CCM Soundcheck
CCM Soundcheck is a show about the songs that shaped a generation of Christian radio, youth group, and church camp. Hosts CJ and Gary have been friends for years. Every episode, they sit down with a new "Third Chair" guest who has never heard the featured song before.
They dig into one song from Contemporary Christian Music's 1985 to 2005 era. You'll hear the stories behind the music, the facts you never knew, and a guest's honest first reaction caught live. If you grew up on CCM, you'll remember it. If you didn't, you're about to find out what you missed. Find us at ccmsoundcheck.com.
CCM Soundcheck
Episode 2: God by Rebecca St. James (1996)
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CJ and Gary dig into "God" by Rebecca St. James, released in 1996, and play the music video for a first-time listener who was born the same year the song came out.
Third Chair guest: Kalli Franz.
In this episode:
Liner Notes on the album, the chart run, the 1997 Grammy nomination, and the musicians behind the track, including producer and co-writer Tedd T. and drummer Dan Needham.
A History Lesson on 1996: Tickle Me Elmo, the summer of Independence Day, Twister, and Mission: Impossible, the Macarena, the Unabomber arrest, DC Talk at the Dove Awards, and the AOL discs that covered the country.
A Cold Reaction to the music video, including a key change nobody remembered and a man dangling from a rope that nobody could explain.
Re-Produced, where we each pick who should record this song today.
Savior or Sweetheart, a game of CCM lyrics against secular lyrics, read out loud.
Our question for you: Rebecca St. James was 18 when she recorded this. Who was the artist who felt like they were speaking straight to you at that age, and do they still hold up?
Got a CCM song you want us to cover? Let us know.
CCM Soundcheck covers Contemporary Christian Music from 1985 to 2005. More at ccmsoundcheck.com.
I don't know this entire book called The Bible. That helps explain. That helps explain.
SPEAKER_03I thought that was. Hey Nick, what's up?
SPEAKER_07I think that's all ripped. I don't. DJ DJ does not agree with me on this that brothers in King and Country are Rebecca St. James's brothers.
SPEAKER_06Oh, seriously? Yes.
SPEAKER_02I think they're Karl Mart, and I'm like, don't do that. That's not. Oh, different. Alright, welcome to CCM Soundcheck. This is our second episode. And this is the podcast where we just talk about how much we like Christian contemporary music. Early contemporary Christian music. Yeah, there's a certain like subset timeline-wise that we really appreciate. So for I'm your I'm co-host, CJ, my Gary. Gary. And one of the things that we do on this podcast is that we bring in a third person who sits in what we call our third chair. Today, that is Callie. Hi, Callie. Hi, Callie. Hey. Welcome. And you guys. The reason Callie is here is because she has never heard the song that we are going to be discussing. And so she will be hearing it for the first time on the podcast, which would be a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_07First time.
SPEAKER_02It's gonna be great.
SPEAKER_07And we found out something earlier about her birthday.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it turns out she was born the same year that this song came out. It's true.
SPEAKER_06It's like a 30-year-old song.
SPEAKER_02Yes, thank you. Oh remind you guys. Just as a reminder.
SPEAKER_07Hey, we are doing, you know, early CCM. So we're gonna own it. Yes.
SPEAKER_02This is a historical age podcast. So the idea here, though, is that we will be um talking about the song itself and what it meant to us, what was going on. There are a lot of this discussion around the time period and the song. We'll be explaining it all to Callie. The idea here is that we want to share with Callie how much we love Christian contemporary music and discuss, use this song as a way to discuss it. Um so the song for this episode is Rebecca St. James singing God, which was released in 1996.
SPEAKER_0796, which is crazy to think that you know, I was listening to this song in high school and I know Callie, you were just being born.
SPEAKER_02Actually, this is how we know it was a great year. I was thinking before you got here, Callie. I was like, nineteen ninety-six was a great year. And then turns out you were born. So yeah, it was a great year.
SPEAKER_06Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_07I'm so terrible with with dates and timelines. Like, I I don't know what happened in what year. So when I was kind of going researching for this episode, I was looking at all the things that happened in 96, and I was like, this was this was a good year. A lot of things happened. So you share, you know, a good year with a lot of milestone things.
SPEAKER_02So what's your earliest memory then of this song?
SPEAKER_07Of this song. Um, so I can't put an exact time when I was like, Oh, I remember hearing this song, but I do remember being younger and hearing it. When I say younger, I would have been in high school, probably a freshman or sophomore in high school when I heard this song, and thinking, this song rocks. Like it was it wasn't like so much Christian music at the time was very produced, like very, you know, studio centric. This was more like raw, the vocals were super dry. It was just it's very quintessential nineties.
SPEAKER_02You think it was at the forefront of like a wave of that happening? Because it wasn't this was like it wasn't jars of clay and stuff.
SPEAKER_07I think I I haven't done research was I think this was like jars of clay. Uh I'm pretty sure Jesus Freak was coming out around this same time. So it was this kind of wave of like scrunch.
SPEAKER_02I don't remember a lot of female artists though. No. Uh with this approach. Nope.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I don't either. I think she was like the first one that was really like at least that was hitting the big time mainstream that was kind of like doing this whole like raw rock thing. Right. I mean and let's just be honest, she's not like this incredible vocalist, but what she does, she does well, and so it lends itself to this raw thing, you know, she's not like a Sandy Patty or a Susan Ashton or you know, all these or Kathy Tricoli, all these women that are known for their vocal styling, their vocals, you know, their styling, how they're wonderful singers, or CC Wynans even.
SPEAKER_02So your earliest memory is just that you remember it being like a great, like just rocking song.
SPEAKER_07Yes. Yeah, I just remember think because, you know, I've always been drawn more towards rock stuff, and this was just just very raw raw production. And we'll we'll talk a little bit more about that later, obviously, but how about you? Well, I Okay.
SPEAKER_02To be completely honest. Well, as honest as I should be, the um my actual biggest memory of this is not even really my experience with the song and the song. It was that my brother was obsessed with Rebecca St. James specifically, and this song also. So I I heard this song so much and so often, much more than I actually wanted to. And so, and I just remember thinking, well, if you like him, I if you like her, then I don't, you know, anyways. Right, because it's your brother, right? It's my brother, right? And I'm like, can I can I not hear this song again? Um, but also to be fair, also to be fair, I was all this is 1996, what four years, uh, four or five, three, four, five years post like the bodyguard being released by Whitney Houston, which which is where I started being obsessed with like really fantastic, nuanced female vocalists, like and also Mariah Carey around the same time. Anyway, so I was obsessed with like like genuinely amazing voices, and then then my brother becomes obsessed with Rebecca St. James, and I would like to believe it's because he thought her vocal stylings were so great, but I don't think that's what it was. How old was your brother at this time? I he was 17. Okay, so I think he thought that she was real cute. Hey Nick, what's up? I'm sure I'm sure he's gonna watch it.
SPEAKER_07Well, I mean, I'm pretty sure she was only 18 or 19 at this point.
SPEAKER_02Like she was really young. Yeah, yeah. I that's that's true. So that's that's what I really remember of it, and then as why I was listening to it again in preparation for this episode, and I was reminded, like, oh yes, oh yes, I I do still remember. I do still remember this. The memories she has the the there's a vocal lick that she just repeats a lot, and I'm like, you know, no, no, I I remember this. So, anyways, um now you had mentioned earlier that you thought, pre, I think, that this had some influences, it felt like it had influences from like um um who did you say? Uh Lannis Morset. Oh, that's right.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so like I didn't even I mean I I haven't heard this song in years, but when I went back and listened to it in preparation for this episode, I was like, This song is every bit as good as I thought. And I and back then, like, I wasn't listening with the critical ear that I'm listening that I listen to now, you know, being involved as a musician for all of these years. It was just like this as I think we talked about last episode. I was like, this music is cool, and maybe my friends might like it, you know, and I won't get made fun of for listening to Christian music. Sounds cool.
SPEAKER_02It's not southern gospel, which is what I grew up on.
SPEAKER_07Right.
SPEAKER_02Hi Dad.
SPEAKER_07So uh I would speaking of like when was the first time I heard this? Like, I I don't remember the first time I heard this, but it started like thinking back now. So I d I didn't listen to secular music growing up, but you know, I would hear it on the radio and stuff with my friends when I was when we was with my friends and stuff. But so my dad and I we used to go play tennis at the local park, and right next to the tennis courts were uh was the public swimming pool. And during that time I just remember they would always be playing music over the loudspeaker. So like when we're playing tennis and we're always listening to music. Well, at one point somebody must have gotten a hold of the new Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill album. Okay. This was her debut album, right? Wasn't it? Or I think Jagged Little Pill was.
SPEAKER_02It was the first one I know of.
SPEAKER_07And I'm pretty sure it was that came out like probably the year before, maybe this song did. But uh I just remember hearing that album when we would be playing tennis. Like some one of the lifeguards or somebody was just playing it on repeat, and now like listening back to that album, I'm like, holy crap, I can't believe you were playing that over the loudspeakers with all these kids. Yeah, all these kids and stuff hearing some of the lyrics now. But anyway, I remember being enthralled with that sound. Like, I was like, What is this sound? Like it it captured me, that that whole sound, that raw, just rock and roll and her vocals. And so I think that's probably why I also connected with this song so much when it first came out. I think it probably came out a year or two later. Yeah, but it has a lot of the same production elements listening back now as uh a lot of Alanis' stuff.
SPEAKER_02That makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. So anyway. Well, I think that uh we're gonna get a chance to relive our we're gonna get a chance to relive our our experience with uh with Rebecca St. James here in just a little bit. But why don't you tell us a little bit about the song, sp the specifics of the song?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so this is a segment we call liner notes, Callie, where um I'm gonna go back and I don't know if you remember this. Um She watched the last episode, so she got informed. All right, you got informed, but when you used to go and buy a physical copy of music, you would open it up, whether it be a tape or a CD or a record, and it would have liner notes on the inside, and it would give the lyrics, there would be pictures, maybe like of the artists, maybe some shots of them in the studio. Yep. And then it would list the credits underneath, like who was who mixed it, maybe like who played on it, the produ the producer, all that stuff.
SPEAKER_02I only cared about the lyrics. He cared about the credits.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I was always like, look, who played on this, right? And then that was before you could just like go and Google it and be like, who's this person and find out who they were? I just scandalous physical CDs though.
SPEAKER_02I still have a few hundred.
SPEAKER_07We should bring those back.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Alright. Uh so let's go with the basics. So this was uh God by Rebecca St. James, and this was co-written uh between herself and Ted T, who he goes by Ted T um as uh Ted Tornholm, I believe is how you say his his last name, which I could say going by Ted T. Yep, which he produced this album, uh, and he actually played a lot of the instruments and helped co-write this song.
