|
The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
Thu., Feb. 22. 2024 11:39am EST
J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.
Here are the stories behind the songs on our fourth single of 2024:
BILLY, DON'T BE A WEIRDO
"Billy, Don't Be A Hero" was one of the first pop songs I ever knew all the words to. I sang it many times as a kid, never imagining I'd be singing my own version in a recording studio 50 years later.
I started a Word document for "Billy, Don't Be a Weirdo" on February 26, 2021, but may have had the idea even before that. Either way, we didn't decide to put it into production until November 2023. I knew it was going to be about a girl telling her boyfriend not to follow Christ, but I wasn't sure how the story would start, let alone how it would end.
On January 22, 2024, I finally got the opening line, which set the scene: Billy was avidly watching a worship band doing some street ministry. The second part of the second chorus and the entire third verse came to me on January 27. I was pretty pleased with how the story/song resolved.
I'd already known there had to be a twist, but the way it played out caught even me by surprise. I was sure Billy wouldn't regret his decision to follow Christ, but I had no idea what would happen to his fiancée. It felt a little like when I was working on "People Are Lazy" in 2010: "How am I going to get out of this corner I've painted myself into?"
In both cases, I opted for a happy ending. I believe that's what God prefers in real life, too (Ezekiel 33:11). I tried hard to make the words "weirdo" and "widow" sound different when singing the second chorus, but I'm afraid most people won't notice that subtle-but-important difference unless they read the lyrics.
PREACH, BABY
We studied the stoning of Stephen, the Church's first martyr, once before in the song "Stone Him Rough" in 2015, but that was from the perspective of Saul of Tarsus, who started the story as an antagonist. "Preach, Baby," however, looks at Stephen from the viewpoint of a UFO (Unidentified Friend Of) — a fellow Christian.
I got the title and first two lines on November 1, 2023, and had a hunch it might be about Stephen but didn't really crack down and start working on everything else until January 28, 2024. That's the day the chorus came to me.
I started to feel verklempt singing the lyrics. It's a sensation I get sometimes when composing a powerful parody ... where I just know there's something more than clever wording going on. For example, I remember getting a similar choked-up feeling when writing "God Knows You've Tried" 10 years earlier.
Anyway, the words were all done by January 31. When I selected "Beach Baby" as one of the numbers for our ApologetiX '74 album, I knew it was the perfect project for the multi-talented Rich Mannion, who has told me a number of times over the years, "You know me; I love a challenge."
Rich wasn't familiar with the original before I gave it to him, but he was well acquainted with it by the time he'd finished all of the keyboards (16 tracks) and backing vocals (36 tracks). Regardless of the title, it was no day at the beach, but he's a first-class musician, and I think he was delighted with the end product, as was I.
|
