Thursday, October 16, 2008

Over Spiritualizing Billy Joel

Please don't judge me too harshly, but I was thinking about my newly realized identity and how the Father totally accepts me, and this song came to my mind. You can say it was not God, and you'll probably be right, but I kind of think it kind of fits:

(God talking to me)
Don't go changing, to try and please me,
You never let me down before,
Don't imagine, you're too familiar,
And I don't see you anymore.

I would not leave you, in times of trouble,
We never could have come this far,
I took the good times,
I'll take the bad times,
I'll take you just the way you are.

Don't go trying, some new fashion,
Don't change the colour of your hair,
You always have my, unspoken passion,
Although I might not seem to care.

I don't want clever, conversation,
I never want to work that hard,
I just want someone, that I can talk to,
I want you just the way you are.

I need to know that you will always be
The same old someone that I knew,
What will it take till you believe in me,
The way that I believe in you?

I said I love you, and that's forever,
And this I promise from the heart,
I couldn't love you, any better,
I love you just the way you are.

Okay, let the fur fly! ;-)

7 comments:

...and Enide said...

LOL! I love this! Way to appropriate a song by 'Mr. Only-the-Good-Die-Young!'

You are making a really profound faith about the natural desire for God manifested in yet another unexpected way! Thanks!

Joel Brueseke said...

I think you would enjoy Steve McVey's blog from January of last year, Seeing Christ in Unredeemed Culture. He quotes from the same Billy Joel song, as well as from a couple other songs. He invites the reader to consider him an extremist... ;) ... as he talks about how God can reveal Himself to us in all sorts of ways, including through unredeemed man.

Jamie said...

Well, gee, I was going to post this video, but...:)

The Stranger Live DVD set is out and it is GREAT! Love Billy Joel!!

...and Enide said...

Do you remember the episode of the Simpsons where Ned's love interest is sad because her band went secular?

"I didn't know you could do that," says Ned.

"Oh, it's easy," she replies, "You just change 'Oh Jesus' to 'Oh Baby."

The satire, I guess, shows no proper appreciation of the point that we crave human love as a sign of Christ's love.

(Sorry--I just thought, for John's blog, far too little about the Simpsons had been mentioned thus far. ;-)

John Fincher said...

Joel,
Thanks for the link! Great post.

Alison,
Not only on my blog, there are too few Simpsons references in life. ;-)

Two of my favorite characters are Todd and Rod. I like when they are jumping on a trampoline and saying each time they jump they are closer to God.

It's sad, but isn't that the way most people view God? That He's "up there" and unknowable.

Joel Brueseke said...

I have to admit... The Simpsons is a part of pop culture that I've essentially missed out on! I started watching it when it first started, but then I went through a period in which I didn't watch TV. When I started watching again I just never really got back into it. People are perplexed when I don't 'get' references to the Simpsons... ;)

As for saying "Jesus" and "Baby," I remember way back when, when I first heard some love songs by Stryper. I thought that since they were a 'Christian' band they were only referring to God. LOL. It wasn't till much later that I began to truly appreciate the love songs as being from a human (horizontal) point of view, but also being able to look at them from a vertical point of view.

There are many more things that come to mind as well, but one of the things that also sticks out to me is Grand Funk Railroad's song "Some Kind of Wonderful." When lead singer Mark Farner became a Christian solo artist, he changed some of the words from "baby" to "Jesus," and it was on his album. He "Christianized" the song, so to speak... ;) I think that was late 80's or early 90's. Since then, I think he's gone back to singing the original version.

John Fincher said...

Joel,
It is a great commentary on society. I like it because it makes fun of EVERYTHNG. Just this morning I was watching one I had recorded and the band, Quiet Riot, was playing at a religious function. Evidently, they had converted and their name was now PIOUS Riot and their signature song had been reworded to "Come on feel the Lord, and get saved, saved, saved."

In the same episode Bart was going to Catholic school because he had been kicked out of the public school. When he said the prayer at mealtime at his house, he said it in Latin.

Homer: What was that?
Lisa: That was Latin, the language of Plutarch.
Homer: Mickey Mouse's dog?

THAT'S why the show is so funny.