If you believe or don't, would you mind telling me your favorite songs?

I have two, but I'll just post one because I think one of you will post the other one.

I'm on a Police kick today (thanks, Don :) ), so here's one called "O My God"

***

Everyone I know is lonely
And God's so far away
And my heart belongs to no one
So now sometimes I pray

Take the space between us
Fill it up some way
Take the space between us
Fill it up

Fill it up (x I have no idea)

Oh my God you take the biscuit [the biscuit! I thought he meant an actual biscuit, and I was like, why would god want a biscuit?]
Treating me this way
Expecting me to treat you well
No matter what you say
How can I turn the other cheek
It's black and bruised and torn <-- best line
I've been waiting
Since the day that I was born

The fat man in his garden
The thin man at his gate
My God you must be sleeping
Wake up, it's much too late

[Then they go into a little bit from "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"]

Synchronicity helped my through a very crap summer. My father sent me to live on my stepfather's family farm in Suffolk, VA. My stepfather was in jail somewhere very, very far from Suffolk. I'd drive us (my mother and younger brother who was a toddler), to visit him. And *that* is how I learned to drive. Driving to a fucking prison. When I was 17. Fucked up childhood for sure.

So three cheers for my Walkman and the Police, because that was a very bad summer.

Don, I blame you for sending me down The Life Road of Shit Memories. But I also don't mind. There's something about getting this business out of my system. Thank you for releasing my unquiet mind, Don.

ETA: This is the song https://youtu.be/SMBtkkFo67M



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2019 12:48PM by Beth.

You'll feel better if you have 8 desserts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=89&v=_yDm51-lR2I&feature=emb_logo

Lifeboy
PHISH

Swinging on the lifeline
Fraying bits of twine
Entangled in the remnants of the
Knot I left behind
And asking you to help me make it
Finally unwind

But God never listens to what I say
God never listens to what I say
And you don't get a refund
If you overpray

And when the line is breaking
And when I'm near the end
When all the time spent leading
I've been following instead
When all my thoughts and memories are
Left hanging by a thread

Stranded on this slender string
The minutes seem to last a lifetime
Dangling here between the light above
And blue below that drags me down

But God never listens to what I say
God never listens to what I say
And you don't get a refund
If you overpray

Favorite Song about God's son: Jesus Just Left Chicago

but that's as far as my PHISH experience goes.

I think I read that when they play at weekend campground type venues, they slowly drive around the campground on the back of a flatbed truck, and sing the people to sleep.

Or maybe Dave Matthews does that. Naw, I think it's PHISH.

This is in Latin, but I’ll bet it gets your attention!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7RirEqehfsg

Dies Irae, Karl Jenkins Requiem

Version w/dramatic video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iOAaNFuVi3c

Mercedes Benz - Janis Joplin
Are You Drinking With Me Jesus? - Mojo Nixon



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2019 03:53PM by Brother Of Jerry.

Dies Irae got my attention. It's aggro enough to wake the dead...

Wait - internets says that was played in "The Omen." I could't look in a mirror after that movie. Man.

Dies Irae is a standard movement in a requiem - God is coming to cleanse the earth. It tends toward fire and brimstone. There are some composers who deliberately omitted the movement.

First UU in SLC does a requiem every May in remembrance of all the members that have passed away in the previous year. It's a solid 45 minutes or so of music, and dauntingly complex music at that. It's a minimum of one or two nights a week, sometimes more, for four straight months to pull it together. You saw Dies Irae. Imagine a half dozen other pieces, equally complex, all in a single performance.

Here is the Zabriskie Requiem. Composer and conductor is David Zabriskie. The joke was that it was a Catholic mass written by a Mormon composer and premiered by a Unitarian choir. It's modern, with a bit of jazz, and partly in English. The audience had a full set of lyrics and translation, to follow along. You just have to rough it on YouTube.

