SOTW #106 - Too Much Sex, Too Little Jesus

[GuitarManUpstairs]

Good morning all,

Hope everyone had a safe and fun-filled Decoration Day weekend. Mine was mostly excellent what with partying with good friends in Athens and watching my kids and nieces and nephew rock out to some DBT in Augusta.....but then capped with a dash of family drama that had me reciting the relevant lyrics from Bulldozers & Dirt and James McMurtry's Memorial Day in my head last night. Ugghhhh...anyway...

Too Much Sex...Too Little Jesus...

One night about a year ago I woke up at about 3:30 AM and couldn't go back to sleep. I decided to turn on the tube and surf awhile and as I was scrolling down the guide I came across that cesspool of about 10 channels dedicated to the 24/7 streaming flow of mind-fuck pontificate. Ordinarily, I pay these no mind, but this night one channel stuck out to me....GodTV. I was blown away...God now has his very own television network?...I guess he is keeping up with the times after all. Anyway, thinking I must have found purpose in my insomnia, I was curious to know what inspiration TVGod had for me this night and duly tuned in to His programming. All sarcasm aside, I was actually blown away...not in the wonder of His glory but at the shamelessness of the pandering and profiteering in the name of righteousness. I've lived in the belly of the Bible Belt my entire life so I'm plenty familiar with the manipulation of scripture to fit in with a particular ideology or to serve ulterior motives but this was dripping with enough fraudulent self-righteousness to gag a maggot. I was blown away that there are enough people out there that just eat this shit up and like it, in order to justify there being 10+ channels of availability. Why are so many people blind to the fact that there is not the slightest shred of spirituality in any of this? Why are they blind to the fact that they are nothing more than a profit center for the religio-industrial complex? I'm not sure if that is a actual word but it should be because it is a very real, powerful and pervasive entity in our communities, our education systems and certainly our politics. If you don't believe me, read this:


Anyway, sorry, back to the song...TMS...TLJ perfectly typifies a situation where a televangelist is preying off a persons emotions of insecurity and isolation. The bottom line of this song is that there very well may be too much sex and too little Jesus on both sides of the equation. Rather than being an outlet where one can reach out, be embraced with love and counselled with that person's best interest in mind it is instead a spiritual grist mill where you pay to receive some admonition and faux concern as you are shat out whilst they move on to the next guilty in line. And while televangelists may be the most obvious and egregious violators, this same game is played out in churches across America and around the world. "Pray away the gay...Thank God for dead soldiers....If only you would accept Christ you would be healed..."

That's not to say that all churches are the same and none are out there serving a good purpose but those that do seemingly are becoming fewer and farther between and in my opinion if Jesus came back and lent his opinion to the state of organized Christianity today, I'm almost certain it would not be a positive review. Looking forward to hearing RevMatt and John A. Arkansawyer's comments....

Related Cooley Quote: When asked to "Do something new." at his recent Athens solo show he replied, "Like what, sober up and stop associating with assholes? If that's anything like religion, I don't want any part of it."


Stacy was a troubled teen ever since she was twelve.
She felt the world close in on her and thought she needed help.
Listening to the radio on a Sunday night.
She heard the preacher calling out to call up on his Help-line.
He sounded so nice, he sounded so inviting,
and for a small donation she could have the Lord Almighty.
She told him her story. He told her his thoughts.
He said "You better get yourself right in the eyes of God.
Too much sex, too little Jesus."

"Stop that dope smokin!
Stop that masturbation!
Take the Lord into your heart and stop that fornication.
We're building us an army, gonna knock out Satan.
Visa or Mastercard, our operator's waiting.
Too much sex, too little Jesus."

"Satan's made a slave of you,
the Lord will set you free!
You don't know God from didley
and you're old enough to breed.
The sins of me and you are the reason he did bleed.
Now a word from our sponsor, then another troubled teen
with too much sex, too little Jesus."

[Tyler]

One of my absolute favorites. Only caught it live once, and that was an acoustic version. Would love to see this return to the rock show.

