“O.K. Listen up, Guys. I’ve got a song for the worship band to do. It’s from Ike Watts’s new album.”
“That’s good, His ‘O God, Our Help in Ages Past’ is glorious. But isn’t he – well – a little… old? That song must have been written back in the 1990s.”
“Well, I gather he’s just got another deal, and this new song is hitting the download charts, so we have to do it. Look at the lyrics on the sleeve.”
“‘Published by Hellsings Music!’ – Isn’t that the Satanist label?”
“Well yeah, but they’ve got the best studio and backing musicians in Christian Music. Only the best is good enough for the Lord. Anyway, as I understand it Satan did a cover-version, and that’s something to do with why Hellsings got the publishing rights.”
“Maybe… but what about the co-writers on the song: it’s credited to ‘A. Crowley, I. Watts and Beelzebub.’ I don’t like the sound of that.”
“No, it’s Ike’s song all right. I think there’s just some kind of contractual arrangement where he shares writing credits and CCLI royalties with the other two.”
“Why in heaven’s name would he sign anything like that? But anyway, that’s not what I heard. I remember now that I saw an interview with Aleister Crowley, where he said his new song was inspired by a trance he had after taking heroin and cocaine. That’s where this line ‘Boil up, holy fire, and burn me if you dare’ comes from, surely?”
“I don’t see a problem with it – you can easily understand it as being baptized in the Spirit, yeah? The tune’s pretty good anyway, and just because Watts re-used one line – and credited it, remember – doesn’t mean Crowley or Beelzebub had any theological input. Again, you have to understand some of these contractual arrangements make this kind of stuff unavoidable.”
“So is that why if I Google ‘Ike Watts + Aleister Crowley’ I get a YouTube video of them dueting on-stage at the Hellsings Festival of Power? And why if I search ‘Ike Watts + Beelzebub’ I get Watts joining in a tribute to Beelzebub for forty years of leadership in worship music?”
“Now you’re just doing guilt by association! This is a great worship song with great words, and if you don’t like it there are plenty of other lead guitarists in the church. You can just…”
“Go to Hellsings? That seems to be more in your line.”
