Since I have mentioned Alice Cooper in a previous Facebook Status being a Christian, I thought I would share a few lyrics and comments from his three albums “The Last Temptation Of Alice Cooper” (1994), “Brutal Planet” (2000) and “Dragontown” (2001)
In these three albums, he explores his personal faith quite openly.
“The Last Temptation” is a redemptive story with a final song, “Cleansed By Fire” that goes down in history as being my favorite Alice Cooper song of all time.
Check out the lyrics:
Cleansed By Fire
I don’t know but I’ve been told / The streets of hell are paved with gold
Crazy, crazy
You told me that nothing’s free / Except my own insanity
Crazy, maybe
Wake me, shake me / Wake me, shake me
You offer me the world and all its wealth / All for myself
You promised me a life eternally / And drink to my health
I may seem only half-glued / But I can see right through you
[CHORUS]
Burn it up, burn it down / Burn this sucker to the ground
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Going, going, going, gone / There’s a party going on
Do you think I don’t know who you are / A fallen star
When I feel my soul scream out at night / I know you’re not far
You need a better disguise / This one won’t win any prize
[CHORUS]
Cleansed by fire, cleansed by fire / I may seem only half-glued
But I can see right through you
What about dark / What about light
What about wrong / What about right
What about death / What about sin
What about the web you’re trying to spin
What about truth / What about life
What about glory / What about Christ
What about peace / What about love
What about faith in God above
What about war / What about hell
What if I stumble / What if I fell
What about blood / What about greed
And all of these things you’re offering me
Yeah, what about me, little me / You lose and I win
You couldn’t suck me in / It’s over, you have no power
You’re lost / And I’m found
And I’m Heaven bound / Go back to where you belong
To where you fell / Go to hell
I absolutely love that song. It’s the perfect close to an incredible story of coming into faith in Jesus Christ.
His next album, which came 6 years later has some great lyrics on it as well. While not a story, nor are they “outwardly Christian”, each song deals with an issue that is plaguing us today like racism, gluttony, nihilism, gossip, greed, domestic violence, as well as sitting back and not doing anything about the problems other than complaining about them. Certainly all things that we as Christians should be doing something about.
Following that album is Dragontown, which continues the trend Brutal Planet and has some of the best lyrics from any Cooper album, only with a little more of a direct approach of stepping on our toes.
Dragontown is a fictional representation of Hell. (Get it?) It’s like each song is sung from somebody spending an eternity there and serves as a warning.
For example, a song called “Sex, Death, And Money” is all about hypocrisy among Christians. It talks about a Christian who is claiming to be upset about nudity and violence in the movies, yet sits for three hours taking it all in. For brevity, I won’t share the entire song. Some of the lyrics are:
I was so offended / As I sat for three hours / It was mental cruelty / I was so shocked / Just a little more flesh / Just a little more blood / Little closer to the edge / A little deeper in the mud / I’ll never be the same
Later in the song, it goes to talk about going to a strip club and spending hundreds of dollars, yet telling others how offensive it was.
