Job's Drinkin' Song

1

1ply

New member
This song came to me while I was driving home from prison. This is a song I overheard from a dweller on my deserted island.
It is alternative country (VERY alternative country).

Job’s Drinkin’ Song
©Dwight Wayne Van Winkle, Seattle, WA, USA Sunday, May 06, 2007

Know you don’t approve of my drinkin’
But you’ll hate what I’ve been a thinkin’
I can say without fear of contradiction
I feel really bad about your crucifixion

Chorus:
Why do some babies die?
Why do some Mama’s cry?
Why don’t you give a fuck?
Is it just a matter of luck?

Why’d you have to die so fast?
Just wish your pain would last.
Times too short to die for your sins;
Its over before real suffering begins.

Who’s responsible for this universe?
Jesus Christ isn’t it you of course.
They say you made the world with a word?
Explains why faith in you is the unflushable turd.

Since you have made us lower than whale shit;
Why’d you demand we make the pieces fit?
On a good day we hope maybe you care.
On a bad day we know you just ain’t there.

Tell me, do you love to watch the violence?
I listen but I’m deafened by your silence.
I’m never again gonna’ bow my knees.
I know free will don’t explain disease.

Don’t expect to hear from me no more.
Now I know you’re as faithful as a whore.
I’ll never trouble you with another prayer.
Now I know that you just don’t care.
 
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This absolutely rocks – Country maybe? – What about punk? (I always think they are the same anyway – just less banjo) You could have a band saw distortion, fuzz on the bass and a concussive 2/4 being laid down on an exploding snare.

It seems to have that kind of raw quality and anger. Must have been a bad day at work?
 
Haha! There's some great lines in there! I love the "unflushable turd"! You really let rip, and it put a smile on my face as I read it :)

I'm not sure you'd want the chorus after every verse - maybe every second verse?

Good stuff :)
 
Some potent lines and a powerful statment. The swear words will limit the commercial potential - but this could be a very good song.
 
Not to be the only

stick in the mud ........ but the imagery in this one offends me to the point where I can't focus on any message or storyline. :( jmho but, like the one-eyed umpire, I calls 'em like I see's 'em. I am glad that I have seen some of your other work so I have a reference to examine from. You write well, but this one goes too far for me.
 
Initial Response

Thanks for your responses.

No actually it was a good day. This song immerged after preaching a sermon on the meaning of Easter.
I listened to James McMurtry’s “We Don’t Make it Here” and his version of “God Bless America” earlier in the week. I appreciated his ironic perspective.
I listened to my interior dialogue.
I thought about Randy’ Newman’s “That’s Why I Love Mankind.” I thought about the chapter “The Grand Inquisitor” from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and interior dialogues I have had with myself about theodicy.
I remembered how much I hated god in my youth. I used to be an anti-evangelist. Based on the problem of evil and the God of love, I used to attempt to argue people out of their Christian faith. Much later I discovered that the god I hated was not God.
I thought of a conversation I had with Jessie Jackson about the problem of evil. At a convention for scholars of religion and biblical studies, he explained that he believed in God because when he was in South Africa he saw jets drop bombs on the ANC but that the bombs were blown off course. This provided for him proof of God’s existence. Even though it was a large convention, I asked him why the wind didn’t blow more often. When he asked me to explain, I asked him why the wind did not blow the cluster bombs away from the UN school bus in Beirut in 1982. When he replied that it blew enough to sustain faith, I responded, “How convenient.”
I thought about Psalm 8:5-6[English 8:4-5] “What is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of man, that you think of him? You have made him a little lower than the angles, and crowned him with glory and honor.”
I wondered what Ivan’s and my previous self would sound if we sang a country song. As I went through this interior dialogue I felt the rage I have felt against the One who seems to be asleep at the wheel. I started writing as I sat in the parking lot of the church waiting to go to a meeting with my wife.
Those were the circumstances surrounding the writing. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Maybe having the chorus after each second verse might work better. Perhaps I expect too much of the hearer/reader to carry the idea from the first verse that Job feels bad about the crucifixion only to discover that he regrets that Jesus died so fast. I’ll contemplate it.

I agree that the song has very limited commercial potential.

I am sorry to have offended anyone. How could I express the viewpoint of the character without being offensive? I assumed that you don't have to agree with your character's perspective. I wanted to be true to the character's voice.

I pray I have not damaged anyone's faith. In Job's laments in his own way Job goes almost as far. He recognizes the power of God but denies his goodness. He accuses God of shooting him in the back with his poisonous arrows. He wishes he was dead. He wishes that he had never been born. He sues God in court. God appears and answers/does not answer his questions. But in the end, God asks Job to offer sacrifice for his friends because no one has spoken rightly of God except Job.

Of course, you can respond, "I know Job, and you are no Job."

I will think more deeply about all of this.

Peace

PS. I find it interesting that many scribes who copied the manuscripts of the book of Job rewrote Job’s wife’s advise to curse God and die to “bless” God and die because they feared sacrilege.
 
1ply said:
PS. I find it interesting that many scribes who copied the manuscripts of the book of Job rewrote Job’s wife’s advise to curse God and die to “bless” God and die because they feared sacrilege.
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Wow, really? It shouldn't surprise me I suppose.

When I see the knots people tie themselves in about what can and cannot be expressed I remember the cultural gulf between your side of the pond and mine. I spent a few months in Oklahoma once. I loved it, but I never felt so culturally estranged as I did there for a week or so (and I have lived in a few foreign countries).

I am not a Christian. I therefore struggle to understand the pressures on those that belong to a given church. Sometimes I wonder where the trust and the love went :(

Sorry, I shouldn't sidetrack, and I guess I am starting to.

You are a good man 1Ply. I doubt your God minds you taking your corsets off once in a while :)
 
As a nihilist (sorry I am with Richard Dawkins all the way) I have always been fascinated why people take offence to religious illusion if not posed appropriate to their belief. I am just as passionate in my belief that there is no god, yet they do not dictate my tastes – in so much that I have none!

This song cannot be seen out of context – to know the story of Job is to know how faith can overcome the overwhelming odds. Job’s voice at this point in the narrative is beautifully captured in this song. Frankly if I believe in god I’d be happy that someone was willing to engage in material revolving around the scripture, particular as they are capturing the truth of the story.

Still most people will probably think why should a billionaire who invented the iPod be so mad at god

I’m with Freddy I think you are very cool 1Ply. Maybe us Brits and Ausies are just too dam liberal but if there is a god he’s got a sense of humour – look at the platypus and the taxation system.
 
Whatmysay said:
Still most people will probably think why should a billionaire who invented the iPod be so mad at god

I love this line.

Re: Dawkins
I confess that I have not yet read carefully Richard Dawkins a.k.a. Darwin's rottweiler, THE GOD DELUSION. The parts I did read seemed like a summary or even a rehash of the Enlightenment’s criticism of Christianity and religion. Of course some or generously most of these criticisms are justified. I’ll put him on my reading list.
My favorite atheistic philosopher of religion is J. L. Mackie. I especially like his THE MIRACLE OF THEISM: ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE EXISTENCE OF GOD and his ETHICS: INVENTING RIGHT AND WRONG. I like Anthony Flew even after his move (dare I call it a conversion?) from atheism to deism.
Speaking for myself, when I was an atheist, I assumed that I knew far too much. I assumed that I knew who God was. This was logically necessary in order to define my position, e.g. that there was not one. I also assumed that I knew everything that exists and that God was not among their number. I found it more logical to move from atheism to agnosticism because I had to acknowledge some of my ignorance.
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