Typically, a composer only writes one requiem in their life, as a capstone project. They are particularly proud of this one because it is a completely "in-house" production, except for the orchestral instrument players, who were outside hires. Words, music, singers, piano, conductor, all congregants. [ETA I think one or two of the singers were also hired]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CrU9gNwsSls



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2019 02:11AM by Brother Of Jerry.

Classical music is obviously a goldmine for this stuff assuming one doesn't mind the pro-religion (sometimes insincere) bias. But with that caveat, there are so many requiems, my favorite being Mozart's exquisite composition; masses such as Mozart's in C Minor, Bach's in B Minor, and Beethoven's Mass in C; Bach's cantatas; and several of Handel's operas and oratorios, including prominently the Messiah.

Another rich vein is Britten's beautiful but insidiously subversive carols. My favorite performances of those are the ones done by the King's College chorus. A very short example is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMcsHCuIooo&list=RDXMcsHCuIooo&start_radio=1&t=18

This is a serious, not a specious, respose.
My favorite that mentions God is "God Be with You Til We Meet Again"
It appears to me to be non-demoninational and therefore more attractive

Thank you. :)

This is a specious, not serious response:

Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life,
End over end, neither left or to right,
Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights,
Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life

Argh - I can't wordsmith that one :(

Translated from Spanish. We used to sing it as we were tracting.
It helped us stay focused. It rhymes in Spanish...

"God is in me, and oh, he feels so big!
If you want, I can put this holiness in you.
I think you’ll like it; just don’t wiggle
Until you know you're feeling the spirit!"

I can't stop laughing.

I was listening to Simon and Garfunkel's Sound of Silence. Reminds me of the cult. Don't listen, don't care, praying to a neon god they made. Eberything the cult does is because they were told to. Absolutely no thinking for themselves.

Have you tried this one? I think it brings out additional nuances.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg-g7t2l4

Where's Elderberry when you need him ;)

And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
And yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

Yeah.

The Police were fun. Sting was so much more processed when he went out on his own. . .

Yes Police were great. Particularly those quirky Stewart Copeland compositions like Does Everyone Stare - very atonal chord structure. I remember playing it at a church youth group meeting when we were supposed to be talking about different forms of love. I used it as an example of misguided or inappropriate love. As I said at the time - "it's a flimsy link - but its a great song!"

As to songs about God, XTC's 'Dear God' is pretty compelling, and not very complimentary.

Copeland was the key. So many of those progressive bands comprised a virtuoso with a tendency towards pompous, sterile music and someone else who introduced raw, edgy emotion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2019 11:45PM by Lot's Wife.

Not dissin' Sting I hope LW. He became a bit pompous and up himself, but he was a brilliant singer, bassist and songwriter. Also quite beautiful. I remember seeing him performing Message in a Bottle in the Secret Policeman's Ball - my friend and I (both straight men) were amazed at how gorgeous he was.

But Stewart C is a fantastic percussionist.

No, I'm a fan of Sting. I just think he alone was a bit too "clean" and "pompous" in your words. If I want elegance and virtuosity, I usually turn to classical or jazz.

With rock or the blues or some country (e.g., Johnny Cash's American Recordings), I generally like more emotion and edge. Copeland brought that rawness and passion. After the band broke up, Sting lost a lot of that.

But I enjoy his music and love his literary allusions. I don't go to many rock concerts but I have seen him a couple of times, which is significant.

Meatloaf?

"Dear God" was the other song I was thinking about. Have you heard the Sarah McLaughlin version? Lovely.

Stewart Copeland was my favorite, and "Miss Gradenko" is awesome.


Back to the farm AKA Beth's Big Time Out. I named a calf "Stu" after Copland, which, of course, sounds like "stew" and my mother told me that's were he was going to end up one day.

Don't name the livestock.

ETA: Sarah McLachlan's version https://youtu.be/FrueVp_kuZ8



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2019 12:27AM by Beth.

> I named
> a calf "Stu" after Copland. . .

What did you name your other calf?

Thanks for that link Beth - nice angry version, but highlights for me how great the chord structure is, with the mix of major and minor tones and all the twists and turns.

Beth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you believe or don't, would you mind telling me
> your favorite songs?