SPEAKER_02Um so he okay so he produced, co-wrote, and played a lot of the instruments.
SPEAKER_07Yes, which he's kind of known for. He's had his hand in a lot of Wouldn't it be nice to be that talented? I'm just saying. Yes.
SPEAKER_06I mean it's kind of like you guys.
SPEAKER_07Well, I I wouldn't go that that far. Uh like Ted T, he he produced and wrote for Stacey Rico. He did Mute Math's first two albums. Uh Muth two. Uh and uh also uh for King and Country. Which yes, which I don't know if you knew this, Callie, but uh not to get too far off the liner notes, but uh the brothers in King and Country are Rebecca St. James's brothers. Oh, seriously?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, she's their older sister.
SPEAKER_07She's their older sister. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's cool. Yeah. Yep. So uh God is the title track off the album, uh God, but believe it or not, that was the name of the album, God. Uh and it came out in 1996. Um and I believe is this says June 25th, 1996. So when was your birthday?
SPEAKER_06September. September.
SPEAKER_07You weren't quite born.
SPEAKER_06Wasn't quite quite born.
SPEAKER_02There yet, but um, so then would you have been 16 or 15 at this time? 94, I would have been no, this is ninety-six.
SPEAKER_07Sorry, ninety-six. I would have been fifteen. Okay. All right, fifteen. Yeah, I believe I would have been fifteen.
SPEAKER_01Sixteen. Okay.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I would have been fifteen. Good times. Uh or six. I don't know. Terrible with dates. How old am I now? Whatever. Fifteen, or maybe sixteen. Who knows? Um, so this song, the the album itself ended up ranking number six on the Billboard Christian charts.
SPEAKER_02Pretty good.
SPEAKER_07And uh debut album, pretty good. Yes, region number ten on the Billboard Heat Seeker Charts and uh gave her her first appearance on the Billboard Charts, period. Uh the al the album itself that this was on also in 1997 uh got a uh Grammy nomination for best rock gospel rock album.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yes.
SPEAKER_07Um and she was 18. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So my brother would have been 17.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Nick. Nick.
SPEAKER_07Nick, so yeah, good Christian girl who can hear. Yeah, I think she's married and has kids. Um so yeah, we kind of talked about uh the producer uh behind the song, Ted T. He went on to do Kings and Country, Stacey Rico, Mute Math. He did some Toby Mack stuff, some Newsboys, Delirious. He did their album Glow. Jeez. Where he had he had a hand in that, which is pretty crazy.
SPEAKER_02I personally love that record as well. It's crazy that Mute Math is thrown in there with Stacey Eureko, and like that seems like a an interesting mix of genres.
SPEAKER_07Um yeah, I yeah. I he he was got range, obviously, yeah as a producer. So um so for the music the musicians, I'm I'm personally excited about this one. Uh Rebecca St. James, obviously the vocals drums, Dan Needham, who is a personal favorite of mine, um, he's played on so many records that I grew up listening to. And uh, you know, now that we have the internets, uh there was one year I can't even remember when it was, but like I just started going back and looking through like credits of all of these old albums that I used to listen to, and his name comes up a lot, just comes up all the time. Yeah, and like I think he played on like some DC talk stuff, like Warham, like all this all this crazy stuff. So uh so fun fact, one of our acquaintances, uh Dave, he apparently was from church, right? From church, yeah. Apparently he went to college with Dave. I'm sorry, with uh Dan Needham. Really?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, because you discover that.
SPEAKER_07I found this out because I give their son drum lessons. Okay, and so he let me know. He's like, hey, yeah, one of my really good friends from college, uh, he was a he was a drummer, and I I think maybe they were roommates even. Oh wow, you know, he's a he's a percussionist and he's gone on to do like some really really great things in the music industry. He did it, he did okay for himself. And so, you know, like sometimes when people say that everybody knows a drummer, like everybody's cousin is a drummer or whatever. So you you never really know, and then he was like, he uh I think he said he lives in Nashville or something. I was like, Oh, yeah, what's his name, maybe? And he was like, Oh, his name's Dan Needham, and I was like, Excuse me? Yeah, he's like, Yeah, Dan Needham's like, wait, you know Dan Needham? And he was like, Oh, you know who that is, and I'm like, Do I?
SPEAKER_06So is he gonna connect you to Dan?
SPEAKER_02This is a great question.
SPEAKER_07No, I did text him, I didn't get a text back. Dave, text me back.
SPEAKER_02It would be cool at some point if Dan would love to just have a chat or we could even record like an interview or something just to get some background on some of the like albums that we love that he was on.
SPEAKER_07100%. Um, and yes, uh Dan, if you ever see this, I will be fanboying, just so you know. We can make that work. We could we could do a zoom riverside something. Absolutely. That'd be great. That would be super fun. So, anyway, uh the drums on this dude, this song, they they absolutely rip, and that's because of Dan.
SPEAKER_02Well, now I'm now I'm understanding why you like this song so much.
SPEAKER_07That's not the only reason. Like, this song was good before I even knew that. I didn't even know he played on this until I was looking up facts for this episode.
SPEAKER_02The drums do play, I feel like a central part of this. They do like very rhythmically moving.
SPEAKER_07Um, Brett Milligan played bass. Brett Milligan was also like had his hand in so many early CCM stuff, and now he's you know basically an A-lister bass player and producer in Nashville as well.
SPEAKER_02Um outside of CCM, right?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, outside of CCM, yep. Uh Vince Emmett on electric and steel guitar, David Cleveland on acoustic guitar. Uh looks like Ted T played some other uh instruments in here. Um Carl Marsh with the strings arrangement. There are some strings that come in pretty heavy towards the end of the song. And then here's the best one.
SPEAKER_02What was that that did Carl Marsh? Carl Marsh. I think he said Karl Marx, and I'm like, I thought he died a long time ago. That's not different.
SPEAKER_07And then uh Hunter Lee, Irish flute, Yulian pipes, and the degeridoo. Wow.
SPEAKER_02I do hear those.
SPEAKER_07Um and yes, Callie, these instruments do play a large part in this song. Now I'm intrigued.
SPEAKER_06One time my husband Sam, randomly for my birthday, like he always gets me very unique gifts. Nice. And one year he got me a digeridoo, if that's how you pronounce it. Okay. A digeridoo, okay. And I was like, what it what is this?
SPEAKER_02What have you what have you done with it?
SPEAKER_06To be honest, I don't even know where it is, but it was it was very unique.
SPEAKER_07So now that I have now that I know that that that's in the song, you can hear it in the context of a rock song now, right? So you may have some the nineties are coming back. So maybe the nineties were something else. Yeah. Which is it it's also crazy to me too. Like, of course, it would have like a flute, an Irish flute, and a dish-raidoo. Like this was very there was this like world music thing happening in the world. We should have poured the 90s world instruments into our music somehow. You know, like Yanni and Enya and and all these people were so because Enya was kind of was she around that time?
SPEAKER_01I yeah, yeah. I think so. Chauncey, when when Chauncey, when when did Enya? When was her when was her big song?
SPEAKER_02EY in the early 2000s. E-N-Y-A. I think she was late. She was in the 90s. 90s, early 2000s. I know it was in college, so that would have been late 90s and early 2000s. But I don't know.
SPEAKER_07There was this like weird world music. World music, world lead music, although all stuff. Yeah. Uh yeah, so those are the credits for uh musicians, and like some of these older credits, like sometimes they will just put musicians that play on the entire album and stuff, not specific credits. So you don't know who did what song. If we missed anybody or we didn't get anything, my apologies.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you should put something in the comments if we missed you, famous person.
SPEAKER_07Yes. If we missed you, person that was on this awesome song or record, please let us know. Or if we got any facts wrong, too. Like let us know. Yeah. Also this song was uh on the 1997 version of Wow. Okay. Which I think that's probably where I heard it because I don't think I ever actually owned a Rebecca St. James album, unless maybe my sister did. I don't know, she might have.
unknownI can't.
SPEAKER_07We had one at our house. Yeah. But I did pretty much usually get all of the WoW albums, so that might be where I heard it.
SPEAKER_02Um Orinoco Flow. Not as big an Enya fan as I. So Enya's biggest song was Orinoco. October 3rd, 1988. Oh, she we I feel like there's a bigger song than that. Yeah. I'm not questioning your research, Johnsy, but um Thank you for looking that up. Yeah. But she was one of those like she was that world, yeah, it's kind of that weird. Try to take um instrumental vibes from other cultures and stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Um, I actually don't have this in here, uh, and I don't know why, but I am pretty sure that I read somewhere that Eddie DeGarma was actually the executive producer for this entire song out.
SPEAKER_02Really? He actually produced a ton of stuff in the 90s like CCM world. Because he was part of DR Degarmount Key. Yes. Right? Pr pre. So he had his own career. Yep. And then he became a producer. I guess I think I read. Now we're just stating unsubstantiated facts here. But I also read that or or watched a video where he I think was a part of Stacy Rico's career as well.
SPEAKER_07Yes. I maybe we watched the same video.
SPEAKER_02Yes. That will be for a different episode.
SPEAKER_07That was an interesting video if it's the same one. Um we've got the same algorithm like hitting all of our stuff now.
SPEAKER_02Alright. Anything else about the song though?
SPEAKER_07Uh no, that's pretty much it right here, right there, and it was recorded in Nashville too. So makes sense. Like a lot of those songs. Like I always used to think Nashville was just like country music. But a lot of like the CCM stuff was recorded in Nashville.
SPEAKER_02So this this song was released in 1996. And so now I want to talk through what I'll call the the history lesson for 1996. So here's what was going on in the atmosphere when this song was at its apex. So for starters, um let's see. Oh yeah, I should get to my actual notes here. Um a few cultural things. The the biggest toy that let off this like holiday frenzy in 1996 would have been tickle me Elmo.
SPEAKER_01Can you show that dust to us, Chauncey? Yeah, pull up, pull up some slides.
SPEAKER_02This is Tickle Me Elmo. And apparently it was it was groundbreaking for some reason because because I remember like people were going crazy, they were fighting in the aisles of Walmart more than normal, you know, and then like tackling each other, and like the shelves were and you couldn't keep them on the shelves and stuff. And the whole thing about it was that you like I think like poked him, I think, and he would like vibrate and giggle.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, he's still exists. Oh, I think if he could get a new version, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, which I always thought Elmo was the most annoying of the Sesame Street characters. Why you would want to hear him maniacally get laugh, I don't know, but so you know, but I was 16, so it was never my thing. But this was what people were fighting over around Christmas time.
