All due respect to Ireland and its musicians, but the greatest trick the devil ever played was to permanently associate the phrase “take me to church” with Hozier. Before a milquetoast single by that name dominated the 2013 pop charts, the act of “taking ____ to church” was a colloquialism in African American Vernacular English that referred to a musical or sermonic performance so moving it could instill in both performer and audience a feeling of the presence of God. The exact origin of the phrase is unclear, but it was almost certainly born of the gospel traditions in Black churches, where preachers and choirs aim to elicit a profound emotional response and fill parishioners with the Holy Spirit. Even those who don’t care for religious terminology…
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