I think a face melting on this blog is way overdue.



Lyrics after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry . . .

I love literal videos!



Disclaimer - I guess this will further solidify my reputation as the Edge-y Thinkling . . .

This video is somewhere between PG and PG-13, lyrics-wise. Just FYI.

Love this song . . .



Our God in heaven
Hallowed be
Thy name above all names
Your kingdom come
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us today our daily bread
Forgive us weary sinners
Lead us far away from our vices
And deliver us from these prisons

About once every twenty five years I get the urge for some Rundgren.

As someone who is married to someone who worked for a Christian music company in Nashville for a while, plus as someone who has listened to almost exclusively Christian music for 25 years (thinkling regulars know my exception), and as someone whose second Christian album ever was an Amy Grant album (my first was David Meece) and as someone whose first Christian concert ever was an Amy Grant concert, and as someone who knew people who knew Amy during her difficult marriage with Gary Chapman, and as someone who finds the intersection of faith and dogma, truth and love, reality and ideals interesting, and as someone who has observed the curious goings on in the CCM industry for a long time, I found this article fascinating.

A First-Person Account From A Guy Who was Forced to Force Amy Grant To Apologize For Her Divorce

A snippet...

He threw an old copy of CCM on his desk in front of me. It was the issue with Amy on the cover, and the interview inside focused on her divorce from Gary Chapman.

“Have you read this interview?” Gerald asked.

“Yeah, I read it.”

“Pretty pathetic, isn’t it?” He thumbed through the pages of the interview, waiting for me to agree. When I didn’t say anything, he looked up. “Well?”

“How is that interview pathetic? I loved that story.”

“She doesn’t apologize, Matthew. For getting a divorce.” Gerald shifted in his chair. “Not one time. It’s as if she’s not sorry for disobeying God’s command to stay married. She needs to apologize.”

He closed the magazine.

“Who does she need to apologize to, Gerald?”

“Her fans. Us at CCM. And everybody she failed.”

Our chat went on like this for fifteen minutes. Eventually, Gerald got to his point.

“On Wednesday, when you do the interview, get her to apologize. Ask her to apologize if you need to.”

“Are you kidding me? You’re asking me walk into Amy’s house and get her to apologize for something that happened more than three years ago? She’s remarried, Gerald.”

Gerald threw his hands in the air. “I want her to apologize.”

“Gerald, this isn’t Watergate. We cover Christian music. Can’t we do a fun story and let the stupid divorce topic remain in the past?”

“God has rules.” He spun his chair toward the laptop sitting on a table next to his desk. “Either get Amy to apologize or we won’t run the story. Period. Get out of here.”

I walked out.

Two days later, as I pulled into Vince and Amy’s U-shaped driveway, my stomach ached at what Gerald wanted me to do. I shifted the car into park and began to panic. I’m getting ready to interrogate Amy Grant. I love Amy Grant. I want her to love me.

Watching people go in and out of favor with the CCM industry and Christian bookstore owners has always held a strange fascination for me. U2, Sandy Patty, Amy Grant, Michael English and so many more have all had their albums pulled and replaced again.

I don't want to be condemning anyone with this post. Not customers, artists, bookstores, or labels. It's just always been interesting to me the way Christian music consumers struggle with whether or not to buy a certain person's album based on their life. In my opinion, the judgement has sometimes been right, and sometimes wrong, and sometimes hypocritical. (Like not selling Amy Grant because of her divorce, but selling Kenny Rogers' latest Christmas Album because it was put out by a CCM label.)

Anyway check out the article above. It's really interesting.

This is somewhat random, but how many of you are fans of John Lennon's song, Imagine?

I was a huge fan of the Beatles back in the day, and I mourned when Lennon got shot (yes, I'm old enough to remember that well), but I have never gotten why people love that song so much. The lyrics are atheistic and inane. And, as the multi-millionaire himself probably knew when he penned the lines "imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can?", the song drips with hypocrisy. Given what we now know about the lovely atheistic, communistic utopias of Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, etc., the song is nonsense on stilts.

Jay Nordlinger comments on the song:

A number of letters have come in about the song, and I wanted to publish two of them. The first is from a friend of mine — an American who grew up in Communist Czechoslovakia, escaping with her family when she was 16. She writes,

“That John Lennon song always bothered me. It reminded me of the spoiled children of the ‘West.’ They had everything they could possibly want, and they were free. Yet they complained. And, worse, they promoted ideas and regimes that were senselessly destroying other people’s lives.”

The second note offers a different take. A reader from Iowa writes,

“When ‘Imagine’ was new, and I was young, I, of course, took it literally as the way the world should work. Since at least partially growing up (being 57 now), I have come to understand John Lennon as one sarcastic SOB who delighted in demonstrations of his superiority over lesser beings. I am thinking that ‘Imagine’ was meant as a send-up of liberal utopia, an insult hidden in the open.”

