Did a Liberal Bias End the Career of my Favorite Band?

Everyone has those 3 or 4 things in life they are really passionate about; hobbies or interests they spend a significant amount of money on and take the time to become an expert in.  Obviously, politics has become one of those things for me, but I like to give my readers a little more insight into my personal life and who I really am outside the blogging world.  Many of you already know I have a passions for hiking and cycling, but I have also given hints into my personal interest in music.

Recently, I have broadened my musical spectrum to include many Christian acts that I have shared here on the blog.  Many of the bands I share inspire me with their lyrics and I have always appreciated people with special singing talents, but my musical roots are actually much different.  My parents are rockers.  They listen to anything from Frank Zappa to Tom Petty.  I naturally love classic rock because of those roots, but have taken a liking to a much heavier variety of rock music.  Mixing that need for heavier and louder music while not sacrificing the talent factor (I can’t stand talentless metal like Marilyn Manson) I took a liking to prog rock.  From the beginnings with Queen, Rush, and Yes to the new version of those bands like Dream Theater, Savatage and Queensryche, prog rock is what drives me. 

I can still remember sitting outside Southern Thumb Music in Richmond, MI for their summer concert.  I was probably 10-12 years old and my brother’s guitar teacher was going to be performing with his band.  I think they were called Dragonfly at the time.  They played several songs, but one caught my attention.  It was a song called “Mrs. Leslie” by the band Galactic Cowboys.  Since that day, the Galactic Cowboys have become my favorite band.

You are probably wondering by now, how this has anything to do with the focus of TBA.  It’s no secret that musicians today can’t understand that they are musicians, not politicians or great humanitarians.  I go to concerts to get away from all the annoying things we deal with in everyday life and simply enjoy a great rock show for a couple hours.  Unfortunately, many bands can’t keep their useless, liberal agendas out of their shows.

The Galactic Cowboys were always different.  Their music was simple.  It was loud, hard southern rock.  As I got older, I started to pay more attention to their lyrics and found out the members of the band were Christians who didn’t see the need to label themselves as a Christian band.  I know many Christians would take issue with that, but I personally loved it. 

Around the year 2000, the Galactic Cowboys disbanded.  It wasn’t your usual falling out, but simply a calling to do something different.  I have always held out hope they will get back together, and recently did some digging on their situation after hearing one of their songs on Pandora.

The song is called “Disney’s Spinning” and was on their last album.  As I listened to the lyrics this time around, I realized this song, and perhaps the entire album, was their goodbye to the commercial recording industry.  The title of the album was “Let it Go” and the lyrics of the song seemed to have a theme of no longer needing to hold back their Conservative beliefs in a Liberal industry like they had on past albums (particularly “At the End of the Day”).

Here are some excerpts from “Disney’s Spinning”

Looks like now the Beatles weren’t so bad
Mr. Manson makes the Four look fab
‘Cause death and evil is what sells today

President lit up and passed it down

The days of outrage have all gone away

I bet that Disney’s spinnin’ in his grave.

While we were pleasure hunting

We got tricked like Elmer Fudd
Brainwashed by the media.

Inconvenienced by a small mistake
Mother chooses to exterminate
I wonder what the forefathers would say
The land of the free, home of the depraved

I bet that Disney’s spinnin’ in his grave.

As I thought about these lyrics and the band’s stance in today’s industry and political climate, I was inclined to do a little more digging on the Cowboys and their Conservative Christian beliefs.  What I found was quite upsetting.

In an article titled “Galactic Cowboys: The One That Got Away” on Hard Music Magazine’s website, I found out how their unpopular beliefs may have contributed to their demise.

It was evident, to me anyway, that Galactic Cowboys were a band
destined for greatness.  Unfortunately their promise was derailed before
the train even left the station when after being signed to Geffen they
were immediately tossed aside as label mates Nirvana exploded onto the
rock scene…

We all know about Nirvana…rebellious, cynical, raw, angry and
unpredictable.  While Galactic Cowboys, although similar in terms of
hooks, melodies and harmonies were polished, disciplined, witty and
colorful…

Galactic Cowboys were not a Christian band (although maybe they would
have met with greater success if they were marketed thus) but a band
full of Christians who were not afraid to wave the flag for Christian
morality.  Heck, this is a band that recorded three candid, unapologetic
anti-abortion songs (two released as singles) for their first two
albums with Geffen.  The diverse lyrical themes of their music covered a
vast array of social and spiritual topics including poverty, isolation, hardheartedness and environmental protection against the likes of
Exxon Valdez.  The band could have and should have been huge.  They are a
criminally overlooked band…

On their last album, 2000’s unprompted ‘Let It Go’ the group expanded
its social commentaries to include the loss of innocence, teen angst,
the gun culture and the glorification of violence in the media.  And on
this release more than any other the band was not afraid to express
their dependency on Jesus Christ to get through this life and remain
grounded in eternal truths over temporal riches that ultimately fade.  

Is it possible that my favorite band of all time did not receive the accolades and the attention due to their unpopular stance in an industry driven by sex, drugs, and immoral lifestyles?  Did a Liberal bias in the music industry cut the career short for a band that had all the talent in the world?

If so, you can simply chalk this up as more evidence that Liberals are not truly for the equal treatment of everyone as they so often tout.  The Liberal agenda of ‘peace and love’ can be quickly tossed aside when you attempt to bring messages of morality and Christianity to the masses.

In the case of the Galactic Cowboys, the messages of pro-life, pro family and pro Jesus Christ are tossed aside for bands like Nirvana with their deep intellectual (sarcasm) songs like “Rape Me.”

For your viewing pleasure…one of the Galactic Cowboys pro-life songs…

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