People I respect, Part 2

People I Respect

Part 2

Steve Taylor

Okay, I’m going to talk about a time way back in the mid-80s, a time when Christian music was starting to get Really Bad. And I don’t mean “bad” in a good way. I mean cheesy lame lyrics, cheesy lame synthesizers, and cheesy lame drum machines, all backed up by cheesy lame theology and cheesy lame spiritual walks. My grandfather died, and my mom went back to the US for his funeral. When she came back, she brought me some Jams, and a couple of cassette tapes: Dr. Demento’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 5 (Thanks, Mom!) and another by a group called the Rap-Sures. The Rap-Sures used the cheesiest drum machine ever (it was like a $19.95 Casio keyboard, only without the coolness) and did cheesy lame white-guy rap. These guys made Vanilla Ice sound cool, they were that bad. Try to rap something like:

“We’re rap-sure about the Rapture,

That’s why we’re rappin’ ‘bout the Rapture!”

I don’t care how ghetto you are, it’s gonna sound stupid.

I’d been listening to Christian rock and pop for a while. It was one of the adjustments I had to make when I went to boarding school. I got there, and everybody would ask, “What’s your favorite group?” And I’d say, “Well, I like Quiet Riot, and Asia, and …” And they would get all Ernest Ainsley and smack me in the head and say, “Deeemons, OUT!!!” and I would go back to the dorm and blast “Cum on Feel The Noize” or “The Smile Has Left Your Eyes.” Actually, some of them didn’t even know who those people were, because all their parents had ever allowed them to hear was Christian music, and none of that-there eeevil hippie rock’n’roll, neither. Some of them did know who those groups were and didn’t condemn me, though, which was good. My best friend Andy introduced me to Rez Band, and I can’t count the number of hours we spent sitting in his room talking and listening to “Bootleg.” (I’ll probably write one of these about Glenn Kaiser and Rez.) And Tim, one of the guys in my dorm, spent a great deal of time listening to Steve Taylor’s “Meltdown” album, which was great. I heard it a lot, because Tim roomed with one of my best friends.

Steve Taylor had something that a lot of Christian artists (indeed, a lot of pop artists) didn't have: talent. Meltdown had catchy tunes, solid rhythms (except for "Am I In Sync?" but that was the point of the song) and good solid thinking. Excellent stuff.

Steve’s music attracted me for two reasons: one was that he wasn’t afraid to take on hypocrisy in Christendom. You’d never hear Steve say, “Don’t condemn what the Lord is blessing.” He’d say, “Is God really blessing it, just ‘cause a bunch of people are giving money to it? Compare it to scripture, and if it doesn’t fit then it’s gotta go.” The second reason was that he had a wicked sense of humor. Whether he was picking on modern thought (“You say humanist philosophy is what it’s all about/You’re so open-minded that your brain’s leaked out”), “Christian” politicians (“When you need supporting/Tell ‘em that you’re born again”), or Bob Jones’ university’s racist policies (“Bumper sticker on his Ford/Says ‘Honkies if you love the Lord!’”), Steve always had the right turn of phrase to make you laugh and make you think. Listen to his take on TV Evangelists:

“It’s a telethon Tuesday

For the Gospel Club

‘Send your money in now

or they’re gonna pull the plug!’

…You could be smelling a crook

You should be checking the book

But you’d rather listen than look …”

He talked about greed and materialism among Christians:

"It was a morning just like any other morning
...in the Sinai Desert
...1200 B.C.
It glistened, it glowed, it rose from the gold of the children of Israel
(and most of the adults)

The Cash Cow

The golden Cash Cow had a body like the great cows of ancient Egypt
And a face like the face of Robert Tilton (without the horns)"

He had some genuinely moving lyrics as well:

“It was a confidence that got you by

when you knew you believed it but you didn’t know why

no one imagines it will come to this

but it gets so hard when people don’t want to listen…

don’t you know by now why the chosen are few?

It’s harder to believe than not to.”

or

"I saw a man who was holding the hand that had fired a gun at his heart

Oh, will we live to forgive?"

or

“Just as you are, just a wretch like me

Jesus is for losers, grace from the blood of a tree.

Just as we are, at a total loss

Jesus is for losers, broken, at the foot of the cross.”

Steve was real. He taught me that the Christian life could be hard, that there would be times when I would doubt, that there would be times when I would fall. And he taught me that God still loved me and wanted me for His own, no matter how often I had to pick myself up. I’m not going to quote them all here, but go here and read the lyrics to “The Finish Line.” That’s what Steve taught me, and I’m better for it.