New Song: Never In A Million Years

Never In A Million Years [2011] Humorous Rock
Let's do some science in a song
Unapologetic apologetics. The Foo Fighters send back the soup.
Downloads      mp3      Lyrics(pdf)

Let's do some science in a song. Let's pick a prehistoric pond.
It's small and warm and has all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts.
Zapped with electricity, a protein forms there chemically
And once that protein's fully formed, it's ready to evolve some more.
That's the theory now let's try again with carbon dioxide
Water and some nitrogen and life will happen sometime … when?

Never, never in a million years
Never, never in ten million years
Never, never in a hundred million
Four hundred million years
Never in a million years


Let's give Oparin his due, he proposed we should make soup
And Haldane said that it just might cook with ultraviolet light
Urey said we should put in methane and some hydrogen
So Miller cooked it but since when did we have those ingredients back then?

Chorus

Don't cry Charlie Darwin, what does Louis Pasteur know?
Just tell Frankie we can pin the whole damn thing on undetectable spacemen
Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry
(That ship has sailed and it ain't never coming back, there's always
Much too much speculation running after too little facts)

But let's just say you make that soup, most amino acids you can't use
Right handed ones you throw away but keep a hundred lefties (give or take)
Stick 'em together with peptide glue. You've made a protein - clever you!
You know I hate to be a bore - for a cell, we only need 200 more.
Now we just got instructions left to write, 30 volumes worth that we gotta fit inside
There are only four letters in DNA, so how much longer do you think it's gonna take?

A million years?
Or ten million years?
Maybe in a hundred million?
Four hundred million years?
Never in a million years.




Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Something For The Weekend

I'm full of cold and recovering from being hit on the head with a piece of lighting rig. Here's something to cheer us all up!

Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick
 
[If you're subscribed to this blog via email, you will have to click on the post's title to watch any video content (the link will take you my site).

New Song: There Goes The Moon

There Goes The Moon [2010] Love Song
There are plenty of other moons in the sky
A mellow Metallica ballad of a lovelorn lunatic.
Download      mp3


They promised me the moon
And like the moon she was cold
She was desolate and distant
And blessed with a light not her own


They promised me the moon
And around me she spun
But her love waxed and waned and
One casual eclipse she was gone


But oh, how she drew me to her light
And oh, how she tugged at my heart like a rising tide


There's plenty of other moons in the sky
One is waiting for me, silent as light
But morning arrives too soon
There goes the moon


They promised me the moon
To love and lose was my part
But can you say you've lost somebody
If you still know where they are?


They promised me the moon
And like the moon she was cold
She was desolate and distant
And blessed with a light not her own


I know I was irrational and insane
But oh, how she toyed with the tide inside my brain


There's plenty of other moons in the sky...


There goes the moon
They call it 'the moon'
But it's only the moon of the earth
Only a moon
Not the brightest or best
But she filled up my sky 'till I just couldn't see that...


There's plenty of other moons in the sky...


Mars has two Pluto has three
There must be a moon out there just for me
But morning arrives too soon
There goes the moon


Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Day 285: We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

Tried to do a bit of recording at Shabby Road after teaching but the mac was flat so I switched all the lights off and improvised in the dark. It seemed the thing to do.

I'm still slogging away with the evolution song "Never In A Million Years". I'm not sure why it's taking so long but I'm nearly there. It's teaching me about the limitations of 3 minute pop songs to get across humorous points about scientific arguments, but I'm going to finish it dammit. Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger...

I'm having to rethink my whole blogging posting songs method. What worked when I was writing six songs a year, is groaning under the weight of 40. I'm writing songs and not getting around to posting them, or not getting them on the download page. Expect some changes soon. And a few old songs that never made it onto the blog.

Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Rock And Roll Injuries

Lou Reed was playing a gig in Buffalo in 1973 when a man invaded the stage, shouted “leather” and bit him on the buttocks

Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham collapsed onstage in Nuremberg in 1980 after eating 27 bananas

Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst suffered 'testicular trauma' after being hit in the balls with a lemon while onstage in Chicago

Courtney Love's dog died in 2002 after eating one of her breast implants (having had them removed previously and kept as souvenirs)

Elvis Presley died of a drug induced heart attack. Drugs in Elvis' system when he died: Codeine, Morphine, Demerol, Avental, Valium, Quaaludes, Placidyl, Carbrital, Valmid, Amytal, Nembutal, Elavil and Sinutab.

