For at least another four months we have Time Warner's digital cable [thanks to a special promotion]. I sometimes turn on the music stations while I get some work done, enjoying the benefits of various tunes with no commercial interruption. And since it's just me and the kid today, as Kelly's at work, I turn on the Arena Rock station. Kelly can't seem to concentrate with music blaring, but I keep it rocking. Nothing like a little Bon Jovi, Poison, or [now playing] Night Ranger's Sister Christian [MOTORIN!] while writing a sermon on Romans 2. So after an Alice Cooper song I hear a familiar singer. As I lift my eyes from the laptop I'm shocked to see that it's none other than Stryper. For those of you unfamiliar with Stryper, they were the first Christian band to go mainstream in the mid 80's. The pushed the buttons of what was acceptable to church folk with their 1986 album, slyly titled, To Hell With The Devil [they were so hardcore!]. But like many big hair, 80's bands, they fell off the face of the earth by the end of the decade, without even a Behind the Music to hang their hat on. Stryper was no more.
OR SO I THOUGHT!
The Stryper song playing on my Time Warner channel was actually from an album they released just last year! No way, I thought, but it's true. I had to look it up online just to make sure. From Wikepedia:
"Stryper's latest album, Reborn, was released in August of 2005, and was the band's first recording of original material in 15 years. The new album received a positive response from fans and critics, some of whom labeled Reborn as one of the best albums of that year."
And now you know that Wikepedia is totally objective. Proclaiming a Stryper album made in 2005 as one of the best albums of that year? To that, I appropriately [and slyly] ask, "What the hell?"
p.s. As I get ready to publish this, I'm blessed to hear Bon Jovi's Living On A Prayer, the greatest song ever. Yes, there is a God and He loves me.