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The Stories Behind the Songs on Our Seventh Single
Thu., May. 20. 2021 8:37am EDT
J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.
Here are the stories behind the songs on our seventh single:
COME TO CORINTHIANS
The world's concept of love seems to be changing every day, but the Bible remains the same, and that's the way to find out what love really is. Thankfully, First Corinthians 13 is still read at weddings, even in the church of the poison-minded pastor whose sermons are colored by numbness to the Gospel. It's a miracle they still read it, but they do.
This is the fourth parody we've released about First Corinthians 13 — "the love chapter" — and there's a fifth one waiting for the right time. They were written in a different order than they were released: The first one I wrote was "Love (Ain't Nothin')," the second hasn't been recorded yet, the third was "Come to Corinthians," the fourth was "Corinthians," and the fifth was "Brash, Impulsive."
I wrote "Come to Corinthians" in the spring of 2000. ApX alum drummer Bob Flaherty saw the lyrics in '03 and loved them (more than I did, if fact) but we had just released "Corinthians" in '02. Nevertheless, thanks to Bob, I didn't give up on the song. I eventually performed "Come to Corinthians" with the worship team at New Community Church for two Sunday services in June 2013.
Culture Club's heyday aligned perfectly with my college career. They released a new album during each of my four school years. Their first Top 40 single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," came out during the fall semester of my freshman year and their tenth and final Top 40 single came out during the spring semester of my senior year. Ironically, it was titled "Move Away."
KARMA'S CONVENIENT
Many in Western culture today see someone "get what they deserve" in this life and mistakenly call it "karma." However, the classic concept of karma teaches that you "get what you deserve" in a subsequent life through reincarnation. Hebrews 9:27 disagrees, but thinking they have extra time makes sluggards feel like they've got something real.
I got the title for "Karma's Convenient" on April 4, 2011, along with one other line. I liked it a lot, but I'd already written a different parody of the same song — "Come to Corinthians." Consequently, when we made the decision to finally cover "Karma Chameleon" on April 2, 2021 (almost 10 years to the day after I got the idea for "Come to Corinthians"), I had to choose which lyrics to use.
We faced a similar situation in 2008 when Tom Milnes and Tom Tincha both auditioned to be our new guitarist; each was so good we wound up keeping both. I also remembered how Guns N' Roses did two versions of "Don't Cry" (with only the lyrics and vocals being different) and released them simultaneously on Use Your Illusion I and II. So we decided to do both "Corinthians" and "Convenient," and I wrote the rest of the lyrics for "Convenient."
Rich Mannion provided keys, guitar, drum-programming, and backing vocals, although Jimmy played the military snare drum you hear from 3:10-3:30, and Wayne did the quick guitar strum at 3:30. Ironically, when ApX spoofed "Don't Cry" back in 1993, we only did one version.
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