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“I Can Be A Christian By Myself”

“Shut the door and I’m the people.”

In the liturgy for the first Sunday in October, the New Testament scripture was Ephesians 4:11-16. It begins, “The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers.” And immediately, I thought of the song I Can Be A Christian By Myself.

There are lots of scripture that suggests that the church is comprised of parts. 1 Corinthians 12 is possibly the most famous. “Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.”

I Can Be A Christian By Myself was a sarcastic take about this understanding. Someone told me about the song maybe 35 years ago. This led me to a search. I couldn’t find a recording on YouTube. But I did discover this article from 2010.

“[Richard] Avery and [Donald] Marsh have an ironic song called I Can Be a Christian By Myself. The first verse goes:”

I can be a Christian by myself.
Leave my dusty Bible on the shelf.
I’ll sing a hymn and pray a bit.
God can do the rest of it.
My heart’s the church, my head’s the steeple.
Shut the door and I’m the people.
I can be a Christian by myself.

Wait there’s more!

I’ll break some bread and drink some wine.
Have myself a holy time.

I’ll take the off’ring then I’ll know
Where that money’s gonna go.

So please remember, Lord, when I die,
Give me my own cloud in the sky.

After this life with its labors
Don’t bug me with needy neighbors.

I discovered the song appears in The Richard Avery and Donald Marsh Songbook, c. 1972. But instead of waiting to get an interlibrary loan page, I ordered a used copy of the collection.

This article quotes the exact same parts of the song. It then notes, “In John 17, Jesus prays about giving his love and glory to his disciples and to the community or church. It is not a prayer for the individual Christian but for the community.”

This has informed my understanding of the communal/communion/community sense of faith, as opposed to the individual sense of salvation.

Phony title songs #9: SL-U

Sloan, U2

These are more phony title songs. The album name appears as a lyric, but it’s not the title song. There is no actual title song, but these can be phony artificial title songs.

G Turns To D – Sloan. Album: One Chord to Another. Lyrics: “You can go from one chord to another.”
Sinking Ships – Sloan. Album: Navy Blues. Lyrics: “I want a special meeting too With Captain Everyday of Station Navy Blue.”
Flying High Again – Sloan. Album: Never Hear the End of It. Lyrics: “Keep in mind that you’ll never hear the end of it.”

Chocolate – Snow Patrol. Album: Final Straw. Lyrics: “This is the straw, final straw in the Roof of my mouth as I lie to you

Slave To This – Soft Cell. Album: This Last Night In Sodom. Lyrics: “Hey, is this the last night in Sodom?”

Trilogy– Sonic Youth. Album: Daydream Nation. Lyrics: “Day dreaming days in a daydream nation.”

Dusty – Soundgarden. Album: Down on the Upside. Lyrics: “I’m down on the upside”

Hasta Mañana, Monsieur – Sparks. Album: Kimono My House. Lyrics: “Kimono my house mon amour I am sure that this motion don’t need no accompanying words”

St

You and Me (Babe) – Ringo Starr. Album: Ringo. Spoken lyrics: “So it’s a big good night from your friend and mine, Ringo Starr.”

The Hounds of Winter AND Lithium Sunset – Sting. Album: Mercury Falling. Lyrics: “Mercury falling I rise from my bed, collect my thoughts together, I have to hold my head” and “And I’ll ride the turning world Into another night See mercury falling” respectively

Curfew – The Stranglers. Album: Black and White. Lyrics: “Gray becomes black and white Is it true what they say? They turn the day into night Black and white becomes”

Reptilia – The Strokes. Album: Room on Fire. Lyrics: “The room is on fire as she’s fixing her hair”

Roll Up – The Struts. Album: Everybody Wants. Lyrics: “Everybody wants, Everybody needs So get up.” (and more)

Introducing the Band – Suede. Album: Dog Man Star. Lyrics: “Dog man star took a suck on a pill”

This Fever – Suite 100. Album: The Only Cure for Gravity.

How Heavy This Axe – The Sword. Album: – Gods of the Earth. Lyrics: “Wrought in Stygian visions By the gods of the earth”

T

Mississippi Summer – June Tabor And The Oyster Band. Album: Freedom And Rain. Lyrics: “Lord send us freedom and rain.”

