The New Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

More cheesy than when cheesy, the cheese eating Cheshire cat, ate Cheshire cheese, in the Cheshire cheese pub in Cheshire....

Catcher10 wrote: Evolver wrote: Catcher10 wrote: And to those points...what albums/artists would be banned quicker by the general public?   Neal Morse or Canibal Corpse?     Really?  Is anyone talking about banning Neal Morse albums? That sort of brings to mind the phony complaints of a "war on Christmas".   As for Morse's albums, I enjoy his musical compositions immensely, but I find many of his lyrics lately to be ham-handed and tired.  Religious and non-religious.  But bad lyrics never stopped me from purchasing an album.   It was a question...not a statement and again to the general public. For example, are there more movies about death, evil, brutality, or religious movies with a good message?   I am asking a question not making a statement. I think it is easier for people to discuss or be comfortable with or not really have too much of a problem with discussing evil things......versus discussing religious things. So I think that is why there is so much dislike for Neal's subject matter on a lot of his albums....it may be uncomfortable for a lot of people.   It does not matter to me one bit how anyone feels, but I am just posing a question.

As a non-Christian, I agree with you.  I don't really understand the need to ridicule or get upset about religious themed music.........and it's something I used to do myself.  Of course, my first introduction to Christian rock music was of the more "mainstream" variety, which I despised because it was generic, generally terrible music.

Neal Morse has shown me that Christian Rock can actually be GOOD musically.  I don't relate to the message, but I do relate to Neal's journey in life, as mine was similar in some ways (though we came to different resolutions of our mental struggles).

I do get a bit tired of being told that I'm ruining my life by not accepting Jesus into my life (I get that sometimes even from people that I like and respect).  I haven't seen that at all on this thread though, so you folks are okay by me   I DO get that from some of Neal's lyrics (though very few, really), but I can live with that if the music is excellent.  I don't criticize people for not sharing my view of spirituality, and I except the same from them.


Edited by infandous - December 17 2013 at 10:01

dr wu23 wrote: I don't have a problem with Morse's 'Christian' lyrics, but I checked out Momentum and ? ,and while being well played and recorded they just don't have that 'magic' that the Spocks Beard albums had when he was with them.

Interesting.  I prefer Morse's solo stuff to the Spock's stuff (though I consider at least two Spock's albums to be masterpieces).

M27Barney wrote: infandous wrote: dr wu23 wrote: I don't have a problem with Morse's 'Christian' lyrics, but I checked out Momentum and ? ,and while being well played and recorded they just don't have that 'magic' that the Spocks Beard albums had when he was with them. Interesting.  I prefer Morse's solo stuff to the Spock's stuff (though I consider at least two Spock's albums to be masterpieces). I have the Morse solo stuff on a shelf gathering dust, IS IT so musically GOOD that I could ignore the cheesy lyrics?

M27Barney wrote: infandous wrote: dr wu23 wrote: I don't have a problem with Morse's 'Christian' lyrics, but I checked out Momentum and ? ,and while being well played and recorded they just don't have that 'magic' that the Spocks Beard albums had when he was with them. Interesting.  I prefer Morse's solo stuff to the Spock's stuff (though I consider at least two Spock's albums to be masterpieces). I have the Morse solo stuff on a shelf gathering dust, IS IT so musically GOOD that I could ignore the cheesy lyrics?

To me, absolutely. But it's completely subjective.
And there is one huge element Morse has that Spock's did not. PORTNOY!!!

Crumple wrote: I don't understand why one would even TRY to keep listening to Neal's solo stuff if they were so put off by the lyrics. The Slayer example is a good one...I love lots of metal (hair metal, Metallica, Megadeth, Priest, Maiden etc). But I have no problem leaving death metal, Slayer and Rob Zombie for example behind because the lyrics and imagery offend me. It's not even a difficult decision, it just happens naturally. And I certainly would never find myself on a Slayer message board posting about how troublesome I find the lyrics!

I used to listen to Slayer, Megadeath, Venom, Napalm Death when I was late teens...Then Metallica took over and since I hit my thirties/forties prog metal has replaced all the thrash metal I liked in my youth. I don't find demonic/devil worshipping lyrics a problem - because I think the bands are genuinely singing tongue firmly in the cheek, they DON'T ACTUALLY believe in SATAN any more than they believe in the BALROG or any of the fantastic creatures thought up by JRR Tolkien.....However Morse genuinely BELIEVES in his particular sky fairy who is actually three sky fairies in one......
I got married in a catholic church (I know, I know)...the Mrs was christened catholic but hadn't been to church since she was 16 - so she didn't actually believe in any of the canon fed to her as a child.
Thus we had to meet the priest, and I distinctly remembered my Fiancee with her hand between my legs ready to squeeze my bollocks hard if I took the piss out of him when he mentioned that he had heard god speak to him inside his head etc...It was a good job my grandma had insisted I got christened (my mum/dad were hippy 50's atheist) and kept the certificate - otherwise I would have had to been christened - that would have been a right bummer...

H'm. can't see that the Priest (Father Murphy I recall) being into Venom! Rotting Christ maybe.....

Edited by M27Barney - December 18 2013 at 11:16

M27Barney wrote: H'm. can't see that the Priest (Father Murphy I recall) being into Venom! Rotting Christ maybe.....

This reminded me of a friend of mine in High School, who's parents would not allow him to listen to anything but Christian music.  So he found Christian Death Metal bands to listen to.....complete with cookie monster vocals and pummeling down tuned riffs.  I always wondered why Christians would want to play such music in the first place, since it is so dark and menacing by its very nature.

His pastor told him that those bands were still evil, that it didn't matter that the lyrics praised God and Jesus.......the very nature of the music was evil.  He wasn't buying it and listened to them anyway.  Apparently it was the BEAT of rock and roll that preachers of the 50's felt was evil, let alone the lyrics.  So really, all you guys that like rock music of any sort are being tricked by the devil because it's the "tribal" drumming that is a tool of Satan, not just the lyrics

V is wonderful. one of Spock's best! 

Edited by AlexDOM - December 18 2013 at 18:02

I think that a lot of America is still under Theological control


Morse is and that is why he is BADA**!!!


Edited by AlexDOM - December 19 2013 at 10:34