5 Comments on “John Reuben - "What About Them"”

• 1) kat

  January 9th, 2007

  @ 1:27 am

  Wow. Is there an official video for this song. I’d love to see it. Those are some great and convicting lyrics. The message reminds me of Oh My God by Jars of Clay….kind of leaves me with the same feeling…deeply moved, but unsure what to do about it.
• 2) Eric Brown

  January 9th, 2007

  @ 7:34 am

  Is it just me, or is there still hope for CCM?
• 3) Cristy

  January 9th, 2007

  @ 2:51 pm

  WOW! Thought I’d post the lyrics:

  What About Them?
  From The Boy Vs. The Cynic

  Puff the magic Jesus floats around the universe
  The United States is its favorite place
  On the whole entire earth
  So sing your songs and wave your flag
  And thank the Lord for all you have
  But what about them?
  Did you forget about them?

  We came, we conquered, never speak of this again
  Life must go on, lets not think of them
  Things are comfortable now, the pioneers have settled in
  A perfect blend of progress and pale skin
  For our sake and those to come
  We’ll rewrite the text so you can forget where you came from
  Tell it in a way that’ll build your self esteem
  Repackage the product and sell the American dream

  Puff the magic Jesus, floats around the universe
  The United States is its favorite place
  On the whole entire earth
  So sing your songs and wave your flag
  And thank the Lord for all you have
  But what about them?
  Did you forget about them?

  History is best forgotten, even better rewritten
  And since there’s no forgetting, lets remember it different
  Commit to it so strongly ‘till you believe it
  The truth is there but you aren’t able to receive it
  You need to know you’re safe here
  Hide your face here, cuz you’ve found your faith here
  But four walls with no windows doesn’t mean you’re it
  Four walls with no windows doesn’t mean they don’t exist

  Puff the magic Jesus, floats around the universe
  The United States is its favorite place
  On the whole entire earth
  So sing your songs and wave your flag
  And thank the Lord for all you have
  But what about them?
  Did you forget about them?

  What a prosperous, wondrous place
  Remember to say grace before we scrape our plates
  And ignore the crying outside the door
  Sure you’ll pray for their burdens
  But you don’t wanna make it yours
  Thin lines divide but there’s a world of difference
  So crawl back into your happy existence
  And feel the bliss of ignorance keep you warm
  Blessed are those who mourn, but it’s so foreign
  The more you have the less you care
  The less you care the more you become unaware
  Sure life’s not fair, but it favors us apparently
  And how are we to interpret this excess?
  Is it God’s favor, ill behavior, or simply man’s modern progress?
  God bless us as we sweep this mess under the rug
  Don’t want to walk barefoot on the tile and step in the mud
  Out of sight, out of mind, and pushed to the side
  Left for someone else to rationalize and justify

  Puff the magic Jesus, floats around the universe
  The United States is its favorite place
  On the whole entire earth
  So sing your songs and wave your flag
  And thank the Lord for all you have
  But what about them?
  Did you forget about them?
• 4) euphrony

  January 9th, 2007

  @ 5:20 pm

  Is there hope for CCM? Yes. Is there hope for CCM Radio. I’m not so sure. Songs like this, like “Oh My God”, Todd Agnew’s “My Jesus”, and half of Keith Green’s music just don’t fit in the “uplifting” category. Too controversial, to confrontational. Too meaty, not enough milk, and not generally palatable. There are some stations out there that will play challenging songs, but not the big ones. They don’t get big by playing stuff that makes their audience uncomfortable. (Can you tell this is a big beef with me?)

  Maybe I’m too hard in my criticism, and maybe I just don’t understand all that is involved in the music process. But I still think the prophetic voice of Christian music, calling us out of the mire and into spiritual action, is drowned out by the praise and worship dominance. (It’s like in The Blues Brothers: “What kind of music do you usually have here?” “Oh, we got both kinds. We got praise and worship.”)
• 5) Anonymous

  January 9th, 2007

  @ 8:56 pm

  Praise and Worship is hollow and dirivitive. Both musicial and contextual. There’s no content. Its the same recycled anthems we’ve been hearing since 1985.

  Its absolute garbage, with very few noteable exceptions.

  Thats all the Christian music fan can handle. Without hurting any feelings, Mercy Me is all they can handle. Do we need people doing that stuff? Of course. But secular music has their string of great bands/artists that goes back to the 1950’s that excist artistically AND popularly.

  John Hooker. Bo Diddly. Little Richard. Elvis. The Rolling Stones. The Beatles. The Velvet Underground. The Beach Boys. The Who. The Police. U2. The Smiths. etc etc.

  The biggest artists are often the BEST artists. No top teir artistic Christian artist has been big since Keith.

  Christian music fans aren’t music fans. They buy music for different reasons.

  That leaves people like me hung out to dry, because I can’t digest the repetitive BS marketed to soccer moms and 14 year old girls.

  On another note, not to name drop, because I’m nobody and nobody knows me, but I got a chance to hang out with J. Reuben in Savanahh last november. Really good guy, good hearted and funny. Defintely one of the better guys I’ve run into doing music.

  dan

Leave a Reply