SPEAKER_07This was the flat screen for some reason. The Black Friday flat screen TV like deal where people were trampling to get over.
SPEAKER_02Well, this good this what's interesting is this falls in line with like the prior to this in like the late 80s, I think, late 80s, mid to late 80s, was cabbage patch dolls. Oh those were huge, and like every mom or dad wanted their kid, their little girl to have a cabbage patch doll, and then whatever. And so that was the So it seems like every couple of years there's some major toy craze that everybody has. And you'll hear it in the news reports every around Christmas night, it's like this year, the one that's gonna be hard to find that everybody wants is insert name here, and I just feel like that's actually them just trying to drive the traffic anyway. Yeah, but this was legitimately a big deal. Um, now in addition to that though, and I remember this distinctly because the summer of 1996 was one of in my like personal favorite summers for movies, and I used to go see movies all the time. I had my driver's license, and I had a couple of friends from church who none of us had anything to do or any friends to hang out with or parties to go to. So we would just go see movies. Um, and this summer, let's see, yeah, I think the next slide. Chauncey, thank you. Oh my god, these three movies all were released in the summer within like a month or two of each other, like right. So um, these were all released over the summer of 1996, and I remember, I mean, so there's Independence Day, which have you seen Independence Day? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06No, I think it was like you have to see Independence Day. Yeah, yes, must see.
SPEAKER_02Independence Day was fantastic. I loved I loved that movie. It was so good. And then still holds up. What's really interesting is actually my very first movie in a theater was in 1992. So when I was 12, we lived in very rural Alabama, so there wasn't a movie theater, right? So I saw Jurassic Park, the first one in 1992, and it was in the like it's about to leave, and so it's in the the gross theater, right? You know, like so I saw that.
SPEAKER_07But that was your first movie in the very first movie in the industry. That's a first movie. You know what?
SPEAKER_02I think I really like movies. Um, because it was a great movie. What a good first movie. Four years later, then I get I'm now obsessed with movies, and I have a driver's license, so I watched Independence Day. I think with the same exact friends, I watched Independence Day and Twister and Mission Impossible all over that summer. It was just a blockbuster year. So I think this is the rank, I think they ranked first, second, and third.
SPEAKER_07Fun fact about this. Well, I don't I don't know if it's a fun fact or not, but uh Twister and Mission Impossible, two of my all-time favorite movies.
SPEAKER_02Oh, really?
SPEAKER_07Um yes. Uh the well, the entire Mission Impossible franchise. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Very good.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02My whole family, we I think I still haven't seen the very latest one. It's so good.
SPEAKER_06I haven't either. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Also, Tom Cruise is 89 or something, isn't he?
SPEAKER_06He can he's still 62 or something. Yeah, he's old. I'm sorry. He runs well. Whatever he's doing. He's older than he was.
SPEAKER_02He's always running.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, the movies are fantastic. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07So I remember, yeah, my mom and I, we would always make it a point to go watch movies together, and I distinctly remember going and seeing Twister. We were so excited to see this movie. I grew up in Tornado Alley. Same. And so I was I wanted from a young age, I wanted to be a meteorologist, and I was always just out in the middle of storms, just looking for tornadoes. And so I can't know what the goes on in the tornado unless it sucks me up personally. Exactly, right? You'll never know. So yeah, I loved this movie and then Tom Cruise uh in Mission Impossible. That was just This had to be like the height of Tom Cruise. All the gadgets and everything that they had in there.
SPEAKER_02It's based on an old TV show.
SPEAKER_07Well, I used to watch the TV show on reruns.
SPEAKER_02Okay, wow.
SPEAKER_07On Rabbit Ears on Wednesday afternoons after school. Okay. The old one. The OG one from the 70s. I and I loved it. Interesting.
SPEAKER_02It was right about this time I was watching Roseanne after my parents went to bed down in the basement because I had rabbit ears.
SPEAKER_07And they didn't know you were watching that either. They did not know that I was watching. I was in Roseanne. That's a great show.
SPEAKER_02And then something else came on after that Gold Girls or something. Yeah. It was like this. I get one channel in the basement. Right. Okay, so but what I'll say is like this was uh this was a fantastic year. What's interesting personally is that um we had just moved to Kansas City. Oh at the right before this, right? So um October 1995, October 1995, we moved from Kinston, Alabama, 600 people or so, to Blue Springs, Missouri, the Kansas City metro area. So it was a major life change, and so um we ended up going watching movies all the time. It was good times. All right. So uh moving forward, let's see. I could we could talk about movies forever. Yeah, we could talk about movies forever. So the other thing, here's what's here's the these see if these songs ring a bell for you, Gary. I'm not sure for you, Callie, maybe. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see.
SPEAKER_07We'll see.
SPEAKER_02Um, number one, the Macarena. The song is called Macarena. Can you do it, anybody?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, but I'm gonna not do I'll let you do that one, CJ.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna try to. I was taking Spanish too when the song was big. Oh, perfect. And so there was a whole thing we all had to learn the dance. Yeah, was it all the high school dances? Yeah, I can't still do it, but and there was a moment when I could even say about a third of the lyrics, but not anymore.
SPEAKER_07Hey, Macarena. Nail it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And there it is, folks. Um, all right, so we have Macarena, then then there was One Sweet Day. Now, this song I loved, One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey and Boys to Men. Oh, yeah. It was about somebody dying, I guess. It turned into a major like funeral song or something. Yeah. I won't sing it for you here, even though I'm a great song. I'm I'm sorely tempted. Although Callie should be the one who sings it. She has a fantastic voice. Um, I never we never really said Callie. The the way we know you is from church. You are you are part of it.
SPEAKER_06They just follow me on the street.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You're part of the worship team. You're a worship leader at the church that we go to. So you and I actually Callie is one of my favorite people to sing with.
SPEAKER_06Agreed. Likewise, both these guys.
SPEAKER_02Um all right. So the other song was uh another song that was huge in this year was because you Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion. See, I was like Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Gary, these are all interesting.
SPEAKER_06The nice were such movies and just singers like six.
SPEAKER_02This was actually, I was dating a girl, I won't say her name, bless her heart, um, because she didn't ask to be involved. Um didn't ask to be involved with you or in this podcast. I didn't ask me involved in the podcast, but we were dating with data for a while. Anyways, and this was became our song because we saw the movie it came from. Anyway, Robert Redford number. And then and then you brought this up, which is Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill. Here we go. Was the number one album of 1996. Okay. And what's interesting is like it it was not like number one. None there was no song on it that was like it wasn't like a number they're like ironic or whatever from that album was not like the number one song of the year, but the album was the number one album. So according to Billboard. So there you go. All right. News item. Um the other big thing that was in the news at this time was two big kind of weird things. Was there was um the Olympics were taking place in Atlanta in 1996.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02In addition to the Olympics taking place, which was by itself really big news, they had a bomb go off in Centennial Park in Atlanta, which I've been there. I lived in Atlanta for three years, three and a half years or so. And I I've been to Centennial Park, and but they had a bomb go off in the pavilion somewhere. They ended up catching the ghoul, the the guy who did it. His name was uh uh Richard Jewell, I think, was the guy that they caught. There's a movie recently about that, by the way. Really? Which I have not seen. Oh, wait a minute. It's very good. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Is it it's like an actual portrayal? But didn't they f wasn't he framed?
SPEAKER_02I I think that movie portrays it as though he was framed. I don't actually know.
SPEAKER_06They definitely made it seem like, yeah, he was framed, but who knows?
SPEAKER_02I don't know. I can't remember the final disposition of his innocence. So or not.
SPEAKER_07So I do have uh I have um an old bandmate that was actually in Centennial Park like bef just right before really yeah, like your parents were there.
SPEAKER_02He was playing with your grandparents were at Centennial Park in 1996?
SPEAKER_06They were at the Olympics. Oh no, okay, yeah. Yeah. But I they I don't think they were near where their bombs were.
SPEAKER_02Right. But Centennial Park isn't necessarily where like the events were taking place.
SPEAKER_07Right per se, but he was he was playing with another artist down there, and um, I don't know I I can't remember if he was like in the park when they evacuated or they were there like like right prior to it happening, or I just remember telling him that story.
SPEAKER_02I was like But then, in addition to a bomb going off in Centennial Park, 1996 was the same year that Ted Kacinski, Theodore Kaczynski, otherwise known as the Unibomber. John C we got a graphic? Okay. So they had been hunting him since 1978 because he'd been mailing bombs, like putting ba bombs through the mail.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_02Um and manifesto. Um so he had, let's see, mm-hmm. He'd killed three people, injured or maimed another twenty-three. Um, and they've been looking for him since 78. So that was the the we have the FBI composite sketch of him, and then that's him once he was actually arrested. I'm guessing that sketch was 20 years earlier.
SPEAKER_07So yeah, so the I the sketch obviously now is and I don't know if this is still culturally relevant or not, but like whenever you would have sunglasses on and a hood, uh huh, people would always just be like, You look like the unibomber. What are you, the unibomber?
SPEAKER_01Wow, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07So I I don't know if people would even know what that meant today, but that's that was the thing back then. Is if you ever wore a head, uh hood and sunglasses.
SPEAKER_02In my research, I did not uncover or look for why they called him the unibomber, because I had other stuff to do, but anyways. So now in church, what was happening in 1996, and this is relevant based on what we had our last episode. So in 1996 Dove Awards, DC Talked was named Artist of the Year, which was the first group to win that prize since 1981. So, and that was the Imperials. So um, they also ended up winning Song of the Year and rock recorded Song of the Year for Jesus Freak. So, so so 199, they were in Addicted to Jesus, by the way. Point out uh my mom sent us the Addicted to Jesus jacket. It's here in studio with us. There it is. Um they were on the they were on Addicted to Jesus just four to five years later, they were winning Artist of the Year. So they also had Jars of Clay was the new artist of the year. Love Jars of Clay. All right. The other thing I'll say this will be the last item for history lesson, which is this was also the year, and I remember this distinctly, when AOL America Online, which was how us olds would get onto the internet, they would um they would you would get these originally it was discs and then it was CDs, and they had they like covered the uh the nation in CDs. Everybody had like a dozen of them laying around, whether you wanted one or not. They mailed them to you. You could pick them up at any store because they because that was how you would install the program that would then allow you to use a dial up modem 288 K modem to get onto America Online, and that's how you got an internet.
SPEAKER_07Can we my first email address was an AOL address? Can we insert the sound like right here?
SPEAKER_06Are you familiar with this dial-up sound? I remember like there'd be times you couldn't be on like someone couldn't be on the phone while someone was on the phone. So I was old enough to remember that.
