Category: Rock n Roll

Alice Cooper

alice cooper on stage

Alice Cooper speaking on his faith in Jesus Christ and Christians are called to follow God (taken from “Alice Cooper is a Christian” published in Jesus Journal Tuesday March 28th, 2006):

I was pretty much convinced all my life that there was just one God and there was Jesus Christ and there was the Devil.

You couldn’t believe in God without believing in the Devil. I always tell bands that the most dangerous thing you can do is to believe in the concept of the Devil or the concept of God, because you’re not giving them full credit. When you believe in God, you’ve got to believe in the all-powerful God. He’s not just God, He’s the all-powerful God and He has total control over everyone’s life. The Devil, on the other hand, is a real character that’s trying his hardest to tear your life apart. If you believe that this is just mythology, you’re a prime target because you know that’s exactly what Satan wants: To be a myth. But he’s not a myth, of this I’m totally convinced. More than anything in the world, I’m convinced of that.

We have to make a choice. And everybody, at some point in their lives, has to make that choice. When people say, ‘How do you believe this? Why do you believe this?’ I just say nothing else speaks to my heart. This doesn’t speak to my intellect, it doesn’t speak to my logic – it speaks right to my heart and right to my soul, deeper than anything I’ve ever thought of. And I totally believe it. That being said, I’m not a very good Christian. I mean, none of us are ever ‘good’ Christians. That’s not the point. When you’re a Christian, it doesn’t mean you’re gonna be good, it means you’ve got a harder road to pull.

I’m the first one to rock as loud as I can, but when it comes to what I believe, I’m the first one to defend it too.  It has also gotten me in trouble with the staunch Christians who believe that in order to be a Christian you have to be on your knees 24 hours a day in a closet somewhere. Hey, maybe some people can live like that, but I don’t think that’s the way God expected us to live. When Christ came back, He hung out with the whores, the drunks and miscreants because they were people that needed Him. Christ never spent His time with the Pharisees.

 

It’s obvious humanity is craving for answers directly born of awareness.  That’s the healthiest thing I’ve seen in a long time because there is something better and everybody’s gotta find it in their own way. People aren’t feeling fulfilled by how many cars they own or the size of their stock portfolio. Even the addicts are saying, ‘It doesn’t matter how many drugs I take, I’m not fulfilled. This isn’t satisfying.’ There’s a spiritual hunger going on. Everybody feels it. If you don’t feel it now, you will. Trust me. You will.

I like the comment that Alice made about there not being any “good” Christians.  We tend to rank Christians in categories such as “good,” “bad,” “serious,” “kind of,” “hard core,” and “some what” Christian.  The truth is there really are just two classifications, “Christian” and “Not Christian.”  The moment a person has faith in Christ, that person is a Christian and has salvation.  Alice also nails that we’re always looking for love in the all the wrong places!  Even Christians fall into this trap from time to time, but Jesus and what he offers is the only way we can be satisfied, because what he offers is eternal; it’s permanent!

Some might have problems with Alice’s stage antics and image but I know that he has said in other interviews that he doesn’t sing any of his old songs that encourage or glorify drunkeness, drugs, or adulteress sex anymore.  He also sees that what he is doing is showing people that evil is real, that Satan is real through his work, countering the idea that Satan is just a myth as he spoke about in the interview above.

I also find it inspiring that as the grandfather of “shock rock,” Alice is mentoring and speaking Jesus into the lives of the younger generation of rockers who are following in his genre and style.  I read another interivew of his once that indicated that he didn’t think that his stage show was the place to speak his faith, but that he does it a lot one on one backstage.  Isn’t it rad that he is getting to share his faith like this, that there is a Christian that some non-Christian rock artists respect and look up to as a pioneer in their field?  My gut is that he should be more vocal about his faith on the stage, but maybe he has a good take on what his ministry actually is and there are numerous interviews and articles like the one I have quoted on-line.

BTW, Alice Cooper ran for president of the US once!

alice and slash

Andy WrasmanLeave a comment

Stereomud – Show Me

Back in 2001, maybe 2001, the band Stereomud was on heavy radio rotation in Nashville with their song, “Pain.”  I saw them play at the now closed rock club, 328, in downtown Music City.  They played with Saliva, Lifer, and Systematic.  Most of these bands and others coming out of the nu-metal, rap-rock genre didn’t go further than the small rock club scene, but I got a couple CDs from each of these bands.  Yesterday on my full library shuffle, I was taken back to early 2000 when Stereomud’s “Show Me” entered the cycle.

Check out a sampling of the lyrics to this song:

Please don’t forget me I’m out here trying to find you…

Show me some kind of light I can barely see it
Don’t want to think that it’s hopeless
Show me some kind of light I can barely see it
Don’t want to think I’m lost

Everytime I left It was so far away
No I never thought that it would be like this
Wish I could thank you for the patience that you gave me
It’s all I, I can do so don’t give up on me
Hope you know it’s your faith that’s guiding me

Please don’t forget me I’m out here trying to find you…

Show me some kind of light I can barely see it
Don’t want to think that it’s hopeless
Show me some kind of light I can barely see it
Don’t want to think I’m lost

Please don’t forget me

Show me some kind of light I can barely see it
Don’t want to think that it’s hopeless
Show me some kind of light I can barely see it
Don’t want to think I’m lost

I’m curious who do you think he is singing about?  Does the style of the music, the tone of singer, or the content of the lyrics fit a crying out for an ex-lover, distant parent, lost friend, or other human guidance, or does this seem more like a calling out for a divine hand, a divine light, a “word from above?”