Keith Richards crashed his restored Nazi staff car twice in 1969 after falling asleep at the wheel. He fell off a library ladder at home and broke three ribs in 1998. And he was injured when he fell out of a Coconut tree in 2006.

Source: The Q Magazine Music Bible



Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Joanne's Difficult Decision

In 1954 Joanne Schieble was pregnant, unmarried, university student. She faced the difficult decision whether to keep the baby, give it up for adoption or have an abortion.

She had no way of knowing how things her life or her baby's life would turn out, the kind of dilemma I was trying to capture in the song First Black President.

I could have been a hero
Covered in glory 'cos I gave my life
I could have been a mother
Three young kids and working nights
I could have been a nurse or a football coach
Could have had your smile, your eyes, your nose
Would my coming still be something you'd lament
If I'd have been the first black President?


Thankfully Joanne decided not to have an abortion but to give him up for adoption. Her son didn't become the President of the United States. He became the CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs.

It's impossible for anyone to accurately assess another's life. But I think Steve Jobs made the world a better place.

Rest in peace, Steve. And thank you Joanne.

Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Day 263: The Illuminati Ate My Homework

Really enjoyed this article/video on the making of Bohemian Rhapsody. Also enjoyed this video slightly more than Queen's original vid.

The great thing about 50/90 and FAWM is coming across musicians creating great stuff. Here's two very different tracks from 'RC' both written and recorded sometime in the last 79 days. (By the way RC has written 45 songs during 50/90 so far!)

You Killed It
Balderdash

Speaking of FAWM, glasgow power pop titan KiDD recorded some great songs, which he's now gathered onto a free album. Check it out

CD Baby ran a series of songwriting tips from the hitmakers recently

If you want to know what William Gibson told David Crosby about the elves taking over the workshop, why Chris Cornell think's it's easier to write melodies over odd time signature riffs and why Richard Thompson recommends copying everyone except yourself check out parts one, two and three

OK I'm off to do more brainstorming on a new song called "The Illuminati Ate My Homework". BTW - Eleven Sweets has very quickly hit over 100 downloads!


Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Day 261: I Question The Soup, And Eleven Sweets For Everyone!!!

I've gone a record 3 days without writing. Having started back at school this week I came down with freshers flu or whatever the junior version is called and struggled to do anything but sleep and watch a few DVDs.

Tonight I tried to get things moving again. My evolution song (working title "I Question The Soup" is paused while I take advice from a chemist, a doctor and a science teacher, so to move that along I typed out a response to their responses and eagerly await their response.

In more clearing decks news I finally turned the huge audio file of one of my old cassette tapes into neatly labelled mp3s. Only another 38 tapes to go!

Eleven Sweets has had a massive positive response from friends and family. Zeppo and I got loads of comments at Church today and in her honour THE CHILDREN'S CHURCH GAVE ELEVEN SWEETS TO EVERY CHILD!!! How awesome is that!

Zep and I will be working on the follow up single 25 Sweets, A Happy Meal & An iPhone 5 soon.

(PS there was only one other page on the whole internet with the phrase "I question the soup" on it. Now there are two. Will I get top ranking? Simply type "I question the soup" into google and see if I win the "I question the soup" battle.

Soup Battle?

Hmm...

Nah  - 5,790 results.

Stick to "I question the soup".

Because I do.

Question the soup, that is).




(Did I win yet?)


Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick



[If you're subscribed to this blog via email, you will have to click on the post's title to watch any video content (the link will take you my site).

New Song: Let's Build An Airport

Let's Build An Airport was written during FAWM 2011. In keeping with the rough and ready vibe of that songwriting challenge I wrote it from scratch and demoed in a single night. I've had quite a few positive comments about it from other songwriters so I decided to go back and do a better recording. As well as the very talented Rachel McClean on Cello you can also hear a number of planes and real life WW2 bomber crew.

