Tony Cummings digs into Christian music to locate 10 courageous recordings telling the truth about sex
Considering how dominant the theme of sex is in today's pop and rock world, songs about the topic from the Christian community have been a rarity. Such reticence for believers to tackle sexual themes is understandable. For though the world is happy to be engulfed in a tidal-wave of songs of unbridled lust it remains antagonistic to the suggestion that human sexuality is a gift to be fulfilled solely in marriage. Strangely, there is also an ultra-conservative faction in the Church who believe that songs about sex, even those that echo the Bible's teachings on the subject, are inherently offensive. Despite all this, down the years a handful of brave Christian artists and songwriters have risked the wrath of non-believers and church goers alike and recorded and released songs about sex. Cross Rhythms has selected 10 from the last three decades of music which are well worth searching out.
1988 "Hot And Sweaty", Judson Spence. From the album
'Judson Spence' (Atlantic)
It's long been a sad
spectacle to see singers raised in the Church move into pop and
R&B who are prepared to record sexual come-ons and film bump and
grind videos for TV. So much respect should go out to the hugely
underrated blue-eyed soul singer Spence who, in 1988 when his big
recording chance came with Atlantic Records, recorded this decidedly
different number. Over a deliciously funky groove featuring ace musos
like guitarist George Cocchini and bassist Spencer Campbell, Judson
spelt it out for the girl giving him the eye: "Ain't no need to get
hot and sweaty," he insisted. "There's more to love than sex."
1989 "About Sex", Jacob's
Trouble. From the album 'Diggin' Up Bones' (Alarma)
Singer, songwriter and sometimes drummer of Atlanta pop rockers
Jacob's Trouble, Jerry Davison called "About Sex" "the greatest hit we
never had." It was the most popular number from the band's early live
set and fans would drive great distances just to hear the band sing
the song. It was originally intended for the band's 1989 'Door Into
Summer' album but was passed on when the final song selection was
made. The band made another demo of it and presented it to producer
Terry Taylor for inclusion on 1990's 'Knock, Breathe, Shine', but
Taylor felt the lyrics sounded to "moral majority". Instead another
song, "About Sex (Part II)", was cobbled together for the 1990 album
and fans had to wait until 1994 when a demos and rarities compilation
'Diggin' Up Bones' finally aired the raw and rocking attack on modern
sexual mores.
1990 "About Sex (Part II)", Jacob's Trouble. From the
album 'Knock, Breathe, Shine' (Alarma)
Having discarded
the original "About Sex" song for the 'Knock. . .' album, despite
Frontline Records' enthusiasm to include the fan favourite, Taylor and
band members Jerry Davison, Steve Atwell and Mark Blackburn pulled
together this little number. The lyric is little more than a list of
stats ("In the next 24 hours, 7,742 teenagers become sexually active,"
"Scientists estimate that as many as 1 to 1.5 million Americans are
currently infected with the AIDS virus"). But it still makes a
powerful point.
1992 "No Wed No Bed", Apostle Louis Greenup. From the
single (Pepperco)
With apostolic authority Greenup
launched into an attack on sex outside of marriage insisting that only
the marriage bed was the place for sex. An unpalatable message but a
powerfully delivered one.
1993 "S.O.S", Julie Miller. From the album 'Orphans
And Angels' (Myrrh)
In Julie's songbook S.O.S. didn't
stand for Save Our Souls but Sick Of Sex. And in a withering attack on
the world's modern mores, the singer, who back in the early '90s was
launched as a CCM pop rocker but who was to find her true direction as
a mainstream country singer, makes her devastating case. "This is
making me sick, I can't stand it any more/You make sex so dirty, let
me out the door/What was supposed to be personal, supposed to be
clean/Supposed to be private you make a public scene/You manipulate
the innocent, exploit the weak/You aim for the ones too young to know
the lies you speak/One more commercial, you don't care what it
costs/You get your profit, you don't care whose soul got lost." Then
over that chugging rock rhythm the pay-off chorus, "I'm sick of sex
being abused/I'm sick of sex being used and misused to sell me/I'm
sick of sex/Being used and confused by the lies, lies, lies you tell
me."
1995 "Paper Ladies", Barry
G. From the album 'Rugged Witness' (Grapetree)
With
the duo P.I.D. (Preachers In Disguise), Barry Hogan was one of the
pioneers of Christian hip-hop and in this solo set he attacked the
scourge of both the world and the Church - pornography. In a gutsy,
streetwise rap Barry exhorts men not to resort to the transitory
appeal of the "paper ladies" of the porno magazines.
1999 "Love Cocoon", Vigilantes Of Love. From the
album 'Slow Dark Train' (Capricorn)
The mainstream
Americana band VOL fronted by Christian singer/songwriter Bill
Mallonee had been embraced by the CCM world with the song "Double
Cure" winning them a Dove Award nomination in 1997 and a cover story
in 7Ball magazine. But, thanks to this song, the next album 'Slow Dark
Train' plunged the band into controversy. Family Christian Stones
informed the album's distributor they wouldn't stock 'Slow Train
Coming' because of the "explicit" song. The Mallonee-penned verse
contrasted the delights of marital sex with the vain sexuality all
around him in the world ("The whole world keeps on banging, they just
come and go/It's just a part of their scenery, a part of their
show/But I've got this wedding ring wrapped around my finger"). That's
followed by a chorus of full-on sexual passion ("I wanna attack your
flesh with glad abandon/I wanna look for your fruits/I wanna put my
hand on 'em/I wanna pump up your thermostat beneath your skin/I wanna
uncover your swimming hole and dive right in"). Sadly the same
ultra-conservative mentality that ignores the Bible's Song Of Solomon
reacted to Mallonee's sexual metaphors and the Vigilantes Of Love were
soon withdrawn from Christian bookshop distribution.
2000 "Wait For Me", Rebecca St James. From the album
'Transform' (Forefront)
This song was to become the
focal point of the Australian-born singer's ministry and was key in
elevating her to the status of Ambassador For Sexual Purity. Certainly
its message of waiting for marriage before beginning sex spoke, and
continues to speak, to church-going teens everywhere. Its simple
lyrics, penned by Rebecca herself ("Praying for you darling/Wait for
me/Wait for me as I wait for you") may seem naively romantic, but they
also resonate with conviction.
2007 "No Wed No Bed", Pettidee. From the album
'Resurrections: Past, Present And Future" (Beatmart)
Helped by LadyLike, the crunk-style rapper made his own hard hitting
commentary on a modern society that treats sex as a recreational
activity for all rather than something reserved for married couples.
Don't know if Pettidee ever heard Apostle Greenup's song of the same
title.
2011 "The Sex Song (I'm Just Sayin')", Twelve24. From
the EP 'Better Words' (Independent)
Missy Em and her
fellow school ministry musicianaries nailed the salacious bump and
grind show of modern pop and R&B. Over a suitably funky track the
righteous sister names and shames them. "Enrique Iglesias telling me
'I **** tonight/Got Akon in my ear telling me 'It's alright'/Rhianna
tying to get me underneath her 'umbrella'/You don't know any different
so you sell yourself out."
Bendy Line by The Prayer Chain and Praying Arms Lane by 16 Horsepower are a couple more songs about sex worth mentioning.