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Tastes Like Chicken

© Paul Landkamer

I got the CD in the mail a while back. I listened over and over, and I got more and more into the music. I asked when their second CD was due out. Then, while on our way up to Minneapolis for Memorial Day weekend, I finally got to read the lyrics. Now I'm quite torn about what to call Amos. (Could someone tell me what you see on the website? I can't seem to access it.)

First of all, I disagreed somewhat with artists to whom other reviewers compared Amos. Why does everybody want to say "It tastes like chicken" or "They sound like the Beatles"? I try to call 'em as I hear 'em. While others compare Amos to The Beatles, The Who and Pink Floyd, I think they're a bit more progressive than pop. My son says they sound a lot like the modern secular group, Tonic. I couldn't say.

When I listened to Amos, I heard sounds of Moody Blues, King Crimson and Ten Years After. Some songs drew other images for me. One had a Paul Revere and the Raiders flavor, while others sound slightly like Procol Harem, Emerson Lake and Palmer, The Kinks and The Byrds. Amos has a real classic rock sound with strong psychedelia flowing throughout. Musically, I love 'em, and have to give 'em a 5. -However-

The CD, For Life the Dream to Live, has 10 tracks on it. Only three of those tracks came across as biblically moral, but none were outwardly Christian in their message.

I didn't catch the message in the first track, "Indian Song." It doesn't seem to be about the plight of Native Americans, nor does it seem a slam on what was done to the Indians to acquire what's now the U.S.A. (I'm really tired of those who try to re-write shame into history. It's too late to right the wrongs now, but that's another topic altogether.) The second track came across as a song of patriotism, but that we've lost our real values. I counted that among the positives. Track three sort of baffled me. What does "We plunder into our oblivion" and "Retreat to the other side" mean in "House of Our Forgotten"? Despite the lack of clarity, I loved the music! Number four was another positive one in that there's so much to be thankful for we shouldn't dwell on our problems.

Track five, "Recreation" killed the album for me. For the same reason I can't sing Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World" 'If I was the king of the world' verse in church, I can't count "Recreation" as appropriate on a Christian CD. Do my readers agree? Here's the last part of the song: "If I were Buddy Holly, and you were Peggy Sue, If I were recreating, I'd spend some time with you, Make sweet love, That's what I'd do, Make sweet love to you, That's what I'd do, Make sweet love to you." I might be misinterpreting the song, but I sure couldn't sing it to the girls of my church's youth group. It might be OK, husband to wife, but not otherwise, as I hear it.

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