Song meaning

Brett: "Well, it’s the story of Job from the Old Testament. Job was the most righteous man in the world. The devil said to God 'these people are basically bad' and god said 'Well no.' The devil said 'Give me one example' and god said 'Look at Job, he’s a righteous man.' The devil said that he could corrupt him like any man, and they made a wager. And that was god’s way of rewarding the one righteous man on the planet. That was god turning his back on the one man who was good and righteous. That’s not god, that’s religion. That’s an example of how detestable religion is. What is the lesson there? No matter how good you are, god will turn his back on you? This is the basis for Judaeo-Christian religion? Is it any surprise the world is so screwed up? They say that the story of the Job is the saddest story ever told, so it seemed like the best archetypal story to start a song called Sorrow."

When asked in 2010 what the line "Or when the only true messiah rescues us from ourselves / It's easy to imagine" meant, Greg Graffin replied that it means that we are our own messiah and that the meaning of life comes from ourselves.

Video

The video was shot on the same day as the video for Broken.

"Sorrow was directed by Boo! (...) and produced and concieved by our talented friends at Mindfield. The performance footage was beautifuly shot in 35mm on an elaborately constructed set. The rest of the video was built via the special effects wizardry of the Mindfield people who started with no more than a few still photographs! Isn't technology wonderful? The ambience and mood of this video fit the song very well."^[1]

References