The Black Keys -- Everlasting Light: Singin' bout Jesus

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I think fire is magic, and it scares me, and within this esoteric world view, I think the Black Keys are a blues band. Not white boy, Blueshammer blues, but something built more around blues DNA as opposed to a specific subject matter or lyrical content. It is a feeling as they say... I mean, if you want to mete out their credentials in an are-you-in-a-blues-band type checklist, here goes: Blind Lemon says blues ain't nothing but a good woman on your mind. Songs about chicks doin' ya dirty -- Lots of them. Check. You have to do an interpretation of "Stagger Lee" . "Stack shot Billy" -- check. An authentic bluesman (which is a dwindling herd, hang in there Pinetop!) has to pass the torch in some way. The 'Chulahoma' album -- check. A song about the Devil. "Sinister Kid" -- check. And finally, a song about Jesus...


First, peel it back to it's elegant simplicity. A fuzzy guitar tone gnaws on a three-chord ditty, falsetto vocals hover above, and, in a deft touch, the percussion track eschews drums for hand claps and a tambourine jangle. If you cross your eyes and unfocus your ears, you can feel a purple robed gospel choir breaking this track down in effulgent four-part-harmony. Maybe ramp it up a few RPMs, because we all know that Jesus likes that bizz with a little bit of bottom on it.

Second, in an almost painful bit of obvious interpretation, the lyrics are about as straightforward as they come. There is a bible verse from the book of Isaiah 60:19 "The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." (Is my religious upbringing showing?) So we've established some common phraseology, which in itself is relatively flimsy, but if you poke around the lyrics a bit more, it starts to make sense. Here is the song's four stanzas:

Let me be your everlasting light
The sun when there is none
I'm a shepherd for you
And I'll guide you through
Let me be your evelasting light

Let me be your everlasting light
I'll hold and never scold
In me you can confide
When no one's by your side
Let me be your everlasting light

Oh darling, can't you see
I'm shining just for you
Loneliness is over
Dark days are through

Let me be your everlasting light
A train going away from pain
Love is the coal
That makes this train roll
Let me be your everlasting light

There are several themes very close to the Christian ethic that permeate these simple lines. Christ is often portrayed as the shepherd to 'guide you through'. Also, I think in a more forgiving idealization of God, he is an entity that would 'never scold' and someone who 'in me you can confide' free of judgment. Even the line that refers to being 'the sun when there is none' echos the passage from Isaiah. A life filled with Christ is often portrayed as the exodus from pain and loneliness and a symbolic departure from darkness, because babe...he's 'shining just for you'. At first blush it could be seen as a love song, which is true, but instead I think it's a hymn to a spiritually fulfilled life. The appeal from a higher power who wants you to bask in the warming glow of his/her/its everlasting light.

Me, I'm not a religious man, I'm just a guy who likes the blues. This is not an appeal to make Jesus seem cool, or even the Black Keys seem pious, but it's what I hear when I listen to this song. I have a complex and at times wary relationship with a higher power, philosophy notwithstanding, but music is the closest thing I have to my religion. This song, which I believe to be about Jesus Christ, applies to me in that same way. Music is my guide and my companion and my confidant who has never caused me harm and only gives of itself. My life would be incomplete without that food for my soul, and I think that would be the fulfillment we hoped for from those things that exist outside of ourselves and make our lives whole. After all, if music is good enough to be God's language, then three-chord blues can be my sermon.

PS. This isn't me or my photo, it's just the first thing GIS returns when you search "Jesus Black Keys". And yeah...I think it's pretty effin' cool.