SPEAKER_02But okay, so here's what's interesting. Well, maybe it's not interesting, but here's what my experience was. It's not interesting to anybody except me. So I wanted to be on AOL so bad, and so because I had a uh some people at high in school were on it or whatever, and but my dad, my mom and dad, my dad was a pastor, and he was like, I gotta have the phone available if people are trying to get a hold of me and they need prayer or or whatever. Sounded like an excuse to me, but I get it. I get it now, doors anyway. Um, so um I said, Well, what if I just install a new phone line? And that'll be the phone line for AOL. And he was like, If you're gonna do that, go for it, but you're paying for it. And I'm like, I was working, so I had a part-time job. I was like, no problem. What else am I gonna spend my money on? I don't have you know anything else to do. So um, so I installed a phone line, we've got AOL. The controversy was though, that this was when they went from a like minute usage, they converted from you get X number of minutes to unlimited use, frat, flat price, unlimited use, and then it just overwhelmed AOL. When you tried to dial in, it would be busy. I remember downloading a program to have like multiple dialers trying to all dial in at the same time to get one of them to go through. It was like a whole thing. Man, you went you went down the dialogue.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I like you know, I enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02I love how it says it's fun. Yeah, it's fast, yeah, right, right. So that is sort of the background of what was going on in 1996 when Rebecca St. James shared her song, God, with the world. So Yeah, that's that's a it was a big year.
SPEAKER_07That was a yeah, first year of high school.
SPEAKER_02So big year. So it was born. It was a huge year. You were born year. And then um so what I what we want to do now is actually have you hear the song. Yeah. So we're gonna play the song.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um, and what we we just want to hear your thoughts. And we'll pause periodically just uh.
SPEAKER_07We're gonna actually we're gonna play, we're not just gonna play the song, we're gonna play the music video because we want to give you the full experience. Yes, you need the full experience. The full visuals experience. And just just for clarity, like this isn't the best recording of this. It was the best one I could find. I don't know if if uh I couldn't even find uh a good rendering of this, so it's kind of the sound isn't the best.
SPEAKER_02The funny thing is uh when I uh was hearing it so often, it was not the music video because we because we didn't have anywhere to have seen it. It was all I remember.
SPEAKER_07I remember seeing the music video at some point, like when when I kind of like watched it. I haven't watched the whole thing through either, Callie, for probably, you know, 30 some years. But I'm pretty sure that uh the like the youth group I went to, they would always have like TVs playing like you know the latest Christian music videos. Yeah, that's a well I had to travel an hour to go to this youth group. So um you had a youth group, I mean, you know? Yeah, yeah. So uh yeah. So let's let's play. Let's play it.
SPEAKER_06Ready for this. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_02There's the flute. There's the flute.
SPEAKER_06There it is.
SPEAKER_02I get I get karate dojo vibes. Oh yeah. You know? And this is uh Oh is she holding the sky? Yeah.
SPEAKER_05He made the lights. He made the day. Spread the earth upon the waters.
SPEAKER_07Go ahead and pause it real quick. So I I don't know if you note I don't and we didn't really talk about this, but I don't know if you notice her accent. Right. She's are you catching the accent?
SPEAKER_06I I don't know if I'm catching an accent or more just like she's really emphasizing just like her little a little vocal slide. Yep.
SPEAKER_07Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_06But I she's I can't remember.
SPEAKER_07She's from Australia or New Zealand? Australia. Australia. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Same as King and Country. Yeah, same as King and Country.
SPEAKER_01I just couldn't remember if it was a good one.
SPEAKER_06Australia really puts out the I know, right? Yeah. Christian musicers. Yeah, they do. Okay. All right. Catching the vibe.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I will also say that intro, the the flute, it was like how the whole thing starts. You have the sun doing a circle thing. I honestly, I don't know. Maybe that was creation. Maybe she's like doing like a stuff is getting created vibe. But it gave me a very like, we are in a we're either in a dojo learning karate, or we're at some like wellness spa.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. I'm picking up on the spa. Like even just like the hands of the world music. Yes. Like there's a lot of music.
SPEAKER_02Plus she did the the whatever with the picture.
SPEAKER_07It was a sky, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_07Because I think she said you made the sky.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Anyways, and then the drums kick in, and then we we lose the we lose the spa vibe and it gets more into the rock. Okay. All right. Let's uh Chante take it away.
SPEAKER_06Oh. Wow.
SPEAKER_02Now you're not gonna stumble from that, are you, Cal?
SPEAKER_06Oh goodness.
SPEAKER_00Dirt. Okay.
SPEAKER_05You would die.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so how okay, the vibe that she's giving off visually, I think, is very Alanis Morissette. Very good. Very like look at the camera and do this weird stuff with your head, you know, like the hair kind of in the face a little bit. That was very Alanis Morissette. Yeah, you know. Although Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. I mean, just like very emotive in every aspect.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_07And like honestly, like to m to me, like thinking thinking back at the time and whatever, and like how I how I grew up listening to like, you know, like Sandy Patty and stuff, like having a female artist like be this expressive in this. And more rocky. And more rocky. Like, I know it sounds ridiculous to say now, but this was like kind of editing. Yeah. Like edgy for that for that era. You know, especially she's young. She's like 18 years old, 19. Yeah. And so I'm sure this got picked picked apart a lot.
SPEAKER_02I'm sure there are plenty of vocal teachers who said, Let me let me show you something.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And then use it as an example. I think um I think this vocal lick that she does, that like it's placed in her voice, in a in in her sort of the timbre of her voice, in the same way that like Alanis Morissette does.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Right? Like the Alanis Morissette does this like, you know, like low, whatever. And then she like hits something that is like well placed in her register and kind of goes back to that frequently. That's an Alanis Morissette kind of vocal thing. And she's doing it too. So but for Jesus. So correct.
SPEAKER_07Let's listen to the rest of this chorus.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_06So that's what I am He's hanging from a rope, I think.
SPEAKER_02I'm actually confused about what he what he means in this video.
SPEAKER_07Me like creed halftime show vibes. You know what I'm talking about? The guy's flying around on this looks like what Pink Somebody knows what I'm talking about out there.
SPEAKER_02This looks like what um Pink does in her concerts. Yeah, yeah. Except, you know, from a scarf or something.
SPEAKER_06It just makes me feel like this music video is gonna go in like a bad direction. But I'm assuming it's not.
SPEAKER_02I'm wondering if like there are is a hint in the lyrics about why this guy's dangling and and has half of his clothes gone. No, there's not. He made the night, he made the day, spread the earth upon the water. I don't know. Made the heavens. Yeah. Very same creator.
SPEAKER_07I'm not sure what this guy's doing. But uh the nineties were uh weird time for creativity when it came to like visuals and music videos.
SPEAKER_02Uh the line that the line in the chorus I can't explain any other way because it's God.
SPEAKER_07So it's God. It's just God. It's true. God. Um I can think of a couple different ways to explain. Yeah, I was just saying.
SPEAKER_02There's just like an entire I don't know, this entire book called The Bible. That helps explain. That helps explain. But to be fair to Rebecca, she's saying this is like she personally can't explain it. But she explains it in verses one and two. That's true. There does seem to actually be explanation. We may be overthinking it. I don't know. I just thought I thought that was kind of funny. It was like, uh The thing is what you have to say though, um, there's a lot that I could say about like, because I could say I was obsessed with Whitney Houston and and Celine Dion, and these are like powerhouse vocalists, and this is a different vocal style than I would have appreciated at 1996 and today. But what I will say though is this course is super memorable.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Like, how do you not remember this lick?
SPEAKER_02You know, this course is great.
SPEAKER_07I yeah.
SPEAKER_06I think if I weren't watching the music video, I'd have a much different impression maybe of the song. I think I'm just so distracted by whatever that's going on here.
SPEAKER_02I feel like I will say this too, and I felt this way for in episode one with Addicted to Jesus, and maybe this was just a 90s thing, or maybe a 90s Christian music thing, where like I feel like a lot of the Christian music videos, if they weren't an artist just standing on a stage singing, they were like visual non sequiturs. Like, oh, here's a thing, and here's another a different ran random thing, and then here's a totally different thing. Addicted to Jesus was definitely that. And then it feels like we're getting a bit of that visually here, too.
SPEAKER_07But yeah. Uh Chauncey, can you look up who directed this video?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Who is who is the director of this video? Let's um play the rest of this chorus. Oh, yeah, we're going into verse two. We're back to the the flutes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, back to the flutes. No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_02Did she change clothes? Um, or she ran that before.
SPEAKER_05Maybe.
SPEAKER_07But the production on the it's so good. Mark wire? Pay attention to the drop sound in the bird. How dry they are. Yeah. And I'm gonna course. They're very dry.
SPEAKER_02Okay, thoughts. So I feel like I honestly I don't know. I don't know that I understand the visual story that's being told, other than it's a vibe. I think they're just kind of going for a vibe. Yeah, I think they're going for a moody They're trying to match the intensity of the song, I think. Yeah, like I think. And then I don't know, I still don't know what the dude is doing. Because first he was hanging first of all, he first he was just standing there without a shirt. Then he was hanging by a rope, poor guy. And then next then he was um he was in front of some barbed wire. Yeah. I was like, is he in prison? And if he's in prison, why does he have a rope? Because I thought they didn't do that, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_07I don't know. I I don't think so far the video has nothing to do with like the lyrical content. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02My other question though is do you think this was filmed out in nature? Because I actually think with the lighting behind her and stuff, it feels very soundstagey to me.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, it might be a soundstage. It's hard to tell.
SPEAKER_06It looks like she's just standing in front of like some backdrop.
SPEAKER_02Some like plant plants that were strategically placed with a light on them.
SPEAKER_06And like clearly they're just having some fog machine and yeah.
SPEAKER_02They're going for a vibe. A very like nature, I don't know, vibe. Okay. Alright. Take it with it. Go for it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I'm sorry. So the the chorus itself, it's God, truly God. What we see, what we can hear. Yeah, can you see, can you hear, can you touch, can you feel? It's God, it's truly God. I can't explain the other way. Because it's God. I feel like the other thing is if you didn't have it stuck in your head already, she's like, she will triple down on this, and it becomes like this is where she'll make sure that it's drilled directly in your brain and won't leave. Like, I'll probably be unwantingly humming this for the next three days. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07It's yeah, this song, yeah, it's definitely hooky.
SPEAKER_06I feel like her voice, okay. Now I'm kind of like it's coming to me. I feel like her voice is very she has a lot of musical theater sound in her voice. Okay. But there's a show that I'm not recommending to anyone. Oh, do tell me. But called Spring Awakening. I'm not recommending. Let me write this down.
SPEAKER_02Chelsea, can you write that down?
