Songs with suspect lyrics

[Jan Brad]

The music I listen to doesn't have any swearing or heavily sexual themes but aspects of certain songs make me wonder. 

Certain music can have religious undertones despite them being created by a secular music group. Example, I love the vibe of the Beatles song Let it be but some verses make me feel uncomfortable:

Quote

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

It sounds churchy and Catholic despite being a Beatles song.

 

Another example is Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. It's a well loved care free song but it consists of hints pertaining to Freddie's impulsive sexual excursions. Obviously listeners can interpret a song in a way they find pleasing but the writer original concept is still embedded in the music. 

 

I still listen to Queen's song quite often but don't now how to feel about it. 

What are your opinions about these types of songs? Does anyone here listen to them?

[Friends just call me Ross]

There is a reason why catchy lyrics are referred to as 'hooks'.

 

Some of my old favorites contained these hooks and it would trouble my conscience to listen to them.

 

It's all a part of a person's spiritual growth and putting away the old personality and putting on the new personality.

 

Can a mature Christian just mildly dislike something they have come to learn that Jehovah hates?

 

I have since replaced these old favorites with new favorites.  👍

[Sete]

Like the vast majority of the world, I really like music. But for us Christians there are songs that, even just a little, offend Jehovah's standards. Would you watch a 4-hour film if you knew that for 15 minutes it would be a pornographic film? Probably not. And there in ancient Israel? Would you offer an animal that has only one small defect to Jehovah? I hope not, that would give you a big problem.

 

Music is like any other part of our lives, it's not that all music is objectionable, not that all Queen music is frowned upon. But we have a lot of music options to listen to, on Spotify alone have more than 40,000,000 audio tracks to listen to.

 

The best thing I can recommend is to gradually remove these songs. If your taste is too "popular", almost every song will have something wrong with it. Change them to clean songs, or if you have a free day, change them all at once.

(Tip: If there's a song that you really like and there is something questionable, put it on replay about 20 times, when you finish it I guarantee you that you won't want to listen to it for a long time)

[DancesWithWife]

Music is a part of being a human. We all enjoy some form of music as there's many genres. Yes, there have been songs with suspect lyrics over the years. My musical tastes have changed over the years, what I once liked I no longer care for. One song that caused a stir in 70s was by Jim Stafford. It was called "My Girl Bill". The way it begins you think it was about two gay men. Until nearly the last lyric. 

 

How about a great song, nothing wrong with the lyrics but sung by immoral people? Would we listen to a song if we knew it was about a gay man who is singing about the man he fell in love with? Music with questionable lyrics is just the beginning of being careful in our music selections. 

 

 

 

[Dolce vita]

For many things inherent to this world I often ask myself the question: could it exist in the New World, would it have its place? It helps me sort it out. I don't scream with rage if I'm listening to the radio and 'Let it be' comes on or 'Don't stop me now' comes on, but I won't choose them, I won't add them to a playlist. That said, we often don't know the deeper meaning of these songs so we are not involved in their author when we listen to or hear them.

[DancesWithWife]

After I posted this I thought about soundtracks from movies? Would we own a soundtrack from a movie that is offensive to Jehovah's view? For example one of the best selling soundtracks of the 70s was "Saturday Night Fever" from 1977. Where do we draw the line? Do we buy the soundtrack, knowing it was part of the movie? Or do we decide to buy the music from another source, such as each song individually? 

 

Think of Moses, when he heard the music after being on the mountain for 40 days. At Exodus 32:17 Joshua thought he heard one thing, but Moses recognized the music. He said at 32:18:

“It is not the sound of singing over a victory,

And it is not the sound of wailing over a defeat;

I hear the sound of another kind of singing.”

 

There is so much music to choose from. We have many options. Some are more clear than others. There was an interesting, short article from 2014 called "How music can affect the brain like a drug." "https://www.upressonline.com/2014/02/how-music-can-affect-the-brain-like-a-drug/#:~:text=How music can affect the brain like a drug

[Qapla]

2 hours ago, Jan Brad said:

Example, I love the vibe of the Beatles song Let it be but some verses make me feel uncomfortable:

Quote

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

It sounds churchy and Catholic despite being a Beatles song.

 

It should be noted that, Paul McCartney said he had the idea of "Let It Be" after he had a dream about his mother Mary Patricia McCartney who died of cancer in 1956, when he was fourteen. It had nothing to do with Mary, the mother of Jesus.

 

It was about the memories of his own mother and the things she had taught him.

 

[Miss Bea]

3 hours ago, Jan Brad said:

The music I listen to doesn't have any swearing or heavily sexual themes but aspects of certain songs make me wonder. 

Certain music can have religious undertones despite them being created by a secular music group. Example, I love the vibe of the Beatles song Let it be but some verses make me feel uncomfortable:

It sounds churchy and Catholic despite being a Beatles song.

