EXTREME: An Extremely Fascinating Worldview

An Extremely Fascinating Worldview
Boston has given us a few pretty good rock bands over the years. There is The Cars, J Geils Band, The Pixies, Aerosmith, and of course, Boston. But one stands out for their musical creativity, sheer technical ability, and the variety of styles they have demonstrated over their multi-decade career. Extreme, like the name of the band, also describes their musical acumen and performance ability.
Founded in 1985 when Nuno Bettencourt (guitars, keyboards, and vocals) and Gary Cherone (vocals) found their mutual love for the band Queen, Extreme went on to release their first album in 1989 and found superstardom with their 1990 acoustic ballad, More Than Words. Over the intervening years, they have released a total of 6 albums with their latest, SIX, dropping this year. Their current lineup consists of Nuno, Gary, Pat Badger (bass and vocals), and Kevin Figueiredo (drums). Previous lineups have included founding drummer Paul Geary and stellar percussionist and current Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini.
Gary Cherone, the main lyricist, writes many introspective songs and has never been afraid to sing about his deep catholic faith. This spiritual bent also shines through in his other projects like Hurtsmile and Tribe of Judah. As far back as the very first album (Extreme, 1989) we find the song Watching, Waiting describing the crucifixion of Christ:
Hanging above the ground
All my limbs are bound
You’re on the right hand
With your head down
Tears from eyes that cannot see
He took the blame from me
So shall it be written
So shall it be done
Watching, waiting
Staring at the Son
Not even knowing
Who you are
Three hours have gone by
We start to question why
Darkness falls in finding out
Why you must die
We can no longer see the Son
The three unite into one
Please forgive us Father
We know not what we’ve done
The Christian worldview is all over their breakthrough release, Pornograffitti. The entire album is a loose concept about an innocent tempted by the decadence in the world. Songs like Money (In God We Trust) explore the emptiness of money worship and the track Stop the World is a modern retelling of Ecclesiastes Chapter 1. This theme of the emptiness of the world continues into their third album, III Sides to Every Story. God Isn’t Dead? Laments the pain in the world and the search for a loving God:
I look at all the lonely people
Losing faith
In a world full of despair no one who cares
Wondering where God disappeared
I see the pain in everybody’s faces
Asking why
The God up in the sky
Didn’t say goodbye please tell me
God didn’t die
Please tell me God isn’t dead
Please tell me God isn’t dead
Please tell me God isn’t
I wanna know if He’s
Please tell me God isn’t
Tell me God isn’t dead
The very next song on III Sides to Every Story is a creative amalgamation of the book of Daniel’s prophecies and another look at Ecclesiastes. No, nothing under the sun is new but hope is free and a new day is coming:
I had a dream, not unlike the one from old
Of a man king, whose head was made of gold
Stand castles of sand
Weather sundials rise ‘n fall
Chasing wind through your hands
‘Til water runs dry the well
Dream, Daniel dream
For what’s yet to come
See, Daniel see
For every thing’s under the sun
And in the west, a cloud appears
For shadows of a coming shower near
Oh, so near
(Hypocrites)
You analyze the earth and the sky
I ask you why you can’t analyze the signs
Of the present time?
Vanity
Yes, all is vanity
Vanity
Yes, all is futility
For one that dies, another’s born
Where laughter’s heard, comforters mourn
There’s a time for everything
A song for love, even abhor
An olive branch or a winter’s war
There’s a time for everything
Under the sun
Under the sun
Rise, rise ‘n shine
A new day is coming
Rise, rise in time
For every thing’s under the sun
(Rise) A new day is coming
When there’s the time for everything under the sun
You know a time for everything under the sun
Because a new day is gonna be begun
Gary’s most introspective lyric comes from the III Sides song, Am I Ever Gonna Change. The lyrical theme is lifted straight from Romans 7 and looks at a man who is tired of doing what he knows is wrong and wants to change:
I’m tired of being me,
And I don’t like what I see,
I’m not who I appear to be
So I start off every day,
Down on my knees I will pray,
For a change in any way
But as the day goes by,
I live through another lie,
If it’s any wonder why
Am I ever gonna change
Will I always stay the same
If I say one thing,
Then I do the other
It’s the same old song,
That goes on forever
Am I ever gonna change
I’m the only one to blame
When I think I’m right,
I wind up wrong
It’s a futile fight,
Gone on too long
Please tell me if it’s true,
Am I too old to start anew,
‘Cause that’s what I want to do
But time and time again,
When I think I can,
I fall short in the end
So why do I even try,
Will it matter when I die,
Can anyone hear my cry?
