MYTHS, MELODIES & METAPHYSICS: - Prefab Sprout

and flying round Europe with the tour, ending up in Belfast and Dublin, where promises
were made to The Late Show of a live appearance, once again, after Christmas.
A Metaphysical Missionary
Although deciding against going into the priesthood like others at the seminary he
attended, McAloon found an interest in the Catholic Church and its ways. It was a useful
thing being at the seminary, however, as most of the trendy young breed of priests could
play guitar, so he was never short of help in learning new chords.
As a youngster, McAloon found the ground rules laid out by the Catholic Church
foreboding during his puberty, becoming interested in the fairer sex, "Cruel is the Gospel
that sets us all free, then takes you away from me". As he matured through college, his
views of the church became altered.
He questioned that some people looked upon religion, amongst other 'vocations', for the
wrong reasons. He comments, "I always try to write songs that do not proseletise or say
that there is a God and therefore if you don't accept this then you're not going to enjoy this
record or take any pleasure from it. I always think that if you're going to write about
religious subjects, you've go to leave it wide open for people who maybe don't believe
anything at all; I couldn't listen to a record that was telling me that God existed and you
were damned if you didn't believe it."
McAloon hates the idea of organized religion, sexism in the church, intolerance and oldfashioned
beliefs.
Peter Ustinov, in his novel, The Old Man and Mr. Smith, wrote, "Nothing is constant.
Everything changes all the time. Humans age. So do ideas. So does faith. All things are
eroded by life." Ustinov maintains that religion is an extension of life itself on a higher but
not necessarily better plain:
"Symbolism reared its muddled head, and we were off into the era of the smothering of
primal truths in the opaque sauce of mumbo jumbo. The simple melody was subjected to
a glut of orchestrations. The concept of Heaven has had to adapt to every new moral
perception, every whiff of theological fashion."
This reflects McAloon's views on the acceptance of the schools of thought in religion.
Maybe religion aught not be 'taught' but offered as an experience; religion is a personal
thing, where real faith can only come from a personal desire to receive God. To this end,
evangelism with the 'hard sell' element is abhorred by McAloon. He prefers the approach
of Gospel music in carrying forward the message to receive God freely (spiritually) and
not to fear as a sinner the fire and brimstone of the Devil himself. In gospel music, God is
thanked through the physical proof of his goodness, the voice. In the words of the Rev.
Cecil Franklyn, "There is a unique advantage of preaching the gospel using the vehicle of
song. Songs have the advantage of being packaged and wrapped in universal appeal.
Songs are not limited by natural or human boundaries. Gospel through song is not
hindered by local states or national boundaries or by racial, economical, political or
religious preferences. Songs are clothed with the ability or capacity to successfully and