filled with tomorrow Holly holy

The richest and most beautiful stanza in the whole song.

Holly Holy Day refers to the battle of Nantwich. Situated in Cheshire England, this medium size town was on the side of the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War and endured a six-week siege by the Royalist forces, many of whom were eventually captured and changed sides.

After the siege was lifted, in January 1644, the local people marked the event in subsequent years by wearing sprigs of holly in their hats or on their clothing.

The annual commemoration on January 25 became known as Holly Holy Day.

While the song certainly sounds religious it is also something of a personal love narrative and may even refer to political liberation or freedom from religious persecution...

Where I am, what I am What I believe in...