Am I ever gonna change
Take it day by day
My will is weak
And my flesh too strong
This peace I seek
Till thy kingdom comes
The III Sides final song, Who Cares?, shows Gary asking Jesus himself if he is angry at him for being a sheep gone astray. As he slips further from Christ, the brightness of God’s glory fades:
Tell me, Jesus, are you angry?
One more sheep has just gone astray
A hardening of hearts, turning to stone
Wandering off so far from home
So many children losing time
Walk in darkness, looking for a sign
Chasing their rainbows, the future looks so bright
Slowly we’re losing sight of the light
Who cares?
Who cares?
Who cares?
Tell me who cares?
Who cares?
All alone out in the cold
Can’t look back, am I growing old?
I chose a path, is this my fate?
Am I finding out the truth too late?
Who cares?
Who cares?
Who cares?
Tell me who cares?
Here I am, a naked man
Nothing to hide with empty hands
Remember me, I am the one
Who lost his way, your Prodigal Son
Am I ever gonna change?
Will I always stay the same?
Say one thing, then I do the other
Same old song goes on forever
(Who cares? Who cares? Who cares?
Tell me who cares? Who cares?)
Rise, rise and shine
A new day is coming, yes, it is
III Sides closes on the promise of a new day and the stripped down Waiting for the Punchline album opens by seemingly declaring that God doesn’t exist. But upon further examination of There Is No God, Cherone is saying the opposite:
Confused, they talk in parables
Accused, they walk in parallels
A simple game of Simon says
This month’s flavor sciences
Today’s fact, tomorrow’s fiction
Leave the rest to superstition
If knowledge comes from learning books
Wisdom comes from discerning looks
A fool that says there is no God
Don’t feel for that sorry sod
Who needs proof then he’ll believe
I wonder if he’s been deceived
The Waiting for the Punchline album also tackles the subject of cults (Evilangelist) and shallow faith (Fair Weather Faith). And where Fair Weather Faith looks at the empty prayers of the non-believer, the next album, Saudades de Rock, employs us to turn to prayer when life suffocating:
Heavy is the burden
That brings you
To your knees
Lost in the confusion
Of life’s uncertainties
Feel you’re suffocating
With every breath you take
Moment left remaining
Time for you to pray
Time for you to pray
Pray for peace
Extreme’s latest offering SIX brings back Extreme’s ferocious biting examination of society’s obsession with image and tribalism. The song The Mask does not mince words:
We’re all sinners we’re all saints
We’re all the people we say we ain’t
We’re all winners and we’re all cheats
We’re all the things that we want to defeat
We’re all innocent and we’re all pure
We’re all deceased and we’re all the cure
We’re all living and we’re already dead
We’re everything that we need to pretend
Rip of your mask and show me who you are
Show me who you are, show me who you are
Rip of my mask show you who I am
Show you who I am, show you who I am…
We’re all doubters and we’re all faith
We’re all the things that we want to replace
We’re all fiction and we’re all fact
We’re all the good and we’re all the bad
I’ll take the blame for all my sins
But I won’t take the hate
For what you imagine…
And neither does Thicker Than Blood:
Transcending space and time
Boundary or borderline
No nationality
Tribe or ethnicity
No link or lineage
Bloodline nor heritage
No genealogy
Fruit from a family
Love is all, all you need
Love is all, let it bleed
Does not discriminate
With color creed or race
No substitution
Or blood transfusion
Blood running through your vain
(Blood) taking thy name in vain
(Blood) faith hope and charity
(Blood) blood has no guarantee
Just take a look around
There’s so much to be found
Open your heart and you’ll find in you
Romans 7 makes another appearance in Save Me:
Save me from myself
Save me from this hell
Help me heaven I’m forsaken
Lay me down to die
Cleanse me of these lies
I’ve become what I despise
Take me undertaker take me
Lay me down to die
Take me as I am
This exploration of the spiritual side of Extremes lyrics ends with the song X OUT from Six. Gary seamlessly merges the parables of the prodigal son and the rich man and Lazarus. The wayward son is also the rich man who fell from grace and finds himself in torment. He looks across the great divide and sees Lazarus in paradise. He realizes that had he practiced Faith, Hope and Love, his eternity might look very different:
One man suffering forever damned
The other in the bosom of Abraham
Looking on beyond the great divide…
Darkness drapes both sun and moon
After the rain storm clouds return
Strong men bow and the house keeper’s quake…
Severed is the silver chord
Broken like the golden gourd
Dust returns to death from whence it came…
X Out X Out, Faith
X Out X Out, Hope
X Out X Out, Love
So, is Extreme a “Christian” band? No, they have never claimed to be. Is Extreme a band that displays a decidedly Christian world view? In many of their songs, yes. Gary Cherone is outspoken about his beliefs and is not ashamed to sing about spiritual matters. Nuno Bettencourt is a fantastic player (one of the best) but he keeps his personal beliefs close and seemingly wants to talk music only. His interviews are very entertaining as his enthusiasm for music is contagious. They are sprinkled liberally with profanity though, so beware! The other two members do not give many interviews but none of the band seem to have a problem with Gary’s incredible lyrics.