The original inspiration was simply a list of bizarre children's books that I'd seen in a school library on a break from teaching. I had intended to do a surreal list song, but I never got beyond the first title “Let's Build An Airport” by Kath Mellentin and Gillian Clements. I just spilled out my frustration over a descending chromatic chord progression that has been done many times before (in 'If' by David Gates/Bread for one). But switching off my inner critic seemed to be a good thing and I'm really proud of some of the phrases and imagery – 'As deep as the clouds', 'rootless and artless and freer than birds' and catching 'that burning ball in the fist of one hand'.

Though the song is using a commercial airport as a metaphor, in my mind's eye I see Lancaster bombers taking off when I hear the song, so I was thrilled to get some sound library recordings and Rachel's cello is almost the musical representation of a Lancaster bomber – heavy, yet elegant and quintessentially English.

Download the mp3
Download the Chord Sheet
Watch Video Live @ Vauxhall Griffin, London 2011

Let's build an airport and let's fly away
If we put our minds to it we could finish today
These people round here are as deep as the clouds
And they don't understand anything that isn't glued to the ground

But we're rootless and artless and freer than birds
Let's not march to the abattoir just like the rest of the herd.
Forget Stansted, forget JFK.
There's a whole world of difference Between a runway
And running away.
We're not running away...

Doesn't the sunset attract you? Don't the horizon look grand?
Couldn't you just catch that burning ball in the fist of one hand?
I'll clear you for take off and you can clear me 
Then we'll cross every ocean and be back for our tea
Let's build an airport and let's fly away
If we put our minds to it we could finish today
These people round here are as deep as the clouds
And they don't understand anything that isn't glued to the ground

 © Matt Blick 2011

Samples credits

Lancaster Bomber Crew Raid over Stettin, Germany (April 20, 1943)
Lancaster Bomber Crew Raid over Berlin - Sep 3 1943
by stelzriede.com. Both of these can be found on the Marshall Stelzriede War Story website
Consolidated B-24 Liberator Bomber pass by 1 and 2 by The Recordist Free Sound FX
Lancaster Bomber by confusion_music from Freesound.org
Spitfire Mk 19 (Griffon engine) by Genghis Attenborough from Freesound.org


Related posts: Download Faithful and True for free!!!
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Day 257: Attack Of The Mean 90's People

The only writing I did yesterday was emailing Eleven Sweets to a bunch of friends and family and writing a riff at 11:55.

My wife took me for a 'I love you' lunch at the Soulsville Steakhouse. They play music that makes everything taste better. I honesty almost wept tears of joy at the beauty of the second bar of the chorus of Stop! In The Name Of Love. In fact every chord in that song is perfect (may the names of Holland Dozier Holland be forever blessed). I just wish we hadn't been seated at the Ike & Tina Turner table on our date. That's bad joojoo.

I am listening for the first time to A Night At The Opera by Queen. It seems to be a day for awe inspiring beauty. They created so many incredible singles that it's at least excusable to forget they made albums too.

Ever wondered what all the mean snarky judgemental people did before the internet?

Now I know. They wrote letters to guitar magazines.

One of my pupils gave me 120 issues of Guitar World, Guitar, Guitar One, Guitarist and so on and every single letters page contains the following flamefests

1) "I can't believe you f***** a******** ran another interview with [insert metal/thrash/hardcore band] those guys are talentless w*****. Why the hell don't you feature some decent music like [insert blues/alternative/indie artist]"

2) "I can't believe you f***** a******** ran another interview with [insert blues/alternative/indie artist] those guys are talentless w*****. Why the hell don't you feature some decent music like [insert metal/thrash/hardcore band]"


3) Yngwie/Clapton/Page/Dimebag/EVH is God. You're all d******


4) Yngwie/Clapton/Page/Dimebag/EVH is a pathetic joke. You're all d******

And so on...



Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick

[If you're subscribed to this blog via email, you will have to click on the post's title to watch any video content (the link will take you my site).