April 5th – Talk Talk. Album: The Colour of Spring. Lyrics: Waiting for the colour of spring. Let me breathe. Let me breathe the colour of spring”

Creatures of Love -Talking Heads. Album: Little Creatures. Lyrics: “Well, I’ve seen sex and I think it’s alright. It makes those little creatures come to life”
Totally Nude – Talking Heads. Album: Naked. Lyrics: “Totally naked, baby. Totally nude”

Copperline – James Taylor. Album: New Moon Shine. Lyrics: “Sour mash and new moon shine”

The Gap – Thompson Twins. Album: Into The Gap. Lyrics: “We say break the line, chew the fat Keep moving out into the gap”
Future Days – Thompson Twins. Album: Here’s To Future Days. Lyrics: Here’s to future days. Here’s to future ways”

Big Sur – The Thrills – So Much For the City. Lyrics: “So much for the city. Tell me that you’ll dance to the end.”

Coming Up Close – ‘Til Tuesday. Album: Welcome Home. Lyrics: “Coming up close Everything sounds like welcome home”

Wild and Loose – The Time. Album: What Time is It? Lyrics: “Fellas? Yeah? What time is it? Time to get wild and loose”

Misunderstood – Pete Townshend. Compilation album: coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking. Lyrics: “Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking. Coolwalkingsmoothtalking, yeah”

Progenitors – Treat. Album: Tunguska. Lyrics: “REMEMBERING TUNGUSKA. NO MORE EGOS, CRAVING WAR”

U

Communion With The Sun – Utopia. Album: RA. Lyrics: “Ra, climbing the horizon” et al.
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell – Utopia. Album: Oops! Wrong Planet. Lyrics: “It’s the wrong world. I must be on the wrong planet”

Walk On – U2. Album: All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Lyrics: “The only baggage you can bring Is all that you can’t leave behind”
Bullet The Blue Sky – U2. Live album: Rattle and Hum. Lyrics: “In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum”
Several songs by U2. Album: Boy. Lyrics: “Boy tries hard to be a man” (I Will Follow); “In the shadow, boy meets man” (Twilight); “Boys and girls go to school” (Out Of Control); “Stories for boys” (Stories For Boys); “Boy, stupid boy” (The Electric Co. )
The Refugee – U2. Album: War. Lyrics: “She’s the refugee. Her mama say one day she’s gonna Live in America”
New Year’s Day – U2. Live EP: Under a Blood Red Sky. Lyrics: “Under a blood red sky, A crowd has gathered in black and white”

Final Jeopardy! Round for Show #8438 – Wednesday, July 7, 2021
ROCK BANDS. In 2017 this band whose singer goes by a nickname became the first to have No.1 albums in the U.S. in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s

October rambling: Mental Misfires

tarot cards

Halloween not Xmas

Why Is Pentagon Spending Rising When “We Can’t Afford” Everything Else?

What to Make of the Pandora Papers?

Naming Climate Villains As the World Burns and Indigenous People With Disabilities Are on the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis

Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in ‘Dozens’ of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff; and Trump’s Cryptic Comment From 2017 May Have Foreshadowed His Coup Attempt; and [SATIRE] Trump to Skip 2024 Campaign and Go Straight to Claiming He Won

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Taiwan and Misinformation; related to the latter

Don’t believe corporate America’s labor shortage. This is an unofficial general strike.

Did Texas Legislators Read the “Founding” Documents? and Reading While Texan

What did Thomas Jefferson Buy in October 1803?

North Carolina lieutenant governor calls transgender movement ‘demonic’

Christian Academies: Training the Next Generation of Rightwing White Nationalists? and ‘Great replacement’ belief correlates with Christian nationalist views

What Conservatives Tell Themselves About Critical Race Theory

It’s a camera shutter. It’s not a detonator

Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn’t Exist.

What We Lose When We Lose Local News

How a newspaper’s collapse makes people feel: less connected, more alone.

Bez, the final frontier

DNA testing privacy resource

Diet soda may prompt food cravings, especially in women and people with obesity

MMP 25: New Zealand’s proportional representation officially became the way New Zealand was governed.

Hank Green: A Tool With No Blood On It

But wait! There’s more!

Kelly has even MORE links!

Loopy or Stringy: What would Einstein Say?

The nearly forgotten mystical artist who still foretells fates – Pamela Colman Smith might be history’s greatest victim of copyright injustice

The first major city in the United States passes a dark-sky ordinance

A lovely Shari Lewis story

Betty Lynn, the actress best known for her portrayal of Thelma Lou, Barney Fife’s sweetheart on The Andy Griffith Show, has died

Book review: Why We Swim

The Mental Misfires of Matt Amodio

Meet the Two Women Who Give Prescription Drugs Their Generic Names

Bell peppers are mangoes

Now I Know: A Great Example of Quiche Thinking and The Non-Profit That Gives Drivers Sticker Shock and The Accidental Pet Feeding Hero of 2016 and The Toddler Truce and The Great Tattoo Cover Up

When you have “tall ZOOM energy” and show up to the office for the first time, it can get awkward.

