Lust Control – Dancing Naked

Description

Dancing Naked is the sophomore album by the American punk band Lust Control, self-released on cassette only in 1989. Steve Allen and Paul LeMond once again were the producers and engineers, and 19 songs were recorded live to 2-track. (Only this time, the tunes were laid down on a digital Super VHS (SVHS) tape, instead of the Beta tape used for the debut, This Is A Condom Nation.)

Featuring Gene (Doug Van Pelt) on vocals, Stanley (Paul Q-Pek) on guitars, Duane (Maury Milican) on bass, and George (Phillip Owens) on drums.

So this is the second tape by the infamous Lust Control. For those not in the know, Lust Control was an underground punk band led by anonymous members that even wore masks in concert so that no one could guess their identity. Turns out it was Doug Van Pelt of Heaven’s Metal / HM magazine originally fronting various members of One Bad Pig and other Austin area bands. The music was somewhat sloppy but enjoyable to listen to. All of the controversy came from their lyrics. They sang from a very extreme right wing political and religious viewpoint that ended up offending people that were any where to the left of that side of the spectrum – including right-wing Republicans. You could tell they were joking a lot and also very serious a lot, so it was hard to tell what to take seriously and what to take as satire or humor. They also didn’t respond too well to criticism, even when they did cross some theological lines that most Christians disagreed with them on. Such is the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, though. See the exvangelical movement for the fruits of that.

Many of the jokes are about people and ideas that were probably well-known (at least in some circles) 30 years ago, but have been lost to time. They also make comments about people judging their spirituality (see «Dancing Naked»), while spending most of their songs doing the same to others. Also, it was interesting to hear the lyrics to «Swimsuit Edition Wallpaper» again and then realize that decades later, the band would basically use swimsuit edition wallpaper as a front cover for their Tiny Little Dots album. And defend against any question about that apparent contradiction. Maybe they have learned a bit of humility in the past few years and can actually discuss differences rather than just argue. Who knows? But I do feel the need to step out of my “no commenting on lyrics” stance to address one big problem with their lyrics, even if it brings the wrath of the band or their arduous defenders down on this blog.

I did find their lyrics humorous at first. In general, in the 90s I looked at political fights between left and right as silliness that I didn’t care about because I saw problems with both sides. I now know there are extremes in every political position that can be dangerous, and we need to be careful of those. I also tend to look at this band as a case study in accountability in churches. Humor and sarcasm is great in my book – I am usually accused of crossing the lines with both on a regular basis. But you still have to ground your stances with an actual understanding of those that you are talking about, and don’t do it in ways that support existing abusive power structures. For example, a frequent subject of attack for Lust Control is Planned Parenthood. If you do or don’t like Planned Parenthood, I am not here to change your mind either way. But Lust Control over and over again states things about Planned Parenthood that just are not correct by any objective standard. It makes the points of their jokes and thoughts fall apart. In other words, they really could actually make a point for their position with their jokes if they used correct information underlying them. But their lyrics are filled with the same stereotypical misunderstandings of liberalism, gay rights, feminism, academia, etc that are rampant in far-right leaning churches. There is a reason that we call this “strawman argumentation” for a reason (and yes, I know people that are moderate and liberal do it all the time, too – but they obviously were not writing lyrics for this demo).

When they are aiming their songs at lusty conservative males like themselves, they are often calling out things that need to be pointed out to other dudes. Its when they start going on the attack against, well, anyone else that is not a heterosexual conservative Christian male that their lyrics get problematic. So many fundamentalist evangelical churches have long histories of abuse towards women, the LGBTQA community, and any issues concerning people of color that get swept up by the “liberal” over-generalization. When the band veers into that territory, it comes across as “punching down” as some say, especially towards the women in their churches and communities. Well, and pretty much the few people there that also aren’t heterosexual cis-gendered white males around them as well. This is especially true when they get the positions of those people wrong. Why pick on the people that the church has already hurt by propagating the same lies about them that the church has used to abuse them in the past? Many of us are calling the churches of all political leanings to do better than this. [Christian Tape Underground, May 4, 2019]

Cassette tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Rebuke
A2. “Jesus Washed His Feet”
A3. “Dancing Naked”
A4. “What About Your Wife?”
A5. “Circumsized, Baptized & Moon Pies”
A6. “Fun, Fun Feeling”
A7. “Living In The New Age”
A8. “Witch Hunt”

Side Two
B1. “Whats Goin On”
B2. “Say It Like A Rock Star”
B3. “Big Bang!”
B4. “Deliverance”
B5. “John Styll”
B6. “Swimsuit Edition Wallpaper”
B7. “Operation Rescue”
B8. “That Groove Thang”
B9. “You Too”
B10. “Planned Parenthood”
B11. “Grace Reprise”

Note: Remastered and re-issued on CD by Roxx Records in 2021 featuring a 12 page lyric booklet with liner notes and lyrics.