It made me think of the lyrics of one of my favorite bands, Godsmack.  Many of their songs cry out to someone or something “to make me believe,” “to forgive me,” “to shine down to give me a chance to feel you,” “to give me a reason to pray,” “that I still believe in immortal love and I know that there is someone who is up above,” and the need to “re-align,” “change,” “speak the truth,” with an entire song centered on the question, “What if?”

I firmly believe that God has revealed himself through what he has created, as Romans 1:20 states, that from “the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”  In Christian doctrine this type of revelation is called Natural Knowledge or General Revelation.  I think songs like the ones from bands like Stereomud and Godsmack ask the questions that they ask and have themes transcend the natural because God has put his fingerprints all over his creation, though all men don’t acknowledge, they know there is more, which is why we all seek and have a god in our life, rather it is a God made in the image of man or creation, humanism, fame, money, or the true God of the universe as he has revealed himself directly through the person of Jesus Christ.

This isn’t for everyone, because for some Christians listening to certain songs might lead them to sin, but I do think that the spiritual themes that arise from the artists and poets of our society are good starting points for “religious” talk, for discussing God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  If you can take in the words and products of non-Christians without being led away from Christ or into sin, then by all means, listen, observe, but always filter through discernment using God’s Word, and pray for opportunities to share the Gospel.

Check out Christianity Today’s movie review section on-line.  They have great discussion questions at the end of all their reviews which can give some helpful examples of how we can engage secular culture and redeem it and point it towards Christ.  This is exactly what Paul did as he mingled in the marketplace of Athens in Acts 17.

Let me know what you find?  And if this proves helpful?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andy Wrasman1 Comment

Hendrix Jam that Inspires Me to Think of the Power of Being a Child of God

Good quote:  I am a man that stands against mountains and thinks of pebbles.

This quote is by the bathrooms along the walking strip of Venice Beach. I loved it so much the first time I saw it that I had to come back with a camera to take a picture of it. I quoted it once, and my friend Codie, knew exactly where the quote came from – Venice Beach Restroom. At least both of us caught the power of this quote.

I think this ties great to Jesus’ quote about “faith of a mustard seed, being able to move mountains.”  Maybe this isn’t’ a literal, physical, tree-covered mountain.  Maybe this is a mountain in a different manner, mountains such as going to China, where you face communism, a different language, poverty, imprisonment, cultural differences, or planting a new church in Orange County where you might be told that there are already too many churches for a new church to be needed, where you might face location problems, time problems, financial problems, and in a sense these are mountains.  Being a college student and having to juggle classes, work hours, play time, homework time, sleep time, eat time, God time all in 24 small hours can be a mountain.  With faith in Jesus though, these mountains can be moved because they are just pebbles.

Whenever I hear Jimi Hendrix’s song, “Voodoo Chile,” I am fascinated with the line that says, “I stand up next to a mountain, I chop it down with the edge of my hand, cuz I’m a Voodoo Chile baby, Lord knows, I’m a Voodoo Chile!”  I always think, that’s me, I have that power!  Not because of Voodoo, but because of Christ in me, my hope and glory.  I am a Child of God.

Andy Wrasman2 Comments

Led Zeppelin – Jesus is the Stairway to Heaven

Genesis Chapter 28- Jacob sees a vision from the Lord of a Stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and angels were ascending and descending on it.

When I first read about Jacob’s vision of a “stairway to heaven,” I was stoked.  I was in high school at the time and my favorite band back then was Led Zeppelin.  I was excited to know that there is a stairway to heaven, but I wasn’t sure what exactly this stairway vision meant. Here is what I found:

Jesus himself is that stairway.

John 1:51 – Jesus says that heaven will open and the angles of God will be ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.    Jesus is the Son of Man; he applied that messianic title to himself numerous times in his ministry.. 

What’s the significance of Jesus being a stairway?

Isaiah 59:2  – “But your iniquities have separated you from God; your sins have hidden his face from you.”

sin sppartes
God is holy and man is sinful. Our sin causes a great separation between God and us.

John 14:6  – “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

1 Timothy 2:5  – “For there is one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.”

Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

All of this means that Christ is the stairway that bridges the void between God and us.  The wages of sin is death and Christ took our sins upon himself and died in our place.  And unlike the Zeppelin song, you can not buy the stairway to heaven.  It is free.  It is a gift to you, received through faith.  Ephesians 2:5 – “For it is by grace you are saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.”    John 3:16-17 – “For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only begotten son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him.”

Also, the Led Zeppelin song has a line that says, “Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run There’s still time to change the road you’re on.”  There are many religious paths that people can follow, but as the verses indicate, salvation comes only through faith in Jesus.  If you believe that Jesus is the Stairway to Heaven, then you have a calling, and a command from God, to share this message with others.  If you do not believe Jesus is the Stairway, I’d encourage you to study more about Jesus, his life, work, and claims, because there are multiple paths, and there is still time to change the one you are on.

Andy Wrasman9 Comments

Rollins Band – Obsene

This is Rollins doing his thing, and I can’t think of any other band who has songs that sound anything like this, and I’m not referring to Rollins’ vocals.  Remove Rollins from the picture, and does any band sound like this besides them?  I don’t even know how to describe their sound.  I like to use the term  hard jazz or hard blues.

As demented as many people may think his lyrics are in this song, including the bass player at the start of the song when Rollins is just improvising a rant,  I think there is a lot of truth to them.  How often do “we love someone and hate them at the same time?”  And as much as we like to point the finger at others to remove the speck from their own eye, we really need to think about ourselves first and get the plank out of our eyes before trying to remove our neighbor’s.

I think he points out our sinful natures very well.  I’m always convicted when I listen to this band.

Andy WrasmanLeave a comment