Prayer for this band is warranted as their new album is bringing new found fame and a new audience. Gary has welcomed his platform as a chance to challenge and speak out about his deeply held pro-life views. His two open letters to Eddie Vedder are incredibly poetic treatises on the value of all human life:
An Open Letter to Eddie Vedder
When is a woman not a woman?
Therein lies the only clear refutation of a woman’s rights.
A woman’s rights —
seems a mere tautology, a redundant catch phrase.
Are not rights self evident?
Intrinsic assumptions of the inalienable?
So, when is a woman not a woman,
a right not a right?
When she doesn’t exist.
When does a woman become a woman?
Is it when
her first ballot has been cast?
Or when
she graduates from her class?
Is it when
she makes a wish on her sweet sixteenth?
Would I be amiss if it were her first kiss?
Is it when
she’s diagnosed by the boy next door?
Or as ambiguous as the cutting of the cord?
Is it the time
it takes to travel the distance through the canal?
Or when
she’s kicking and becomes viable?
Is it when
her sex is discovered by a sonogram?
Or after eight weeks when
the changes in her body will be mainly in dimension?
Is it when
her brain waves are detected after 40 days?
Or is it around three weeks when
her primitive heart beats?
Can there be only one true line of demarcation?
One finite measurable point in time that differentiates
life from non-life?
Womanhood from non-womanhood?
Rights from no right?
Is it the moment of conception —
that point when all of the above is set in motion?
That precise moment when
“a separate human individual, with her own genetic code,
needing only food, water, and oxygen, comes into existence”?
Indeed,
It is at that point,
“like the infant, the child, the adolescent,
that the conceptus is a being who is becoming,
not a becoming striving toward being.
She is not a potential life,
she is a life with great potential”.
She is not the mother,
she is an other —
a somebody other than the mother.
A woman,
however beautiful, however complex when fully grown,
begins life as a single cell, a zygote —
that stage in human development through which we all pass.
She fulfills “the four criteria necessary to all life —
metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli, and reproduction.
Her genetic makeup is established at conception,
determining to a great extent
her own individual, physical characteristics”:
her eyes, her hair, her skin color, bone structure, her gender.
So let us not be confused,
“she did not come from a zygote — she once was a zygote.
She did not come from an embryo, she once was an embryo.
She did not come from a fetus, she once was a fetus”.
She did not come from a little girl — she once was a little girl.
When is a woman not a woman?
The answer is absolute, non-negotiable.
To argue against would be to ignore the innate,
the fact of the matter.
The answer can never be a matter of opinion or choice.
This is not a metaphysical contention.
This is biology 101.
The answer is scientifically self-evident —
as inherent as the inalienable.
Therefore,
the ability to pursue happiness
is contingent upon liberty —
her liberty,
and her freedom is solely dependent upon
the mother of all human rights…
the right of life.
Respectfully,
Gary Cherone
(June 1999)
What About the 98.6 Degree Angle?
Another Letter to Eddie Vedder
by Gary Cherone
The vast majority of people who support abortion
take that position with the firm conviction
that life does not begin at conception
That being said…
If one personally felt “terminating pregnancy is not an easy thing”
but was the right of the individual to make that “decision”
Is the life within the mother’s womb a human person?
If the answer is no, it is not a human person
Why would one feel it “is not an easy thing” to do?
If the answer is yes, it is a human person
Why would one advocate “terminating” it?
If the answer is I don’t know, if it is, or isn’t a human person
How many more “decision(s)”
would one make in an uncertain “situation”?
If the unborn is not a human person
No justification for abortion is necessary
However…
If the unborn is a human person
No justification for abortion is adequate.
Nearly all arguments for abortion
are based on the faulty premise
that the unborn are not fully human.
Respectfully,
Gary Cherone
(1/22/2001)
Does Extreme belong in a publication like Heaven’s Metal Magazine? By looking at many of their lyrics, It appears they do. They have more direct “Christian” lyrics than many bands who openly claim to be Christian. Enjoy their music, enjoy their lyrics, pray for them as their audience expands.
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