Hidden Treasures - Spiritual Songs

[Scott]

Bands often write about specific topics and experiences, and there’s an enormous wealth of Playlist ideas within these topics. Obviously Sex/Drugs/Girls get a ton of the writing attention and we’ve put some playlists together already to address these. But in looking deeper into the lyrical content of songs another popular theme comes up, and that’s songs that try to communicate something Spiritual. I’m not speaking about bands that are overtly religious or evil, but songs that reflect that. So please don’t expect this to be a Stryper playlist or Chris Tomlin worship-fest. Expect this to be something you have to listen closely to though…


May the force be with you….


PLAYLIST --> http://www.podsnack.com/CA69EFD9E8C/av1kqhnp

	Steely Dan Countdown To Ecstacy 1973 1 - Bodhisattva Bodhisattva is a human who has reached enlightenment, as the Buddha did, and can leave physical existence behind, but chooses to remain in human form to help others achieve freedom. David Nichtern, who worked with Walter Becker on the 2005 Krishna Das album All One, is a senior teacher of Shambhala Buddhism as well as a guitarist/producer. He explained: "Bodhisattvas are a certain aspect of Buddhism, and they're a kind of compassionate beings. Their specialty is helping other beings. It'd be similar to the concept of a saint in Christian tradition. They really dedicate their lives towards the well being of others."
	Thin Lizzy Bad Reputation 1977 2 - Dear Lord "Dear Lord" features a "choir" which was composed entirely of Mary Hopkin. She is best known for her 1968 hit "Those Were The Days," but in 1977 she was the wife of producer Tony Visconti. He made 16 separate recordings of her voice. This song seems strangely out of place on the Bad Reputation album among tracks with titles like "Killer Without A Cause" and "Opium Trail," but although an extrovert and hard drinking womanizer, Phil Lynott was also an unabashed Catholic. The song, which he co-wrote with guitarist Scott Gorham, is a sort of prayer asking for his vanity and other character flaws to be forgiven.
	Bob Dylan Slow Train Coming 1979 3 - Gotta Serve Somebody Nobody really could have expected that he would turn to Christianity on Slow Train Coming, embracing a born-again philosophy with enthusiasm. He has no problem in believing in a vengeful god -- you gotta serve somebody, after all -- and this is pure brimstone and fire throughout the record, even on such lovely testimonials as "I Believe in You." The unexpected side effect of his conversion is that it gave Dylan a focus he hadn't had since Blood on the Tracks, and his concentration carries over to the music, which is lean and direct in a way that he hadn't been since, well, Blood on the Tracks. Focus isn't necessarily the same thing as consistency, and this does suffer from being a bit too dogmatic, not just in its religion, but in its musical approach. Still, it's hard to deny Dylan's revitalized sound here, and the result is a modest success that at least works on its own terms.
	Kansas Leftoverture 1976 4 - The Wall Easily one my top 3 Kansas tracks. The lyrics are genuine and heartfelt, they are that of a seeker who is at some sort of dead end - "The path that I have chosen now has led me to a wall". Of course this my speculation, but listen to what is being sought after - "To pass beyond is what I seek".  Its been reported that Kerry Livgren was searching for Spiritual answers at the time of Leftoverture. The fact that Walsh's "writers block" prevented him from contributing as much material as he had on previous albums tells you theres some providence in whats happening here...

[Jon]

I don't care if a song is spiritual or if it has a message. I only care if the song makes me wanna dance, dammit!!!!!

I like the Steely Dan song, because I can hum along. It's quite catchy. The first time I heard the song, I thought it was weird and that they had an agenda. Then I started to dance and didn't care. 

Yeah, the Thin Lizzy song does seem out of place on that album. But, they did have a song or two that, at first, felt out of place on almost every album. But then you began to dance and nothing was out of place any longer. 

I guess Mike Pell has forced Bob Dylan on me and I kinda like him now. This song here is funky, so it is danceable.

Ok, the last song is not danceable, but it is a good song. Never really paid attention to the message or whatever the song was about, but it did (does) have a good (non-danceable) beat. Later on I learned more about Livgren and his strong beliefs but, evil guy that I am, I didn't mind. He still had some cool songs. 

Good thing you didn't play Stryper. That would have been a a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.

King's X and Atomic Opera released a bunch of albums regarding faith. Still like 'em, though. Even though I am evil.

No Petra? Some guy I knew tried to force Petra on me many, many years ago, but I was having none of that. Don't believe I have ever heard a Petra song to this day, I refused to let him play anything from them. Because I was (am) evil, you see.

