Mine eyes have seen the glory

ThatColoredFella over at The American Street has a fun little project:

You’re the A&R Rep (Artist and Repertoire) for That Colored Fella’s Records or the hot shot, young Music Producer I just laid six figures on to deliver the eagerly anticipated debut album from the Christian Rock outfit, Dr. Frist and the Justice Sunday Theocrats! And, I want a list of suggested song titles, like yesterday.

Here are my suggested song titles:

“Stairway To Heaven”
“My Sweet Lord, Not Yours”
“Put Your Hand In The Hand Of The Man Who Kills The Cats”
“Heaven Is In My Mind”
“Christ, You Know I Ain’t Sleazy”
“God Damn The Clergy Man”
“My God Is An Awful God”
“The Night We Drove The Constitution Down”
“I Shot The Judge”
“Sunday Will Never Be This Lame”
“Going To The Chapel Of Hate”
“I’m Special”
“Sunday, Sunday, Can’t Trust That Day”

Fun, and yet, oh so serious underneath it all.

On a side note, having spent several years providing technical support to the Christian recording industry, I can state confidently that no label I ever worked with layed out anywhere near six figures for an artist. Perhaps Amy Grant with Word Records. But otherwise no, to the best of my knowledge.

One label exec, who was a really nice guy otherwise, told me that they wanted to keep the artists "accountable," meaning attending THAT specific church. And that they wanted them to NOT quit their day jobs. Thus, they didn't want them to be too successful. If that happened, he was afraid, the artist(s) might get uppity and want to spread their metaphorical wings and fly away. That might result in less "accountability."

My thoughts on that are that if one is Christian, a few extra bucks in the pocket is not too much of a temptation. At least, it shouldn't be. On the other hand, if the artist(s) bolted for a larger label, that would mean less income for the smaller Christian label. Tha would mean less money for the church to use for outreach, for executive salaries...


Hmmm.