This is the fourth installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please leave the name the song in the comment section or send me an email.
Today’s Song of Sacrilege is God Shuffled His Feet by Crash Test Dummies, folk rock/alternative rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
After seven days
He was quite tired so God said:
“Let there be a day
Just for picnics, with wine and bread”
He gathered up some people he had made
Created blankets and laid back in the shade
The people sipped their wine
And what with God there, they asked him questions
Like: do you have to eat
Or get your hair cut in heaven?
And if your eye got poked out in this life
Would it be waiting up in heaven with your wife?
God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats and stared right back at him
So he said:”Once there was a boy
Who woke up with blue hair
To him it was a joy
Until he ran out into the warm air
He thought of how his friends would come to see;
And would they laugh, or had he got some strange disease?
God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats and stared right back at him
The people sat waiting
Out on their blankets in the garden
But God said nothing
So someone asked him: “I beg your pardon:
I’m not quite clear about what you just spoke
Was that a parable, or a very subtle joke?”
God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats and stared right back at him
Church League Softball Fist Fight by the Late, Great Tim Wilson.
Also, First Baptist Bar and Grill, also by Tim Wilson.
There are so many good ones out there! Much of the Ogre Tones album by King’s X is about this. I think “Bebop” is a good place to start: ; he’s challenging his own firmly held belief.
The band NOFX has a number of great songs over the years on this. One that often makes me chuckle is “I’m Going to Hell for This One” off the “Never Trust a Hippie” album. Jesus Christ has “been kickin’ two thousand years. He’s fixed a lot of sports, and drank a million beers.” While you’re at it, check out “You’re Wrong” off the same album. ; and a bit different, “Happy Guy” from the “Punk in Drublic” album:
You probably know it already, but Tori Amos’ “Crucify” is an amazing, emotional song, beautifully written and performed. “Why do I? I crucify myself, every day. And my heart is sick of being in chains.”
King Crimson, “Facts of Life”:
I hope you enjoy.