Synopsis

A young boy stands beneath a huge, barren tree and sings the opening lines, giving the song an unexpectedly innocent voice. As XTC appear around the same stark landscape, Andy Partridge addresses God with increasingly direct questions about suffering, cruelty, and the existence of heaven and hell. Figures gather in the tree's branches like mournful believers, while Partridge eventually attacks the trunk with a hammer. The stark, allegorical images turn the song's theological challenge into a memorable confrontation between faith, doubt, and human pain.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Dear God" was initially released as the B-side of "Grass" rather than as part of the original US edition of *Skylarking*. American college radio DJs discovered the track, prompting the label to reissue the album with the song included.

• The opening and closing vocals were performed by eight-year-old Jasmine Veillette, the daughter of a friend of producer Todd Rundgren. The boy seen singing in the video is lip-syncing Veillette's recorded performance.

• The video's central tree became its defining image: believers cling to the branches while Partridge's attack on the trunk gives the song's argument a deliberately physical form.

• The video received Billboard's Best Video award in 1987 and earned three MTV Video Music Award nominations.

• The song's anti-religious stance generated unusually intense reactions. Reported incidents included a bomb threat against a Florida radio station that played it and a hostage situation at a New York high school involving a demand that the song be broadcast.