The chorus pretty much sums it all up:
Sex, death and money, sonny / Makes this wicked world go round
Sex, death and money / It’s the Gospel here in Dragontown
Sex, death and money, honey / Grease the wheels and make them fly
Sex, death and money, sonny / That is why we all are gonna fry
One of the funniest songs Alice has done in a long time is called Dis-Grace Land. We finally know where “The king of Rock and Roll” now lives. He even sings it like “The king” Check this lyrics out:
Dis-Grace Land
I wanna tell you a story / It happened long ago
About a redneck boy / Down from tupelo
I got the slick black hair / I played a rock guitar
I liked to shake my hips, man / Then i went too far
He ate his weight in country ham / Killed on pills and woke in disgraceland
Dis-Grace-Land / Dis-Grace-Land / Dis-Grace-Land
I had a lot of girls / I had a lot of guns
When they found me dead / The whole world was stunned
Went to the pearly gates / Said, “I’m the hippest thing”
And Peter said “Well son, / We already got ourselves a king”
He finished his short life, / Sweaty and bloated and stoned
(A-Hey-Hey) He ruled his domain and he died on the throne
No “Yes-Men”, no colonel, he went……all alone…
(Hey, man, that looks like me down there on the floor)
I heard the devil cry / Real loud and clear
“You were the big man, there / You’re just a sideman here
Well, I know your face / And I’ve heard your name
Looks like heaven’s loss / Is gonna be my gain”
(I’ve got plans for you, man)
Well, I woke up, right here / In dis-grace-land
Thank ya. Thank ya very much
The clincher song on this album though is “It’s Much Too Late”
It’s Much Too Late
I never kicked a dog, / A child or my wife
I never looked at pornography / I swear it on my holy saint mother’s life
But somehow she’s down here with me
The road to hell is littered / with nice guys with good intentions
But once you’re there, you’re there / It’s much too late
I can cry and scream it’s just not fair / To leave me here like you don’t care
There must be some mistake up there in heaven
Now it’s much too late / My time has passed away
All my plans and dreams have all ended
Now it’s much too late / To try and plead my case
And I don’t know the God I’ve offended
It’s too late
I never stole a thing / A toy or a kiss
My conscience is a clear as can be / And when I was a teen
All the sex that I missed / Was an abstinence blessing to me
The road to hell is littered / with nice guys with good intentions
But once you’re there, you’re there / It’s much too late
I can cry and scream it’s just not fair / To leave me here like you don’t care
There must be some mistake up there in heaven
Now it’s much too late / My time has passed away
All my plans and dreams have all ended
Now it’s much too late / To try and plead my case
And I don’t know the God I’ve offended
It’s too late
Anyway, he has released several albums after this series, and while lyrically they may contain one or two songs about his faith, they are typically just really good rockers, usually of a darker theme, but this series of three albums he decided to publically talk about his faith. I am glad he did.
I am really looking forward to getting more songs for the new Midiboy album, “Returning.” I decided to work out an older song. I changed the lyrics around a little to make it a little less “controversial” as it were. The new song is called “Where Would I Be?” You might remember it as “I’d Be Damned.”
While the lyrics were sound before with the line “I’d be damned if you did not save me / I’d be damned if You did not die / I’d be damned if on the third day / If from the grave you did not rise”, I decided I didn’t want my kids going around saying I’d be damned.
The new lyrics are mostly the same other than everywhere it used to say “I’d be damned” it now says “where would I be?” I think I actually like it better.
I redid all the vox today and really like the way it now sounds.
Here are the complete lyrics. Stay tuned for a sample of the song…
Where Would I Be?
(C)2006 / 2010 Midiboy Music
Words: Gregg Hart
It isn’t about what I deserve, because if it was, I’d have no chance
Sometimes I’d run away if I thought I could, given the right circumstance
But I can’t, no I can’t, so I won’t, no I won’t, because I would not get too far
Everywhere I go, everywhere I look, every time of day, right there is where You are
Where would I be if You did not save me
Where would I be if You did not die
Where would I be if on the third day
From the grave You did not rise
If I were to get what I have coming, I couldn’t complain, justice would be served
But Your mercy, Oh God, and your grace, Oh Lord, are never ever ever ever deserved
When your amazing grace came down, it saved me from my destiny
To You, oh Lord, my praise belongs, for you have made me see
Where I would be if You did not save me
Where would I be if You did not die
Where would I be if on the third day
From the grave You did not rise
Wow. It’s been a long time since I have actually sat down to write a new song. My girls have kept me so busy, but it’s all good! I love it. Being “Daddy” is the best job in the world.
The last song I recorded, “Nameless” about 7 months ago was not actually a new song, but one that I originally wrote 3 YEARS ago. Joe Flint wrote the lyrics to that one maybe 2 years prior to that while in Iraq. I had it all recorded and when going through “cleaning” up my files on my hard drive, I found that gem sitting there. It was HORRIBLE. Production quality was nowhere near my standards. It was generally a big hunk of cheese disguised as a song. I almost archived it once and for all but something inside me told me to give it another shot. So I did.
