from the Album Love Life
(Sparrow Records, 1991)
I had the above conversation with a bookstore owner in Northern California. I wasn’t even the rep for Peacock’s label and yet I stood up for the album and put my own reputation with the store on the line by arguing the album’s case to the owner. I walked her over to the “Christian Living” section of her own book department and pointed out several titles that were just about “sex” including the perennially popular “Intended for Pleasure.”
I guess reading about the “s” word wasn’t as bad as listening about it. The odd thing is only one song on the entire album deals with sex and the intimate relationship within marriage. At that point I figured it was no use taking her to the fiction section and pointing out the best-sellers that were “Christian Romance” novels.
What that bookstore owner, and countless others, missed out on, was one of the truly great artistic triumphs in Christian music. Love Life is filled with poignant, powerful and purposeful songs that are not only musically and lyrically brilliant, but brutally honest and necessary. Peacock’s second 'major label' release stands the test of time and sounds incredible 20 years later.
Peacock’s ten songs about love and life run the gamut from pleasant commercial pop, to romping Gospel, funky soul and progressive jazz. The tension created by comparing and contrasting the spiritual and sexual realities that are consistently intertwined in human relationships and how it compares to our relationship with God is wonderfully conceived and Biblically firm.
...
Peacock’s ode to foreplay for Christians is sensual, provocative and clearly and utterly Biblical. Kiss Me Like a Woman may not be 'safe for the whole family,' but in a music world filled at the time with the likes of George Michael, Peacocks Biblical approach to Biblical intimacy is shocking breath of fresh air.
The song itself is a funky, sexy, groove filled romp that is passionate, hip and completely riveting. In it Peacock use the Biblical images from Song of Songs and Proverbs to address the need and reality of intimacy with a Biblical framework. But this is not about having a Bible Study before going to bed; this is about the honesty, trust and sacred act of the sexual relations. It is, hands down, the very best song on the subject and Peacock should have been praised for this work and not ridiculed and blacklisted!
Peacock even addresses the need to explain to our children the beauty and purity of the sexual relationship within the covenental confines of marriage. Finally, Peacock also addresses the Biblical concept that the sexual experience is both promoted and created by God. He built pleasure into the act and is pleased when His faithful find pleasure in His creation. It is because of the fact that He created and affirmed the act, that when it is out place, it is a rebuke and transgression against Him.
After the powerful and passion of the previous song, Peacock closes the album with a “throw back” Church music influenced ballad called “When I Stand With You.” Starting the song with just piano and voice, produced to sound crackly, like an old phonograph playing an old 78, the song morphs into a modern ballad with backing vocals, strings and various instruments continually being added as the song progresses. Here Peacock expresses that every idea presented before is ultimately meaningless without God.
Love Life is a brilliant album from the musical inception to the lyrical acumen of an amazing artist that heavily populates this list." (Source: JesusFreakHideout.com
The song itself is a funky, sexy, groove filled romp that is passionate, hip and completely riveting. In it Peacock use the Biblical images from Song of Songs and Proverbs to address the need and reality of intimacy with a Biblical framework. But this is not about having a Bible Study before going to bed; this is about the honesty, trust and sacred act of the sexual relations. It is, hands down, the very best song on the subject and Peacock should have been praised for this work and not ridiculed and blacklisted!
Peacock even addresses the need to explain to our children the beauty and purity of the sexual relationship within the covenental confines of marriage. Finally, Peacock also addresses the Biblical concept that the sexual experience is both promoted and created by God. He built pleasure into the act and is pleased when His faithful find pleasure in His creation. It is because of the fact that He created and affirmed the act, that when it is out place, it is a rebuke and transgression against Him.
After the powerful and passion of the previous song, Peacock closes the album with a “throw back” Church music influenced ballad called “When I Stand With You.” Starting the song with just piano and voice, produced to sound crackly, like an old phonograph playing an old 78, the song morphs into a modern ballad with backing vocals, strings and various instruments continually being added as the song progresses. Here Peacock expresses that every idea presented before is ultimately meaningless without God.
Love Life is a brilliant album from the musical inception to the lyrical acumen of an amazing artist that heavily populates this list." (Source: JesusFreakHideout.com
Here is the original album version of the song:
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