GOODBYES AND BUTTERFLIES 
Rock songs with religious themes, like “Mother of Mystery” by the Invisible Eyes, have always been fascinating to me. By now, Christian contemporary music has become an industry, but it wasn’t always like that. One long-time favorite is “Signs” by Five Man Electrical Band; as familiar as the song is to me now, the singer who has been complaining about hypocrisy all through the earlier part of the song winds up in church in the final verse, and that is still jarring and unexpected. Tesla did a remake of “Signs” not so long ago on an album they called Five Man Acoustical Jam; and as far as I am concerned, they kind of missed the point: The instrumental introduction to the original song that I sometimes hear on the local oldies radio station is as free-wheeling an electrical jam as I have ever heard. Unfortunately, that jam didn’t make it onto the single that I own, and I have never found the Five Man Electrical Band album that features “Signs”, Goodbyes and Butterflies. (December 2012) |