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“Devil Music” Telling the Truth

Thanks to Rob for this:

This isn’t news, but it still is incredibly appropriate today.

But… Guns ‘N Roses is “devil music”, so why is this true? Did i perhaps get brainwashed by the tail end of the 80’s mental/metal vanguard, even after all those warnings in the christian school about the inherent evil? Am i too far gone because i suspect the roles have been reversed for the last play?

And this is only one piece. from another song, Garden of Eden – “Most organized religions make a mockery of humanity, our governments are dangerous and out of control”. What the HELL?

i can just see going back to that baptist church where as a child, they tried so hard to pre-brainwash me *against* the entire genre. Then i got thrown to the wolves in public schools (at almost exactly the same time as the song came out– even though i wouldn’t hear it for years or understand it for a decade).

After everything, i can tell them how “our beloved, God-sponsored government” is evil, an overdose of religious freedom is poison, and, ironically, some heavy metal carries more truth about the actual world we live in. And they either throw me out or maybe they just pity me because my self-deception is complete and only a random decision by God can recover me.

So i’ve got to wonder why the twin albums are titled Use Your Illusion I and II. More than a little intriguing to me, since i’m staring directly at the line between two opposing schools of thought.

Still, because i recognize God’s claim to all truth, i see that nobody on earth has a monopoly. Everybody has some. And in the end, it’s simply not about choosing a right side – but receiving the Spirit of truth, right?

Here ya go…

Guns N’ Roses
Civil War

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.
Some men you just can’t reach…
So, you get what we had here last week,
which is the way he wants it!
Well, he gets it!
N’ I don’t like it any more than you men.” *

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they’ve always done before

Look at the hate we’re breeding
Look at the fear we’re feeding
Look at the lives we’re leading
The way we’ve always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can’t deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

D’you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said “Peace could last forever”
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can’t trust freedom
When it’s not in your hands
When everybody’s fightin’
For their promised land

And
I don’t need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
I don’t need your civil war

Look at the shoes you’re filling
Look at the blood we’re spilling
Look at the world we’re killing
The way we’ve always done before
Look in the doubt we’ve wallowed
Look at the leaders we’ve followed
Look at the lies we’ve swallowed
And I don’t want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I’ve seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
‘Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

“We practice selective annihilation of mayors
And government officials
For example to create a vacuum
Then we fill that vacuum
As popular war advances
Peace is closer” **

I don’t need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
And I don’t need your civil war
I don’t need your civil war
I don’t need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
I don’t need your civil war
I don’t need one more war


Whaz so civil ’bout war anyway

* Strother Martin – from the film “Cool Hand Luke”
** Peruvian Guerilla General

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3 Comments

  • Why is this a devil’s song????? I do not understand that. If you think that i listen to a devil’s song then you guessed wrong you little idiot.

  • Thanks for that… it reminds me of the speaking in/understanding of tongues that seem to get so little attention, and a loose interpretation of that: Being able to understand people in their own language would of course include their expression through music!

    Yes, since they aren’t given over to God they can say or imply whatever they conclude that is no longer in agreement with God’s reality. But it’s still nice to listen for a way to connect to people who have their own facts, fragments of that reality… i hope to remind them that Christians aren’t completely in the dark, and in the meantime i’m listing the things that these various schools of thought can agree upon together and with mine. And of course every metaphor has a list of elements that don’t match up, as well.

    i should have or would have said “facts” and not “the truth” or “some truth”. i think i’m with Martin when i say that there is only one truth, and i add that it is not composed of facts, so it cannot be divided into them, but rather is the foundation for them all… and the truth knows itself, thus Himself. 😉

  • I would like to thank Rob for his observations in “Devil Musicâ€?Telling the Truth. It was refreshing to see someone else referring to rock lyrics as insight into our nation’s depth of spiritual mortality. It’s amazing to see the level of truth that many song lyrics possess. Of course Truth is invisible to the mind until the key of knowledge is applied in the heart and mind of the hearer. Like Rob I to listened to popular music in years past only hearing the ebb and flow of the musical arrangement. Every now and then I would catch a word or two in the songs but the lyrics did not make any intelligent statement at all. Like modern art, modern music was a collection of mass confusion that really did not mean anything. I heard about the preachers playing rock music recordings backward and claiming to hear satanic forces speaking in the background. Like most other listeners I thought these attempts to discourage people from modern music to be hilariously funny.
    Years went by in my life till I found myself thirty something, with a big mortgage , a steady job, still listening to those old songs that didn’t make much since.
    My spouse was a hound when it came to church attendance. She would wheel and deal and bark at me all week just to get me to take her to church on Sunday morning. Not that she was such a devoted Christian but rather liked church for the social get together with family thing. It was a Sunday like all the rest in 1989; she had won again and instead of hunting , fishing or playing golf. There I was in another boring church service in a little country church in the middle of nowhere. The preacher got up and started speaking just like he always did but instead of drifting off to the golf course like I usually did, he captured my attention. He started talking about how God became an everyday normal guy like me. How he lived through the same things that I faced every day and how he did it for all us average people caught up in this merry-go-round of pain, tears and death. I had never thought of God wanting to identify with me in my confusing world through Christ. This intrigued me to the point that on my next visit to my local book store, I purchased a new translation of the Bible. My wife asked me why I had bought a Bible and I replied that it was out of interest in some things the preacher had said. I started reading the book and to my amazement it started to make since. It was like an action / adventure / drama / love story all rapped up into one book.
    After reading the Bible, a very mysterious thing started to happen to me. I would turn on my favorite rock tunes and the lyrics started to become intelligible to me. I could here the Truth of the bible in every song. The Eagles Desperado became the prodigal son. Witchie Woman became the Great whore of Revelation. The Handy Man who could fix broken hearts became Jesus Christ. When I listened to “Lean on Me� I heard the sinner who refused to cry out to God for help even though their world was crumbling under their feet. Song after song started to come to life with Truth but to my amazement there was always an element of Untruth in each song. It was just like the story of Eve and the serpent, how he told the Truth of God to her but added just a pinch of untruth. I told some close friends of my new revelation and they quickly directed me to get an appointment with a shrink. They told me that I had been brainwashed by religion and I needed help quick before it became permanent. Well it’s been sixteen years since then and I still don’t have to play a recording backwards to hear Truth and untruth in each song.
    As for Guns and Roses Civil War song, it’s got a lot of truth in it but if you’ve read the Bible it’s got just as much untruth also. We have been fighting, crying, dying, hate breeding, fear feeding, brainwashed by pride, living war and genocide regardless of National Policy or who is in the white house. As far back as recorded history goes, these things have ravaged humanity. They are always with us somewhere in the world but in these last days even the good old USA is feeling these effects of Sin. That’s right; all our problems come from sin, especially rebellion against authority. The rebellion against authority that sets up kings and presidents which the Bible teaches comes from God and him only.

    Jesus Christ came to deliver us out of this evil world and He’s the only leader who can.