Thursday 13 December 2012

Day 13 - "Woe, Woe... The Great Fall" by Jerusalem (1987)

 

It’s a sad fact that most people live their daily lives entirely oblivious to the joys of Christian hair metal. Just think about it. Today in America there are at least twenty to thirty respectable, clean cut, nicely trimmed pastors out there who had a hand Christian music’s expansion into the mainstream world of popular metal in the mid-1980s.  Next time you’re in church, take a look at the preacher. Could he be one of the pioneers? Does he have a Van Halen glint in his eye? How would he look in spandex and leather? Actually, it’s probably best to stop thinking about it at that point.

Leading the charge were STRYPER (standing for Salvation Through Redemption, Yielding Peace, Encouragement and Righteousness - pictured above) who managed to have a good deal of success on MTV in the days when the channel showed music rather than simply filming drunk people wandering around Newcastle. STRYPER certainly didn’t look like your traditional evangelists – it’s hard to imagine Billy Graham or Dwight Moody ever squeezing into a tight spandex jumpsuit – but they saw their music as a form of ministry and were rewarded with three gold and one platinum record.
Yet STRYPER were only one part of a wider Christian metal scene which attempted to merge the seemingly incompatible worlds of heavy metal music and Evangelical Christianity. Whereas the music of the Jesus Movement was very much in line with the popular music of its time (and has aged quite well), Christian metal of the mid-1980s was very much in line with the popular music of its time, and has thus aged quite badly. Imagine the Bon Jovi or Poison hits of the era, but with an added sprinkling of Jesus, and you get the idea. Unsurprisingly, though, the combination of metal, traditionally a genre which revelled in destruction, with Christianity led to a focus on its own destructive text – the book of Revelation.

Jerusalem, were one of the key bands within the movement. Formed in Sweden in 1975, the band were at the forefront of merging metal with Christianity, releasing albums up until 1992, and recently reuniting to record new material. Their 1987 album Dancing on the Head of the Serpent  was one of their most controversial, depicting (as the cover to the right shows) a jackbooted foot stamping on a demon’s head – an picture that many Swedish stores felt was uncomfortably close to neo-Nazi imagery. The album was stuffed full of apocalyptic imagery charting the destruction of the powers of darkness, including today’s track, which condemns the evils of the Whore of Babylon, proclaiming her downfall as found in Revelation 18. The “Whore” has traditionally been seen to represent the corrupt powers of the world, and Jerusalem here interpret it to refer to the general pollution which infects the secular world, without being overly specific as to what exactly they condemn.

Woe, Woe… The Great Fall (Christiansson, 1987)

Woe, Woe, great Babylon
Woe, Woe, you re a great fool, Babylon
You're gonna drink your cup
Whether you want it or not

The kings of the earth will cry over you
Your filth and adultery is tormenting them
Yes, fallen, Yes, fallen is Babylon the great
The cup of God's wrath is what they have to taste

Come, come, watch and see
Where is her glory and luxury?
Woe, Woe, the great prostitute is gone
Doom on the sinful Babylon

She's been like a queen, but she's now like a widow
and all of her wisdom, trust and hope have vanished
She gathered herself with the Beast and his servants
In pride she decieved herself unto judgement

Chorus:
Come, come and watch the scriptures fulfilled
Come, come and watch, and see the signs of the times
Come, come you nations, great and small
City of power, will fall, will fall

Wash, wash your hands, wash off the dirt
and clean your hearts, you citizens on earth
Make up your mind, it's time, it's time
Saints and sinners do not drink the same wine

Chorus:
Come, come and watch, the justice from Heaven
Come, come and watch, the signs of the age
Come, come you nations, great and small
The King of kings is callin’ you all

And she's falling, falling, falling!


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