^^^Van Morrison went through a Christian phase for a while. He has quite a few popular religious songs. These are the Days is another one. Some folks hear some Christian themes in Astral Weeks, but I think you can hear anything you want to in that album. All Bach. U2's albums are suffused with Christian themes. Bono says he is a devout Christian. For some spectacular R&B/Gospel check out Leon Bridges album Coming Home. It is not a religious or gospel album per se but there are three of four excellent songs with Christian themes. On some of them you have to listen carefully to hear them. The songs are fantastic as is the whole album. The theology is deep and solid without being cheesy or in-your-face. This one, River, is probably the best and deepest: https://youtu.be/0Hegd4xNfRoI am a devout Christian but other than classical, traditional hymns and a few I've mentioned here, I do not particularly like religious music. Especially religious pop music. Several of you have mentioned above that it has gotten better, and that is good. Because not long ago I would have said it was the worst music of all. It wasn't good pop. It wasn't good gospel. No catchy tunes. Overly emotional and sentimental. Shallow and vapid. And that always makes me a little sad, as a Christian. As millercarbon mentioned, western religious music was, at one time, the highest level or artistic expression in music. And it might still be. |
@bdp24 I can't believe we left Dylan out either. Like Van Morrison he went through a Christian phase as well.
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@slaw Good call on the Audio Slave song. Its one of my favorites by them. Lots of religious imagery but not sure what the actual message was. Like a Stone also has a lot of religious imagery. I always thought Cornell was so so talented. @artemus_5 There was a Christian rock band in the 80's called The Resurrection Band. Not sure if it was "metal" but fairly hard. I saw them perform and they rocked. Not sure if you can even find their music anymore or if they are still around: https://youtu.be/IRj4f0hRbZEhttp:// My favorite Led Zeppelin song is In My Time of Dying. A bit of an irreverent take on dying featuring Jesus, angels and, I think the devil but I don't remember if he makes an appearance or not.....he's implied if nothing else. |
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@slaw I should have figured that out. I grew up with quite a few "PKs".
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@wsrrsw, that's some good stuff right there those Holmes Brothers.
Our church, mostly white, from time to time, holds services with a church across town, mostly black. Each of our churches is a bit of a stereotype. We are uptight white people. Our main service is very traditional. Traditional hymns. Big pipe organ. The quality of our choir and organist is top notch. I mean seriously good. Their church is much more soulful for lack of a better word. Just what you'd imagine. Band with drums and bass, organ player, hoppin' choir. The quality of their music is also top notch. I love our music, but I like it much better when we worship with them at their church than when they come to ours. Good gospel music with an actively participating congregation is a wonderful thing!
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@lsteel1, I did not know that Kingfish Ingram's mother had died. I saw him perform in an old bank building in Clarksdale, Mississippi a few years ago. He was brilliant and mesmerizing. And his mother was right there sitting behind him just off the stage area. It was my understanding that she was always close by. Such a loss is hard on anyone but I got the impression that he really depended on her. @slaw Atheists Aint Got No Songs is hilarious. Here is the answer to that song. Also hilarious: https://youtu.be/26nJjNDsbmkhttp:// |
@jpwarren. What I understand Lennon to be saying is that the world would be a better place without the concepts/beliefs in God, hell or heaven. While religion associated with those beliefs have surely been a source of trouble and suffering in the world, they have also been a source of many many good things. And the 20th century has also given ample evidence that the abandonment of those beliefs has not ushered in any sort of improvement.
Anyway, probably not the right place for this discussion. I just thought some of the themes expressed were ironic.....much like Alanis Morrisette's examples of irony......none of which were ironic. ;-)
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@pfeiffer It seems to me that Imagine is the antithesis of religious music since he is asking us to imagine what it is like with no god, no religion. I've always liked it as a song. I never liked the assumption that things would somehow be better if there was no god.
Another song along those lines (which I also like) is Joan Osborne's song What If God was One of Us. Like Imagine there seems to be an irony that the artist completely missed.
Osborne says:
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make his way home?
To a Christian these lyrics are a little shocking. Not because they are somehow blasphemous but because what she is asking for and looking for is exactly what Jesus was. According to Christian theology Jesus was God and also one of us. A stranger. Poor. Common. Probably filthy and hungry most of the time.
