10 April 2015

Music Day - Ba Ba Ba Ba

This song is catchy as heck. Do not listen to it if you're not prepared to be singing it all darn week. That said, it is a fun to sing along with. It could be worse. You could have Funkytown or something stuck in your head.

Despite the inane title, this song is quite deep. It opens with a cutting observation of how society (including a lot of us in the 'Christian' subculture) operates as Michael Roe purrs:
Welcome to truth custom-made
Come in and have some lemonade
Reality will re-adjust while we evade...

The rest of the song's lyrics develop the theme against a verse structure of smooth keyboard and a throbbing staccato synth before launching into a chorus backed by guitar work that still gives me chills a full year after I first heard it.

Title: Ba Ba Ba Ba
Artist: 77s
Album: All Fall Down
Year: 1984
Label: Lo-Fidelity Records
Listen and purchase from the artist here.

05 April 2015

Music Day, Part II - Today Is The Day

There was a different song by this artist that I wanted to feature today... alas, the iTunes Store fails me yet again.

The '80s are strong with this one, but as we all know, it's not necessarily a bad thing on this blog... The lyrics are timeless and joyful though, and on Easter Sunday, it's the timeless and joyful that we focus on anyway.

Title: Today Is The Day
Artist: David Meece
Album: Count The Cost
Year: 1983
iTunes here; YouTube here.

Today is the day
Today is the day
He is risen
Today is the day
Today is the day
He is living
Go and tell everybody you see
That He is living indeed...


He is risen!
He is risen indeed!

03 April 2015

Music Day, Part I - Beautiful Scandalous Night

I love The Choir's lyrics. The music is sometimes (often) too slow for me, but the poetic lyrics usually win me over in the end. Here the band explores the paradox of Jesus' death bringing us life.

Title: Beautiful Scandalous Night
Artist: The Choir
Album: Flap Your Wings
Year: 2001
iTunes here; YouTube here.
Buy directly from The Choir here.

It was a horrible night for those who loved Jesus -- He was arrested without a real warrant, pushed through trial under dishonest judges with their own agendas, beaten, mocked, and eventually sentenced to death, which was carried out the next morning. And it was scandalous -- not only was the entire thing a sham trial by a coalition of corrupt religious and political leaders, Jesus, up until a week prior, had been something of a celebrity throughout the region. For Him to have been sentenced to death literally overnight would certainly have been tabloid material.

But for those who have loved Him since that time, it was beautiful. For a more in-depth explanation of the reasoning behind it, read this. But in a nutshell, it was because of Jesus' death that humans even have the opportunity to be reconciled with God. Whether we take it or not is another matter, but at least now we have that opportunity.

Kneel down by the shore
Be thirsty no more
Go under and be purified...