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

https://youtu.be/sRYDQDL3OE0

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!"