Justin Taylor turned off comments at his blog. Then he turned them back on again. The first post after return is a fairly unassuming one, highlighting an interview with a member of the group Owl City, who is a believer. What ensued in the comments and at least one trackbacked post is a good example of the tyranny of hyper-spirituality in action.

For the record, I don't care for Owl City. I think I once made fun of their song on Twitter. I had no idea the guy was a Christian, and even knowing that doesn't make me want to revisit their music. It's a little, um, frou-frou for my taste, I think. In any event, I have no idea how Adam Young lives out his profession of faith in his life, but I certainly can't judge that based on what he does for a living, even if that living is "art." What's strange about evangelicals is how free they feel to tell others how to make "Christian art" while producing heaps and heaps of artistic garbage themselves every year. (In fact, many of those upset with Young for not singing about Jesus probably criticize the current quality of CCM, as well.)

I am a huge fan of Jesus-fixation, but if this guy wants to make his living singing about fireflies . . . well, okay. If I were to approach my need for him to need to always sing explicitly about Jesus, I should also say things like the following:

I demand Christian plumbers also make their, um, plumbing more explicitly Christian. Also Christian hairstylists, carpenters, loggers, software designers, helpline operators, and crossing guards. Why aren't you exhibiting the gospel, slackers?

I think this is what happens when the tyranny of hyper-spirituality kicks in.

What's worse is not the sentiment that Adam Young can't sing about stuff that doesn't mention Jesus, but that Justin Taylor can't even link to it. It's apparently not edifying to talk about a song about fireflies. Even in the context of an interview with the guy explicitly professing Christ!

Straining out gnats to swallow camels?

For those of you who were wondering, or just flat out love the song, or maybe you just love Charlie, and so by extension you like anything associated with him...

Here's the story behind the song:

Bryan Burk: We knew that we were going to have to have that song that Charlie's character would sing 'that Driveshaft song'. And we had no idea what it was, and it was something that we thought we would write. We were talking to Dom about possibly coming up with a song.

Dominic Monaghan: J.J. and Damon actually said to me that if I wanted to write a song, they would consider it. So, myself and my friend Shocks in LA actually wrote a song which was called "Photos and Plans", which we played for them, and they liked. Didn't actually make it into the show.

Bryan Burk: Years ago, Matt Reeves, as one of our oldest friends, um had been watching an episode, which I believe was Phil Donahue, just so you understand how many years ago...

Damon Lindelof: ...Where this woman basically stood up in the audience and I can't remember exactly what she said, but she said, it was like, "You all everybody, is acting like the stupid people wearing expensive clothes."

Bryan Burk: We'd be sitting in what they'd call 'video village', where all the monitors are, and where we spend a good portion of our day, where we hang out in between everything being set up. Non-stop, we'd be saying "You all everybody, acting like it's the stupid people wearing the expensive clothes."

Damon Lindelof: ...And everybody would crack up. It's like, "What does that even mean? What is it?" Y'know, so it's like "You all everybody!" Like it just became sort of an inside joke, so one of the things we kept saying, like J.J., we've got to write, y'know, what Driveshaft's song is.

Bryan Burk: At one point in a delirious stupor, we realized that we had said it so many times, that that had to be the song. And on the spot, with Don, our script supervisor, we wrote down all the lyrics of "You All Everybody".

Damon Lindelof: Then on the day that we were shooting, we were shooting Charlie, Kate and Jack walking up, and Charlie first starts humming it to himself, and Kate's like, "Where do I know that song from?" Y'know, that was the day that the sort of melody was generated. J.J. like kind of hummed a tune to it. J.J. was just sort of sitting, goes [pitched singing], "You All Everybody. You All Everybody." He's like, "Just do that." Y'know. And that was it.

Dominic Monaghan: I based the voice in the Pilot on when Prince puts on his female voice, for when he sings like, "If I Was Your Girlfriend" on "Sign 'O' the Times". He kind of affects this female voice, and Beck does it as well. [Scene of Charlie singing to Kate in Pilot in high-pitched voice] So, I just thought, well, I have'a laugh, because I don't know what this song is going to be, so I might as well do the harmonies, which is why it became this, [Sings high-pitched] "You All Everybody", which actually isn't what it actually became in Episode 5 The Moth. [Scene from The Moth of on-stage singing] But we just took the exact lyrics from that talk show and turned it into a song. We gave it over to this songwriter called Jude[1].

[Jude's picture shown]

Bryan Burk: Jude is this amazing local LA singer-songwriter. Um, who I'd first heard of him because he had a song on the City of Angels soundtrack.

