Pleased you agree, Kevin.

Oh, but it hurts

Nicely summed up though Zipp......Nice n consise.

The Madonna is still a religious figure and writing a song about her praising her or not should have driven the "religous" people crazy! I think it flew under their radar! Obviously no one picked up on it similar to most of the people here!

I think Paul MAY (only MAY) have been inspired to write this song by a controversy that was raging strongly at the time (late 67, thereabouts). It was rumored that the Pope (Paul VI) was going to relax the ban on "artificial contraception" for Catholics. The pill had begun to be very widely used following its introduction a few years earlier. One of the arguments used by Western women was that they could decide on the size of their families. They could have the number of children that they could look after properly, rather than breeding the family into poverty.

At the time, it was an often-discussed matter. Non-catholic christians were into the debate as well, because many saw the pope as being an important moral spokesman. The morality of the "pill", family size, poverty, ethial decisions made my people (priests) for whom there were no practical consequences, etc etc all were in the soup. Paul distilled ONE angle out of the debate, and produced one of his finest set of lyrics. It was seen by some as being a religio-political statement (really!).

THAT could be the religious angle to the song, if it has one. The "madonna" in Lady Madonna is NOT the "virgin", but rather woman-kind in general.

The Pope --of course -- said no way Jose! You gotta wonder what goes on inside the heads of these celibate heroes: not much, it seems.

Cogratulations on an extremely well thought out and written response. You definatley dug up some great facts.

Thanks! Paul's often accused (rightly) of very often writing fluff, but he was on the money sometimes. Lady M has great lyrics, and a great arrangement. Their second last GREAT single, in my opinion (Hey Jude/Revolution being the last GREAT one).

Quoted from kevin_b

(I think he meant the double meanings but didn't mean for the song to be religious)

at least a sensible arguement.he probally did that on purpose to mimic johns genuis useage of it.meant it to means two things.noone even saw that?

Did Paul try to replicate this double meaning on Let It Be with his "Mother Mary comes to me" line? The 'Mary' reference could either be about his mother Mary or the virgin Mary.

A lot of religeous people think this song is based on the Catholic mass - especially with the line "in my hour of darkness" (pointedly NOT 'in my dakest hour') pertaining to a mass held in a dimly-lit church.

Actually Paul has indicated that the "Mother Mary" in his song is in fact his own "Mother" that he's reffering to. He had a dream that in his darkest hour which was the Beatles drifting apart she came to him and offered her support! Her name was Mary.

Anyone ever notice how "What I Got" by Sublime and "Lady Madonna" are almost the same exact tune?  I wonder why there was no big deal about that.

On a side note David Kane was the producer for the Sublime album that had "What I Got" on it and he was also the producer of Paul's album Driving Rain.

Very "Interesting" I'll have to checkout that song!

Yeah i like that song but i dont see it as that similar.  ill listen again

Paul had discovered the Davinci code and cleverly disguised it in the lyrics of "Lady Madonna".