Sarcastic weekly The Onion has compiled a list of its favorite sung references to Jesus. Most are irreverant in the sense that they don't revere Jesus, but for the most part they're written as social commentary or as a foil for exploring more existential themes. Pretty interesting list--check it out here--with the sort of tone you'd expect from The Onion.
Come back when you're done and share your favorite Jesus lyric (with song title and artist) from a song or artist outside the Christian recording industry. If you can't get beyond Kanye West, go for songs that quote or directly paraphrase the Bible.
I'll get you started: Ben Folds, in his chronicle of a friend's conversion to Christianity ("Not the Same") sang with melancholy objectivity, "You gave your life to Jesus Christ, and you were not the same after that." We're left to decide for ourselves whether being "not the same" was a change for the better or for the worse.
One two three go!
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8 comments:
Easy. U2 'Wake up, Dead Man'
Jesus, were you just around the corner
Did you think to try and warn her
Or are you working on something new
Is there an order in all of this disorder
Is it like a tape recorder
Can we rewind it just once more
Wake Up, Dead Man.
Wow...now there's a song it takes a little while to digest and deconstruct. I remember listening to it with a friend in the car the day it came out and being like 'What the heck is this about??'
There's always "Round Here" by Counting Crows:
"She parks her car outside my house, takes her clothes off and says she's close to understanding Jesus."
Or "Levon" by Elton John:
"Jesus blows up balloons all day.
Sits on the porch swing watching them fly. And Jesus, he wants to go to Venus, Leaving Levon far behind."
I can't believe it took me so long to think of something. This is the best I've got:
She keeps a lock of hair in her pocket.
She wears a cross around her neck.
The hair is from a little boy,
And the cross from someone she has not met, well, not yet.
"She Talks to Angels"
- Black Crowes
Tom Waits:
Well it's got to be a chocolate Jesus/Make me feel good inside/Got to be a chocolate Jesus/Keep me satisfied
Well I don't want no Abba Zabba/Don't want no Almond Joy/See only a chocolate Jesus/Can satisfy my soul
From "Chocolate Jesus". I have no idea what it means.
In the words of Homer Simpson,
"Mmmmm . . .Sacri-licious."
Jesus Wept by PM Dawn
[jim morrison,marvin gaye,& martin luther king linked together]
"is everybody in?
Is everybody in?
Is everybody in?
The seromony is about to begin"
"there is something greater,
Than what we see on the surface
The nocturnalism, the greed."
"an artist, if he's truly artist, wants to...
Wants to do the will of god-
Then he must."
"hold onto your faith in god,
God will endow you with the gift of intelligence"
"god didn't give me this dreadful gift,
For me to keep it all to myself"
"you're not going to punish it?"
"i have to ??? they keep on like this
New from the Killers:
You sit there in your heartache
Waiting on some beautiful boy to
To save you from your old ways
You play forgiveness
Watch it now ... here he comes!
He doesn't look a thing like Jesus
But he talks like a gentleman
Like you imagined when you were young
were hangin oooooooooooooooooooooon ooh ooh ooh ooh ohoh oh oooh ohho ooh ohho
were hangin ooooooon
ooooooooooooooohhhooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooohhhooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooohhhooooooooooooooooo
were hangin ooooooooon
aand you were not the same after that
remix
you gave your life to jesus christ and you were not the same after that 10,003 years left to go 100 not enough i need some much more like 100,000 years left to live my life with jesus just aight enough
ooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhiooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooohoooooooooo
do do do do do do do do do do do do do
do do do do do do do, do do do do do do.
and you were not the same after that and you were not the same after that
he took your life put it in his hands and then he died on the cross woh woh woh woh woh woh woh woh woh woh woh woh woh and you were not the same after that and you were not the same after that.
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