Oct 30, 2009

Culture: Crying out with an Emo psalmist

I want to tell you about a song. You might know it already, especially if you wear skinny jeans and black eye-liner, keep straight bangs that hang over one eye, and fit the introverted teenager demographic commonly known as "emo."

If you only recognize this description, however, as something you’ve seen slinking around the mall, or as the young Violet Parr in Pixar’s film, The Incredibles, you may not.

Either way, I want to tell you about "Jesus Christ." The song, that is. Brand New wrote "Jesus Christ" in 2006 for their third album, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me, and I really like it. I’ve included the lyrics below, but try not to look at them just yet. I want you to hear and feel the song first.

What do you think?

Brand New falls into several overlapping music categories, including alternative rock, indie rock and emo. Like many emo bands, Brand New is dark, and characterized by questions and bouts of screaming. It’s emotional (hence the term, "emo") and it - and this song in particular - does something for its listeners.

Consider what fans say about "Jesus Christ":

"Songs like this help people get through the hardest times."

"Beautiful."

"Heart-wrenching."

"This song makes my cry."

I might agree. "Jesus Christ" reads like the desperate psalms. Musically and lyrically, it portrays the song-writer’s pain. I’m lonely. I’m not sure. I’m hurting and hungry and can’t find food to satisfy my longing. It comes across like Psalm 42:1, where David isn’t praising God for having, as much as he is mourning to God for not having:

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God."

Christians have difficulty writing somber lyrics and stanzas without including at least a spark of hope. I think we do this either because we really do have a spark of hope, or because we don’t but can’t admit it publicly. In the latter case, inserting hope protects us by causing listeners to say, "Oh, for a minute there, I thought he had given up, but nope. He’s still hanging on. He’ll be okay."

Not okay

Sometimes, however, we’re not okay. Sometimes, like the Sons of Korah in Psalm 88, we can’t finish on a high note:

"But I cry to you for help, O LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me? ...[T]he darkness is my closest friend."

Why pretend and suppress ugly questions?* God can handle this sort of talk whether we’re 50 or five; whether we’re solid Christ followers having an unusually bad week, or Brand New’s lead singer, Jesse Lacey, wherever he is spiritually.

Read the lyrics below as a psalm, or play the song again (to the very end) and read along. Listen for Lacey’s poetic confessions and honest questions. Can you take your own fear and dark and wood and nails before Jesus Christ? Scream if you have to. Cry. Or just listen like a friend to Jesse and pray for him and all the rest of us who sleep inside of this machine.

"Jesus Christ"

Jesus Christ, that's a pretty face
The kind you'd find on someone I could save
If they don't put me away
Well, it'll be a miracle

Do you believe you're missing out
That everything good is happening somewhere else?
But with nobody in your bed
The night's hard to get through

And I will die all alone
And when I arrive I won't know anyone

Well Jesus Christ, I'm alone again
So what did you do those three days you were dead?
Cause this problem's gonna last more than the weekend.

Well Jesus Christ, I'm not scared to die,
I'm a little bit scared of what comes after
Do I get the gold chariot?
Do I float through the ceiling?

Do I divide and fall apart?
Cause my bright is too slight to hold back all my dark
And the ship went down in sight of land
And at the gates does Thomas ask to see my hands

I know you'll come in the night like a thief
But I've had some time alone to hone my lying technique
I know you think that I'm someone you can trust
But I'm scared I'll get scared and I swear I'll try to nail you back up

So do you think that we could work out a sign
So I'll know it's you and that it's over so I won't even try

I know you'll come for the people like me
But we all got wood and nails
We turn, turn out hate in factories**

Yeah we all got wood and nails
We turn, turn out hate in factories
Yeah, we all got wood and nails
And we sleep inside of this machine

*For an interesting reflection on what happens when our questions become lord, read this article at Christ and Pop Culture.

**Perhaps "hating factories." There is a good deal of debate over the exact wording of this song, but this version is as accurate as it gets without actually asking the band.

Post written by Sam Van Eman of New Breed of Advertisers. Photo by nAncY. Used with permission.

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Tune in next Friday for L.L. Barkat’s Random Acts of Poetry. Here's her Poetry Prompt:

Over at @tspoetry, we've been having a few parties, where we gather together for one hour to write on-the-spot poetry. This week we tackled the party mission Love in Character, and we wrote poems from the viewpoint of famous couples like Cyrano & Roxane, Cleopatra & Mark Antony, and so on. (For the full low-down, read Love at the Masquerade Ball.)

Would you like to try writing a love poem in character? Post your offering by 6:00 p.m. Thursday November 5, for links and possible feature here. Drop your post link in my comment box so I don't miss it. Don't be shy! :)