Re: "swearing" in Christian arts (Now with OTR Content!) (fwd)

["Peter T. Chattaway" <petert at interchange_ubc.ca>]

This e-mail from Brad doesn't seem to have come through yet, so I thought
I would re-send it and see if it works from my address instead.

Given that I've already replied to this e-mail, I figured people might
want to know what I was replying to ...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 07:58:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brad Caviness <bigwigenterprises at yahoo_com>
To: Peter T. Chattaway <petert at interchange_ubc.ca>
Cc: over-the-rhine at actwin_com
Subject: Re: "swearing" in Christian arts (Now with OTR Content!)

"Peter T. Chattaway" <petert at interchange_ubc.ca> wrote: 
> And if you subscribe to the 77s listserv for any length of time, it
> won't be long before e.g. you hear Mike Roe describe how the audience
> went "apeshit" over something or other. I'm pretty sure he's not just
> being "in character" when he says stuff like that. :)

Reminds me of the first time the 7's played "Woody" at CStone '92 and Roe
boldly sang out the line, "Mama never told me there'd be days like this,
no shit!" It flew right by most people, but then the bootlegs of the show
started making the rounds about the same time the cd dropped and most 77's
fans got a good chuckle out of it.

I also remember TOMfest 2000 (I think) when Mike Knott played an impromptu
Aunt Bettys reunion, he dropped the offensive lyrical content out of
respect for the audience and promoters. That is, till "Rocket And A Bomb"
when Mike omitted the naughty talk, but all 5,000 kids in the audience,
fists in the air, yelled, "shi-it, shi-it, Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" Twice.

As Evanescence's official name-dropper, I must say I'm not surprised a bit
by Ben Moody swearing in Entertainment Weekly. If that's the most
offensive thing Ev's christian fans have to witness from the band, then
they're getting off really easy. The article really missed a lot of the
band's sense of humor. I caught it because I've known these kids since
they were in high school. But reading some of the reactions since the
article was published, I see how a LOT of their more religiously ardent
followers would have misconstrued it.

At the same time, I'm also not at all shocked the band is "surprised"
they're being marketed to the CBA despite WindUp's assertion that they the
matter discussed with them prior to the cd's release. I think this will
ultimately be 20 seconds in the band's "Behind The Music" episode (which
is one of Ben Moody's favorite, I mean FAVORITE, programs. Any
"controversy" you see about this band I will almost guarantee is
calculated to make for a good segment on the band's eventual episode) and
won't even warrant a cliff-hanging voice over to sit through a commercial
break.

But, as JB alluded to, the band is young and not entirely experienced with
dealing with fame. To me, the article reads like Ben and Amy were having a
nice dinner and some good laughs with a journalist who seemed to be in on
the joke. If you know Ben and Amy, the EW article reads like a typical
night out with them (well, if you replace "sushi restaurant" with
"Denny's"). I would bet Ben said a lot more reasonable things than the
off-hand quote that eventually made it to print... but the f word is so
inimitably quotable. And that unfortunately made Ben and Amy look a lot
less gracious about their beliefs and their connection to the Christian
community than they actually are. Ben's surprise at being so highly rated
on the christian charts sales and radio charts was less because they
didn't think they belong there, but because they're receiving so much
mainstream attention, he would prefer that religious radio programmers and
retailers pay attention to avowedly christian artists who influenced Ev
(Living Sacrifice, for example) but have not enjoyed the same success.

Official OtR content: Evanescence played a very small show at Vino's in
Little Rock (which experienced a good deal of fire damage last night when
the paint store next door burned down) in the spring of 1999 at which Ben
specifically requested that I have the sound guy play "Latter Days" just
before Ev took to the stage. He used to play that endlessly with Sarah
McLachlan's "Angel" and "Adia" and something by Jewel that has a piano.


Bradley S. Caviness, Bigwig 
Bigwig Enterprises 

http://www.bigwigenterprises.com 


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