Day 255: Who Was That Masked Man? (Ah, Who Cares)

Eleven Sweets is finished - here it is - Eleven Sweets mp3

My unfinished rap funk metal thing got featured on the 50/90 podcast. Here that is - 50/90 Podcast #6

Just watched Rainn Wilson in Super. It wasn't.

Started back a school today.

Busy.

It wouldn't be my blog without a little Jonathan Coulton. His new song Good Morning Tucson is growing on me and is available for free from Blurt online

Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Day 254: Headstock And The Kitchen Sink

Had to head out early this morning to play at the Headstock festival with the young people from the workshop I did the other week. They did really well and there were a few star performers that really impressed me. (Was nice to see one of Nottingham's best cafes, Homemade keeping the bacon cobs coming). Then off to Shabby Road for some more recording.

I wrote Eleven Sweets right at the end of FAWM. Zeppo told me about her adventures in sunday school and I set them to music. I wanted to get her to sing it but just ran out of time. But we redid it this summer and tonight I added the finishing touches – piano, penny whistle (aka irish/tin whistle), recorder, shaky egg, electric guitar, synth, samba whistle and snare drum. Or 'kitchen sink' as it's known in the trade.

I accidentally hit on a fun way to work without getting bogged down with second guessing or over engineering. Just leave you power cable at home. Watching that little battery icon turn red really concentrates the mind. I finished with 2% left.

I'm really pleased with the way the track has evolved from 'acoustic Green Day' to 'crusty reggae' (see Noah And The Whale for further details). All thanks to a bit of uke and a funky recorder lick. It's still a home demo with a 6 year old lead vocalist but now it's a lot more fun!

Hopefully I'll have the mix up tomorrow, but starting back at school might knock me out!

Jo Co Bo Rap

Really enjoyed this piece from American Songwriter about Queen's Greatest Hit. Both the videos are worth watching. The Beatles were their 'bible' and Freddie wrote out all the vocal parts? Impressive. The guy was a true musical genius.

Revisiting Jonathan Coulton's Thing A Week I have to lay some love on I'm Your Moon. Not many  people could write a song about the downgrading of Pluto from the point of view of Charon and create a love song that people would sing to their newborns and request at their weddings. And once again, click here, find the smily face and you get a free download. He's a nice guy. Maybe you should give him some money anyway?

You Like Sarcastic Signs?

So do I. No, really.


Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Day 253: Bulgarian Feedback And Failing To Write About Nothing

A while back I was slogging my way through recording and arranging Never Be Silent and put a rough mix up on the 50/90 site to get some second opinions on a thread titled Bulgarian Feedback. As well as a lot of cool advice a number of people said Bulgarian Feedback would be a cool title for a song. But only one man was cool enough to make it so - Johnny Cashpoint.

Bulgaria has fallen and there’s terror in the air.
Conquering invaders have arrived with questionnaire:

“Please rate our occupation on a scale of 1 to 4
Where one is sheer perfection and four is very poor.

How’d you find the food? (Please only rate food you can find.)
During interrogations were our men polite and kind?

and this classic couplet

Promised to provide a service that’s both harsh but fair.
Just ‘cos we’ve over-run you doesn’t meant that we don’t care.”

Listen to the song and read the rest of the lyrics

Jonathan Coulton wrote about his excellent song Mr Fancy Pants*

 It’s almost like this song was generated by the non-thinking parts of me, by the systems level utilities - sitting down and typing gibberish until something gets traction. Strangely, it was the first time I tried this technique during Thing a Week, and I wish I had surrendered to it earlier. I relied on it quite a bit for this new album, and it often led to much more honest and personal expression than I could have gotten to otherwise. It’s very hard to write about nothing for very long, and the real stuff sneaks out of you when you’re not looking.

It reminded me of my song Let's Build An Airport. I started with a weird title, which was actually the title of a children's book and what flowed out of me (oooh don't sound like a reel arr-teest!) was a reflection of the escapism and frustration I was feeling inside. Like Coulton I want to try that more often.

