Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Musical Ventriloquism: The Winner (High Card)


Just because someone sings a song in the first person doesn't mean the singer is being autobiographical.

That shouldn't be a shocking revelation, considering all the songs out there that are basically Jesus singing: "Rise Again" by Dallas Holm, "That Where I Am There You May Also Be" by Rich Mullins, etc.

But there are other songs where the singer being the voice for someone else isn't quite as obvious. Case in point, "The Winner (High Card)" by Randy Stonehill. It's the third song on the Welcome to Paradise album, which means it's still on the side expressing the lostness and searching of the human condition without Christ.




I'm a wheeler, a dealer
the man who's in control
Don't talk about my feelings
Don't talk about my soul
Well you know my time is money
so I've got no time to spend
But when you've got some business
won't you come on by again

I'm the winner and I made it to the top
and I took it all just like I planned
I'm the man who holds the high card in his hand

I'm an owner, a loaner
a master at the game
I've got that golden Midas touch
and people know my name
There were times I held the low cards baby
Well I knew they weren't enough
But I just kept my poker face
and won it on the bluff

I'm the winner and I made it to the top
and I took it all just like I planned
I'm the man who holds the high card in his hand

I'm not in trouble
I have no need to pray
My profits double
Day by day by day by day by day

It's not easy to see me 
I'm an influential man
And I never needed anyone
to build my promised land
So don't tell me about Jesus
'cause He's just too hard to sell
And I never trust in strangers
that's the first rule I learned well

I'm the winner and I made it to the top
and I took it all just like I planned
I'm the man who holds the high card in his hand

I'm the winner look at me now I'm the winner

©1976 King of Hearts Publishing



Truth is...[From Stonehill's liner notes for the 25th anniversary CD] I told [Jim Steele] I wanted to write a song about the carnal counterfeit version of success that a dark world often uses to seduce our hungry hearts...and Jim jump-started the lyric singing, "I'm an owner, a loaner, the man who's in control." I said, "Yep, that's the right approach! If we write a preachy song about what an empty lifestyle being a corporate carnivore is, it will be much easier for people to ignore. Let's write it from the 'first-person perspective' instead. Let's tell the story through the eyes of the hollow victor. That way, the lie is exposed by the tongue of its' victim!"

1 comment:

  1. Sadly, that song seems to fit the current occupant of The White House to a "T" :-(

    ReplyDelete