Galileo

About Galileo

"Galileo" is a song written by Emily Saliers and recorded and performed by folk rock group the Indigo Girls. It was released in 1992 on their platinum-selling fourth studio album Rites of Passage. It reached #10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, the first song by the Indigo Girls to break the top ten on any chart. The song is about reincarnation, partially through the lens of the story of Galileo Galilei, the 17th century physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution. The song's chorus invokes both existential angst and Galileo's genius with "How long till my soul gets it right/Can any human being ever reach the highest light/I call on the resting soul of Galileo/King of night vision, king of insight", referencing both the clarity of physical vision made possible through his modernizations of the telescope and his support of Copernicanism, which stated that the Sun, rather than the Earth, was the center of the universe. The song has frequently closed concerts since its premiere in 1992. more »

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Galileo's head was on the block
The crime was lookin' up the truth
And as the bombshells of my daily fears explode
I try to trace them to my youth
 
And then you had to bring up reincarnation 
Over a couple of beers the other night
And now I'm serving time for mistakes 
Made by another in another life time

How long 'til my soul gets it right 
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of Galileo king of night vision
King of insight
 
And then I think about my fear of motion
Which I never could explain
Some other fool across the ocean years ago
Must have crashed his little airplane
 
How long 'til my soul gets it right 
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of Galileo king of night vision
King of insight
 
I'm not making a joke
You know me I take everything so seriously
If we wait for the time 'til all souls get it right
Then at least I know there'll be no nuclear annihilation in my life time 
I'm still not right

I offer thanks to those before me
That's all I've got to say
'Cause maybe you squandered big bucks in your lifetime
Now I have to pay

But then again it feels like some sort of inspiration
To let the next life off the hook
Or she'll say look what I had to overcome from my last life
I think I'll write a book

How long 'til my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach the highest light
Except for Galileo, God rest his soul
King of the night vision, king of insight
How long (until my soul gets it right)
How long (until my soul gets it right)
How long

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Indigo Girls

The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. They started performing with the name Indigo Girls as students at Emory University, performing weekly at The Dugout, a bar in the Emory Village. more »

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