Please give a listen. This one could may end up a favorite oF your's too.


https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-sz-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=sz&p=gibson+brothers+the+lighthouse+youtube+lyrics#id=2&vid=ab811e481aaac8c8005f26471387b7a7&action=click

I read a little bit about the band. I like bluegrass, and I like gospel. I'll work on giving it a listen. Thanks!

God Bless The Child, Billie Holliday.

I love it because it is so bitter but undeniably true.

And the line "momma may have" reminds me of "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." If you want to cry, listen to that one.

Spirit in the Sky (T-Rex)

Wind Up, by Jethro Tull

Words:

When I was young and they packed me off to school
And taught me how not to play the game
I didn't mind if they groomed me for success
Or if they said that I was just a fool
So I left there in the morning
With their God tucked underneath my arm
Their half-assed smiles and the book of rules

And I asked this God a question
And by way of firm reply
He said "I'm not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays"
So to my old headmaster and to anyone who cares
Before I'm through I'd like to say my prayers

I don't believe you
You had the whole damn thing all wrong
He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays
Well, you can excommunicate me on my way to Sunday school
And have all the bishops harmonize these lines

Oh, I forgot the next line. Um...

;)

So you ride yourself over the fields
And you make all your animal deals
But your wise men don't know how it feels..

That song had a big impact on me as a questioning youth. Thanks.

When I was in High School my older brother gave me this album for Christmas. This song really hit me, and is still a favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBAVqGVru94

*Poof*



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2019 09:14PM by Lot's Wife.

Oh great. Now I've got to pull Aqualung out and give it a spin. Life could be worse on a cold winters night.

Cathedral is one of my old favorites, too.


---------------
On Tull, I almost posted a link to My God.

"People what have you done
Locked him in his Golden Cage
Made him bend to your religion
and resurrected from the grave
He is the God of nothing. . ."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4P5dsPvRIA

---------------
There is also ELP's The Only Way from their Tarkus album.

"How can you just obey?"

"How did He lose six million Jews?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrzyd8R8YWs


-----------------
I wonder if we apostates were, when younger, disproportionately familiar with this sort of music.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2019 09:13PM by Lot's Wife.

Perhaps we were drawn to it. Such is the way with inquisitive minds.

There is more than a grain of truth in that statement.

Disco STILL sucks !!!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2019 11:08PM by Beth.

Hi Beth!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p554R-Jq43A

TG

THE MASTER'S CALL, by Marty Robbins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNgH1cDr5yw

THE REVEREND MR. BLACK, by The Kingston Trio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VMGwbpMC9M

--------------------

Not MoronicPriesthood songs, but nice to listen to.

Love that old country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKuc4nfJByc&list=RDUKuc4nfJByc&start_radio=1&t=37

The Musical! Hasa diga Eebowai

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLb7_UrV3-A

Nothing from Depeche Mode

Sitting target
Sitting waiting
Anticipating
Nothing
Nothing

Life
Is full of surprises
It advertises
Nothing
Nothing

What am I trying to do
What am I trying to say
I'm not trying to tell you anything
You didn't know
When you woke up today

Sitting target
Sitting waiting
God is saying
Nothing
Nothing

I don't want to start
Any blasphemous rumors
But I think that God's
Got a sick sense of humor
And when I die
I expect to find Him laughing

Where I went to college, lo these many moons ago, the best looking woman by far was a Mormon. As an athlete, the guys would share a lot of their preoccupations and jokes with me. A popular one was "The fact that God made Erika a Mormon proves he has a cruel sense of humor."

So they would have agreed with you, EB.

Desperation is a tender trap
It gets you every time
You put your lips to her lips
To stop the lie

Her skin is pale like God's only dove
Screams like an angel for your love
Then she makes you watch her from above
And you need her like a drug

And I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very very
Mad world, mad world

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIjGg-gZKtQ

Jimmy Buffett
God Don't Own a Car



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhkHG-oKCEU

Hayes Carll
She Left Me For Jesus