Blindside Question

Stephanie writes in and asks:

>:O Chancey, say it ain't so... Blindside swears now?!?

_Steph_

Well, Steph, this is a good time to advertise this other website that I found a couple weeks ago. You may notice this little button I have in the corner of my blog:



You can click on that, and it should redirect you to a Twenty Questions website where questions can be asked of me. Go ahead, use and abuse. BTW, Twenty Questions is being marketed as a simple Q&A site that anyone can use, which is what I'm doing, but after I joined I also noticed that there are indications that it may evolve into a dating site, which is not what I'm using it for.

Anyways, to get back to your original question: Does Blindside swear now? I think that you're probably referring to the song "Hooray, It's L.A.", on Blindside's latest CD, "About a Burning Fire". To help the discussion, here are the lyrics:

You and me we should get out of this town tonight
Cause everywhere I put my foot down
It's just another concrete block waiting for me

And it's a...
(dark cold night now)
And it's a...
(dark cold night)

My spirit is freezing to ice in this heat

Could you turn around and say
Hooray, it's a beautiful day L.A.
(yeah come on)
But now it's time
To pack your bags and go
Hooray it's a beautiful day L.A.
But I think I'll be gone today

I've been traveling at the speed of gasoline
And stopped by the color of electricity
We've been trying for too long
To cover up his fingerprints
From a distant past

And it's a...
(dark cold night now)
And it's a...
(dark cold night)

My spirit is freezing to ice in this heat

Could you turn around and say
Hooray, it's a beautiful day L.A.
(yeah come on)
But now it's time
To pack your bags and go
Hooray it's a beautiful day L.A.
But I think I'll be gone today

And it's a...
(damned cold night now)
And it's a...
(damned cold night now)
My spirit is freezing to ice in this heat

Could you turn around and say
Hooray, it's a beautiful day L.A.
(yeah come on)
But now it's time
To pack your bags and go
Hooray it's a beautiful day L.A.
But I think I'll be gone today

Well, the lyrics definitely contain the word "damned". I can confirm this myself, having listened to the track multiple times. But the answer isn't as simple as that. First off, according to the website from which I ganked these lyrics, the lyrics in parentheses above are not sung by Blindside vocalist Christian Lindskog, but rather by guest vocalist Billy Corgan. Yes, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame is appearing as a quest on a Blindside album. According to Yahoo! Launch here,

Former Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan frontman Billy Corgan plays guitar on a track on the new album by Swedish rock band Blindside. The band's manager, Tim Cook, told Billboard.com, "Corgan heard a song, flipped out, and asked if he could play guitar on the record." Corgan recorded his parts for the track, "Hooray, It's L.A.," at his studio in Chicago, where he was joined by Blindside guitarist Simon Grenehed.

But I myself am doubtful of the claim that Billy Corgan sang anything on the track. For one thing, I've listened, and the vocals of the lines in parentheses above are basically indistinguishable from Christian's usual vocals. For another, as the Yahoo! Launch indicates (and I believe the liner notes corroborate), Corgan laid down guitar tracks for the song, and there is no mention of contributing vocals.

So, there is the possibility that Blindside itself didn't sing those vocals. But that seems to be getting off on a technicality -- those lines do appear in the song, so Blindside should take responsibility for them. But there's another question still to be asked -- is Blindside's use of the term "damned" an actual example of swearing? Steph, you and I both know that some words we consider curse words -- for example, "hell" and "damn" -- have honest as well as vulgar usages, while others are completely vulgar. I'm not sure which way this specific example goes. I've heard some people claim that this is an honest use of the word "damned", using nighttime in LA as a metaphor for the world, and thus making the acceptable Christian statement that this world is damned. Christian is obviously making reference to Christ earlier in the song, as well as the world's willful ignorance of Him: "We've been trying for too long / To cover up his fingerprints / From a distant past".

I can't say for sure, but I have great respect for Christian both as a musician and as a fellow Christian. So I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Make your own call; it's not clear-cut either way.