Winnie-the-Pooh BEFORE Winnie the Pooh

MUSIC

The Bard by Jean Sibelius

Coverville 1375: The Paul Simon Cover Story III and 1376: The Snoop Dogg Cover Story

Lazy Sunday Afternoon – MonaLisa Twins

Farewell, Paddy Moloney and Late Night with The Chieftains and Earl Scruggs

A Song For You – Donny Hathaway

Celtic Rock – Donovan

Paul McCartney: on writing Eleanor Rigby and Band On The Run BBC Documentary

Back to the top of the charts, part 3

posthumous

Here’s another edition of going back to the top of the charts. The premise is that an artist had once had commercial success on the Billboard pop charts. After some period, they regain that status. Again, this isn’t about album sales, just what used to be 45s.

It’s Your Thing – The Isley Brothers. A change of labels, from Tamla/Motown, which released This Old Heart of Mine (#12, 1966), to T-Neck, gleaned a #2 hit in 1969.

Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson. He WAS busy recording with his brothers between Ben, #1 in 1972, and this track, #1 in 1979.

Dancing Machine – Jackson 5. Never Can Say Goodbye, #2 in 1971. This cut, #2 in 1974.

The River of Dreams – Billy Joel. This #3 hit in 1993 was his first Top 5 since I Didn’t Start the Fire, #1 in 1989.

Candle In The Wind 1997 – Elton John. Another artist with multiple “comebacks”. But his last #1 was Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, way back in 1976. Of course, this special version of the #6 hit in 1988, was #1 for fourteen weeks!

Jazzman – Carole King. It’s Too Late was a #1 in 1971. This was #2 in 1974, and a favorite of Lisa Simpson.

Come Dancing – the Kinks. #6 in 1983. the previous Top 25 was Lola, #9 in 1970.

Neither One Of Us – Gladys Knight and the Pips. The group had two #2 hits with Soul/Motown, this one in 1973 and some grapevine song in 1967.

The ell you say

Is That All There Is – Peggy Lee. At #11 in 1969, her highest-ranked single since Fever, #8 in 1958.

Starting Over – John Lennon. The first single after his hiatus went to #1 posthumously at the end of 1980. Whatever Gets You Through the Night went to #1 in 1974 with the help of Elton John.

Mighty Quinn – Manfred Mann. #10 in 1968, it was the first Top 10 single since Do Wah Diddy Diddy hit #1 in 1964.

Don’t Mess With Bill – The Marvelettes. Like Playboy in 1962, this song also went to #7, in 1966.

Too Much, Too Little, Too Late – Johnny Mathis. #1 in 1978 with Deniece Williams, it was his second #1, after Chances Are in 1957. JFK was President the last time he had had a Top 10 hit.

The Rose – Bette Midler. At #3 in 1980, it was her first Top 10 since Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, #8 in 1973.

Garden Party Garden Party – Rick Nelson. He had 18 Top Ten hits. the 17th was For You, #6 in 1964. This song, #6 in 1972, was the #18 and last.

Don’t Know Much – Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt. This song hit #2 in 1989. Aaron only did that well with Tell It Like It Is in 1967. Linda’s duet with James Ingram was also #2, in 1987. Her previous solo Top 10 was Hurt So Bad, #8 in 1980.

You Got It – Roy Orbison. Posthumously, his first Top 10 song – #9 in 1989 – since his #1 Oh, Pretty Woman in 1964.

Synthetic title songs #7: Mo-Po

Morissette, Morrison, more

These are more synthetic title songs. The album name appears as a lyric, but it’s not the title song. There is no actual title song, but these can be synthetic title songs.

So Pure – Alanis Morissette. Album: Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Lyrics: “Supposed former infatuation junkie. I sink three-pointers and you wax poetically.” Of course, I have this album.
Hands Clean -Alanis Morissette. Album: Under Rug Swept. Lyrics: “What part of our history’s reinvented and under rug swept.” (I could only find a live version.)
Moratorium -Alanis Morissette. Album: Flavors of Entanglement. Lyrics: “I declare a moratorium on things relationship” (Didn’t find a video.)

In The Garden – Van Morrison. Album: No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. Lyrics: And I turned to you and I said, No Guru, no method, no teacher.
Cypress Avenue (live) – Van Morrison. Album: It’s Too Late to Stop Now.
Queen of the Slipstream – Van Morrison. Album: Poetic Champions Compose : Lyric: “There’s a dream where the contents are visible Where the poetic champions compose” I have this on vinyl.

