Broadway the Hard Way

Posted by Carol on July 23, 2004 at 09:25:35

In Reply to: Re: Hot Rats posted by dutch mike on July 23, 2004 at 01:23:24:

I've been listening to this album lately. Zappa released it around 1988. This is the one where Zappa tears up Jim Bakker, Tammy Faye, and Pat Robertson for the hypocrisy and sheer greed in the US televangelism of the mid 1980s and the nasty backstabbing that went down with Robertson's takeover of Heritage USA.

Zappa really skewers Tammay Faye in "Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk,":

There's an ugly little weasel 'bout three-foot nine
Face puffed up from cryin' 'n lyin'
'Cause her sweet little hubby's
Suckin' prong part time
(In the name of The Lord)

Get a clue, little shrew
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Jesus thinks you're a jerk.

At the time it was released, this seemed very funny and true. It sort of bothers me now that I've seen "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," a camp documentary released around 2000, where she tells her side of the story. Tammy Faye is currently on a reality show that I watch from time to time, and I have to say, I find her to be a sympathetic character, even if she is a little different or oddball. The woman's got heart, and that's a lot more humanity than some of her evangelical counterparts can lay claim to.

Did you know Tammy Faye has had her makeup tatooed on? I mean, her "lip liner" is a tatoo line; her eyebrow liner is a tatoo, and her eyelids have been lined with permanent tatoo khol. That's an extreme level of insecurity around the need to "save face"...

My Jesus doesn't think she's a jerk. My Jesus feels sorry for her. Maybe she's a "fool for Jesus," but I think she's just plain foolish--kind of like the rest of us exfamily who've done nutty stuff in the name of religious truth, but when we look back on it--wow, where is the "truth" in all that?