Then I saw her face. Now I’m a believer.
Not a trace of doubt in my mind.
– The Monkees
Why should the devil have all the good music? - Larry Norman
re: God gave Rock and Roll to You
I came to it via the Petra cover, which I see predates the Kiss cover by many years …
If you believe in forever
Then life is just a one-night stand
If there’s a rock n’ roll heaven
Well you know they’ve got a hell of a band
The Righteous Brothers
Several from Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung”, but the one that came immediately to mind:
" And I asked this God a question
And by way of firm reply
[He said: “I’m not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays”]
So to my old headmaster and to anyone who cares
Before I’m through I’d like to say my prayers"
from “Wind-up”
Also one which they caught a lot of flak for at the time:
" People, what have you done?
Locked him in his golden cage, golden cage
Made him bend to your religion
Him resurrected from the grave, from the grave
He is the God of nothing
If that’s all that you can see
You are the God of everything
He’s inside you and me"
from “My God”
Well, looks like I missed my opportunity to be original by about 5 minutes. There’s a lot of anti-organized-religion stuff on side 2 of Aqualung. The side as a whole is even called “My God” - not just the first track of the side.
Blockquote
One day while I was not at home
While she was there and all alone
The angels came
– “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro.
Been a while, but IIRC the liner notes start out “In the beginning, man created God, and so in his likeness created he Him.”
The whole album is anti-organized religion.
“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.” Patti Smith
“There ain’t no devil; there’s just God when he’s drunk.” Tom Waits
The Kinks - God’s Children:
Oh, the rich man, the poor man, the saint and the sinner
The wise man, the simpleton, the loser and the winner
We are all the same to Him
Stripped of our clothes and all the things we own
The day that we are born
We are all God’s children
And they got no right to change us
Oh, we gotta go back the way the good lord made us
Judas Priest - Exciter:
Fall to your knees and repent if you please
“Do you believe in heaven, where you go iffn you’re good, or hell, where you go iffn you’re evil?”
“I believe a man should be beholden to his neighbour without the reward of heaven or the fear of eternal hellfire.”
“They hung Hezekiah, because he didn’t have no religion”
Can’t remember the name of the song, but I’ve never forgotten this snippet. (I think this part may be spoken? Was a long time ago!)
The band is definitely ‘Perth County Conspiracy‘
Zager & Evans
In the year 7510
If God’s a coming, He oughta make it by then
Maybe He’ll look around Himself and say
Guess it’s time for the judgment day
In the year 8510
God is gonna shake His mighty head
He’ll either say I’m pleased where man has been
Or tear it down, and start again
I yield.
Or do I?
I al was thought that was a reference to the California Angels baseball team.
Wikipedia mentions that “Honey” was about Goldsboro’s late wife. I had heard from other sources that it was about his dog.
I’m surprised we are this far into the thread and nobody has mentioned Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky”.
Which included the line “Gotta have a friend in Jesus”, which was a little odd because Greenbaum, who also wrote the song, was Jewish.
That’s actually not so rare. See “With God On Our Side” and “Masters Of War” by Bob Dylan above. Other examples of Jewish songwriters referring to Jesus:
Lou Reed:
Paul Simon:
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
People get ready
There’s a train a-comin’
You don’t need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To keep the diesels hummin’
You don’t need no ticket
You just thank the lord
- People Get Ready, The Impressions and several cover versions
Jesus rides beside me. He never buys any smokes. - The Replacements