“He was a little weird and we all feared
He wasn’t one of us
He didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke
And he didn’t even cuss
You’d see him now and then with a bunch of men
Hanging ’round the sea
And I’m sure I would have liked him more
If he were a little more like me” 🎶
When the Algorithm Proves Prophetic
I am unsure what sparked it, but YouTube Music recently suggested an old Messianic Kenny Rogers song: “A Little More Like Me”. I had not gone searching for it. It popped up in the app while I was on break at the hospital, sitting in a lobby after dark, sore and tired and feeling unappreciated. I say “messianic” because the song artfully gets you wondering if the narrator is describing an encounter with Jesus Christ. It’s a catchy tune my dad introduced me to when I was a kid, and I loved it right away. Just under three minutes. Give it a listen:
This points back to a defining moment of nostalgia from childhood, in which our family sat in the living room singing songs as Dad played the guitar and/or Mom played the piano. I especially like this song’s innocent hindsight. A man who drank too much while out with his buddies wakes up to discover someone he sorta knew got killed. With a setup like that, it seems odd to call the song charming, but that’s why I love it. It gets you wondering in an easygoing way. I can’t think of any hymns that do that. Don’t get me wrong, I love hymns. But I also love how the lyrics here refrain from beating me over the head with an absolute (preachy) meaning.
“A Little More Like Me,” can be found on Kenny Rogers’s iconic album The Gambler. According to Wikipedia, the songwriter for this tune was Sonny Throckmorton. Just felt like sharing it with you all. Have a good weekend!
How does a song like this compare to hymns? What other pop culture offerings, songs in particular, get you thinking of Jesus or other scriptural figures? How do they leave you feeling?
Wheat & Tares 
Thanks Jake for sharing that song and your thoughts about it. I love discovering new old songs. One I just came aware of is “As Tears Go By” written by The Rolling Stones. It is a melancholy Beatle-esque song that Keith Richards described as “a terrible piece of tripe.” But the song sold and made the band money.
“As Tears Go By” is a melancholy song about regret and perspective and the writers were 20 years old! What regret and perspective does a 20 year old have? Enough, apparently, to write a classic song that makes one think. The last verse especially is so philosophically rich. Life is new to a child That is a thing that makes childhood so memorizing. A challenge of being older is not losing the wonder of doing new thing.
It is the evening of the day
I sit and watch the children play
Smiling faces I can see
But not for me
I sit and watch
As tears go by
My riches can’t buy everything
I want to hear the children sing
All I hear is the sound
Of rain falling on the ground
I sit and watch
As tears go by
It is the evening of the day
I sit and watch the children play
Doing things I used to do
They think are new
I sit and watch
As tears go by