Covers

Today, while driving around running errands, Dani and her friend Michael were jamming to Christian rock on Power 89.7 FM. I've started listening to this station a lot more regularly than I listen to Christian Comtemporary station 94.9 KLTY. The music on Power FM is edgier than the mostly-bubblegum stuff on KLTY, and I'm finding that I enjoy it more. Plus, I get increasingly annoyed at the number of remakes that I hear on KLTY.

So, we're driving down the road, and suddenly, U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" starts playing. Only it wasn't Bono singing.

"Dani, did you put it on KZPS?" (my favorite classic rock station).

"No. This is Power," she answered.

I curled my lip. I have this pet peeve. It's called "remaking a classic song and pretending it's a Christian song", and it seems to be a prevalent trend in Christian music today. The same thing happened with Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes", in a cover by Nichole Nordeman. I might be less critical if the cover was a GOOD one, but it's not. It's bland. It's the same arrangement as Gabriel's, but with standard, programmed Christian pop instrumentation. Blech. Besides, "In Your Eyes", I'm pretty sure, was not intended to be a love song about God. And even though "Sunday Bloody Sunday" mentions the word "Jesus", I wouldn't consider it a Christian song, either. GREAT songs, songs that I love, songs that are on my List of Favorite Tunes, but not Christian songs.

So I listened to the rest of it, then announced with conviction, "U2's is way better."

Later, after dropping Dani and Michael off at the movies, I turned the radio back up, just in time to catch this chorus:

"I smoke two joints in the morning
I smoke two joint at night
I smoke two joints in the afternoon
It makes me feel alright

I smoke two joints in time of peace
And two in time of war
I smoke two joints before I smoke two joints
And then I smoke two more"

I about choked on my iced tea. HOW in the WORLD can THIS be playing on Christian radio? A quick push of the button told me that Dani had switched the station again - to 102.1 The Edge. Okey, fine. THAT, I can deal with.

Am I getting old?

~~~~~
edited to add:
A little Googling alerts me to the fact that there's a whole ALBUM of Christian acts who've covered U2 songs. Grrrreat. Well, at least it's for a good cause. Hmpf.