Songwriting is an act of courage. Mark Heard, I'm told, emerged from his
studio one day, after writing one of his brilliant songs, and remarked to
a friend, "This is either very good or really stupid". Mark of
course was incapable of writing anything inept, but in that moment he articulated
the dilemma every conscientious tunesmith, worthy of the craft, encounters
in his quest to put into words an experience of life. Have I effectively
written this in such a way as to enable the listener to participate in the
depths of the experience, and emerge from it more human, more noble; in
a word "better" than before? This is a tall order and a great
responsibility, because, as we all know, there is power in words. Transforming
power, (In the beginning was the Word), the power to move us closer to or
farther from the Truth.
Many artists today fear poetry and imagination out of some misguided notion
that their "message" must be explicit in order for it to be validated
or they deem the marketplace too illiterate and fear commercial repercussions.
These are sad commentaries on the state of the modern church. Francis Schaeffer
once wrote "The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond
the stars". I dare say he'd be very disappointed today. In the best
prose or lyric, more often than not, there is no specific moral, message
or sermon attached. The most effective works are often filled with shadow,
ambiguity, questions, doubt and longing, mirroring our own lives and the
great unfathomable mystery which is God, in such a way that we are at once
troubled, touched, and ultimately moved closer to the light. This is accomplished
on an almost subliminal level, striking a richer, deeper resonance within
us and putting to shame much of the pap which passes for art in CCM circles.
The syrupy sweet, positive thinking claptrap cluttering the gospel airwaves
today may provide a spiritual fast food fix and a great sugar high, but
the rush doesn't last. Failures, estrangements, contradictions, betrayals
and self-betrayals all conspire to bring us to that dark place where only
the Spirit of God can reach down and redeem us. Many times the vessel for
His Spirit is the courageous, transparent artist. Courageous because, in
the end, the true artist must face and overcome doubts about himself and
his abilities to accomplish his mission of integrity, self-realization and
glory to God. All is certainly not lost, as there are a number of CCM artists
who have mastered their craft and have achieved some success, but these
are the exception. These artists have learned the power of language and
metaphor, and use their words as brushstrokes and chisels.
Frederick Buechner calls metaphor the "language of God" . The
very fact that Holy Scripture is written in human language qualifies the
entire text as metaphor (the Incarnation itself being the grandest of all
metaphors- "And the Word became flesh"). Few lyricists speak this
language. I count myself as one who is just beginning to learn it's intricacies.
Humbled by an artistic landscape rife with failures and glaring lyrical
inanities now encoded and preserved in the long life of the CD, I have,
nonetheless, learned a little in the twenty years I have been toiling at
my craft. I have learned that valid life-impacting music transcends the
hit charts, the gospel cheers and catch phrases- transcends the very business
of music itself.
The concept for Daniel Amos' newest musical endeavor "Motor Cycle",
emerged from my own attempts to cast a mythical sheen over my everyday,
sometimes mundane experiences. In this way I was able to build for myself
a kind of metaphorical playground in which I could romp and run free, design
and sculpt and paint lyrical conceptions that gave weight to it's simple
messages of love , faith and hope. In other words, I wanted to go beyond
the surface of things, allowing God to breathe between the lines. My desire
was to create a partnership with the listener, wherein together we would
set out on a personal voyage of revelation, discovery and unity with the
Divine. I am often uncomfortable explaining my lyrics, just as a painter
would be if asked to explain his painting. He senses that by doing so he
diminishes their sublime revelatory properties. The words of Christ were
not always delivered on a silver platter of explanation, and some of the
harshest and most cryptic of these ("Eat My fleshdrink my blood")
left his followers aghast These were and are words of courage that songwriters
today can draw strength from. While there may be some merit, at times, to
the notion that we must spoon-feed our listeners, we must also be prepared
to pay the price for taking the artistic high ground with prophecies, parables,
metaphors, allegories, myths and mysteries that much of modern Christianity
may be uncomfortable with.
My heroes -- C.S. Lewis, Czseslaw Melosz, Buechner and others-- all bolster
in me the courage it takes to risk rejection and failure- that which must
be risked if we are to attain the artistic relevance in the eyes of our
own listeners and our peers. I, for one, am thankful that Lewis in his grand
Narnia fable, called his lion Aslan. He refrained from having to explain
that Aslan was really Jesus Christ in disguise. I and my children, and my
children's children all thank him for it. We have and will again discover
it for ourselves, and in this is it's great and beautiful power to haunt
us all the days of our lives.
Poetry has the ability to continually reveal new and fresh layers of illumination
with each new encounter. It's truly a grand paradox that with ten words
a songwriter can paint a picture worth a thousand or with a haunting melody
create a mood which opens up horizonless vistas for the listener to partake
of. To use the old adage- to create a whole which is greater than the sum
of it's parts. The metaphor is indeed the artist's playground and within
it's parameters, further up and further in, we call upon the children of
God to join us in the frolicsome celebration of all that is known and unknown
about this unattainable earth and the great unfathomable God we serve. Let's
occupy it together, until that hour when Aslan returns and carries us away
on the back of his wildness and ferocity, to places yet unexplored.
This article originally appeared in Release Magazine in 1993.