Thursday, May 15, 2008

History: Jesus Christ's missing years?

Historical truth, I’ll leave it to the historians and scholars to figure out. It seems everything we were taught in grammar school and latter has all run amuck with revisionists, politicians and religious leaders meddling or clarifying the truth (some of it, justifiably needed revision). Which leads all of us scrambling for not only the so-called real non-fiction, but figuring out everything we’ve been taught, all of our lives. I for one, was raised on the Catholic Church and Walt Disney, which explains why I’m so fecked up! I’ve also been healing those scars for many years, partly with the help of classic songwriters to guide my way. Sometimes a tear will fall, but mostly the crack of a smile. This of course, all leads us to my selection here for History week:

John Prine’s classic re-telling of Jesus Christ in, Jesus, The Missing Years. Taken from John’s 1991 comeback album The Missing Years, which not only became his biggest seller to date, but a critical and commercial success as well. In the text of the song we have John taking a very humorous turn on filling in the blanks of Jesus Christ’s life: 18 years that have never been accounted for in Biblical text. Prine’s clever use of juxtaposing those years with your average American baby boomer, leads the listener on a wild ride a mischievous fun and a hilarious re-telling of historical events. A Mr. Jay Jones wrote a far more in depth, thought provoking piece about the song, here. Enjoy!

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