Grown Men Don’t Cry – Tim McGraw

Great song…I guess having a 19 month old has made me soft. I can just close my eyes and picture this whole song in my mind’s eye. A couple of years ago I wouldn’t have given 30 seconds of my time to country music. But its growing on me.

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U2 – Bullet The Blue Sky from Rattle and Hum

This is the same CD that features George Pendergrass in Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. Don’t miss the end of this song where Bono gets to preachin’ and meddlin’ against the abuses of greedy ministers back in the late 80’s. This album was released in 1988 right in the middle of the Jim and Tammy Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart controversies.

Hope and Disappointment from the AMAs

Did anyone else watch some of the AMA’s last night? I was encouraged by the popularity of Taylor Swift. She seems pretty wholesome. Then there was Lady Gaga. She seems like a living piece of artwork. As you watch her, as strange as it is, there is something intriguing about it all. You wonder what is going to happen next or just how much more strange it can get. But there is no denying the artistry of it all. Whitney Houston made recompense at the awards with a good performance. But the saddest part of the whole thing was the popularity of Eminem. Much of his song was bleeped out but did any of you catch the opening of his song “Crack a Bottle”? If you didn’t, here it is. Said proudly, braggingly like these were his credentials:

Ladies and gentlemen!
The moment you have all been waiting for.
In this corner, weighing 175 pounds
with a record of 17 rapes, 400 assaults and 4 murders
the undisputed, most diabolical villain in the world
Slim Shady!

And we wonder why our women are being abused, children left fatherless, and our society so calloused and violent. Try playing these words in your ear over and over and over and see if it doesn’t change the way you think…then put yourself in the mindset of a 12, 15, 18 year old boy trying to figure out who he is and see what effect it has in how he views women and how he values or devalues the worth of others. What on earth is being promoted as enviable? What is being called good, desirable, worthwhile? What is being promoted as the standard of entertainment and quality in the music industry. This is not some behind the scenes, rogue group putting out this hateful music. This is by one of the most recognized “artists” in the industry. It is sad that anyone has to be exposed to this. The rest of the song was filled with the most vulgar profanity and sexual exploitation. All that and there were children in the audience, not to mention those watching at home. Unbelievable.

More Taylor, less Slim Shady. More lyrics, only this time from Isaiah 5:

“Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.

²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.

²² Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
and champions at mixing drinks,

²³ who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice to the innocent.

²⁴ Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so their roots will decay
and their flowers blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty
and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

– Isaiah 5:20-30

 

U2 Gets to Sing with George Pendergrass

U2 was so lucky to get to perform with George Pendergrass who used to sing with Acappella. You would be hard pressed to meet a nicer man than George Pendergrass. Bono joins the ranks of those lucky enough to get to sing with such a talented singer. This is I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for. You can hear the live recording in concert on the CD Rattle and Hum. The choir doesn’t kick in until the end then you catch some of George singing right at the end. You get to hear more of him on the CD.

In God We Still Trust – Diamond Rio

If my memory is right Diamond Rio has some roots with David Lipscomb University. This is a pretty good song with a good message. I don’t think we are the new Israel or God’s chosen nation but I do think Christian values are important to uphold. There is no wonder when that worldly people just don’t get it. I am glad to know that the world is not the final word. God is.

Guitar Solo Video – Canon in D Youtube

Pretty amazing…I find it crazy that he does all that just sitting by himself in a room at his computer. It reminds me of the opera guy who won “Britain’s Got Talent”, Paul Potts and that he practiced for years all by himself before those amazing performances.