I and a number of others in our group(s) tend to be somewhat analytical when it comes to the lyrics of a song. Lyrics that have the protagonist coming back to life and riding away after being safely buried is one eyebrow raiser, for instance, and we say so. Or we might say that this word or that word would have conveyed better the emotion the writer was trying to evoke than the word or phrase that was used. Several others in the group get flustered when we do that, as in 'Just sing the bloody song!' They think the tune is the thing, period. Well, words are important too.

They also tend to be the same ones who object mightily when someone changes something just on principle. For instance, I happen to like Gospel songs. When the theology gets a little too heavy for me, I change it to something I like better. Recently, I discovered a song recorded by the Williamson Brothers, called 'It Won't Be Long (It May Be Soon). The last verse says:

He's coming back with glory rare (It won't be long, etc)
We'll rise to meet him in the air (It won't be long, etc)
If he should call me, this I know: I'm saved and ready now to go
I'm waiting with my heart aglow (It won't be long, etc)

Well, I don't like the phrase "I'm saved" so I sing 'In faith, I'm ready now to go, etc'. It's saying the same thing, because it is a matter of faith, isn't it?

People. tsk, tsk.