Cyndi McCoy is an online friend I know from Pyrotheology circles. She recently released her own take on Amazing Grace – completely lyrically independent from the 18th-century version. While the original is justifiably a classic (it even gets covered by Krishna Das and Sting!), Cyndi’s rendition packs quite the lyrical punch. It’s quite…incendiary, scandalizing in its gratuitous generosity. Fans of the late Robert Farrar Capon, take note!
Listen and see for yourself:
Amazing Grace
verse 1
your love’s ridiculous, absurd and unfair,
enrages the religious
puts their good works to despair
your grace enrages holy men and women
cause it’s those ‘dirty sinners’
you’re letting in, in the end
pre-chorus
99 left behind
so you could run and find
the one who’s gone away
oh they worked all day
yet you paid them the same who just came
you paid an ‘unfair’ wage
chorus
amazing grace
how bittersweet the sound
you join the lost and leave the found
to shame
verse 2
you throw your robe on the shoulders of the son,
the one who spent your money on all wasteful kinds of fun
now big brother’s got a bitter face on
he could not accept your crazy love for that young wild son
pre-chorus
99 left behind
so you could run and find
the one who’s gone away
oh they worked all day
yet you paid them the same who just came
you paid an “unfair” wage
chorus
amazing grace
how bittersweet the sound
you join the lost and leave the found
bridge
he eats and drinks and they say he’s a glutton
a drunk who hangs with all those living in sin
why does he hang around those shady women?
’cause heaven still lives in them
chorus
amazing grace
how bittersweet the sound
you join the lost and leave the found
Get Cyndi’s Amazing Grace on iTunes and Spotify!
Cyndi McCoy found her life changed by Rob Bell’s book Love Wins, after which she worked with author and speaker Peter Rollins to create the One Year Church project in Brooklyn, New York otherwise known as ikonNYC. Her work and close friendship with Peter gave her the courage to flirt with the truly subversive and provocative message of the Gospel. Cyndi graduated with highest honours in Philosophy and currently is both a communications analyst and fully qualified personal coach with the International Coach Federation. You can connect with Cyndi on Facebook here.
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