Atheist Anthems

Ray recently asked:

"Tell me, what do you sing when you gather for your meetings?"

SmuckersTheDog the came up with Baby Got Back by the ever-relevant Sir Mix-A-Lot

I offered Coconut by Harry Nilsson - the logic of that song speaks to me like the logic of Ray's posts.

A great many people offered Lennon's subliminal Imagine, which if you ask me is a bit of a soft option.

To be honest I'm not one for singing badly together. Trying to space the inherrantly irational preaching of some salt-and-pepper haired minister with some haphazardly vocalised hymns always seemed odd to me.  But get a few glasses of jesus-juice in me and I get down like the US financial markets.

So, say we got together and we had to sing one song what would it be? 

Godless paradise (starring our favorite absurdist)

(It even has a banana reference for good measure)
Lyrics:
As I walk through the valley that the river runs through
I take a look at my life, and see that it's evolved, too
Cause I've been mutating, selected so long that
Even my similarities with amoebas are gone

But I ain't never crossed a God that didn't deserve it
Smiting, delighting in his down right perverted
Crimes against his children, he calls it love
He promised to take his homies up to heaven above.

I dream about bananas, they make me sweat
Fit so neatly in my hand, they're created I'll bet, foo
I'm the kinda guy the little atheists wanna be like
On the youtubes day and night
Setting all of the theists right.

Been spending all our lives
Living in a godless Paradise...

So here's the situation: I have been had
Used to live a life taught by mamma and dad
But when I tried to love it, it didn't love me
It turned into a card saying "Get outta hell free"

I'm a educated fool, with words on my mind
I like to break things open, get the candy inside
I'm a pissed off atheist, kick over the manger
And my homies is down, so don't arouse my anger, fool

Death ain't nothing but a heart beat gone bad
I ain't gonna kill you for some traditional fad
And I'll bet when you hurt, you do it for you
The suffering of many for the glory of few

Tell me why are we -- so blind to see
That the ones we hurt -- are you and me

Po' Girl

I've discovered the joys of torrent files and web sites of a pirate theme.

Ahoy mateys

One of my favorite bands are The Be Good Tanyas, now defunct, and I recently downloaded their 2006 album to go with my legit copies of Chinatown and Blue Horse.

Anyways, people were saying that the group Po' Girl is similar in sound, so I got a hold of their album Home To You (2007) and included is the song "To The Angry Evangelist"

The lyrics are awsome, read and digest

Don't sing to me of saviours and sorrows
Don't sing to me of saviours and sin
Please, don't say there's a crown waiting just for me
Waiting and shining up there in heaven

Don't sing to me of turning my cheek
Don't sing to me of the virtues of meek
I'm sick of someday soon things will be better
That creed kept slaves, slaves of my ancestors
Faith it has beauty but not when it blinds us
Blinds us and folds us to crimes of excess
Never to lead and always to follow
Follow sad mad men to shame worse than death

Don't sing to me of joy on the other side
Don't sing to me of waiting to die
I want joy in this life, my joy loves company
Don't sing to me that war is our destiny
This is my gospel I hope you'll share it
Stand for each other don't let greed be our measure
Put down your gun and put down your bible
Hold out your hand, we'll build a new temple

Don't sing to me of saviours and sorrows
Don't sing to me of saviours and sin
Don't sing to me of damnation and bloodspill
'Cause I don't believe it, I never will
I don't believe it, I never will

For UK users I found their music cheap at DVD CO UK Free delivery in the UK and 1 quid delivery to Europe. So I ordered.

...and now for something completely different!

I found this weird song by some talentless git. I can't believe someone would release something like this to the internet for everyone to ridicule. It's absolutely horrible, it's like this guy who's never recoded a song before (at least max 1) just walked into a piano class at our local uni, scribbled up a quick ditty and sang some rubbish over it, bothering to record only one take through his Macbook's internal mic and running with it.

Here's the mp3 (1,05mb)

Comfort man  - beta.mp3 (mediafire)

Comfort man  - beta.mp3 (direct link)

and lyrics

COMFORT MAN

It appears life's without a purpose
You'll have to make the most of it while here
 
But if you need something special
I know a man who won't cut you a raw deal

commit to inanity
suppress your integrity
fortify your inerrancy
deny your humanity
 
and you'll acquire
all you require
to lead the choir,
as the next

Comfort Man
Comfort Man...
 
existential quandaries no more
absolute certainty makes you feel oh so fine
enter this, this state of bliss,
with his starter package for $19.99

disregard posterity
distort reality
lie incessantly
be immune to parody

and you'll acquire
all you require
to lead the choir,
as the next

Comfort Man
Comfort Man...

You can even hear him chew bubble gum when not "singing"! He also misses cues, notes on the piano and has horrible pronunciation! Fo' chrissakes, why did I do this!

Well, this song is here because I'm kind of proud of it (my first original composition with lyrics) and I'm a lazy nutter who'll probably never finish making a proper recording of it. I also though some of you might have some fun listening to it. Thank you Ray for inspiring a bout of creativity.