Easy Listening

Perhaps one of my all-time favorite lyricists is Steve Taylor, a quirky Christian musician whose career began to take off in the 1980s. On his last studio album, Squint, there is a song called "Easy Listening" which serves as an example of the Myth of Eternal Return, albeit with a little twist...

The song is authored by an older person doling out advice to younger Christians in the year 2044. The song begins with the lyric, "Gather-me-grandchildren if you love a good mystery / Gather-me-grandchildren for a little church history / It's 2044 and you're avoiding our turn-of-the-century ways."

The lyrics serve as an extremely appropriate example of the Myth of Eternal Return, which holds that if things could only be like they used to be, everything would be much better. Under this assumption, the Myth of Eternal Return encourages that we strive to apply concepts from the past to the present in order to improve our quality of life.

In the song, the author is uncomfortable with the ideas of self-sacrifice and radicalism these new Christians possess, and therefore sees it fit to remind these young believers how Christians were able to attain success at the turn-of-the-century.

This is where the irony comes into play. Whereas the author subscribes to the belief that things were better "back then" in the world of Christendom, the listener is aware that he is terribly mistaken. The listener understands that his longing for the old days represents a regression toward a more shallow Christianity.

The author describes his position in the following question-and-answer format: "How did we strike it rich? / Kissing up to the powerful / How did we make our pitch? / Satellites by the towerful / Why do you young hotheads have to go and get caught up in a radical phase?"

He follows with more abrasive statements: "My conscience was clear and my wallet was full / I didn't hear none of this "sacrifice" bull / Tough times call for a backtrack / Gimme that old-time easy listening."

In summation, this song relates to the Myth of Eternal Return in two important ways:

First of all, it serves as an example of a longing for the past in the belief that things would be better or eaisier if the group (young Christians) would subscribe to values of the past (the superficial "turn-of-the-century ways" of the older author).

Secondly, this text shows that many times the Myth of Eternal Return is mythic in the sense that it is based on a falsity. The "good ol' days" can be a misguided view of history for older people who do not recognize all the things that were wrong during that time period.

In a society that thrives so much on progression, it is interesting that we still maintain an affinity for "values" of the past and the "good ol' days." As unlikely as it may seem, it is true and it is reflected in a wide array of media.