Birth Ritual Lyrics
Lying like needles on forest earth
Euphoric rush, trees bend to pray for us
I'm sputtering like cold machines
Late for the birth ritual
Ritual, ritual, ritual
[Verse 2]
You can drive my tail to watch the circus
A birth ritual, a birth of idiots
Now I woke up blessed, and good strives for heartache
Marked for the death ritual
Ritual, ritual
[Chorus]
As you start the song and face this garden
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime for every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
[Verse 3]
I took the drug to make me stay
And now everything dies in shyness
The snake retreats, admits defeat
And waits for the birth ritual
Ritual, ritual
As you start the song and face this garden
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime for every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
[Bridge]
Shining light
Child's highs
Mark his sides
Bright until the newness wears off
[Guitar solo]
[Chorus]
As you start the song and face this garden
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime for every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
[Outro]
Ritual, ritual, ritual
Oh! Oh!
About
“Birth Ritual” was based on a riff written by drummer Matt Cameron, and saw its original appearance in the 1992 movie Singles – both its soundtrack and one scene where Soundgarden plays it. It was eventually featured in both the 2010 compilation Telephantasm (which originally started as an album of the band’s B-sides), and the 2015 box set Echo of Miles. The inclusion on the latter made the band decide to finally play “Birth Ritual” live in Australia, even if Chris Cornell could not match the original vocal performance – by his own admission, “I sang it so high originally that I’ve got a whole lot of choices of where I can go with it. It makes it different but in a good way, it seems to me. It’s not screechy”
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 2.Hunted Down
- 3.Fopp
- 7.Big Dumb Sex
- 10.Rusty Cage
- 11.Outshined
- 14.Birth Ritual
- 15.My Wave
- 16.Superunknown
- 17.Spoonman
- 18.Black Hole Sun
- 21.Dusty
- 24.Black Rain
- 25.The Telephantasm