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:: Accountability ::

:: Kneepower ::

:: I'm Fired Up For Jesus ::

:: Antiseptic Christian ::

Buying goofy records from the Christian section is always a bit of a gamble. For every ten hilarious covers you see, you should feel lucky (blessed?) if one of them has something chuckle-worthy. I've found that you really increase your chances of amusement if you pick up something that involves Gary S. Paxton. Some of you might remember the Big "A" = The Big "M", a song that will continue bemusing and creeping people out for ages to come.

There are usually two things you can count on with Paxton -- fairly bizarre lyrical approaches to Christian rock, and enough songmanship to keep things interesting. This is the man who wrote Alley Oop, and played an integral part in producing the Monster Mash, after all.

I found this record in the rather dauntingly large Christian section at Cheapo's in Uptown Minneapolis. I really can't remember if I bought it because of the kooky song titles or if I had actually noticed it was on GarPax Records, but I saw enough potential that I was willing to drag this thing home with me on a plane.

When I pulled out the inner sleeve the other day, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Gary S. Paxton had written the lion's share of the songs on this LP. This came out in 1978, so the prevelant noises here are Disco noises. It's pretty funny to hear a Disco tune entitled "Accountability," when that's the last thing that scene was about. It's funny to hear someone sing they are fired up for Jesus, especially when it almost seems like they're using pot smoking terminology. I probably don't need to explain what's funny about an entire song suggesting you should get on your knees more often. And, if you are anything like me, hearing someone growl "anta-septic chris-chawn" is enough to set you all atitter. I can already see the face Mike is going to make when he sings along with this.

And what of Sammy R. Hall? Well, they only put one of his original compositions on here, and what do you know? It's actually fairly decent country gospel sort of stuff, but they screwed it up by adding Disco noises. Alley Oop!


Tony

This entry was posted on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 5:16 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.