Today in 1938, the birthday of Paul Craft, an acclaimed songwriter and musician whose catalog includes what is probably the world’s best known religious country football song: it’s called “Drop Kick Me Jesus (Through The Goalposts Of Life).”
Craft was born in Memphis and grew up on a farm in Arkansas.
He started playing music as a kid, but didn’t start writing songs until his late twenties.
But he hit the ground running when he started; he once told American Songwriter magazine that writing songs was something he just had to do, “like a squirrel climbing a tree.”
Some big names sang and recorded his songs: Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Alison Krauss, Ralph Stanley, and Ray Stevens, to name a few.
Craft could write a memorable line as well as a catchy melody, and in the mid-1970s he came up with a set of lyrics that are pretty unforgettable.
The song describes life in football terms; he’s out there on the field, hoping someday to reach the end zone and its “righteous uprights.”
In the chorus, Craft describes Jesus like a football team’s kicker, the one who can get him to avoid all those worldly temptations
He also called for his loved ones who had already left this world to help out: “Stick ’em up front in the offensive line.”
The song became a hit for country singer Bobby Bare, though it had its critics, including the songwriter’s mother.
Craft once posted on his website that “I figured everybody knew about songs like ‘I’m Using My Bible For A Roadmap’ and ‘We Need A Lot More Jesus (And A Lot Less Rock And Roll)’ and would appreciate what I had accomplished with my song. Well, my mother didn’t, for one. She just KNEW there was something wrong with a song that had ‘kick’ and ‘Jesus’ that close together in the title.”
Starting this Friday in Glasgow, Scotland, it’s the World Pipe Band Championships.
There are hundreds of bands with thousands of pipers and drummers playing and marching and trying to win awards and prizes.
I’d say you don’t want to miss this, but with that many bagpipes, I don’t think you can.
Drop Kick Me Jesus (Through The Goalposts Of Life) (Songfacts)
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