SPEAKER_06But uh there are some great songs from it, but this song sounds like it should be in that show.
SPEAKER_02Oh, really? I think. Like what is the just because of the the grungy sound or the Yeah, just the yes, kind of the the just there's a little bit of a rock sound to it.
SPEAKER_06Her voice sound I think kind of reminds you of Leah Michelle a little bit. Really?
SPEAKER_02In the Michelle, please leave something in the comments if you disagree with Callie.
SPEAKER_06In the chorus, specifically when she says God. Yeah. Just the sound of her voice. I think sounds very similar. That's my voice. But yeah, I don't know. That's just like what's coming to mind when I hear her.
SPEAKER_04I used to do that to my brother when he would listen to it. I would he would listen to this all the time, and I was I'd be like, Wow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I was sorry, Rebecca. It was so disrespectful. But it's what they did to irritate my brother.
SPEAKER_07And this is the funny thing is like you guys are both like vocalists, right? Like trained vocalists. Like, I'm not a trained vocalist. I'm a musician and a producer, so I'm like listening to the production of this song.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_07And like I like the vocal is almost like secondary to me. Like I'm listening to how they're layering in the vocals. Like when the vocal is doubled, like how like I'm not smart enough to do that. Like the ninety the the nineties was crazy with like this kind of music. Like all the vocals were super dry. Like there was no reverb. Yeah. It was just just in like it's just all in your face.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Her her, I will say her vocal production, like her the way she's producing her voice, is um it is it is the like diametric opposite of the Sandy Patty like CC Wynans because they are they are singing like from the diaphragm, they're placing it, they're resonating up here, like you know, they're they're doing a really good job of control and placement and all of that. You can tell this would have been the Whitney Houstons and Celine Dion's, whatever. You can that's why I fell in love with Whitney Houston, was because you could just I could s hear I'm analyzing her voice the way you are doing this, which is like, oh, she's she's flipped that up into a different place, and now it's a different thing. So, anyways, and she Rebecca St. James is not really doing that. She's singing kind of pretty much straight from her throat, that as far as I can tell. There's a couple of times she'll flip it up into her head voice, um, but she's just which that's what makes it feel like um like real or authentic. It gives it the gritty and authentic real feel and less it doesn't make it, it makes it feel like it's not like look, I'm so polished. Yeah, yeah. But then she does hit that that God note that I was just making fun of. Again, Rebecca, I'm sorry. Um that's where she puts it up and places it into an interesting spot in her vocal range. Like she hits that, and that's a well-supported thing. The other thing that I thought as I was listening to this on the car, in the car on the way here, too, with the number of times that they go through this chorus, is because she's has the belt to hit that note, and she hits it all the time, like a bunch. And I'm like, I can't imagine having to perform this live. Yeah, like you're at a concert, and like this is the song everyone has to hear, and you gotta you gotta hit that belty little thing that like clearly is not a place that she likes to live vocally, and but you gotta do it. That seems like it would not be a fun one to have to do live on tour.
SPEAKER_07No, mind you, this is before they started using auto-tune as well. And likely I I'm assuming this was probably still being recorded to tape at this point. The this is like right at the edge of like Pro Tools and like digital audio workstations and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_07So potentially it was, you know, recorded, but I'm I'm sure it was probably tape. So these are all like actual tape takes of her singing this song.
SPEAKER_02And then if you actually were gonna produce this today, they would have like tuned it in perfectly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you wouldn't get this sort of more raw and real I think that what what this comes across as, and I appreciate it much more now than I did back then, is authentic. Like this is the real Rebecca St. James and how she for real sounds, you know? Right. So it's much more grounded and as opposed to I don't know, overly polished.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02Anyways.
SPEAKER_07I did I did I did read somewhere too when I was doing some research that apparently uh this song when they she she originally envisioned it being more like very like more tender. Oh, okay. Like down, like and I guess uh who knows if who knows if this is true of it. Ed T I think was like, no, let's let's go for it. Let's rock this. Let's yeah and so he That's really a good choice.
SPEAKER_02He pushed her to like really go after it. I don't know if this song would have stood out if it weren't for the vibe that they did musically. So it's probably a good choice. Yeah, well, it was a good choice, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I mean the song I I think this song ripped. I know CJ CJ does not agree with me on this. Listen, I love it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, he came in though with a tainted view. I saw it.
SPEAKER_02I know. And like the truth, like also to be fair, the drum line here, the drums are so good, and you're a drummer, so I could see you having a real good appreciation for it.
SPEAKER_07But I mean, it sounds and also it sounds like real music, it sounds like real musicians playing, right? And like including the little flute thing at the beginning. Yeah, that too. I I don't know. I'm a sucker for like real instrumentation.
SPEAKER_02That's why I think I identify like so much with this era of music, is like I want it to sound like And actually this was an evolution because like just uh bring it back eight or years prior to this or whatever was when like the I don't know, it all went like synth y. Even the rock bands are doing synth, all kinds of synth stuff, and there was a lot. This is much more like these are real instruments they're playing. So yeah, I can see that. Alright, we still have some more of the song display.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I'm curious about the spaceship that appeared for like half a second. Was that a spaceship? It was like a space axe or something.
SPEAKER_02I thought maybe it was the dude. No, okay. I don't know. It was very fast. All right, let's go ahead. Let's go.
SPEAKER_06Oh no.
SPEAKER_07Oh, it's a key.
SPEAKER_05It's a key.
SPEAKER_07Is it because full time? Pause it right here, real quick. All right.
SPEAKER_02That's so interesting. Uh was somebody locked up? Is that why there's a key? I don't remember seeing something being locked.
SPEAKER_07Here is something coming up in this song that I hadn't I don't remember in this song. But there is a crazy key change that happens that is so It's about to hit up. It's about to come up. It's about to hit that's so far out in left field, but it works. Okay. And it's not like key change where it, you know, just modulates and then goes up a step. No, it modulates and then goes back to the original key. But just for a couple of measures.
SPEAKER_02I will say, I am a fan of a key change at County. I mean, I just if we could work a key change in at church, that'd be great. I mean, we are it builds the moment. This uh this coming not this Sunday, but the next on the list we're doing. I think there's like shout to the Lord or something on the list is what I saw. I don't know. That's a perfect song for a key change. Okay. But I don't know so it makes it key and then comes back to the original key.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so this is I when I was listening to this the other day, I was actually listening to this song with my wife because she had never heard it before. And I like kind of freaked out in the middle of listening to the song because I'm like, I I don't remember that. But it was such a cool trick.
SPEAKER_02Well, don't let us gloss over it.
SPEAKER_07Make sure that's Yeah, because this song is so repetitive. I don't know if you it's so repetitive. Which I can't believe you but like to be able to throw that in there, and so I'm I'm trying to figure out. I don't know if they like were able to pitch the tape down in order to make this happen, or if they actually did this You think they might have done it in post. I think they may have done it in post. I don't know. I would love to hear if somebody knows how that happened in this song. Yeah, but it's from a production standpoint. I think it's super cool. Okay, well now I've got to hear this. Yeah, country. Here it comes.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. They dropped it, but yeah, and then Oh my god.
SPEAKER_07But they they dropped it and then raised it. Like, I actually got goosebumps. I got goosebumps listening to that. Yeah, yeah. Did they drop it to a minor or something? Like a I don't even know.
SPEAKER_06It's interesting that they went lower. I mean, usually key change always assume going up. So it's cool that it's like mysterious.
SPEAKER_02They dropped it so that then when they raised it back up, you get the feel of it drawing back up.
SPEAKER_07Because they went to that bridge which was very like kind of empty and ethereal and airy. Yeah. And then that key change drops it down, and then it's just like they kind of drop some of the instrumentation off of it.
SPEAKER_02It's like where that's where it kind of becomes you drop the drop the drop the key a bit and it becomes sort of introspective-ish, you know?
SPEAKER_07But well when they drop that key, it almost becomes like this menacing tension.
SPEAKER_02Is that the lyrics? Is this where the lyrics are inside us all there is a void, all mankind is searching? Is that the No, that key change is the chorus. Did did this lead into Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_07But yeah, this that part was the bridge. That's what led into the key change, though, right?
SPEAKER_02Yep, that's what So it's like we're talking about the void and we're talking about everyone's cry cries out.
SPEAKER_07Uh no, that's the Lord I praise you for all your endless love, your boundless grace. I stand here amazed. That was the down bridge. And then it does that half chorus with the key change, and then picks up the chorus for the That's crazy.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02I actually don't think I'll never heard that before.
SPEAKER_07No, I ne I don't remember that. I've never heard a song do that before. I don't think I would have known to pay attention in you know 1996 or 97 to that. I just knew I wanted to turn it up because it slammed.
SPEAKER_04Oh, and here we go. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07All right. All right, let's finish it up. Let's finish this song out.
SPEAKER_02Okay, wait.
SPEAKER_01Okay, was that a nuclear explosion happening on Earth? Is that what that was? It was either that or it was a sun flare on the earth. I don't understand.
SPEAKER_06I don't know. It was disconnected from the earth.
SPEAKER_02I still don't know what the key motif is, and I still don't know why this guy is here.
SPEAKER_07But also her, like the kind of outfit she's wearing looks somewhat like like messianic or like it's white. I was like, is this Roman salt like it looks like a traditional like yoga or picture of Jesus. Maybe not an epine. But also it looks like it could be Hindu. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I don't know.
SPEAKER_07I probably she was probably not going for the Hindu vibe, I was like, but the key was flying through space, and there at the end she was holding it.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02The key.
SPEAKER_07Maybe she's supposed to be And then there was a flare.
SPEAKER_06I don't know, like embodying what God is this supposed to be apocalyptic? I don't know. I don't know. Like maybe the guy is supposed to represent humanity.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Oh, she has the key, and she's dressed like Jesus. So maybe she is Jesus, Rebecca's Jesus. Who knows? We don't know.
SPEAKER_02I'm not sure. Now here's what I will say. We should probably separate the music from the video. Oh, for sure.
SPEAKER_07100%.
SPEAKER_02Because whoever came up with the video came in after the song was done, and they're like, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, like I have a vision. I've been wanting this concept. You just know. Somebody gave them a shot and they're like, we're doing it. I don't care what the song is.
SPEAKER_02This is what we're doing. I've been trying to shoehorn this concept into songs for five years, and you're gonna let me do it. You're new here, right?
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah. That's it's gonna be a big hit.
SPEAKER_06Well, look, we're here 30 years later. We're talking about it, right?
SPEAKER_07It was a big hit. I don't know. I don't want video, but yeah. All right. Let's finish this song. How's it in?
SPEAKER_04Oh wow. Oh. And there he goes. There he goes.