I'll be posting the new recording up soon, but for now here's a live recording I did at the FAWM Over Party at the Vauxhall Griffin Pub in London. (Note: the audio starts before the video)

*You can listen to Mr Fancy Pants on the page but why don't you go here
Find Thing A Week Four
Find Mr Fancy Pants
Click on the smiley face next to Mr Fancy Pants and get a FREE DOWNLOAD
See all those other smiley faces?
You can thank me later


Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick


[If you're subscribed to this blog via email, you will have to click on the post's title to watch any video content (the link will take you my site).

Day 252: New Song - Still Standing (Trees)

Walking in the woods I spoke aloud

my deepest hopes and dreams

The marks I'd make on history

The great things I'd achieve 

When from above 

I heard the leaves

Their laughter borne 

Upon the breeze

The mocking trees fell quiet, the wise old oak

He spoke up for them all

“We have stood our ground 

Since Bonaparte coveted our soil

And we'll be here 

When wind and rain

Erase the name 

Upon your grave”

I'm really trying to work on melody this year and singing in my 'own' voice (not that wretched generic american one that I and everyone outside of the Arctic Monkeys and The Proclaimers adopt). So on that score I'm quite happy with Still Standing (Trees). There's a little Marx Bros influence in the lyrics of the second verse (listen to the track before you read the lyrics and see if you can guess where the song is going) and a bit of Beatles in the chord progressions (especially the minor 4).

It's just a crazy story that came into my head one day. I live in a beautiful area surrounded by trees but lately a lot of them are losing all their bark for some reason. Despite what the song might lead you to believe this make me quite sad.

I approached the writing a little differently just to break me out of my habits. I wrote the lyrics to existing tunes Fly Me To The Moon for the verse and Autumn Leaves for the chorus, then wrote new music. The odd line lengths and different rhyme schemes made my go beyond my usual patterns. I like the way the song kind of goes 4/4 then 2/4 at the end of the chorus.

I'm up to 40 songs written now this year. It's easy to get a bit down and feel I'm doing this for nothing, but I think I am getting better as a writer. Time will tell.

Leave me a comment if you like it.


Download Still Standing (Trees) mp3
Download Still Standing (Trees) lyrics

Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick

Day 251: The Trouble With Bloogle (And The Permanence Of Paper)

Is it really nearly a WHOLE MONTH since I did a post?

Well the main cause has been frustration with Blogger - they have added a 'randomly change the formatting on my post' feature which has made posting anything a chore. I am feeling at the mercy of a the whim of some lowly underling in Googland who is either bored, absent or suffering from the same pathological need to keep changing things that is making George Lucas the most hated figure in the Nerdverse.

This is bringing closer the inevitable day when I up and get my own website and host the blog myself using Wordpress. So why bother doing anything now?

But then again - what if my host, or the wordpress platform goes down the tubes?

Maybe I should do all the pages on the mac?

But then I'm tied into the Apple erm...orchard ...FOREVER!

I love the digital world. But everything has obsolescence built in.

(Pauses to make David Crowder-like left field spiritual application)

Even the internet is subject to the fall. 

So what I will do is try to post every day, even if I'm spouting rubbish like right here. In the hope that the creative backlog will ease. I just warn you - if you thought my blogs looked ugly before - you ain't seen nothin' yet!

Exquisit Corpse

Remember that? No? Good. It's finished and here it is.

Bye Bye Baby

One of my non blogging weeks was taken up doing a songwriting workshop with about 20 teens. Here's a song I had an active part in. Bit of tidying and shaping and soupcon of guitar.

Bye Bye Baby

This week I've been working on a Foo Fighter-Lite song about evolution and a rerecording of FAWN 2011 song Eleven Sweets with my 6 year old daughter Zeppo on vocals.

Beatboxing Cellist Kevin Olusola

I've also got a million great links stored up but this one from Gungor is too awesome to wait.

Free songs by Matt Blick

[If you're subscribed to this blog via email, you will have to click on the post's title to watch any video content (the link will take you my site).

Day 226: My Exquisite Corpse

I'm still doing way too much multitasking. I've interrupted the rerecording and mixing of Let's Build An Airport to contribute my portion of an exquisite corpse that we've got going on the 50/90 site. “What's an exquisite corpse?” I hear you google. In musical terms we have 11 people co-writing a song. One person writes about 50 seconds of music and then sends the last 10 seconds to the next person who does likewise. Finally someone puts it all together and we all get to hear the song. It's the musical equivalent of this...