It Can’t Happen Here – The Mothers of Invention. Album: Freak Out! Lyrics: “Who could imagine that they could freak out somewhere in Kansas” or “in Minnesota” or “in Washington D.C.” or “in the suburbs”

Sweetheart – Maria Muldaur. Album: Waitress in a Donut Shop. Lyrics: “I’m a waitress in the donut shop.” I love this song.

Starlight – Muse. Album: Black Holes and Revelations. Lyrics: “Our hopes and expectations Black holes and revelations.”

Merry Go ‘Round – Kacey Musgraves. Album: Same Trailer, Different Park. Lyrics: “Same hurt in every heart Same trailer, different park.” A country song I actually know.

N

Fine Time – New Order. Album: Technique. Lyrics: “You’ve got lurve technique.”

Sadie – Joanna Newsom. Album: The Milk-Eyed Mender. Lyric: “And down where I darn with the milk-eyed mender”

Gave Up – Nine Inch Nails. EP: Broken. Lyric: “Covered in hope and vaseline, still cannot fix this broken machine.”

Reader’s Digest – Larry Norman. Album: Only Visiting This Planet. Lyrics: “Don’t ask me, I’m only visiting this planet.”
Nightmare #71 – Larry Norman. So Long Ago the Garden. Lyrics: “But we left it so long ago, the garden.”
The Rock That Doesn’t Roll – Larry Norman. Album: In Another Land. Lyrics: “Then he lead me to his kingdom, that was in another land.”
The Sun Began To Rain – Larry Norman. Album: In Another Land. “Now we’ll live forever in another land.”
Hymn To The Last Generation – Larry Norman. Album: In Another Land. Lyrics: “He will guide us in another land.”

Fair Weather – Julia Nunes. Album: Settle Down. Lyrics: “And they say, Julia just settle down.”

O

Morning Glory – Oasis. Album: (What’s the story), Morning Glory. My only Oasis album.
To Be Where There’s Life – Oasis. Album: Dig Out Your Soul. Lyrics: “Dig out your soul, cos here we go.”

The Charm Offensive – Oceansize. Album: Everyone Into Position. Lyrics: “And it burns, it burns us all out As it blows Everyone into position.”

Irish whiskey pretty girls – Old 97s. Album: Graveyard whistling. Lyrics: “I never was good at talking. Graveyard whistling’s more my thing

She’s A Mystery To Me – Roy Orbison. Album: Mystery Girl. Lyrics: “She’s a mystery to me. She’s a mystery girl.” I have this album.

P

Best Of Both Worlds – Robert Palmer. Album: Double Fun. Lyrics: “The best of both worlds. Double fun”

You Can’t Be Too Strong – Graham Parker. Album: Squeezing Out Sparks. Lyrics: “But everybody else is squeezing out a spark That happened in the heat.” I have this on vinyl.
Empty Lives – Graham Parker and The Rumour. Album: The Up Escalator. Lyrics: “On the up escalator going down all the cracks” I’m pretty sure I have this on vinyl as well.

I Can Tell – Michael Penn. Compilation: Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea. Lyrics: “Psychic on the corner. ‘Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea'”

Train Song – Pentangle. Album: Basket of Light. Lyrics: “Caught in the basket of light.”

Insider – Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, featuring Stevie Nicks. Album: Hard Promises. Lyrics: “And I had to live with some hard promises.”

One Slip – Pink Floyd. Album: A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Lyrics: “A momentary lapse of reason That binds a life for life.”
High Hopes – Pink Floyd. Album – The Division Bell. Lyrics: “The ringing of the division bell had begun”

Great Spirit – Robert Plant. Album: Fate of Nations. Lyrics: “The fate of nations and of all their needs Lies trapped inside these hearts of greed.” I own this CD.

Lovin’ Arms– Poco. Album: Head Over Heels. Lyrics: “Now you got me stumblin’ Head over heels”

Roofer’s Union Fight Song – Robert Pollard. Album: Not In My Airforce. Lyrics: “Only ‘No Ones’ get through the gate …not in my airforce.”

Solar Sister – The Posies. Album: Frosting on the Beater. Lyrics: “Frosting on the beater The flag trips down the meter.”
Chainsmoking in the U.S.A. -The Posies. EP: Nice Cheekbones and a Ph.D. Lyrics: “There’s two faces on the tv screen Nice cheekbones and a ph.d.” (Can’t find a video.)