Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

Do you think this FAILS the “Baby” test????!

Published by

Matt Stone

2011-07-24

Many of my friends will be familiar with my “Baby Test” for Christian worship music. It was inspired by the Southpark episode “Faith + 1” where Catman puts together a Christian worship band to milk the Christian music market on the premise that all you really had to do was replace the word “Baby” with “Jesus” in any pop love song.

So my test is this: if we can reverse engineer Cartman, if a worship song can be collapsed into a secular love song simply by removing the names and titles of Jesus and inserting “Baby”, if the Christian content is otherwise negligable, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!

So with that in mind, just take a look a what this church does with “You Spin Me Right Round” and compare it to the Dead or Alive version. Head slap. I’m wondering if they do Justin Bieber as an encore. Like Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Oh!

More on worship fails:

Jesus, I’m NOT in Love With You
Mission Shaped Liturgy
The Fall of Christian Creativity

Tags Music

9 responses to “Do you think this FAILS the “Baby” test????!”

Scott Rayl

2011-07-25

Chunder! I can’t watch it!

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Lucy J

2011-07-25

You CAN watch it if you turn the sound off…

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Andrew

2011-07-26

At least they’re only swinging around their socks, not their jocks.

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Lucy J

2011-07-26

Well, actually, I watched it with the sound on, and because I couldn’t really hear the lyrics clearly, it’s hard to comment on the content.
Can anybody help me with deciphering what they were singing about?
The music was a bit repetitive, but not entirely unpleasant.
The things that really bothered me was imagining the smell and the thought of all the tinea fungal spores spinning around in the atmosphere… I agree with Andrew – better sox than jox in this case…

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Matt Stone

2011-07-26

What were they singing about? I agree it was a bit garbled but here’s the lyrics from the original they were channeling:
Yeah I, I got to know your name
Well and I, could trace your private number baby
All I know is that to me
You look like you’re lots of fun
Open up your lovin’ arms
I want some
Well I…I set my sights on you
(and no one else will do)
And I, I’ve got to have my way now, baby
(and no one else will do)
And I, I’ve got to have my way now, baby
All I know is that to me
You look like you’re havin’ fun
Open up your lovin’ arms
Watch out, here I come
*You spin me right round, baby
right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
I, I got be your friend now, baby
And I would like to move in
Just a little bit closer
(little bit closer)
**All I know is that to me
You look like you’re lots of fun
Open up your lovin’ arms
Watch out, here I come
[*Repeat]
I want your love
I want your love
[**Repeat]

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RevNeads

2011-07-27

Oh Lord, save us.

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Lucy J

2011-07-27

Did they really just replace “Baby” with “Jesus”? Surely not?!
Except for the shaved patterns on the lead singer’s head, his hairstyle looks like a lot of babies’ hairstyles I’ve seen.

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Matt Stone

2011-07-27

Unbelievable as that may sound, yes, it was a complete rip off. Well, at least as far as the chorus was concerned, which was after all the most coherent bit. The rest, the charming “Holy Ghost hoedown”, “start a love train” and “mess us up” chants were admittedly artistic (cough, cough) licence on their part. I felt, however, the piece de resistance was his final summation: “Yeah, ha, ha, we love the Lordy.” You know its a hatchet job when the original transvestite inspired version sounds like the less blasphemous one and indeed violates fewer commandments.

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brambonius

2011-07-28

“You know its a hatchet job when the original transvestite inspired version sounds like the less blasphemous one and indeed violates fewer commandments.”
I want the time I spent listening to this video back!

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