Terry, that is an amazing album. Rod Stewart was so good back then. He was the singer for the Faces, and he was even "cool"! Then he sold out in the late seventies or something.
But when I tell people I like Rod Stewart, I've always got to prefix it with "early."
My favorite song from the album may be "Mandolin Wind".
Saw him live in the mid-Seventies in Glasgow with the Faces- brilliant concert! Handbags & Gladrags, and Reason to Believe are faves that jump to mind the latter under the name Python Lee Jackson. Went down the tubes after Sailing or thereabouts, the Voice is still there just the material isn't
Aquinas said the leper in the OT was a symbol of the heretic.....having live and dead parts of his body as the heretic has good and bad ideas. Thus all rockers.....and the young need to sort even within each song. While the featured song is actually pro Vatican in one way...."Shanghai Lil didn't take no pill....she said that it just wasn't natural".... subsequent words that then follow note an acceptance of fornication by her and Rod. Young readers of your blog may be confused since you often talk of chastity. Continence can allow the Christian to filter but continence must be developed. The tough thing is....in the mid 20th century, the creativity was coming from sinners largely....like "The First Cut is the Deepest".....or Joplin's " Ball and Chain"..... or Steely Dan's "Do It Again". Jacques Maritain once said the depth can sometimes overide an inferior moral message....Joplin was that at times
bill, unfortunately, you're right, and we cannot accept every song wholesale - some songs have a message that is so irredeemably sinful that I can no longer listen to them ("Some Girls" by the Stones is a great example), others are ambiguous, and others can be sorted through and appreciated for their merits while not accepting the defects.
I guess it's the same for all art. Even classical music can contain elements not altogether right - Wagner has incest, suicide, deception, etc. He was no Christian, but the Ring cycle does end up portraying the ultimate despair of the pagan worldview. So there's always something.
Mercury Rock often intersects with scripture within the non Christian rocker as though in the preconscious (Jung), the rocker is accessing wisdom beyond him. The OT says, "Give no woman power over you to trample on your dignity"...Sirach 9:2. You Rolling Stones capture it perfectly in "Beast of Burden" while Christian singers neglect it in my limited experience. The OT Sirach 33:5 I think...says, "Like the wheel of a cart is the mind of a fool, his thoughts revolve in circles".....No Christian song writer could beat "Do It Again" by Steely Dan on that proverb which is entirely identical to that proverb and expands one's experience of that proverb. "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin starts off so racy that millions of Christians probably ran from it and it is perfectly Christian if followed in its three parts: lust for the hottie....truth of who the hottie is as a peron over time.....prayers for a simple loving woman. The angels loved it....but the beginning chased off Christians understandably....me for years til one day I paid attention. And coming from a sinner character within the song, it was more deep than had it come from a rigtheous person.
"Rock often intersects with scripture within the non Christian rocker as though in the preconscious (Jung), the rocker is accessing wisdom beyond him."
The rocker/artist was usually raised as a Christian, many were influenced by Catholicism, and if not, at least they were imbued with Judeo-Christian moral teachings - even in public schools. Nothing Jungian about it - unless they were marketed and packaged by the industry like Grand Funk or groups like them.
Black music - the foundation of rock and roll and country - was all gospel, all biblical, all Christian, with the devil in the reeds.
Speaking of black music - ever notice how a bluesman can be singing about committing all kinds of crimes and sins in one song, yet sing about Jesus on another?
Please comment with charity and avoid ad hominem attacks. I exercise the right to delete comments I find inappropriate. If you use your real name there is a better chance your comment will stay put.
Terry, that is an amazing album. Rod Stewart was so good back then. He was the singer for the Faces, and he was even "cool"! Then he sold out in the late seventies or something.
ReplyDeleteBut when I tell people I like Rod Stewart, I've always got to prefix it with "early."
My favorite song from the album may be "Mandolin Wind".
Mercury - I know! My favorite is this and Cut Across Shorty. He did sell out unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteSaw him live in the mid-Seventies in Glasgow with the Faces- brilliant concert! Handbags & Gladrags, and Reason to Believe are faves that jump to mind the latter under the name Python Lee Jackson. Went down the tubes after Sailing or thereabouts, the Voice is still there just the material isn't
ReplyDeleteThat lasr comment was me Finbar!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite song with the Faces is "Ooh-La-La", which is their biggest hit, of course.
ReplyDeleteAquinas said the leper in the OT was a symbol of the heretic.....having live and dead parts of his body as the heretic has good and bad ideas. Thus all rockers.....and the young need to sort even within each song.
ReplyDeleteWhile the featured song is actually pro Vatican in one way...."Shanghai Lil didn't take no pill....she said that it just wasn't natural".... subsequent words that then follow note an acceptance of fornication by her and Rod. Young readers of your blog may be confused since you often talk of chastity. Continence can allow the Christian to filter but continence must be developed.
The tough thing is....in the mid 20th century, the creativity was coming from sinners largely....like "The First Cut is the Deepest".....or Joplin's " Ball and Chain"..... or Steely Dan's
"Do It Again". Jacques Maritain once said the depth can sometimes overide an inferior moral message....Joplin was that at times
bill, unfortunately, you're right, and we cannot accept every song wholesale - some songs have a message that is so irredeemably sinful that I can no longer listen to them ("Some Girls" by the Stones is a great example), others are ambiguous, and others can be sorted through and appreciated for their merits while not accepting the defects.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's the same for all art. Even classical music can contain elements not altogether right - Wagner has incest, suicide, deception, etc. He was no Christian, but the Ring cycle does end up portraying the ultimate despair of the pagan worldview. So there's always something.
Mercury
ReplyDeleteRock often intersects with scripture within the non Christian rocker as though in the preconscious (Jung), the rocker is accessing wisdom beyond him. The OT says, "Give no woman power over you to trample on your dignity"...Sirach 9:2. You Rolling Stones capture it perfectly in "Beast of Burden" while Christian singers neglect it in my limited experience. The OT Sirach 33:5 I think...says, "Like the wheel of a cart is the mind of a fool, his thoughts revolve in circles".....No Christian song writer could beat "Do It Again" by Steely Dan on that proverb which is entirely identical to that proverb and expands one's
experience of that proverb. "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin starts off so racy that millions of Christians probably ran from it and it is perfectly Christian if followed in its three parts: lust for the hottie....truth of who the hottie is as a peron over time.....prayers for a simple loving woman. The angels loved it....but the beginning chased off Christians understandably....me for years til one day I paid attention.
And coming from a sinner character within the song, it was more deep than had it come from a rigtheous person.
+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteI've just listened to Black Dog. Thanks, Bill.
My own favourite "creative sinner" is Robbie Williams.
"Rock often intersects with scripture within the non Christian rocker as though in the preconscious (Jung), the rocker is accessing wisdom beyond him."
ReplyDeleteThe rocker/artist was usually raised as a Christian, many were influenced by Catholicism, and if not, at least they were imbued with Judeo-Christian moral teachings - even in public schools. Nothing Jungian about it - unless they were marketed and packaged by the industry like Grand Funk or groups like them.
Black music - the foundation of rock and roll and country - was all gospel, all biblical, all Christian, with the devil in the reeds.
Speaking of black music - ever notice how a bluesman can be singing about committing all kinds of crimes and sins in one song, yet sing about Jesus on another?
ReplyDelete