Sacred Cows

Description

Sacred Cows, sub-titled The Songs That Helped Us, is the fourth album by the American alternative rock combo The Swirling Eddies, released on StarSong Records in late 1996, distributed by Chordant Distribution Group. The album was recorded by Prickly Disco with Camarillo Eddy at The Green Room, Huntington Beach, California, and was produced by Camarillo Eddy for Stunt Productions.

Basically it is The Swirling Eddies performing their own less-than-serious versions of popular CCM hits. The reaction to the album was mixed. Some fans loved it, others absolutely hated it and returned their CDs smashed into tiny pieces. Some tracks, like the Eddies cover of DC Talk’s “I Luv Rap Music” found a considerable amount of radio play in various markets. Reactions from the songs original artists were generally positive. Eddie DeGarmo commented about how he knew that D&K should never have recorded “God Good, Devil Bad”. Amy Grant later referenced the album jokingly in a video tribute to Terry Taylor which was played before a Lost Dogs concert in Chatsworth, California.

The sleeve notes say that the Swirling Eddies are attempting to cross over into mainstream CCM and so they’ve recorded their 10 favourite CCM tracks which have helped them! Ahem! Terry Taylor’s alter ego band have a reputation for the tongue in check ever since the epic «Hide The Beer The Pastor’s Here». Now it seems that they want to upset the entire Christian community by taking some of CCM’s best loved and most successful tunes and sending them up in a way that only the Eddies could manage. This spoof could be highly offensive if you love Amy’s «Baby Baby» which is here reduced to a sub Crash Test Dummies soundalike complete with a brilliant keyboard solo. The hero of Carman’s spiritual warfare epic «Satan Bite The Dust» is reduced to a wimpy sounding lisper who delivers all the right lines but doesn’t speak with quite the same authority of Carman. «I Luv Rap Music» becomes a hilarious piece of lounge jazz! Al Denson’s «Alcatraz» loses its impact when performed using cheesy synth sounds with a variable tape speed. Audio Adrenaline’s «Big House» is sung by “Spot” who suffers from Elmer Fudd’s disease! I suspect that there is some intention of a deeper meaning from Taylor as an observation that a lot of successful Christian tunes are theological no brainers. Ok, ok, ok. it’s just one huge pointless but highly entertaining laugh! Buy the album and help the band defend themselves when the cream of CCM join together and sue them down to their Y fronts! Some Sacred Cows deserve a trip to the abattoir! [Mike Rimmer, Cross Rhythms, August 1997]

CD tracklist:

01. God Good, Devil Bad (Originally recorded by DeGarmo and Key on Heat It Up)
02. Baby Baby (Originally recorded by Amy Grant on Heart In Motion)
03. Satan, Bite the Dust (Originally Recorded by Carman on Addicted to Jesus)
04. Not For Me (Originally recorded by Kim Boyce on Times and Seasons)
05. I Luv Rap Music (Originally recorded by DC Talk on Nu Thang)
06. Convertibles (Originally recorded by White Heart on Don’t Wait For The Movie)
07. I Use the J Word (Originally recorded by DeGarmo & Key on Heat It Up)
08. Alcatraz (Originally recorded by Al Denson on Reasons)
09. Big House (Originally recorded by Audio Adrenaline on Don’t Censor Me)
10. Sing Along Song (Originally recorded by Stryper on To Hell With The Devil)

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by StarSong Records.