A lot of people in the Christian music sphere probably know that the David Crowder Band released the first single last week for their upcoming album. The song they released is called How He Loves. Less known among the Christian music community is that the song originally written by John Mark McMillan. The story behind the song was that a great friend to John, and fellow youth leader, prayed one morning to God and said that if it would shake the youth of the nation and start a movement, he would give his life that day. He died that night in a car wreck. The next day, this song was written. Now, this song has really built up a lot of momentum since it was written. I believe it has received the biggest boost from Kim Walker and Jesus Culture version. We even played last August at one of the Heart of Worship events at Community Covenant.

Now, the thing is that the newest version of the song, released by the David Crowder Band, changes up one of the lines of the song. The lines that originally sang, “So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss” got changed to “So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss”.

Now, copyright law allows very small, minor changes to songs so that they’ll better fit the circumstances in which the song is played. And, this is a very minor change, it’s one word during a verse. But, defining a kiss as sloppy and wet makes it seem very different than unforeseen.

In regards to this specific song, I love the original lyrics. I love the imagery of Heaven just showering love on the earth, and to me, unforeseen makes it seem like a polite peck on the cheek that people sneak in on a first date; which is not the way God feels about us. He’s absolutely crazy about us and wants us to know it! So now, my question to you is a two pronged question.

Which lyric do you like better in this specific case? (Sloppy wet, or unforeseen.)
And, are you okay with changing of lyrics of songs? (Or do you hold to the belief that it was written that way for a reason?)

I’m hoping that we can get some differences in opinion going here and that’ll lead to good discussion on the subject.

d

p.s. Here’s a video of John Mark McMillan sharing the story behind the song and then singing it.

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5 Responses to “Changing Lyrics”
  1. joel beckett says:

    Sloppys my vote.

  2. Mindy says:

    "Unforeseen" brings with it connotations of newness, awkwardness. Maybe it's welcome, maybe it's not. It's exciting, it may be forbidden.

    "Wet and sloppy" is my dad trying to kiss my nose when I was a kid and me squealing and trying to get away from him and knowing he's going to kiss me anyway!

    Wet and sloppy's got my vote.

    On a side note, what kind of a prayer was that, anyway? God never wanted anyone to die. Jesus' death paid the price for us all. I got a little thrown off by that part of your blog, even though I understand that it's a profound story.

  3. What's up, I'm Stephen.

    @ our church the worship leader wouldn't sing it because of the Sloppy Wet Kiss line. It's just awkward. I'm not sure yet, but I imagine we'll be seeing the song now that DCB* has released an alternative. For that, I'm glad.

    • Dustin says:

      Hey Stephen, thanks for commenting!

      The song probably will get played in more churches and radio now that Crowder has released a version of it. I can see how the line can be a little awkward, but I still prefer the original line of "sloppy wet kiss". To me, it's about being covered by the love of God. And that's what the song is about, it's about how He loves us.

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