If I Had My Way, I'd Tear That Idol Down

by Colin Cutler

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Live at the Flat Iron, Tarwater, If I Had My Way, I'd Tear That Idol Down, Hot Pepper Jam, Stranger in the Promised Land, Peacock Feathers, and Nelson County Wayside. , and , .

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about

Recorded live in the town square of Graham, NC, in the shadow of the Confederate statue that has been the focus of protests and counter-protests over the last few years.

Loosely inspired by Blind Willie Johnson's "If I Had My Way, I'd Tear This Building Down." He was working from the "Samson and Delilah" tradition of songs, based on stories in the Book of Judges; I built off stories from Exodus 32 and 1 Samuel 4 and 5.

lyrics

Moses on the mountain, he done talked with God.
Walked down that hillside with the holy law--
Down in the valley, people danced and laughed,
Up on that pedestal had a golden calf.

Chorus
If I had my way (3x)
I'd tear that idol down.

Philistia fought with Israel.
Some made slaves and some they killed.
Back to their city, they took God's ark,
Set it up in Dagon's temple dark.

Chorus

It sat there for about a week,
The very stones, they began to creak.
Morning broke across that whole wide land,
With that idol laying facedown with shattered hands

Chorus

Now in this country, in these modern times,
People still thinking like the Philistines.
They said that we're God's own chosen heirs,
But we still got statues in the old town square.

Chorus

credits

released March 5, 2023
Recorded by Alexei Mejouev.

Music and lyrics by Colin Cutler

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about

Colin Cutler Greensboro, North Carolina

Armed with a guitar, banjo, a brace of harmonicas, Colin tells stories of love and loss with characters wide open as a Midwest sky and wild as the mountains, with poetry thick as a Carolina swamp.

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