I'm about 7th in line, and I'll post a link when it's done.  


Here's the finished song - You're Sure To Find Yourself.

The part I contributed was the 6/4 and 7/4 prog metal instrumental bit. It's after the folky 6/8 bit with the "we can do what we want" sample. Unfortunately during the edit my part comes in too early but to be fair I was asking for it superimposing 4/4 over 6/8 (If you're interested, here's how it should have fitted together).

Guest post

The second part of my series for Krown Media is up now. One of the reasons Christian's make poor artists is they spend way too much time obsessing over their motives. Here's a sample -

So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31) applies to all of us, no matter what profession. But have you ever noticed that Christian plumbers, Christian school teachers and Christian I.T. specialists don't seem to suffer the same kind of paralysing bouts of self analysis that artists do? Maybe because they instinctively realise that in context and practice that verse is about outward actions, not inner motivation.

Read the rest here

Great writing on writing

There are quite a few songwriting blogs out there that dispense really helpful advice. There are others that are so beautifully put together that reading them is a pleasure to be savoured. There's only one that I can think of that ticks both boxes and that's Nicholas Tozier's The Halted Clock. Check out his post Life Cycle of a Summer Song, Part 4: An Attempt at Self-Criticism for example.

Tozier wakes up in the morning, stretches, scratches at his unseemly body hair, and sits on the edge of the bed...He walks to the sink, where he definitely does not waste half a can of Barbasol by using the foam to make a giant Santa beard...Having accomplished a smooth jawline with only a reasonable amount of bleeding and crying, Tozier embarks upon the day’s errands.He ...buys two beverages: Lady Grey tea, because he is a sensitive poet; and coffee, without cream or sugar, because he is a total badass.
...At exactly 8:30pm he hits the stage. The audience is hushed, perhaps intimidated by his awesome punctuality.

Visit Tozier's site to see what this has to do with songwriting.

Lastly, and still on the Tozier tip, I got to round out the series of posts (44 and rising) which I've done about the Abbey Road album with a light hearted chat with Nicholas over at Beatles Songwriting Academy.

Free download: Never Be Silent
Other free songs by Matt Blick

What Is A Christian Song?

So did you try to sort the Christian music wheat from the secular chaff in my previous post? No? Head over there first and have a try! Or just cheat and read the 'answers' now!


 Ready to find out which songs are Christian? Well I can't tell you that. But I'll name the songs and artists. Which may make things clearer. Or may not. I'd love to hear your comments and reactions.


1) You gotta let go and let God,
Sometimes from the get go you go hard
It's like, the darker it gets, the brighter my light will shine
So regardless I'm loving this life of mine


DMX – Jesus Loves Me doesn't reveal a strong grasp on theology but it's perfectly serviceable gospel rap from Gangster rapper DMX, who was recently released from the Mental Health Unit of the Arizona State Prison where he served a year for parole violation.




 2) When He rolls up His sleeves, He ain't just putting on the ritz
There's thunder in His footsteps and lightning in His fists
And the Lord wasn't joking when He kicked 'em out of Eden
It wasn't for no reason that He shed His blood


 Rich Mullins - Our God Is An Awesome God. Did you ever wonder why that song has no chorus? Well it does and now you know why you've never sung it in church. Strangely enough the estate of the late Rich Mullins has refused all offers of writing a new verse that wasn't, you know, barking mad.




 3) Then came a man before His feet he fell
Unclean said the leper and rang his bell
Felt the palm of a hand touch his head
Go now, go now you're a new man instead


 Queen – Jesus. Yes Queen. I know. Long before the parties filled with midgets carrying tray of cocaine on their heads, Freddie Mercury was telling the old, old story prog rock style.