I always wondered if Osborne was aware of this irony. |
Walking In Memphis by Marc Cohn:
Now Muriel plays piano
Every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her
And they asked me if I would
Do a little number
And I sang with all my might
She said
"Tell me are you a Christian child?"
And I said "Ma'am, I am tonight"
Great line right there.
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@jndean I like the ambiguity of the line. Not sure if was intentional or not but gives it an edge. Does he mean he is a Christian as of tonight, as in I got religion and it stuck.......or is it that he is a Christian just for tonight and tomorrow night he'll be back in the dives of Memphis or the juke joints in the delta?
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@falconquest That particular movie, at least when it came out, was very offensive to Christians. It has pretty much faded from the Christian and public consciousness. As a Monty Python fan and a Christian, I found that the movie was irreverent and moderately offensive....and not one of their better efforts. I still love Monty Python.
I agree with you that how someone responds to something in regard to being offended is on them. We can't control what other people say. We can only control how we respond to it.
However, I think we have to be careful about having a double standard. It is currently very much okay and PC to offend Christians and Jews. Nothing is off the table. On the other hand, there are other popular religions that no one is willing to mock or offend in even the slightest way. That is a double standard that is not logically consistent or fair. Further, there are other groups and belief structures that are totally off the table when it comes to humor or irreverence with a strict PC code dictating what is okay and what is not to say or discuss.
All I ask from a society of political correctness is consistency. What is okay for one group or belief should be okay for all. If it is incumbent on Judeo-Christians to buck up and deal with irreverence and insults then that should apply to others as well.
Personally I think we all need to be a little more thick skinned. Humor, when not vicious, is great for all of us. But it should be okay for _ALL_ of us. Not just certain ones. |
@falconquest : "I cannot possibly go through my day and understand what actions I take may offend one religious believer or another"
Sure, tact, decorum and manners require an effort. And just because there are easily offended people out there doesn't mean (to me) that I can abandon thoughtfulness, even though I am often very guilty of doing so.
@falconquest : "It is the person who is offended that has created that feeling within their own mind. "
Well, there are plenty of things that are by their nature offensive. And there are plenty of things that are intended to be offensive and hurtful. It is a two way street. Or a double edged sword, if you will. It is not simply a matter of overly sensitive people.
And part of my point is that it is not simply the religious who are easily offended. In fact, there are a few precious societal groups who enjoy full PC protection from ever hearing anything that disagrees with them. Just wondering if, in your mind, it is incumbent on those groups to be thick skinned as well?
Anyway, speaking of potentially offensive religious themed songs:
Steely Dan's Godwhacker. According to Wikipedia:
Godwhacker" developed from a blasphemous lyric Fagen wrote a few days
after his mother died of Alzheimer's. "It's about an elite squad of
assassins whose sole assignment is to find a way into heaven and take
out God", he later explained. "If the Deity actually existed, what sane
person wouldn't consider this to be justifiable homicide?"
As it turns out it isn't a very good song.
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I remember a home room teacher in high school. Late 1970s. He was also the baseball coach. Great guy. All of us kids liked him. He was always goofing with us and always pushing the limits. He used to ask us if we thought God had a sense of humor. Just asking that question made me uncomfortable, which was what he was after. For whatever reason I thought the question was too irreverent to consider.
Years later I thought about that and thought about how silly I was. If you believe in Christian doctrine then you believe that all good things come from God. Humor is clearly good. Just like everything else it can be used in ways that are not good. But sure, if we are made in his image and humor is good, the I’d say surely God has a sense of humor.
This teacher was one who always told us The Band was the best band of all time. I was into Zeppelin, BTO, Sweet, Alice Cooper, The Who then and had no time or interest in The Band. But again, years later I came to appreciate the genius of The Band.
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@jafant : "Jazz music."
How so? I've been listening to jazz intensely for the last few weeks being new to it and trying to figure out what its all about. I'm most of the way through Ken Burns' documentary.
Outside of some gospel influence I am not seeing a religious trend through the whole genre.
Maybe listening to jazz is a "religious experience" for some. It isn't for me, yet, but I think plenty of people might feel that way. But, that could be extended to almost any experience that is intense or pleasing enough even if the nature and content of the experience aren't religious.
Or maybe the existence of jazz suggests the existence of something higher than us??? |