SPEAKER_02Is he is he going to heaven? She doesn't. I don't know. I think. But did the seasons just change? Okay.
SPEAKER_07There's the disheridoo. You hear the degeridoo at the end? Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I was so taken by all the other things that I may have missed that.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, deja rido at the end.
SPEAKER_02Okay, alright. So um, okay, before we move on, cold reaction from this cold reaction section, Callie. I want to know if you had to describe what you just experienced musically and musically and or visually, what in three words. If you had to describe what you just saw in three words, what would they be?
SPEAKER_06Yeah. I'm gonna say raw.
SPEAKER_02Raw? Okay.
SPEAKER_06I don't know if this is the right word. I'm gonna say disjointed. I feel like when I when you guys are reading the lyrics, it does not match the like the visuals vibe of not even the visuals, but even just like the sound of the song. Okay. Like it just feels a little Yeah. Yeah. Disjoint I don't know. Disjointed is not the right word, but that that's the closest I'll get. And then I'll say um catchy.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Okay. Catchy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Surrah, disjointed, and catchy. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Gary.
SPEAKER_07So three words? I'm yeah, I'm gonna have to try to choose my three words. Um first of all, uh nostalgic, obviously. Yeah. Um pleasantly surprised. I know that's a phrase, that's not a word, but just the reason I the reason I say that is because it's been so long since I've heard this song and listening back to it and the production of it, I was just like, I love it. Like I think the song is fantastic. Like the production just the direction of the song and also catchy. It's just yeah, it's got a hook. Like the chorus is like super hooky. Like I mean, it's God, truly God. I can't explain it any other way.
SPEAKER_02If you can't catch the catch the words, if you can't remember the lyrics to the chorus.
SPEAKER_07But even that, like, can you can you taste, can you feel, can you touch, or whatever whatever. That whole phrase, just the way that the replicas. This is like a syncopation thing, it's like the syncopation of that was is just like a it's just a great line.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Even though all a lot of those things, like, no, you can't do that. Yeah. Right, right. Like, no, you can't. No.
SPEAKER_02Um and I think that's actually maybe that's her point lyrically. Can you see? Can you touch? Can you feel? And she's like, no, it's God. I there's no I can't explain it any other way. It's God.
SPEAKER_07Well, that's a good point. I think maybe that's the turn. But yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's the way I maybe would read that now that I'm thinking about it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Well, yeah, I that's see, that's a new that's what this podcast is for.
SPEAKER_02We get new perspectives on old songs, guys. I think I think it is hard to sum this up in three words. It is. I think I would use the I think raw is a good one, but I will say authentic.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because I really do feel like you're getting the authentic Rebecca St. James like sound. Right. Voice, right? I don't know about the video, but the voice is authentically hers. I I doubt that this was her vision uh for the video. Um, but I also think um I think earworm, it's a compound word, but I'm gonna call it because that chorus, I I I think I'll be humming this for three days. Taking you back to your childhood with your brother. Right, right. And then I will also say um appreciation. I feel like I have a better appreciation for it now than I did in 1996. Um, just because I think, I mean, I actually really do like these lyrics, especially that the idea that I know that we can all try to um like intellect our way to who God is and what he is, and but actually I can't explain it, right? The idea for me, especially how I where I grew up and the church I went to, like, if you have if you had an authentic real experience with God, trying to articulate that to someone and what that means to you, or how much faith or confidence you have in your salvation, is really hard to articulate. Yeah. Because it's it's not a I didn't you didn't arrive at it. I was listening to a podcast the other day uh with a pastor, it's I I love this podcast, and I I won't mention it here, who it is. But anyways, it what he said was if if you if a good argument brought you to faith, that if somebody else has what sounds like a better argument, they they will be it'll be easier for them to move you away from faith. But if if your faith is established because of a real authentic encounter or experience with your creator, yeah, it is harder to move that away with a slick argument. Yeah, right. And I feel like what she's saying, and so I get that's the kind of vibe I get from this, which is that like, look, can you touch it? Can you feel it? Can you taste it? No, but I and I can't explain to you. And what I would say the step after that is, but you should experience it too. And I so, anyways, all that to say, I have a better appreciation for that message now. The video, I don't feel like the video conveyed that. I agree with that statement, but I like that that idea, which is to say you should use your brain, you should think and and understand scripture really well. I don't want to knock that, but there's something about the personal relationship and experience you have with your savior that you can't necessarily always perfectly articulate, you know?
SPEAKER_06Well, and just the mystery of God. Like if there was no mystery or if we knew everything about what makes God who he is, like then he wouldn't be God, right? Right, right.
SPEAKER_02And that other and we wouldn't need faith. If I had perfect understanding of all of it, I wouldn't need faith.
SPEAKER_07And I guess, yeah, like taking a different perspective on it, it may not be like she's expressly saying, like, this is what God is, right? She's saying these things are God, like these things that I'm talking about in these these verses.
SPEAKER_02It's yeah, God is. She's talking about his role in creation and like and our salvation and yeah his grace.
SPEAKER_06I feel like it makes sense that you said that the song was originally gonna be more of a kind of ballad. So you feel like that's the vibe you would have expected. That's the vibe you would have. The lyrics that I more so in the verses, that's like what I feel like it should be. But I don't know, but when you're immersed in the whole experience, you're not even really thinking about the lyrics. You're just listening, yeah. But yeah, but the chorus, I think, just it it works, you know.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Apparently, and again, citation, I don't know if this is true or not because but Oh good rumors. Right. Again, listeners, if anybody knows the true story behind this, but I I had saw somewhere that in an interview that apparently this song came out of a of a prayer. Okay. That when her and Ted T were praying.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_07Sometimes so this song came out of a prayer, and so I think that's probably why intentionally maybe she was like, Oh, I want this to be like a kind of a softer kind of song.
SPEAKER_06But I mean, it's interesting.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Gosh. Okay. But yeah, uh who knows? So But it's crazy that you did that you picked up on that.
SPEAKER_02You're like, I feel like this should be a little bit I don't know. I just Okay, so then that really takes us to our next segment, though, Gary. Uh we gotta talk about production, like re-reproducing this, right?
SPEAKER_07Oh yeah, re-reproducing, yeah, of this.
SPEAKER_02Tell us what tell us what this segment is.
SPEAKER_07So this is basically if uh you could reenvision this song um and say, like, this was produced today, um is are we saying like who would we say who would redo this song? Yeah, like how would you redo it? How would you redo it?
SPEAKER_02And you should definitely name an artist or like name an artist that should do it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, name an artist that would do it like if if you were I know you've only heard the song one time.
SPEAKER_02We're all three gonna go.
SPEAKER_07So yeah, but we you obviously had you know a hot take of your own on it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was gonna say how you since you had some thoughts on this, you know, would you how would you do this?
SPEAKER_07Being opinionated in this podcast is is welcome.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Well, that's what you got. So yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_02If you were gonna read, how would you what would you change?
SPEAKER_06Starting.
SPEAKER_02I can go first, or you can go first. Which would you go first?
SPEAKER_06I gotta think a little bit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, she's gonna be. You sounded like you already had some thoughts, so we were prepared.
SPEAKER_07You go first. You go, then I'll go. We'll give her maximum time to think about this.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So I I would say there's a I would I would turn this into a more contemplative song. And there is um the artist I would choose. This is a this sort of a deep cut here, but the artist I would choose would be Sarah Groves. Have you ever heard of Sarah Groves? Sarah Groves. Yeah, she would have she had this tremendously like contemplative, um, introspective. Her songwriting was also really introspective, and she had just a beautiful voice. It wasn't uh Cece Wynans or Kathy Tracoli belt it belt it out. I I she probably could, but that just wasn't what she did. But um she could take I think she could take these lyrics and do it in a way that is softer, more intimate, and I think that I would change the I might change the hook of the chorus slightly so that it's less of a pop-up, and I would do something else melodically with the chorus. But but the danger there is that you lose the hook, yep, you know, but I would I would still use organic instruments like real, like a real piano, for instance, which Sarah Groves is a player songwriter. Yeah. I actually went to college with her sister. And her dad was her dad was our campus pastor. So really, yeah. So, anyways, I met her a couple times. So, um, but anyways, that's who I would have do this. I would slow it down, I'd pull the drums back a bit. Sorry, sorry, Gary. Um, but I I think having someone like her do that um in a in a more like contemplative way would be would be good. So that's what I would do.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02I am would you amp up the drums, Gary?
SPEAKER_07Well, yes, actually, in a way. So here as I was thinking about this, I was thinking I would definitely have her brothers do this renew this song. You know, I didn't even think about that, but yeah, because their songs are so big and percussive. Oh, yeah, and this chorus has this really cool mix between like a rock beat and a tribal beat, and that's kind of what they would music like hinges on is just these big percussive elements and have them sing it. Like, I think the production obviously a lot more, you know, more modern. Yeah, but I mean maybe she even does like a guest appearance on it. I don't know, or not. She should. Or not they do it as a tribute to the to you know their sister, but the question though is would you still include the pan flute or whatever that was? No, I would not. Absolutely not. Like the whole like that whole world music section at the beginning would would be more probably synth-driven. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So but yeah, I would say So you think like a little like the the for King and Country little drummer boy vibe or drummer boy vibe.
SPEAKER_07Yep. Okay.
SPEAKER_02That would be that'd be very cool.
SPEAKER_07I think it would be cool with that the way that that chorus is. Definitely keep the key change. Yeah, yeah, we'd have to figure out how to work that in.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_07But that's yeah, that was that's my take on it.
SPEAKER_02Callie? What do you think?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I feel like I would do kind of an in-between of the keeping the vibe, but more contemplative. So almost doing like an indie, more indie take. Okay. Okay. Uh do you guys know, I think you pronounce the name Aiden King? I don't know. He's he sing he sang a bunch of like Hill Song Young and Free. Okay. So his range is very he has got a very high, um just like Okay.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. Like a like a like a higher the thinner tambour.
SPEAKER_06Yes, yes. That'd be kind of cool. I feel like it'd be kind of cool to like add that to it where it's yeah. In terms of like production-wise, um, I don't know, like if you guys are familiar with like the strokes. Oh yeah. Like some of their kind of like I wouldn't know.
SPEAKER_01Just very straightforward.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I don't know. Like I let I could picture some of their kind of grunginess working on the song. I don't know. So a little bit more like kind of in indie world.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_06Not full on like ballad contemplative, but less rocky rock than what it is. Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_07Cool.
SPEAKER_02I like it. Okay. I like it. That's I mean, somebody listen, I mean, somebody listening has got to like give that a try. Come on.