 4) I saw a man with tat on his big fat belly
It wiggled around like marmalade jelly
It took me a while to catch what it said 
Cause I had to match the rhythm of his belly with my head
'Jesus Saves' is what it raved in a typical tattoo green
He stood on a box in the middle of the city
And claimed he had a dream


 DC Talk – Jesus Freak. In an otherwise perfectly fine song Toby McKeehan gives us and an image that could scars you for life. Does anyone really have a 'wiggley belly'?




 5) I'm not f***ing around,
I'm not f***ing around,
I'm not f***ing around,
I'm not f***ing around...


 Sufjan Stevens - I Want To Be Well. Maybe it's because he seems a few states short of a Union or maybe because it wasn't a diatribe aimed at the church, but where Derek Webb crashed and burned Sufjan succeed. 16 F bombs in a row and Christendom didn't even blink.




 6) Help me carry on,
Assure me it's OK
To use my heart and not my eyes
To navigate the darkness.


 Hoobastank - Crawling In The Dark. If a Christian tried to write a song about what it's like to be lost they couldn't do better than this.


 7) I ain't here to argue about his facial features,
But here to convert atheists into believers
I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers
The way Kathie Lee needed Regis that's the way I need Jesus
So here go my single, dog, radio needs this
They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus
That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes
But if I talk about God my record won't get played?


Kanye West – Jesus Walks. Imma let y'all finish but Jesus is the best saviour of all time...




 8) At the temple of the Incas
There's fountain flowing cheese dip
Then they smuggled it to Texas
Then they tricked us with the free chips
It's mind control in a salsa bowl
I'm not even sure I remember how I got here


 Andrew Peterson – Alien Conspiracy (The Cheese Song). Sometimes all the Tolkien, Lewis and Wendell Berry in the world can't fill that natcho shaped hole in our hearts. Has also written a great song about a penny.




 9) Oh, satan is an evil charmer 
(shut de dó, keep out the debil) 

He's hungry for a soul to hurt 
(shut de dó, keep the debil in de ni-eet)
And without your holy armor 
(shut de dó, keep out the debil) 

He will eat you for dessert 
(shut de dó, keep the debil in de ni-eet)


 Randy Stonehill – Shut De Do. I used to love Randy Stonehill's singer/songwriter/stand up shtick back in the day, but don't know how I feel about the white guy does negro-spirituals gig now.




 10) Now let my people go, land of Goshen
Go I will be with thee, bush of fire
Blood running red and strong down the Nile
Plague, darkness three days long, hail to fire


 Metallica – Creeping Death. Growing up in the Christian Science cult gave James Hetfield an acquaintance with the book of Exodus if nothing else.




 11) Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!


 William Blake – Jerusalem. Move over Lord Of The Dance. This is the most non-christian christian song of all time. Lively up Church services by shouting “No he/they/it didn't” at the appropriate times. Who says Christian education can't be fun?




 12) Rod's in the closet, a six shooter in hand
A caged up gorilla and three local bands
Fluently the parrot speaks six languages not known to men
A sixpence and a quarter as the audience he scans


 King's X – Six Broken Soldiers. King's X started out as your average 'Not Christian Christian band' before singer Doug Pinnick came out of the closet and they stopped singing three part harmonies. Not even they knows what this song is about. But it may have something to do with a toyshop in Austin, Texas.




 13) So warm inside You open up so wide
You let me walk right into You
No dark, just light Your love is undisguised
I know where I belong when I’m with You


 Brenton Brown – With You. We all have skeletons in our music closets. Brenton's from the Vineyard UK album Surrender, makes every other 'divine bromance' songs seem like a summer fling. The Barry White of worship music?




 14) Now that I know what I feel must be right
I'm here to show everybody the light
Give the word a chance to say
That the word is just the way
It's the word I'm thinking of
And the only word is love


 The Beatles – The Word, proving that anyone can sound spiritual so long as you keep it vague enough.




 15) You can put all of my possessions here in Jesus' name
Nail a sign on the door
Bright and early Sunday morning with my walking cane
I'm going up to see my Lord


 Tom Waits – Take Care Of All My Children. Written for a documentary about homeless children by the man who likes to write “beautiful melodies telling you terrible things”




 16) I used to lie awake at night
And see your face on the ceilin’
What a great feelin’ I have
When I think of how you’re gonna get yours
At the end of the world


 Keith Green – Dear John Letter (To The Devil). 70's radical troubadour Keith Green could weep tears of compassion in one song and then make you crack a smile the next. Oh and people got healed when he sang 'Easter Song'. I'm just saying.