 

Another example is Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. It's a well loved care free song but it consists of hints pertaining to Freddie's impulsive sexual excursions. Obviously listeners can interpret a song in a way they find pleasing but the writer original concept is still embedded in the music. 

 

I still listen to Queen's song quite often but don't now how to feel about it. 

What are your opinions about these types of songs? Does anyone here listen to them?

I really, really enjoy music. Queen music,and even Rod Stewart. I may download it, but sanity usually kicks in. Same with some of Bob Siegers music. Then iI get rid of it.
Right now, Iʼve been listening to the convention videos. Some times, I watch them. With the goal of being able to just listen, and realize in my mind, what the video is showing. Loooong term assignment!

[Sallyforth]

3 hours ago, Jan Brad said:

The music I listen to doesn't have any swearing or heavily sexual themes but aspects of certain songs make me wonder. 

Certain music can have religious undertones despite them being created by a secular music group. Example, I love the vibe of the Beatles song Let it be but some verses make me feel uncomfortable:

It sounds churchy and Catholic despite being a Beatles song.

 

Another example is Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. It's a well loved care free song but it consists of hints pertaining to Freddie's impulsive sexual excursions. Obviously listeners can interpret a song in a way they find pleasing but the writer original concept is still embedded in the music. 

 

I still listen to Queen's song quite often but don't now how to feel about it. 

What are your opinions about these types of songs? Does anyone here listen to them?

Mary was the name of Paul McCartney’s mother. She died of cancer when he was 14 and he has said she is the Mary referred to in that song. So yes, I do listen to it.

[Jan Brad]

Actually never knew that 'Mary' was PC's mother. Just shows how initial assumptions can be wildly wrong and  the importance of actual research 😅

[Lee49]

6 hours ago, Sete said:

put it on replay about 20 times, when you finish it I guarantee you that you won't want to listen to it for a long time)

I guarantee that I will not be able to go to sleep without having the repeated song stuck in my head all night!

 

[Lee49]

I really like the Doobie Brothers song - "Jesus is Just Allright With Me" ! I find nothing offensive with the lyrics, plus great guitar playing and beat.

[DancesWithWife]

8 minutes ago, Lee49 said:

I really like the Doobie Brothers song - "Jesus is Just Allright With Me"

There was two groups before them that sung that song. First, there was the Art Reynolds Singers, singers who were in a choir in a church in 1966 (it lasts a short 1:51). Then in 1969, the Byrds gave it a recording(again short at 2:11) and then finally in 1972 the Doobie Brothers (at just under 5 minutes). All interesting and different.

[Sete]

4 hours ago, Lee49 said:

I guarantee that I will not be able to go to sleep without having the repeated song stuck in my head all night!

 

Hahaha, if it gets stuck in your head, just listen even more until it leaves

[Dolce vita]

13 hours ago, Jan Brad said:

En fait, je n'ai jamais su que « Mary » était la mère de PC. Montre simplement à quel point les hypothèses initiales peuvent être extrêmement fausses et l'importance de la recherche réelle 😅

I also didn't know the detail. That said, the doubt is maintained with 'Mother Mary, so let it be'. What is suggested is: Amen !😇

[Sallyforth]

20 hours ago, Jan Brad said:

Actually never knew that 'Mary' was PC's mother. Just shows how initial assumptions can be wildly wrong and  the importance of actual research 😅

I’m a longtime Beatles fan (though, of course, like most artists, there are some of their songs I don’t find appropriate) so that’s how I knew this. The other thing is that as far as I’ve read, McCartney is an atheist or agnostic, so I’m also assuming that to be another reason why Let It Be isn’t a religious reference.

[Miss Bea]

One time, long ago, we were on some theocratic adventure. Ended up at a home with a piano. And, thus a sing-along. As I live and breathe, unless I imagined it, the song we were singing along to was, “House of the rising sun”. I don’t know what that song meant, but I thought it was sketchy. Even then. 
I still don’t know what it means, and, furthermore …

[Pabo]

Another song that usually gets picked out is The Eagles "Hotel California".  The song is about the decadence and greed of the music industry at the time. The lines:

 

And in the master's chambers
They gathered for the feast
Stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast

 

This about how at the time Steely Dan had such great influence at the time on the charts, that nobody could bump them off the charts at the time, because of how the music industry bosses had too much power at the time in saying they wanted to be at the top of the charts. Many thought that this was about cannibalism.

[DancesWithWife]

5 hours ago, Pabo said:

Steely Dan

There name was taken from an interesting source and what it means. It has a very "adult meaning". 

[LeolaRootStew]

On 3/1/2024 at 10:17 AM, Miss Bea said:

One time, long ago, we were on some theocratic adventure. Ended up at a home with a piano. And, thus a sing-along. As I live and breathe, unless I imagined it, the song we were singing along to was, “House of the rising sun”. I don’t know what that song meant, but I thought it was sketchy. Even then. 
I still don’t know what it means, and, furthermore …

 

It's about a "harlet"-house