SPEAKER_06Oh, I know. Well, there are so many AI that we're gonna like say make this song.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Yeah. All right.
SPEAKER_06They're taking trying to take your job. They are trying to take my job and they're taking all our jobs.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Sad.
SPEAKER_06Anyway.
SPEAKER_02As long as the AI doesn't take over the worship leading at church. Yeah. Oh, that's next.
SPEAKER_07AI worship. That's is that a Babylon B article right there? It should be. I don't know.
SPEAKER_06I mean, they have robots doing concerts.
SPEAKER_02I can see the Babylon B like uh headline being the the church finally decided to clap their hands because AI was leading or something. Wow. That's you should submit that one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02All right. Um, okay, so here's what we're gonna do next. I have uh prepared games. So this is game time. I have a game for us, and this in this game, I'm trying to think of the best way to do this so that you can't see the answers. Um in this game, I have a few rounds of what I call uh what did I call this? Savior or sweetheart.
SPEAKER_07Savior or sweetheart.
SPEAKER_02Savior or sweetheart. So in this, I am gonna read four sets of real lyrics.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Three of them are from a CCM artist slash song. One of them is a secular lyric.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02And your job is to decide which one is the secular lyric. We will be keeping score, Chauncey. That's you.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02Because I last time I forgot to count and I couldn't remember the score. So, Chauncey, I need your help here. Um, okay. So here we go. Are we ready for these? I'm ready. Yeah. I'm trying to decide if I should read these in my like the voice I read to my kids at night in, you know?
SPEAKER_06They're I would prefer that. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Okay, here we go. Um here's the way it ought to be. You, then me, then you, then me. That's A. B. There's no night and there's no morning without your loving arms to hold me.
SPEAKER_03C. The way we used to be, I'll hold my breath and I'll wait for you to breathe. D.
SPEAKER_06Oh gosh. I feel like I made awkward eye contact there. Sorry, Kelly. Um D.
SPEAKER_02Whatever you do, I'll be right here. Waiting for you. Whatever it takes. I Which one of you guys? I think that C is the secular lyric. The way we used to be, hold my breath, and I wait for you to breathe. You think that's the secular?
SPEAKER_06I'm gonna go with uh B. I think B might be the secular.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so that's the B isn't boy. Yeah. There's no night, there's no morning without your loving arms.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Ready, Chauncey, for the score? So the actual secular song was D.
SPEAKER_03Whatever you do, wherever you go, I will be right here. It's wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That's Richard Marks. Okay, they all sounded like that.
SPEAKER_02So the first one actually is so interesting. So A is re A, here's what here's the way it ought to be, you then me, then you then me. That's Rebecca St. James. The song was called You Then Me on the same album. Okay, by the way. Uh B is an Avalon song. And actually, you should listen to this song. It is a great song. There's no night, and there's no morning without you. Okay, I don't need to sing it. Calm it down, CJ. So um, but it's a really good song. It's Avalon, Can't Live a Day. It is a one of my favorite Avalon songs. And then C was Newsboys. The song was entertaining angels.
SPEAKER_07Oh my gosh. I can't believe I The way we used to be.
SPEAKER_02I'll hold my breath and I'll wait for you to breathe.
SPEAKER_07And I'll wait for you to breathe entertaining angels. Okay, see? Yeah. See, the delivery is what I know the you're welcome. It was the delivery. See, I was like, but I knew I knew that lyric. It was in my brain, but for some reason I thought it was just breathed by Faith Hill.
SPEAKER_06Wow.
SPEAKER_07But no, it was entertaining angels.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so we had zeros across the board that I could keep track of. All right, round two.
SPEAKER_06All right.
SPEAKER_02Suddenly I'm lost within your beauty, caught up in the wonder of your touch. Oh, uh B. Now B. Without you, there'd be no sun in my sky.
SPEAKER_03There'd be no love in my life. C.
SPEAKER_02Maybe I could run and maybe I could fly to you. Oh, I know this. I I know that. Do you feel the same? And then D. You were waiting all the time for me to come around to finally see all the love I was missing. Which one of those do you think is the secular song?
SPEAKER_07A.
SPEAKER_02You think A is the secular one? Suddenly I'm lost within your beauty, caught up in the wonder of your touch.
SPEAKER_07I know, like, I I know that I know that line, and I'm I'm just trying to think like.
SPEAKER_06I'm gonna say B again, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I know You'll strike at some point.
SPEAKER_07Okay, maybe I could run, maybe I could fly. That's deeper, but delirious.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you're good. Okay, so you said A, you said B. B. Alright, the correct answer was B. Oh, I don't think so. Um so A is mercy me.
SPEAKER_07Oh gosh.
SPEAKER_02That's what Okay B This was a lot of work to put together, but I feel like it's paying up. Okay. B was Leanne Rhymes, How Do I Live?
SPEAKER_03How do I live? Okay. Without you. There would be no sun in my sky. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02There would be no love in my life. Anyways. That is also a really great song.
SPEAKER_01All these songs are like around are there all these songs from the same time period?
SPEAKER_02I pulled from our time period with 85 to 2005. I was gonna say So Undone is from 2004. Uh that's the album. So Mercy Me is Here With Me from the album Undone, 2004. Leanne Rhymes, 1997, so one year after this Rebecca St. James song. Completely different vibe. Just saying. Leanne Rhymes started as a country artist, though.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So this I think this might have been her kind of crossover.
SPEAKER_07She didn't write that song though. I don't think it was a cover.
SPEAKER_02I'm not sure she wrote many of her songs.
SPEAKER_07I don't know. Back to the back to Entertaining Angels. What was that off of the step up to the microphone album?
SPEAKER_02From round one, you mean?
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh, sorry, I didn't say the album. Um yeah, yeah. Okay. Step up to the microphone. This guy. Um, all right. Uh so number C was delirious, deeper album was you know the album?
SPEAKER_07Uh was it deeper?
SPEAKER_02King of Fools. No, cutting edge. King of Fools. According to my research. Um and then the D, this is this is great. This is a group nobody's heard of since they've released their song, and that's Plus One. Oh, plus one. The boy band. The boy band. The Christian boy band. The Christian boy band. The album was called The Promise. The song was called Written on My Heart. Anyways. Okay, so now we are at uh Callie has where are we at? Callie won, Gary Zero. Hmm. Interesting sides.
SPEAKER_06I was only a child doing these rounds. I know.
SPEAKER_02I should know this. Round three, here we go.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02Stressful. You don't know what to do. So this is A. You don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_03Nothing you confess can make me love you a bit less.
SPEAKER_02B everything I ever thought was mine, I'd give it all away to have you in my life.
SPEAKER_03We have C. We cannot separate.
SPEAKER_02You're part of me. And D. Desert Rose. Desert Rose. Don't you worry. Don't be lonely. What a great song. Alright, what's your guess for the secular one?
SPEAKER_07Oh my gosh. I'm sorry, I got distracted by Desert Rose because I really want to sing it. Such a good song.
SPEAKER_02Um Do I need to recap? I think you need to recap. Alright. A. You don't know what to do. Nothing you'd confess could make me love you less. B everything I ever thought was mine, I'd give it all away to have you in my life. C. We cannot separate. You're part of me. And then D. Desert Rose, Desert Rose. Don't you worry, don't be lonely.
SPEAKER_06I think C. I wasn't s I was gonna say C too, but You can also say C.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, you're allowed.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_07I mean if I go by your track record, then hopefully I'm right.
SPEAKER_06Let's leave it astray.
SPEAKER_02Turns out the secular song is A. What? It's the pretenders. I'll stand by you.
SPEAKER_03Nothing you confess. Could make me love you less. I'll stand by you.
SPEAKER_02I didn't know that that was the lyric for that song. It's a great lyric. It's a great song, actually. Is that the song? Oh, released in 1994. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Fun fact, Chauncey and I saw the Pretenders a couple years ago in concert. Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_02Thanks for the invite. Yeah. Anyway. They were pumping for the first time. Okay, so B, what did you guys choose? You both chose C, uh. B was Rachel Lampa, Live For You from the Live For You album. Okay. It's a great album. Um C was actually Barlow Girl. Oh no, Barlow Girl. I loved Barlow Girl. The song's Never Alone. The album is their debut album. It was their it's Barlow Girl was the album. So they were cool. They were cool. Yeah. They were cool. Everyone loved them.
SPEAKER_07C DeGarmo and Key. Correct?
SPEAKER_02Is are they uh no C is Barlow Girl. D. Oh no, wait, no, no. But here's what I'll say before we get to D Barlow Girl, this particular lyric, when I was just pulling it, we cannot see. Separate your part of me. It feels like uh I will not let you break up with me.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, it feels very like I was just thinking, you will always be a part of me. Yeah. Definitely.
SPEAKER_05That's Mariah Gary.
SPEAKER_01Uh okay. Or what wait, was Dee Degarmo Kira was like. Thank you, Mariah Carey.
SPEAKER_02That was a great song.
SPEAKER_07Um okay Was it DeGarmochi or was it Whiteheart?
SPEAKER_02It's Whiteheart. It's Whiteheart. That's what it was. Whiteheart. Heart is Whiteheart. The song was called Desert Rose. I kind of gave it away in the lyric. Uh you still didn't get it. But um and then the album was called Powerhouse. It was released in 1990.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So one year before Addicted to Jesus. That's a great song.
SPEAKER_07D are you familiar with that song? I'm not. Okay, you go listen to it after. It's a the chorus, it's a beautiful song.
SPEAKER_02If it wasn't Southern Gospel or Carmen or Petra, I'm there's there's a chance in the in the this early 1990s there's a chance I wouldn't I won't be familiar.
SPEAKER_07I for some re quick fact about that song while we're on it. I for some reason have a very distinct memory of like driving at well, I wasn't driving, I was riding in the car, and I remember hearing that song on the radio. Uh it was on Christian radio. We were at the Lake of Three Fires, which was a lake park, state park close to our house, and we would go swimming there. But I I re I can see it. It's weird. I don't know. That song always stuck with me. I just remember hearing that chorus and being like captivated. It captivated me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Chelsea, what's the score so far?
unknownUm.
SPEAKER_02Alright, I have two more rounds prepared, but I don't know for the sake of time if we want to move forward or if Gary wants a chance to redeem himself before one more round.
SPEAKER_07Let's do another round. Yeah. Okay. Alright.
SPEAKER_02I got two more rounds prepared, so and it took Because it's bringing up all these songs.
SPEAKER_07Like if I feel like I forgot about your memories.
SPEAKER_02I get my dramatic readings in. Okay. Round four. According to Chauncey, the score is Callie won. Gary. What was it, Gary?
