priest = aura

while this could be a straight forward narrative lifted from the pages of homer's distant mystical cousin kilbey, there's something ambiguous and allegorical about the words.
i speculate.
the band drained and spent of energy in america, touring and meeting the demands of record companies, (the war) the very anathema to the creative process. they have already won a battle with the commercial success of milky way and starfish, but they have responsibilities and demands, contracts and sales, (the noise and stink) i imagine an endless parade of suits pr men and record company executives breathing down their neck. 
the musicians (soldiers) have travelled from australia to the usa, specifically los angeles, where the cultural disconnect couldn't be any greater. values are spun upon their heads, money is god, avarice and greed reign supreme, superficiality and insincerity are the currency and steve may have find the environment and the people that sat around him alien and repulsive in nature. i wasn't there, so i'm just using my weird intuition. there's something that parallels 'fear and loathing' although while hunter used speed, mescal, lsd and various chemicals to perceive the ugly side of the american dream steve was on the gear. perceptions and information shifts and slides to a channel more somber. whatever was happening it was a journey into a very human darkness and a glorious return to these sydney shores with this warning or message. 
there's various lyrics that give the game away, however steve has always been honest about his distain for those that worship baal, for the desert tribe that in all probability took his art and turned it into commodity and product in their current incarnation in america, i don't blame him, it is his own experience, you can't separate an artist from their art, i understand completely if this was the case, on the other hand maybe it's just a song about a fantasy voyage scribbled down on a napkin in a studio somewhere, as i said, speculation only.
either way one cannot take away its epic musical beauty and brilliant songwriting. 

it's a novel not a song, a literary art form of immense proportions just like moby dick is to some people, priest = aura is to me. i can't imagine a better song than this, it has mystery, beauty, suffering and the unreachable unknowable essence. but it also speaks volumes for its creator who has kept hold of his integrity for decades against the tide, against the forces of consumerism and sell out, he remained true to his own processes and that in this day and age, this one single commodity is utterly priceless.
whatever you think of my speculations into the lyric, the music is a perfect bed for the word, it's that cinderella moment where the shoe fits perfectly, the atmospherics and construction of this particular song have withstood the test of time and always will. a new mythology, an ancient tale.
and the information. the message from the enemy....the equation of priest equals aura?
one could write volumes on this aspect as well, for all it's esoterica these words are the words on which religions and cults are born, but for me, if something is to be true (a thing of love and beauty) it must contain it's paradox and there is a heavy truth in the message steve delivers. 

heavy truth indeed. i'll always love this song, it has such gravity, the weight of a great novel in the league off dostoevsky, mellville, cervantes and burroughs.