WHATCHU TALKIN BOUT WILLIS?

I grew up when Diff'rent Strokes was a popular television show. That's no big deal unless your last name is Willis. To this day I still hear those famous words popularized by Arnold: "Whatchu talkin bout Willis?" Usually they are uttered by someone looking at me as though I may have never heard it before. Yeah, right! Well this blog is what I (Willis) am talkin bout...my thoughts, observations & opinions. Enjoy...



Thursday, April 10, 2008

A little A.I. controversary

No, it's not Allen Iverson I'm talking about. It's another A.I. - American Idol. I walked in the door tonight and was promptley summoned to the TV to hear the American Idol contestants singing popular Christian praise song, "Shout to the Lord." Apparently they sang this same song last night but sang "My Shepherd" in stead of "My Jesus." Unless my ears failed me (& they have before) I thought I heard them singing "My Jesus" tonight. Of course I have heard this song so many times I may have been on autopilot! You can check my good buddy, Soren's take here. He wasn't troubled by the editing, but was rejoicing that such a song would be on the most popular TV show around. That is definitely pretty cool. Also, editing a song's lyrics isn't equivalent to tampering with Scripture. That being said, I am bothered by the change in the words to the song. (If "Jesus" did indeed return to the song tonight then I'm pleased with the "do over") I should state that the song isn't one of my favorites so I'm not acting as an apologist for the lyrics. But, frankly, the removal of "Jesus" bugs me. Like another song says: There's just something about that name. You are to give him the name... There's no other name... The name above every name.... Whoever calls on the name... I read the book of Acts recently and was impressed with how often the name of Jesus is mentioned. Our religiousy pluralistic culture welcomes just about any "god" but when it comes to Jesus...that's a different story.

5 comments:

Soren said...

Not one of your faves? But there's a heritage in that song! (ha!)

They did sing "Jesus" tonight.

Happy birthday! I wish I could have taken you to one of our old haunts to celebrate.

David H. Willis said...

Thanks brother. Also thanks for verifying that the A.I. gang sang "Jesus" last night. I thought I heard "Jesus" then I thought I might be slipping being a year older now. My opinion of "Shout..." is colored by the fact that our Praise Team has done it about 300 times!

David H. Willis said...

One last thing on this A.I. controversy. We should remember the A.I. exists to make money. They do it by generating the largest audience possible and then charging advertisers huge amounts of money to show their commericals to the audience. A.I. is intentially trying to be broad in its appeal. Hence we see Snoop Dog, praise music, Dolly Parton, etc. No other show boasts such a broad appeal driven primarily by the wide array of musical styles, etc. The bottom line is the bottom line.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6G0U8Vg6nY

That links shows them singing MY JESUS in the beginning of the song.

Sup Dave?

David H. Willis said...

What's happening Wayne? Good to see you here. I hope all is well with you.