 So what have we learned? Sometimes Christians write songs that are clearly not about anything uniquely Christian. Sometimes people who are clearly not Christians write songs that are biblically true. And there's a whole lot of music somewhere in the middle.


 That's exactly the kind of issues I'm tackling in a four part series over at Krown Media's website. I hope you join me over there and join the debate. Leave me a comment here first though. Can a non-Christian write a Christian song?

New Song: Never Be Silent

You didn't save me 
 You didn't save me so that I could keep my mouth shut

12 voices, piano, cello and cymbala with just a smidgeon of programmed percussion. Influenced by Bulgarian choir music, Never Be Silent is probably my most experimental and searingly honest spiritual song yet. Let me know your thoughts.

A big thanks to Rachel McClean for playing Cello.

Download the mp3 

Download the lyrics (PDF)

You didn't save me,

You didn't save me so that I could keep my mouth shut.

You didn't rescue me,

You didn't rescue me so I could play dumb.

While every brick in this building longs to shout out

Oh Jesus loosen my ungrateful tongue

So that my heart may sing

So that my heart may sing to you

So that my heart may sing to you

And never be silent

Never be silent

Never be silent

You didn't heal me,

You didn't heal me so that I could take more poison.

You didn't ransom me,

You didn't ransom me to leave me a slave.

While all around me the songs of those you brought home

They break the silence like you broke their chains

God can a dead heart sing?

God can a dead heart sing to you?

Father you cut me,

Father you cut into the branch to make it fruitful

Father you punish me,

Father you punish me to make me grow true

Help me believe that the knife

Precedes the harvest

God make my dead heart sing...

God can a dead heart sing?...

© Matt Blick 2011

Download the mp3 

Download the lyrics (PDF)

Other free songs by Matt Blick

Day 221: Let's Build A Helipad

Feeling a little vulnerable at Shabby Road tonight. I was trying to record the vocals for the 'proper' demo of Let's Build An Airport while somewhat ironically a police helicopter kept watch overhead. As the evening wore on there was a constant stream of traffic down the sleepy street where the studio is situated, a sure sign that the nearby main road was closed and traffic was being diverted. When I got in I found that the Police station at the top of the road had been firebombed.

While it's good news for glaziers and the Kaiser Chiefs the civil unrest has been bad news for anyone who doesn't want a cheap pair of trainers or a new phone. I know I have a good percentage of readers from overseas so if you want to know what is happening, here's my view.

A few days ago the police in London shot dead a suspect. He appears to have been armed, but appears not to have fired upon police, the bullet found lodged in a police radio appears to have been from a police weapon.

Local people included the man's family took a peaceful protest to the local police station where the police appear to have handled badly and a riot kicked off.

The police appear to have handled the riot badly and appeared to give the impression that looting would go unchallenged.

Mass looting occurred.

So while the initial event in Tottenham was a PROTEST which ignited into a RIOT, everything since that point in London and beyond is merely opportunistic LOOTING and an outbreak of LAWLESSNESS. Don't dignify it with the term 'riot' because it is not a protest about anything.

In hindsight the Police should have dealt with the initial protest more strongly. The reason they didn't is that they are scared of the understandable public backlash after they shot an innocent man on the London underground on suspicion of being a terrorist and caused the death of an innocent bystander in London who was suspected of being a violent protester. Amongst others. They also failed to have quick and transparent inquiries and punish wrongdoers in the Police force. This fear of public ill will seems to have caused a paralysis when we needed the strong arm of the law.

With respect to my American friends the 'arm everyone' philosophy is attractive at a time like this but our reluctance to go down that route means thankfully at the moment our streets are full of broken glass not dead bodies.

Nottinghamshire Police did a great job last night and seemed to have the upper hand.


Download Faithful & True for free!!!
Other free songs by Matt Blick