[Clams]

And the preacher said, "You know, you always have the lord by your side"
And I was so pleased to be informed of this, that I ran 20 red lights in his honor
Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord...

[Tequila Cowboy]

And the preacher said, "You know, you always have the lord by your side"
And I was so pleased to be informed of this, that I ran 20 red lights in his honor
Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord...

The song's twin in many ways and always one of my favorites from Mick and the boys. The first time I heard Too Much Sex.. was when I really realized I had found kindred spirits and a new favorite band.

[RevMatt]

It has been a while since I've chimed in on one of these so I think I'll have a go at it.

I come at the song from a different perspective. For those of you who are wondering, I am a fully ordained (3 years seminary, deacons orders followed by elders orders) in the Greater NJ Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. My preference as far as serving churches goes is rural congregations or congregations in working class communities. Theologically I can be best described as "moderate orthodox", a term I just made up but probably somebody else has already coined it. I've never served a congregation in the so-called Bible belt.

I don't know Patterson Hood's religious background. He really does not bring it up often. I don't know Cooley's either. However, my suspicion is that Cooley was brought to Sunday School and church weekly when he was growing up while Patterson's religious upbringing was more sporadic, maybe attending on holidays or times when his grandmother or great uncle brought him along. (I don't have a whole lot of evidence for this other than a single interview where Cooley mentioned that the narrator in the song "Cottonseed" is a composite of two people; one a Sunday School teacher who was supposedly a member of "the southern mafia" and the other a recently paroled man who spoke to a group of kids at Cooley's church. Also, I have always suspected that a parachurch organization like Young Life -- "Grab Ass" is what my father called those groups when he dropped me and my brother off for meetings -- is where he met the girlfriend in the song "Zip City".) Patterson Hood, however, has often used religion as the subject matter of a number of songs, most recently the "Dead Preacher Trilogy" on the last two albums. Sometimes the interest is purely sociological like the role of the preacher as tribal holy man in southern culture. But there is also a spiritual depth to much of Patterson Hood's body of work that can be seen in songs as early as "The Living Bubba" and as recent as the Go Go Boots album which is bookended by the songs "I Do Believe" and "Mercy Buckets". Also, who could forget the Wes Freed designed set for the Go Go Boots tour? Also, I've always considered the song "The Opening Act" to be as deceptively spiritual as some of the best short stories written by Tobias Wolff. Based on my reading of Patterson Hood's songs I would say that the man has a definate spirituality but objects to the way organized religion sets itself up as the single broker of salvation. Spiritual transcendence, in Patterson Hood's world, can be found in the everyday as long as we are attentive to both our inward state and the stories and encounters with others. Salvation can be found within your own heart, especially when shared with family. And the pulpit alone is not the sole venue for one's vocation. The stage and the recording studio are perfectly adequate when it comes to bearing witness, the listening audience as valid a community of faith as a congregation.

"Too Much Sex, Too Little Jesus". There are two major strengths in this song. First, much of the detail is suggested. We picture some oily slick "youth minister" hosting a radio targeting teens. My guess is that he is on the staff of the megachurch that owns the station. He is probably popular among both the kids and parents. Bet he plays guitar, has a lovely young wife and takes the youth group to the Creation Festival every summer. (An aside: I am totally against taking a youth group to The Creation Festival and tell all of my colleagues NEVER to do that. More high school girls get knocked up at that thing every year than Lollapolooza, Bonaroo and South By Southwest combined. Come Christmas time, guess who gets the blame the fifteen year old girl who snuck out of the tent at 2 AM to meet up with that nice sophmore from a good Bible college? That's right, the youth minister! And you learn the hard way that churches are exempt from taking out unemployment insurance on their employees. You'd have to be totally insane to bring a bunch of high school kids to that orgy. But I digress.) His next job is likely to be the associate pastor at another church but, if he plays his cards right and with a little luck, he might make the jump to senior pastor. Stacy, the troubled teen? If you're listening to that album you were probably in the same place she was at the same age. Your life was saved by rock and roll. Stacy is about to be exploited by some youth pastor with a radio show. But while rock and roll may not be able to keep from telling young boys lives it really makes no demands of its listeners. You can buy whatever records you like. No pressure to come out to a rock show. And the singer? He's just an artist. He doesn't ask for anything more than the price of a ticket. The youth pastor? He is already using the girl to build his own empire and career. He will chalk her up as another saved soul. And his youth group? The farthest thing from "come as you are". Stacy would not be accepted there until she changed her identity. No, the kids and parents would never admit that. But she will feel it the first time she walks into the place wearing her Green Day t-shirt.