Interesting list, 3/4 danceable which is a good thing.  

[Scott]

Did you know that the Dire Straits were the backing band on that Dylan album?  I think that makes it even more danceable!

[Jon]

Did not know that, but you're right. It IS more danceable!

Now, learn from the master:

[RJhog (Admin)]

I won a Petra album from the local radio station many years ago...

[RJhog (Admin)]

I find it a bit ironic that a band named after a certain type of toy would make a spiritual playlist.  Seriously though, I've heard the Steely Dan song often, but never realized it had anything at all to do with spirituality.  The other three tracks are new to me (technically not the Kansas tune, since I own that album, but I don't remember it at all). 

Strangely, I've always considered myself a lyrics fan.  I love a song that really speaks to me through it's words.  That being said, you'd think I'd really get into these and other songs regarding spirituality.  But truthfully, I don't.  And it's definitely not because I'm anti-spirituality.  I just seem to tune out to that type of stuff in rock music.  And even though I realize you're not talking about straight up Christian rock like Stryper, I don't care too much for that either.  I guess I just prefer the dark stuff, I don't know.  

If I had to pick a song here that I thought was most interesting, I'd go with the Dylan tune.  The more of his stuff I here, the more I like.  I've thought several times about picking up his complete albums box, but I guess I'm just not ready to part with 160 plus bucks right now.

Oh, and with your title, I was expecting some Neal Morse in there somewhere...

[Scott]

I ran through Morses two Testimony releases,they're a little hard to pull single tracks off of since they all flow together so well. I didn't really consider his other albums I own, not sure why either....

[RJhog (Admin)]

I don't really know much about his catalog, he just immediately came to mind when I saw the title.

[Niels (Mod)]

Just sayin':

If I should recommend a "new Dylan-music buyer", I would say:

The Freewhelin' Bob Dylan (The best of his 60's Folk-albums)

Bringing It All Back Home (My favorite Dylan-album. A cross between folk- and rocksongs)

Highway 61 revisited (My second favorite Dylan-album - Now almost only rock'n'roll)

The Bootleg Series vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs (Rare and unreleased 1989-2006) (Untill I heard this double CD, I didn't really like Dylan's output from anything but the 60's, but this one blew my mind, how good he still was in the 90's and beyond)

That should be a little less pricey than 160 $.

[RJhog (Admin)]

I don't know, I just really like complete album sets for some reason.

[Niels (Mod)]

Then you're in for some not very good albums, I'm afraid. Especially from 1967-1975 and probably most of the 80's.

The Bootleg Series is an EXTREMLY good bootleg serie. They look good, sound good and have the best Dylan-music there is. Probably better than his studio-albums (except the ones from the 60's).

I recommend Vol 4, Vol 7 (the soundtrack to the VERY good Scrocesse-movie "No Direction Home" about Dylan before 1967) and off course Vol 8, but don't listen to me. I just know, what's good for ya

[Niels (Mod)]

The lyrics is always a second for me, so if the music is good, I don't care if it's evil or divine. Sometimes the lyrics becomes too much an issue, like Stryper and Mercyfull Fate, and luckily both bands music sucks anyway.

1. Never heard this one before. What to say? They play fine, and it's not that bad, but another "in one ear and out the other". The production sounds very much like 1973. I need heavier guitars.

2. Not really a Lizzy-fan. I can't really remember, if I've heard this one before. I guess so. Lizzy is "Jailbreak" (the album), Black Rose and the not very good Thunder And Lightning to me. But I haven't given up on them, Some day, I'll give all their albums another "spin". This song dosen't accelerates that process, though 

3. Not a surprise, that I'm a fan of Dylan, but that's the 60's-Dylan. He has made good music in other decades as well, but it's not every day, I feel like listening to Dylan, so when I do, I'll listen to the 60's-albums. But I can hear in this song, what it is, that I like about Dylan. It's a simple song, but it has a nice groove, and Dylan's precence. I know he had a periode in the 80's, where he "found god", and made some of these worshipping-albums. According to the credics, they weren't very good at all. For me, this is the best one of these songs so far.

4. Kansas again, huh? In small dosis, I like Kansas, so it's fine by me, that you post a Kansas-song now and then, because a whole album might be a bit too much Kansas for me, I'm afraid. I know this song very well. You've probably posted it before, but I have also heard that album at least once or twice. Good stuff, and better than Dylan's, so the best of this bunch.

I'll bet Neal Morse have released some great music on his worshipping-albums. At least the one song, he played for me (and a few others), live last summer.