Saturday, March 25, 2006
Shouts Out To Lisa!
Lisa's in the house! She checked out my webpage recently. She told me today at work. Thanks for saying my site is good. I'll try to maintain quality!
TIME TO PARSE PARSONS. I've been listening to lots of Gram Parsons today. Here's a lyric by him and (possibly) Chris Hillman. I say possibly, because when it comes to songs credited to Parsons and Hillman I don't know who wrote the words and who wrote the music or if they both wrote the words and music. This is hard enough to do with Lennon and McCartney and I know their stuff better than I should. Here's a lyric which lays out the Christian grounding of the apocalyptic song SIN CITY:
A friend came around,
Tried to clean up this town.
His ideas made some people mad.
He trusted his crowd,
So he spoke right out loud,
And they lost the best friend they had.
I have to do this in the next ten minutes because Bill Maher's coming on, so, very quickly, here's my analysis of this lyric:
"A friend came around" refers to Jesus, who is often called a "friend" in song. (One such song is an old church song called "What a Friend We Have in Jesus.") "Tried to clean up this town" refers to Jesus's efforts to persuade people to do good. "His ideas made some people mad." Jesus enraged the religious authorities in his day. "He trusted his crowd." Jesus trusted the Apostles (his crowd) to spread his word. He also trusted that the their selfishness would help lead to his crucifixion, which would, in its turn, save sinners. "So he spoke right out loud." Speak out loud he did, and he knew this would cause the authorities to destroy him. "And they lost the best friend they had." "They" being everybody on earth, the authorities, the believers, the Apostles, the non-believers and people who had never heard of him or what he had to say. He was lost and rose again.
I have no idea if Gram Parsons believed in Jesus, but he certainly sang a very sincere version of "I Like The Christian Life." I think he wanted to bridge gaps. The Byrds recorded over the vocal he'd done for that and sang it in a snarkier way, but Parsons's vocal, which has been restored and can be found on a bonus track from the Byrds's SWEETHEART OF THE RODEO, is sweet. He died at 27, a heroin addict. From pain, much art.
TIME TO PARSE PARSONS. I've been listening to lots of Gram Parsons today. Here's a lyric by him and (possibly) Chris Hillman. I say possibly, because when it comes to songs credited to Parsons and Hillman I don't know who wrote the words and who wrote the music or if they both wrote the words and music. This is hard enough to do with Lennon and McCartney and I know their stuff better than I should. Here's a lyric which lays out the Christian grounding of the apocalyptic song SIN CITY:
A friend came around,
Tried to clean up this town.
His ideas made some people mad.
He trusted his crowd,
So he spoke right out loud,
And they lost the best friend they had.
I have to do this in the next ten minutes because Bill Maher's coming on, so, very quickly, here's my analysis of this lyric:
"A friend came around" refers to Jesus, who is often called a "friend" in song. (One such song is an old church song called "What a Friend We Have in Jesus.") "Tried to clean up this town" refers to Jesus's efforts to persuade people to do good. "His ideas made some people mad." Jesus enraged the religious authorities in his day. "He trusted his crowd." Jesus trusted the Apostles (his crowd) to spread his word. He also trusted that the their selfishness would help lead to his crucifixion, which would, in its turn, save sinners. "So he spoke right out loud." Speak out loud he did, and he knew this would cause the authorities to destroy him. "And they lost the best friend they had." "They" being everybody on earth, the authorities, the believers, the Apostles, the non-believers and people who had never heard of him or what he had to say. He was lost and rose again.
I have no idea if Gram Parsons believed in Jesus, but he certainly sang a very sincere version of "I Like The Christian Life." I think he wanted to bridge gaps. The Byrds recorded over the vocal he'd done for that and sang it in a snarkier way, but Parsons's vocal, which has been restored and can be found on a bonus track from the Byrds's SWEETHEART OF THE RODEO, is sweet. He died at 27, a heroin addict. From pain, much art.
# posted by Fredwemyss @ 12:47 AM 
