Sticky Lines
Marie (absentmindedly singing):“’Cause…I’m all about the bass, ‘bout that bass, no treble. I’m all about the bass—“
Son: “Mom?”
Me: “Huh?”
Son: “Do you actually know what you’re singing about?”
Me: “Uhmmm…???”
It is a new era in my Boni Parenthood, when the child is now checking the songs that mom sings, especially when your song of choice happened to be about Big Body Parts.
Does that ever happen to you?
There you are, scrubbing in the shower and suddenly you’re repeating words you don’t really mean … “Umberella ella ella ella ella…”
And you catch yourself : “ What was I even saying?!?”
There are songs that are super sticky but dumb.
Take “Call me Maybe” :
Hey, I just met you?. And this is crazy!? But here's my number,? So call me maybe
And all the other boys, ?Try to chase me?, But here's my number?, So call me maybe!”
(Seriously??? Give your number to a complete stranger-stalker-potential axe murderer?)
Every generation has its share of these sticky songs.
In the prehistoric cassette days, there was a song called “Terminal Man”…and every radio station would play it and the drunken guy at the “beer garden” near my parents' house would blare it out:
“I've come back this morning to where I first came alive
Here within this terminal where the buses arrive
I was a commuter on the 804
Work for a computer on the 19th floor and
You came down the aisle of the bus and you sat by my side
Shoulder up to shoulder we shared that 9 O' clock ride
(yeah, I know you old people are singing by now . . . seems harmless enough, right?)
Oh, my heart was screamin' as you left your seat
Followin' your movements I was at your feet and
"Won't you leave out work for today?" You ask of me then
So, I phoned in sick on the way to the home of a friend
We were all alone from 10 am till 3…
…Could have held a body my entire life
But I had to get home to the kids and the wife …”
(Waaaiitaminute….now did this guy just have an impromptu adulterous fling with a complete stranger-woman he met on a bus and probably went home with an “infectious STD pasalubong” for his wife? )
Nice, catchy song. Bad Message.
No wonder some songs leave you confused, melancholic or just plain crazy. That’s the impact of words and music.
Now let me tell you another story…
I was in Malaysia attending a meeting, and new songs were being played.
One song was written by a young girl in her 20s. People from different nations stood there, first listening, then singing along. “It was a simple song that talked about her faith in God. As the melody played, people ‘s faces began to change. Wow, I thought. This girl is making an impact on all these people and she isn’t even here.
What got me teary-eyed was when I saw her old Dad in the middle of the crowd. He had been going through a terribly difficult year and he just wanted to be an anonymous face in that place. But when his daughter’s faith-filled words filled the room, I saw her father ‘s heart get filled with faith too.
And again, I saw, the impact of words and music.
When I find myself feeling down or depressed for no explainable reason, and the devil sings to me his old familiar catchy refrain that “life is hopeless or nobody cares”, I check the words he wants me to repeat.
Then I change the Playlist. I decisively play the new songs. Songs that build my faith. Songs that talk of God’ greatness, His Power, His Love.
Songs that declare He is a Great God, that his Name is Above All Names and that his Love is Radical. I fill my home with it and the car. And when I visit people in the hospital, I advise them to play songs that lift their spirits too.
For these are the words that I want to stick in my heart, my home and my kids. Believing that these eternal truths will also remain in my sons’ hearts as they grow.
So that one day, in the very near future, when their mother starts mindlessly singing about big Body parts, they will remind me too.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14
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