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Hey, whattaya know---we have an actual, bona fide prayer meeting tonight! Hurry: step right up!Somewhat prescient, eh? The only somewhat false note is Zappa's use of the word "friendly" to describe Jesus Freaks. In my experience at a nominally Presbyterian college during most of the 1970s, that term was rarely applicable (mostly only in the early years of the decade). And today? They long ago joined a club that coheres solely by expressing its collective disapproval of, and superiority to, America's undesirables (i.e., everyone who doesn't belong to the club). This makes them feel so good about themselves, at least until they get home, that they give the preacher bales of money to run lucrative, tax-exempt business enterprises so he can live the lifestyle of a Renaissance-era Cardinal.
And, seriously, we ain't Number 3, either. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing, Frank Zappa (October 1978, Saturday Night Live, NBC), via YouTube, embedded for noncommercial critical discussion and educational purposes.
Dumb all over and a little ugly on the side. Quite the "down" tempo. Maybe FZ was intent on communicating with Ma & Pa USA and maybe raising some controversy to help sales. With a nom de net of Rubber Crutch perhaps you'll entertain the notion that some outside help (projection perchance) is needed by some just to function. Bad things do happen to people (good and otherwise). Heaven, Valhala, worm food, Whitman as grass benearth your boots, reincarnation, your own planet (while dressed in snazzy white)....from superstition and Jung's collective basement akin to an "animal soul" to, and through, whatever we're becoming...to not TRY and figure it out is probably the only sin and abdication of existence. We're all Bozos on this bus, but some us are trying to read the signs (or looking at the stars).
ReplyDeleteWiener Blut
Any resemblance to the Zappa Zoroastrians, expressed or implied, is purely coincidental.
WB: not downtempo; composed and arranged in the style of a hymn. I'm sure that selecting it for an SNL set wasn't to create controversy but to sneak a controversial political message over the airwaves of a major TV network during a prime time (if not Prime Time).
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, my unkind words were aimed at The Church (i.e., all churches), not at religion or religious philosophy. Many people, especially atheists, incorrectly conflate the two things. The bottom line is that a church is real estate: it's the place of employment of a guy who talks to a congregation about religion. The person doing the talking may be a worthy, nurturing person who takes his work seriously; or else a small business operator who sells the cure to fear and the key to prosperity besides. Mainly, his own prosperity.