SPEAKER_07Oh, I think that's zero.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Alright. Callie, you're you're crushing this. Yeah. Comparative. I only have one. Relatively speaking, you're crushing this. Alright, round four, here we go.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02If you see a change in me, don't wonder. There's someone in my life.
SPEAKER_03B. There's someone in my life. Let me in your world. All you need is someone you can hold.
SPEAKER_02C. I will be strong. I will be faithful. Because I'm counting on a new beginning, a reason for living. D. We've got a love that's worth preserving. And a bond that I will defend. Alright.
SPEAKER_07I know that lyric, but I don't know the song. Now I'm like.
SPEAKER_06I'm gonna go with C.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So C was I will be strong, I will be faithful. This is a secular song, you think, right?
SPEAKER_07Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02Uh, because I'm counting on a new beginning, a reason for living. Okay.
SPEAKER_07It's B or D for me, and I'm like, I know the la I know the lyric for D, but I I can't place the song. Say the lyric one more time.
SPEAKER_04Every time after we do it, I think I'm gonna end up saying it in a cadence that's gonna give it away. Okay. We've got a love.
SPEAKER_02Right, good. We've got a love that's worth preserving. And a bond I will defend.
SPEAKER_03That's D.
SPEAKER_07That's the problem. I know the song, but I can't I don't know.
SPEAKER_03We gotta pick.
SPEAKER_07This is your chance to get it on the board. I'm just going with D. I'm going with D.
SPEAKER_04I'm enjoying this game so much more.
SPEAKER_07That's probably like a Brian Duncan lyric.
SPEAKER_02A was Rebecca St. James. The song was reborn. The album's transform was released in 2000, four years after the song from today. B was Michael W. Smith, I will be here for you. Oh, yes. Album Change Your World 1992. C. Savage Garden. Truly Madly Deeper. From the Savage Garden album, 1997. The year following this. And D, you're gonna love this, Gary. D is DC Talk. Between you and me.
SPEAKER_01But that's what it's from.
SPEAKER_02From the Jesus Freak album in also 1996. Boy, 96 was a banger year.
SPEAKER_07So Between you and me. It's at the end of the verse. Like it goes the at another at the end of the verse, lyric that goes right into the chorus.
SPEAKER_02I just love the lyrics out of context. This is great. Okay. So nobody got that.
SPEAKER_07Oh, you got Savage Garden. Okay, so you have Savage Garden. Oh, yeah. I'm never gonna let this one down. All right, so there's no mathematical.
SPEAKER_02I don't know how to feel about this. Okay, I'll just say I have one more round prepared. There is no mathematical way for you to win, Gary, but if you want, we can still give it a try.
SPEAKER_06This one can be go for peaking peak humiliation.
SPEAKER_07All or not doing all or nothing, peak humiliation. Alright, okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_02Round five. I purposely wanted to have an odd-numbered round so that there couldn't be a tie, and then it didn't matter. Uh round five. A. But words are not enough to tell you of our love. B just to be with you. I do anything. There's no price I would not pay. C. And my heart burns for you. Because all that matters is that my heart it burns for you.
SPEAKER_07D song.
SPEAKER_02D all the promises we break. From the cradle to the grave.
SPEAKER_03And all I want is you. How are we doing? What do we think?
SPEAKER_07I'm going with D. I'm going to say D too. Because a couple of them I are I know for sure.
SPEAKER_02Okay. A I'm just gonna read them all. So here we go. A was Jeff More in the Distance. Listen to Our Hearts was uh the song. The album was A Friend Like You. This was 1992. That was a great song. Um there was some other Jeff More in the Distance song that I like that around this time that probably from the same album that really stuck with me. Not today, but like I remember being a I really liked it. Anyway, uh alright. Then the B was so this is just just to be with you, I'd do anything, there's no price, I wouldn't pay. That's third day. The song was a love song. The album was their third day, 1996. So yeah, they must have that must have been their debut album, I guess.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I that was a good album. Jeez, 1996.
SPEAKER_06I didn't think of third day, I thought they were more like early 2000s. No, they're old.
SPEAKER_02They were sorry, Mac Powell, but that's a long time. Yeah. Um then um then okay, so C was Delirious. I think you caught this. This must have been a big big delirious fan. You caught both a delirious earlier because I couldn't hear it.
SPEAKER_07In fact, big delirious fan. All right. That was from the song Obsession, I believe.
SPEAKER_01You know the album? What's that? You know the album.
SPEAKER_07Like album names. Um Cutting Edge. That was also the cutting edge. No, that was the cutting edge. The other one was King of Fools that I got wrong.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this was Obsession from Cutting Edge, 1995. Yeah. The last song, D, was U2. Song's All I Want Is You from Rattle and Hum. I don't know. Um, 1988. Yes, that's a great song. I didn't listen to a ton of U2.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So there we go. So we ended up with a scores, was it three to one? Is that right, Chauncey? All right, three to one. I got the last one. Yeah, that's how you get that's the how the one happened.
SPEAKER_07Come on, Chauncey.
SPEAKER_04He was giving you credit.
SPEAKER_07All right. But yes, I did lose. Congratulations, Kelly. Thank you. You know what? You came to the side.
SPEAKER_06Well, that's it's the 99 1996 blood within the side.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it is, right? Yep. It's just blowing through your veins. If we thought we could if we thought we could find a way to have the third chair be born the year the song came out every time, that would be great. But like that was I think that might be hard to do logistically. Total coincidence, but it's I'm really glad you came. I'm glad we got to share this with you, Gallie.
SPEAKER_06Thanks for having me, guys. Fantastic.
SPEAKER_02Um, all right. I do have a let's see. I have a callback. So here's a here's the sort of audience question that I think I was supposed to mention earlier, but I didn't. So I'm gonna say it now.
SPEAKER_07That's fine, you can do that.
SPEAKER_02The idea from this, if this song, so Rebecca St. James was 18 when she recorded this. So my question is who was think about when you were 18, who was the artist that felt they were felt like they were really speaking directly to you at that age? And and does it still hold up? Like who was the artist that just spoke to you at that age? So, audience, please put that in the comments um and on YouTube, Facebook, wherever, wherever you see us, um, and then then we'll we'll read. We'll read the comments on the show the next episode. I actually have some comments from our last episode. Oh, yeah, what's yeah, CJ, tell us some comments. I told you I was a spiller.
SPEAKER_07Did you spill your tea? Okay.
SPEAKER_02I got really close to spilling the drink I have by my chair. Um, what was what was the question we posed last week? The question we posed last time was from Carmen, Addicted to Jesus, because it it is a collaboration between Carmen, who is I called him a crooner. There were those in the social media comments who did not agree with me, but my thought was he's a baritone, he's a he's a vocalist, he's definitely a storyteller. So it's not like he's a Bing Crosby crooner, but he is a his vocal quality is crooner-ish.
SPEAKER_07He definitely did some crooning.
SPEAKER_02Right. Um, but he is notably a vocalist, and then he he did a collaboration with DC Talk, notably rappers, right? So, and that in 1991 was kind of a big, like two completely different genres kind of working together. Um, and so the question was: if you could pair two different artists from completely different styles or genres, just two completely different artists, and have them do a collaboration, who would you want put together? So I will say my dad texted me, he texted me and said, I think it should be Petra and the Gaither Homecoming crew. And I was like, Okay, I you know what? I think the Petra's old enough. I think they could be in the Gaithers. That'd be work, that would work out. It'd be an interesting style combination. And then I told him, You should put it on social media, Dad.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, don't just text me. Uh fun fact, my mom texted me as well. Oh, yeah. And she said, uh, Sandy Patty and Daryl Evans.
SPEAKER_02Ooh, that would be interesting. They could collab like today. Yeah, they could collab to I've where's Daryl Evans these days? I don't I don't know. I think you'd appreciate this. So here's a couple of other the other comments. We had Steve Green and Whiteheart, which I think didn't Steve Green had a fantastic has had a fantastic voice.
SPEAKER_07Oh, amazing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, like, um, and then let's see, I'm scrolling past the Tom Carbon was not a crooner comments. Um then there was um oh, and then a separate person, so dad, if you're listening, you'll appreciate this. A separate person besides you said Petra and Gaether Vocal Band. So Gaither Homecoming adjacent.
SPEAKER_07See, that would be that would be a total mashup that nobody saw coming. Yeah, I'm trying to I'm like actually trying to enjoy.
SPEAKER_02But this thing about this, okay, like Petra has a great sound, and then you give Gaither Vocal Band, they could stylistically, I mean they have a certain kind of style, but those singers in that band, they are really good, and they could give incredible harmonies. Yeah, I was gonna say, like, you put David Phelps, like you put David Phelps on some breakout line in a song. I mean, amazing. Okay, lastly, okay, you'll appreciate this. Um, Stryper and Brian Duncan. I mean, you see, I learned you're a Brian Duncan fan.
SPEAKER_07Oh, yeah. Strong Medicine was like uh an all-time favorite album for me.
SPEAKER_02Oh wow.
SPEAKER_07But like, yeah, I actually commented on that one too. I was like, take my money. I want to see this. That was so great. I want to like see this happen. Striker.
SPEAKER_02We've got to do a Brian Duncan episode. We for sure. Absolutely. Um favorite Canadian. So then the other thing, the other thing we'd love to hear from folks uh in the comments section on YouTube, Facebook, or wherever, because we monitor all of them. We read all the comments. Um is who what else what should we do next? Like what song should our next episode be about?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, if you've got a favorite song or artist, let us know.
SPEAKER_02I'll say honestly, this is our second episode, and for me, one of the hardest parts is trying to decide what song we should do because there's so many different ones I want to talk about.
SPEAKER_07Well, yeah, even like in the conversation, even as you're like reading like song lyrics, I'm like, oh, we should do that song. Oh, we need to do that artist. Oh, it's so hard not to just like go down these rabbit trails and talk about like every single song that lives rent-free in my head, but you kind of forget about it until you something sparks it, and then you're like, oh, I'll just have like days where I just go down rabbit trails where I'm just like listening to all these old songs. So we've got lots we can do.
SPEAKER_02Tell us what we should do. Tell us what we should do. I think we did it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Congratulations. That's a wrap.
SPEAKER_07That's the sound check. Yeah. That is the that is the CCM sound check. We'll see you next time. See you next time.
SPEAKER_02The Olympics were taking place in Atlanta in 1996.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Maybe you cut that later. By that I mean I'll cut it later.
SPEAKER_01I think so. Chauncey, when when Chauncey, when when did India when our India? DYNY.
SPEAKER_02I think she was late.
SPEAKER_07I need to do it.
SPEAKER_01Are we still with going? Yep, it's still going. Oh man. I'm gonna fix on how to go.