New Wave Music Has Me Wondering "What's Wrong With Me?"

Last week I dusted off, quite literally, an album that I haven’t listened to in years. I put the 25 year old CD in my van and have been listening to it as I drive to and from work. I haven’t listened to this song in probably over a decade, and even then, I'm not sure I ever paid attention to the lyrics.

The Echoing Green song Accidentally 4th St (Gloria) is a cover of a New Wave song by the band Figures on the Beach, originally released in the late 80’s. The song, in three verses, sums up life as fallen creatures here in the United States of America.

Verse 1

Well, we're looking at the cover
Spending all our time
Just staring at the magazine
Well, look who's on the cover
Wasting all our time
Some psuedo-fascist hero machine
Well, that's no space for a human being
That man is not a hero or saint
When somewhere in deepest America
Grown men weep at the sound of his name

In just three verses, we are reminded that what we see and experience now is not new, but just more of the history that is repeating itself. As verse one shows, there is a tendency to make a hero out of a man who is "no hero or saint". As I recall, the country elected such a man in 2016.

Verse 2
Well, I grew up where they showed you the body count
In color on the dinner TV
And I've been numbed so insensitive
That all I can think about is you and me
Children from the best homes
They all have guns and butter
They have their share of murder blue
Well it's not such a wiggy
Awesome-good-time
When a shopping mall milita point their cannons at you

Verse two could easily be updated to the numbness that can come from over-saturation of news. We can read about a horrible tragedy and continue to scroll. After all, if it doesn't affect me, then I can continue life as if nothing happened. And that's not even asking if the second half of the verse foreshadowed cancel culture.

Verse 3
Everyone believes in the stories
'bout the Cadillacs
Everybody's got enough to eat
And people always keep their eyes
Glued to the ground
When a desperate man, he's gotta cling to the street
And I swear to myself I will help them
I will be an upstanding man
But when I walk by and I hear them cry
That money just sticks to my hand, what's wrong with me?

And before I get too comfortable, verse three points it's cannons at me. Even if not by U.S. standards, most of us are extremely wealthy. And yet, when we encounter someone truly in need do we help them, or does the "money just stick to my hand"? As someone who has been there, and done that, I find myself asking the same refrain "What's wrong with me?" Why is it easier to avoid eye contact with those in need, keep my eyes "glued to the ground", then to help those made in the Image of God?

I knew nothing about Figures on the Beach before today. And I had mostly forgotten about The Echoing Green's self-titled album until I rummaged through my CD collection for something to listen to last week. Once again I've been reminded that food for thought, and pricking of one's conscience, can come from unexpected places.