Ed changing the lyrics, A place to argue Options

[thefunkyredcaboose]

Recently Ed has been changing the lyrics to more and more old Live songs:

1. "To Christ, a cross, to me, a chair, I will sit and I've got to worship from down here!"

2. Adding Amazing Grace into I Alone.

This began with Operation: Spirit in the Live days. I don't think we all cared as much because we were just glad to hear the song again. But, what now?

I think the STD lyric change makes very little sense within the rest of the song, as does placing Amazing Grace into I Alone. If the song is now meaningless, what is the point of continuing to perform it when there is a large back catalog of tunes?

And before anyone says it, if Ed is truly a Christian then great for him, but this discussion really isn't about that. I am rather fond of many of the Christians I know and I am very familiar with their practice. This is more about what the lyric changes do to the song.

Have at it.

[Pokey]

Yeah I don't think this would have anything to do with royalties.

I think it's a shame really. Someone brought up the point that they're his songs and he should be able to do what he wants. Again that's not the point, of course he can do it, the argument is should he do it. I don't believe he should.

These songs obviously reflect how he felt at a certain point in his life, and it's clear his feelings have changed, and that's fair enough. But the songs were still written with purpose and meaning. When he wrote them he poured his heart into them and some of them had obviously some ridiculous amount of thought and time go into them I'm sure. To throw away a line now which changes the meaning of the song just devalues the original work.
So many of us fell in love with those songs just the way they were for the content of them as much as anything else. They spoke to us. Changing that just doesn't sit right.

A lot of the time I don't mind when a singer changes the words to songs in concert. It can give the concert a really unique feel and I do like songs not sounding like exact replicas of what you hear on CD.
Not to constantly bring up Morrissey, but he's a classic example of changing lyrics in songs. However the changes are generally very tongue in cheek and if they change the meaning of the song it's done in an ironic humourus fashion. For example changing the line of "please please please let me get what I want" to "let me get who I want". Or just one word changes like "walkman started to melt to ipod started to melt[i].

I think there's a real difference between changing the words in a song, and changing the meaning in a song. It's fine to change the words and have fun with it live and such. But changing the meaning is different, if Ed really doesn't feel those songs represent him anymore then I wish he wouldn't play them. Let them rest instead of whoring them out and dragging what they were written for through the mud.

Could you imagine someone who started off as a Christian rock star writing songs about God, changing his thinking and becoming an athiest but still singing a song about praising God but changing some words around to flip it on it's head? It just sounds absurd, they'd be better off writing new songs that reflect the way they feel now.

Yes Ed has done that with his new album, but there's still a great deal of old Live material he could call upon (although I wish he wouldnt) that don't have to conflict with his Christian beliefes. Waitress or Shit Towne for example.