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Album Reviews: Voodoo Lounge. The Rolling Stones. In defense of compassion and spirit.

Don't judge an album by its cover, for this one will surprise you with some beautiful songs. The album cover is red, black and gold and in the middle of the little CD, there is a humorous picture of some skeletons sitting round at a banquet. My first impression was that The Stones were still clinging to a slightly faded image of their association with Lucifer, after Sympathy for the Devil (a political statement ahead of its time.} You know that rebellious picture of, 'you wouldn't want your daughter to go out with a Rolling Stone' attitude. I was pleasantly surprised to find a song here probably not given much air play, but in my opinion one of the best songs ever written, for full on seeing things in the world as they really are with tons of compassion mixed in as well. I refer to the song, "Blinded by rainbows". Do have a listen to it and you will not be so quick to judge Jagger and Richards as some sort of devil music makers.

This particular song refers to all the tragic results of war. "Did you ever feel the blast as the Semtex bomb goes off, did you ever hear the screams as the limbs are all torn off, do you ever shed a tear as the war drags on and on? Did you ever feel the pain that he felt upon the cross do you ever feel the night tearing flesh thats all so soft, did you ever count the cost? Did you ever kiss the child who just saw his father shot? Did you ever feel the night tearing flesh that's all so soft. Do you feel the final hours, do you hide away the fear, do you put down paradise as lost. Do you dream at night. Do you sleep at night, I doubt it. Do you feel the final hours, do you kneel before the cross or are you blinded by rainbows? Do you smell of fear, is your conscience clear? Do you see the light. Is the end in sight. Do you see the face of Christ enter paradise." You say to yourself, are these words from the Rolling Stones? Well listen to the song, 'You'll never make a saint of me,' on the Bridges to Babylon Album and the words are, "Could you put your faith in Jesus, could you burn up in the flame, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah."

The other tracks on Voodoo Lounge that are good are "Sweethearts Forever" and Keith's slow dirge, "Through and through" and "Brand new car" is fun. When I first met my wife I played her 'Blinded by Rainbows' over the phone and, because her cause is world peace, she cried. In 2003, six years after we married, she bought me tickets to the Rolling Stones '40 licks' tour in Melbourne for my birthday and we saw the band who have had the courage to sing about Jesus on two albums.

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