One of my favourite unknown bands of all-time is Waterdeep. They were known amongst youth and young adult Christians in Memphis, where I grew up. They would play every few months at the famous 704B and then over at The Chi. So I was drawn to not only love their music, but them as people.

Last night, my wife and I, as well as our friend, Ben Webb, played a little acoustic show at Nerocafe in Hoeilaart-Brussels.

One song we played was Waterdeep’s 18 Bullet Holes. With Waterdeep being one of my favourite unknown bands, this is one of my favourite unknown songs. Don and Lori Chaffer are great poetic song-writers. And as such, I think this song below captures the essence of almost 2 decades of songwriting. I have also added a video so that you can listen to and catch the feel of the whole song.

18 Bullet Holes
Eighteen bullet holes in the body of a priest.
They say he was eating a hotdog when the ammunition was released.
They said he was always fat and lazy, but he was an awfully nice guy.
Just one more death to show you, you never know when you’re gonna die.
You might be facing the beast.

Well sometimes God I feel like I’m living in a bone-grinding mill.
And every time I hear the sound I can barely stand still.
It’s a thing I can’t quite make out sometimes, but it keeps on getting louder.
One more body from the valley of the dry bones,
Getting ground up into powder against Your Holy will.

(Chorus)
But Oh God it hurts so bad to love anybody down here.
Why don’t you come and help me out ’cause I can’t even see clear.

The funny thing about a way a girl get’s destroyed,
about the way that deal goes down.
Is that everybody pretty much sees it coming
from the system from all the way across town.
Yeah, she isn’t always blinded. She isn’t always far astray.
She just might not be thinking. She might be having a bad day.
When you choose you choose. And when you drown, you drown.

But oh God it hurts so bad to love anybody down here.
Why don’t you come and help me out ’cause I can’t even see clear.

Last night I dreamed that You swallowed me into Yourself
and I was floating on the sea inside.
And when I landed on the shore I saw all these people that I thought had died.
I hadn’t seen some of them for ages, they had left without a single word.
And when I said something to them, not a single one of them heard.
They were all staring right through everything, like it wasn’t even there.
Some were full of anger, and some were full of fear.
And then I recognized that something very sad,
But very beautiful was happening right here.
We were all caught outside standing alone in a very heavy rain.
And when a raindrop landed on my tongue I didn’t need you to explain,
These were Your tears.

But Oh God it hurts so bad to love anybody down here.
Why don’t you come and help me out ’cause I can’t even see clear.
Oh God it hurts so bad to love anybody down here.
But oh, that’s right, You know so well…
One thorny crown, three nails and a spear.
One thorny crown, three nails and a spear.