they all cried for shine again...

12 years ago was 1993. i had braces. and glasses. big, round glasses with turtle shell rims. i combed my hair, tucked in my shirt and wore what my mom bought for me. i hadnt yet kissed a girl. i was in the youth group and thought it was cool. somehow, i had made friends with a lot of the older guys in the youth group. years later i realize that they were band nerds, high school rejects and geeky youth groupers. but then, i was a sheltered, preppy mama's boy who didnt know the difference and was happy for their acceptance. they liked "christian alternative rock," flannel was all the rage, and everyone wanted to be grunge. and so did i, despite my forced wardrobe of jc penny fashion. anyway, they liked me, so i automatically thought everything they deemed as cool was really for real cool. including the prayer chain. you see, the prayer chain was the youth group grunger's alternative to that sinful seattle sound. but unlike ccm's answer to hip hop with phonies like that dc talk garbage, or their answer to guns 'n roses with bands like whitecross and petra, the prayer chain were actually good. they "rocked," they were "edifying," and your mom still didnt like the sound of it (which automatically makes any band worth listening to when you are 15. you know, for rebellion's sake).

i found my old copy of the prayer chain (not my original, mind you. i had the tape before the cd) hiding deep in my record collection the other day. amazingly, its still "rocks." really. and i remember ALL the lyrics. but maybe my love for it is awash in sentimentality. afterall, it was with "shawl" that i, in all my tone deafness, mimicked lead singer tim taber and created my very own and very mean grunge howl/scream (complete with eddie vedder-esque facial expressions for maximum effect), learned how to head bang, how to mosh and how to crowd surf...all while never losing the perfect part in my carefully combed hair, never ever letting my big round turtle shell rimmed glasses fly off my face and certainly never letting my shirttail get uneavenly tucked. because mama wouldnt approve of that. neither would my private christian school teachers. you CAN'T be out of dress code or its "d-hall" for you, buddy.

so, here's to the two jasons, billy davidson, and chris callahan...wherever you guys are. thanks for driving my no-license-jc-penny-wearing-dork ass around town, taking me to the rock shows and for always having the prayer chain in the tape deck. and here is to this week's special record...one that i have resurrected and listened to at least 8 times since finding it a few days ago. THE PRAYER CHAIN: SHAWL.