It’s found a home on the upcoming “one:nine” project “North Flew South For The Winter.”
Anyway, last weekend I was getting ready for the day on Saturday, taking my shower and all at once, the new melody hit me. Now, when I come up with melodies, I usually insert random lyrics just to work out the melody smoothly. Usually those random lyrics are some sort of nonsense or the lyrics to Amazing Grace. (Since those lyrics work with just about any tune imaginable). The lyrics probably started out as nonsense, but they were fun. I had this “heavier guitar” riff in my head and started singing about making a choice on what kind of song to write…a rock song or a pop song. Then I realized that as much I thought Midiboy was “done” that I missed doing that project.
I started asking myself….”Why is Midiboy done?”
Originally, I thought Midiboy was done for the following reasons…
1) Traditionally, Midiboy was 2 people. Myself and Joe. Joe got really busy with his duties in the Army, and now with his duties at the hospital.
2) Midiboy implies just one person. It’s not Midiboys.
3) Midiboy is an electronica project. People don’t seem to care much about electronic music any longer. I didn’t want to be locked into doing just electronica. I figured with “one:nine”, I could still experiment with programming and electronica treatments, since quite a bit of modern rock music incorporates that now.
4) I don’t really use MIDI much, if at all, any longer. Haven’t really since Synthpops, and even then only very little.
5) I felt that if I wanted to bring in guest musicians I couldn’t because that doesn’t fit the “spirit” of the style of Midiboy.
Then I asked myself one more question…
So what?
While Joe is still busy, there is no reason Midiboy can’t continue to exist. I just talked to Joe a few days ago, and while he hasn’t had time to write, it doesn’t mean he won’t. He is also still hoping to be able to do artwork and such as well.
So what if Midiboy implies one person. When has Midiboy ever been one person? My wife even sang backup on one song and she’s not even a boy. And that’s ok. Alan Parson’s various projects always featured many musicians. In fact, he’s had whole songs that he didn’t even write, sing or in anyway perform on other than producing it for the album. So, Midiboy at this point, is a brand name that people recognize. In fact, I’d bet that just about any electronica band in the Christian music genre that is over 5 years old probably knows who I am. Granted, there aren’t a lot, but Midiboy has been on quite a few compilation CDs and remix CDs / contests to where as a brand name, it’s recognizable by a small number of genre specific people. Of course, my association with Ted Dekker is probably more widely known, but that’s fine because everyone that knows of my association there is also aware of my musical background as well.
As far as the electronica aspect, I know it’s not the most widely appreciated music by the general listening audience, but you know what? I don’t like a lot of the music that is appreciated by the general listening audience. I can only take so much Top 40 music before I start to feel my IQ dropping. While electronica isn’t widely appreciated, those that enjoy it tend to enjoy intelligent music. I want to keep providing that.
As for the MIDI aspect, oh well. I get asked almost daily what MIDI stands for. Ok, maybe not daily, but quite often. I recently upgraded from Sony’s ACID Pro 5 to version 7. It has some very good Soft Synth features which I will likely start using, That’s MIDI folks. Heh.
As far as guest musicians, again…so what. Many “solo” artists bring in guests. Why is that a problem? It’s not.
So there you have it.
If you stuck with me this long, first let me say “Thank you” for reading. I think I’m just rambling at this point. Keep your eyes here and I will put up a link to a downloadable version of “Rockstar” in a day or two.
Also, I thought it would be fun to do an updated version of a couple of past songs. Anyone have any votes on what songs they would like to hear redone? Preferably from Midi-Life Crisis, STO or Synthpops. Maybe some of you long time fans know of a song never released that you’d like to hear updated and released.
Let me know. Sound off. Be heard. And stuff.
Still working on the new album, which the title is still up in the air, though I think I am going to settle with “North Flew South For The Winter” as that title is just too unique not to use. I have about 11 songs written, but may not use them all. Not sure yet.
Don’t forget to check out the samples I have by clicking on the Listen link over on the right.
Still waiting for some guest vocals and guitar to be laid down on a few tracks as well.
People are very busy this time of year.