The second strength of the song is the irony that both the singer and the listener can relate more to Stacy and are much more likely to help her than this radio preacher preying on troubled teens. He has probably never been in her shoes. His answers are simplistic. What happens to Stacy after the initial high of being saved? Is this girl, without a community of faith that genuinely cares for her and is willing to love and accept her, even capable of understanding such concepts as regeneration by faith?

Well, now you've all heard the minster's perspective. God help ya'll.

[Cole Younger]

Good stuff Rev.

I know Cooley said once that he grew up going to church which didn't surprise me. Patterson has been pretty open about the fact that his family didn't go and that he felt like he was judged for it.

I'm not sure where he's coming from on this song. I don't know if it is just a commentary on the crass oportunists who use religeon to pray on troubled people, and they are definitely out there, or Christianity being taken to task across the board and being painted with a big, broad brush. I hope it is the former rather than the latter, but honestly, neither one would surprise me and either way, I love this song.

Up until the last few years, being religeous and being Southern pretty much went hand in hand. That's not so much the case now or at least not to the same degree. I'm sure that there are plenty of folks that would call that progress but I'm not so sure.

Either way, the guy on the other end of Stacy's phone is a very real character. Plenty of folks using what my black friends refer to as "the preacher hustle" and it's one of the most insideous things I can think of. It's doubly sad to me that people like that guy on the phone turn so many people off to religeon because they have an experience or know someone who has an experience with a piece of trash like that and they mistakenly think that it is religeon that is evil rather than the sharlatan that is evil.

In the end, it's a great song no matter what the intent.

[211poundsofpork]

Probably my favorite Patterson tune off of Pizza Deliverance.

[Flea]

As the son of a Deacon in a Southern Baptist church in rural NC, this song always touched a familiar chord.

FYI, I am now devoutly atheistic (sorry, Rev).

[Rocky]

Let's see if I can make a post about this song that is shorter than the Rev's.

It's a commentary on the commercialization of religion.

[PADIRT]

And the preacher said, "You know, you always have the lord by your side"
And I was so pleased to be informed of this, that I ran 20 red lights in his honor
Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord...

The song's twin in many ways and always one of my favorites from Mick and the boys. The first time I heard Too Much Sex.. was when I really realized I had found kindred spirits and a new favorite band.

Always think of 'Your Woman Is A Living Thing' when I hear 'Far Away Eyes' anymore. Not wanting to jump into the exploitation of religion for benefit conversation. I will say that 'Too Much Sex' is a fantastic loud volume sing along, just like so many other DBT tunes.

[Gang Green]

I'm a sucker for any song which challenges modern day religion which I think this song does. But I do love this song and I also really like the version from Alabama Ass Whuppin.

[Mrs Swamp]

Here are my friend`s Marie and Brandon.
They were at homecoming 2012 and wore these shirts,
They did the song that night for them ...it was cool.
Here is the video filmed by Jonicont and the 3DD crew,,....I dig it !

Marie is due any day now ...

[GuitarManUpstairs]

AAW version set to a nice little collage. Thought it should go in here.

[GuitarManUpstairs]

BTW - anybody wanna fill me in of who "Nurse Doubleshot" is?

[Kudzu Guillotine]

BTW - anybody wanna fill me in of who "Nurse Doubleshot" is?

Jenn can confirm but if my memory serves, it's Cooley's wife Ansley.