Professor of Rock

Treat yourself to Ka'chava. Go to https://www.kachava.com/ and use code POR for 15% off your first order. Def Leppard, the Byrds, Sting... They all took song from the Bible! Inspiration for a hit song can come from anywhere. Here on the channel, we’ve discussed a lot of unexpected song origins. And today we’re continuing that trend with an episode about songs whose lyrics were lifted from The Good Book... the Bible. And you’re gonna be shocked. It’s a counter-intuitive episode where we explore the spiritual side of rock. But these aren’t tracks that you’ll find in a hymn book at church… well, actually, one of them you will. But not in the way that you think. You’ll see. We’ve also got a #1 protest song by The Byrds that traces its origins back thousands of years. As well as the story of Metallica's heavy metal drummer who was obsessed with the movie The Ten Commandments. We’ve got some surprise revelations coming up in this one, as well as exclusive commentary straight from the artists. It’s all happening NEXT on the Professor of Rock. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive Producer Brandon Fugal Honorary Producers Norman Buchwald, Cliff Konstans, Steve DocPinko Cloutier, Jenny Blaxell, Jason Elliott, AArthriticGamer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast Apple: https://apple.co/445fVov Spotify: https://spoti.fi/42JpfvU Amazon: https://amzn.to/44b5D6m iHeartRadio: https://bit.ly/444h8MO ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: http://bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan Merch Store: https://professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com/ Instagram: https://bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock #classicrock #80smusic #vinylstory #80srock Hey music junkies, Professor of Rock, always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time. If you remember setting up the game Mouse Trap only to set it off before you even started playing, you’ll dig this channel of deep musical nostalgia. Make sure to subscribe below right now and click the bell so that you never miss an episode. So for today’s show we’re zeroing in on the spiritual side of rock and roll. In the past we’ve covered songs that delve into supernatural and the unbelievable. But for this show we’re looking at popular music through the lens of of belief. Some people might think that Rock and Spiritually might not mix, but the truth is that the rock canon is stacked with songs with spiritual and religious connections. If you flip through the pages of rock history you’ll discover songs inspired by Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and others as well. For example George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord praises the Hindu god Krishna. David Bowie and Tina Turner both had ties to Buddhism. And so does KD Lang’s Constant Craving. Cat Stevens converted to Islam, changing his name to Yusuf Islam. Norman Greenbaum was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home and later wrote Spirit in the Sky from a Christian perspective. And we’ve covered a lot of these. But for the scope of this episode, I’m narrowing down our spiritual survey to my Top 5 songs that were taken straight from the Bible. It’s an idea that I owe to a conversation I had with the legendary lyricist and songwriter Sting. We were talking about his song The Lazarus Heart, one of my favorite songs from his catalog. And so I got to thinking, what other songs are out there that have used Biblical references? So having said that, I’m sure it’s no surprise that I’m starting the countdown with Sting and The Lazarus Heart at #5. The opening track from his second solo album, Nothing Like the Sun, The Lazarus Heart was never released as a single. However, I think that The Lazarus Heart is definitely one of Sting’s hidden gems. The title references one of the greatest miracles described in the Bible… The story of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. You can find it in John chapter 11 in the New Testament. Here Jesus calls Lazarus back to life four days after his death. The story has captivated students of the Bible forever. Even today, the story continues to be used throughout pop culture. On the music scene, Lazarus has been referenced in songs by David Bowie, Paul Simon, Brandon Flowers, and Meat Loaf, just to name a few. But in The Lazarus Heart, the master lyricist Sting uses Lazarus to incredible effect as he writes about his mother. Here is what Sting told me about the song. So coming in at #4… It’s a hard-rocking band who hit their stride in the 80s… From their 1983 album Pyromania, it’s Def Leppard with Rock of Ages. So as the band tells it, they had this one song for Pyromania that they just couldn’t figure out.