"Satan, Bite the Dust" by Carman, February 18, 2017

Let me be clear this song is awful. It feels a little Westboro Baptist of me to speak ill of the dead. Last night (Korea time), I read that CCM artist Carmelo Dominic  Licciardello, better known by his first name Carman (like Madonna or Cher), died of complications of hernia surgery. I wasn't convinced to post a song as tribute. He was a singer that was all kinds of problematic. A kind of Adam Sandler opera man singing at the marriage of the evangelical church and politics. He was CCM's greatest showman and gayest homophobe. He appropriated gay culture and left "the homosexual in San Fransisco... trapped in vile bondage." But it's not Carman's death that inspires today's song. It's another death, the other husband of the evangelical church is politics. Today, conservative talk radio host, Rush Limbaugh also died. I'm not actually influenced directly by either of these men, but they are both carry a torch that has influenced my upbringing and a lot of wrong thinking that takes years to undo. I'm not trying to write from a place of bitterness, but I do think it's important to analyze (Judgement Day?) the problematic and move forward.

HE'S TERRORIZED THE LIVES OF MEN, AND NOW HE'S UNDER ARREST. By the time I started listing to CCM radio around the year 1999, Carman was an occasional novelty, kind of like a Weird Al Yakovic to a Top 40 station. I remember songs like "The Witches Invitation," "R.I.O.T." and "No Monsters." His videos were occasionally played on Christian television programs, but they were a little before my time. If memory serves me right, CCM in the '90s was a cool, handsome Michael W. Smith. Amy Grant, the fallen woman who was almost banned, but still kinda a heart throb. Intro to dad music: Steven Curtis Chapman. DC Talk--a rap group who changed their style with every album. And then there was Carman. Single, sexy, Michael Landon-level of self obsession, Carman. Not gay but just couldn't find the right girl, Carman. Thanks to The Good Christian Fun podcast, my CCM memories were resurrected and because of their extensive coverage of Carman, including their two-year Halloween tradition, Carmania, Carman was brought back into my consciousness and forever burned in my memory. 

YOU SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY, YOU AIN'T WELCOME HERE NO MORE."PRESIDENT TRUMP BLUES" is one of the last songs released by Carman.  Gone were the days of stadium tours, expensive record deals, platinum records, and back up dancer sex offenders. After a miraculous healing from cancer in 2014, Carman began the last stages of his life, including getting married for the first time at the age of 61. The purity ring must have been tight. All jokes aside, I feel something in the pit of my stomach as we watched Carman age into who he became. Mainstream Christianity today is at a crossroads. More and more people are seeing the cracks in the myth of the Christian nation. The "cool" music of '90s was the Newsboys and Audio Adrenaline screaming the same messages of the preachers who were banning them for playing the devil's music. But Christian music changes both in style and message. In 2016, Christian Hardcore band The Devil Wears Prada's lead singer Mike Hranica shouted on tour "Fuck Trump" at all of the band's shows and the band continues to be played on Christian radio. But when Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay took to Twitter to affirm same-sex marriage, the band never really recovered from that.  I guess what I'm feeling is dissatisfaction, not just with Carman, but with this form of Christianity that fails to admit its wrong doings in the past. And I fear for myself. How can someone's beliefs and thoughts not grow since the '90s. How can you just keep spewing out the same type of lyrics that were funny back then, but now we realize they're quite offensive. It's time to tell the Satan of the past to bite the dust. 

https://genius.com/Carman-satan-bite-the-dust-lyrics