two lies in song
D just got a song stuck in my head, and as most awful songs do, it's stuck for the duration: Bette Midler's From a Distance. Thought I'd get it in your head too. Aren't I nice? Every time I hear the word, Distance, I immediately shudder and think of this piece of trash. I. Despise. This. Hideous. Song. Why, you ask? (Do you have to ask?) It's theological drivel, a piece of sappy heresy gussied up with a pop orchestra.
God is watching us--from a distance.
Much like God would watch a ticking time-bomb, I suppose? What bloody good would it do for God to just watch us--from a distance? He may as well not bother. Utter tosh.
The other song is better musically, but was changed by music producers who wanted to make a hit, and Truth does not produce hits. The Greatest Love of All, sung by Whitney Houston, was written by a wonderful man who also wrote Awesome God back in the Eighties. He was a first-grade teacher who had a profound stutter, but when he sang, he could pronounce words perfectly. Naturally, he did a lot of singing with his kids, and wrote many songs that became famous and probably supplemented his meagre teaching income. He came to speak once at my high school, and it was a really memorable experience. Most chapels were spent listening to endless droning, numbing my butt on rock-hard bleachers in the gym. Or performances that were so bad that I would cry with embarrassment for the people singing their poor hearts out. One strange guy--an alum from the previous year--came back even stranger, singing along to a crappy tape, doing air guitar on this little 6-foot square platform.
...*Cricket, cricket*...
Anyway The Greatest Love of All is unchanged in every part except the main point: Whitney sings, "Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all." No again. The original words were, "Learning to love the Lord is the greatest love of all." Just a teensy eensy change, that's all. Making my blood boil just a little bit.
Once again, mk proving that she is every bit as neurotic as the next nail-biting perfectionista. Enjoy singing From a Distance for the next few days, will ya?
God is watching us--from a distance.
Much like God would watch a ticking time-bomb, I suppose? What bloody good would it do for God to just watch us--from a distance? He may as well not bother. Utter tosh.
The other song is better musically, but was changed by music producers who wanted to make a hit, and Truth does not produce hits. The Greatest Love of All, sung by Whitney Houston, was written by a wonderful man who also wrote Awesome God back in the Eighties. He was a first-grade teacher who had a profound stutter, but when he sang, he could pronounce words perfectly. Naturally, he did a lot of singing with his kids, and wrote many songs that became famous and probably supplemented his meagre teaching income. He came to speak once at my high school, and it was a really memorable experience. Most chapels were spent listening to endless droning, numbing my butt on rock-hard bleachers in the gym. Or performances that were so bad that I would cry with embarrassment for the people singing their poor hearts out. One strange guy--an alum from the previous year--came back even stranger, singing along to a crappy tape, doing air guitar on this little 6-foot square platform.
...*Cricket, cricket*...
Anyway The Greatest Love of All is unchanged in every part except the main point: Whitney sings, "Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all." No again. The original words were, "Learning to love the Lord is the greatest love of all." Just a teensy eensy change, that's all. Making my blood boil just a little bit.
Once again, mk proving that she is every bit as neurotic as the next nail-biting perfectionista. Enjoy singing From a Distance for the next few days, will ya?
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