Dominic Monaghan: Him and his band just y'know, brought together this kind of, 'Oasis-esque', 'Ocean-Colour-Scene-y'[2], y'know, not great, but kind of not bad tune.

Bryan Burk: We needed a song, and we needed a specific kind of tone and rhythm, and [Snaps fingers] the next day, he came in with it, and it was great. It was like this perfect prop song. So, we knew if we wanted a catchy song, Jude was the guy to go to.

You All Everybody Lyrics

Rock and roll, man

I walk around my town
Watch the people come and go
I watch them up and down
And i see what they don't know
They have given up on me
I can see it in their eyes
Well, i have given up on you
And i think you should realise

You all, everybody
You all, everybody
I don't like you stupid people
Wearing expensive clothes
You all everybody
You all, everybody

You all everybody

I know you see what i have been
And compare with what i am
But i don't care now what you've seen
I'm just doing what i can
You say you've given up on me
And you say it like i should care
Well i have given up on you
And no, i don't want to “share”

Chorus
You all everybody

And will you get the message now?
When i cross my heart and shout it out damn loud?

Chorus
You all everybody
Yeah, you all everybody

And of course there was the "You All Every Butties" commercial that Driveshaft recorded... "Official Website"

A couple of weeks ago my brother and I were cruising through the streets of west Houston, headed toward a James Coney Island in order to procure a few hot dogs. While on the road we listened to some bootlegged U2 tunes from a concert that took place during the recent first leg of the U2 360 Tour. I can't remember the venue, but the recording was of a very high quality.

As I thought about that quick excursion a few days later, I thought about the songs we listed to (we skipped around): "Breathe," "Unknown Caller," "Moment of Surrender," and "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)." To me, that was a telling track list. Three of the four songs are off of U2's new album, No Line On The Horizon, and the last one mentioned, "Ultraviolet," is from 1991's masterpiece, Achtung Baby.

How amazing this band is. They formed in 1976 (the year I was born) and year after year, decade after decade, they still produce relevant, poetic, groundbreaking music. And, of course, the new music serves as the centerpiece of their tours -- they don't do greatest hits tours, at least not yet. (Heck, I think they've even won over our own Billboy. :-)

One of these days I'll write about my experience at the 360 Houston show. It only took me four years to finally get around to writing a memoir of my experience at the 2005 Vertigo Houston show. So the way I see it I have another 3.5 years to write something about the 360 concert. Maybe U2 will have another album out by then, and another tour to look forward to ...

A nifty U2/John Mayer mashup.

This OK Go video is amazing. Is there any way this was really all one big take? This must have taken days to set up, calibrate, time, not to mention the stuff that gets broken in the Rube Goldberg device (TV, Piano, etc). Some of the Rube Goldberg stuff even takes part in the song.

Special effects? Or real?



[H/T Stroke]

I discovered Mississippi John Hurt quite by accident a few weeks ago surfing around YouTube. Started consuming everything of his I could. One difficult night I listened to his songs on repeat, and God really ministered to me through them. There's something about his voice . . . I don't know, maybe it's just me. My friend Jason heard about my newfound appreciation, and being a long-time fan of the man's music, he sent me almost Hurt's entire catalog.

Here's one of the few video clips of Mississippi John Hurt available online, filmed shortly before his death on some television program along with Pete Seeger and Hedy West.



There's a really interesting story here. Hurt recorded a couple of albums in the early 20s that were commercial failures and then basically disappeared into obscurity for forty years, working as a sharecropper and playing the occasional party. Having grown to love the existing recordings, in 1963 a scholar tracked him down in Avalon, Mississippi and brought Hurt into the spotlight. Hurt played the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and did some more recording, a long time coming. He died in 1966.

I love songs based on Scripture. We'll be worshiping to this one Sunday in our College and Young Singles group.

A sweet dose of Pomplamoose for you.



The word game at the end is fun too.

I love this song. We're playing it tomorrow in College and Young Singles.



As a side note (and not a criticism, just an observation) - are the Hillsongs people, audience included, not the best looking group of people you've ever seen?

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea:
A great High Priest, whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on his hands,
My name is written on his heart;
I know that while in heaven he stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see him there
Who made an end of all my sin.

Because a sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise the One,
Risen Son of God!

Behold him there, the risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace!

One in himself, I cannot die
My soul is purchased by his blood
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God
With Christ, my Savior and my God

Breathe.

Rise and walk. Your faith has made you well.

From U2 by U2:

EDGE: It was a great thing to spend time reading the scriptures and find out about this whole system of belief, Christianity, what it really means. We later found out that the Rasta movement had a similar fascination with scripture, and they would sit around smoking weed and discussing Bible references in sessions they called 'reasoning'. We did the same really, but without the weed.

Continuing the tradition ...