"
Baptist Church Choir didn't know what they were about to be a part of"
First of all, I just love the title - like something terrible is happened.
"I didn't get the Walmart part. I just thought maybe some songwriter was writing some other weird song." - but they sang it anyway.
"But why does Harvey sing about it like it would've been
a bad thing? <...> A Walmart means jobs." - with this upbeat melody? Obviously, in the song it's an irony (which is a
POSITIVE way to look at controversial topics), but IMO it also falls under "whatever listener makes of it" category. I think, this line from "Pity for the Old Road" poem perfectly sums that up: "It's quite a normal process, but it's giving a bit of a feeling".
"If the song is about a community of hope, why did it feature images of people loitering and drinking shots of alcohol, when there are so many positive things in this area?" - translation: "We sure love the freedom of speech and stuff, but WHY SHOW ALL THE TRUTH IF YOU CAN SHOW JUST THE PRETTY SIDE INSTEAD?". Personally, I don't see anything wrong with people having a good time.
"I'm highly confused as to what the message is." - have Americans ever heard of the term "objectivity"? It's a really "weird" method when you're
not choosing what to show to determine a certain outcome, but show everything that you saw. So the message is "Let the viewer decide how he feels about it", because if everyone is gonna focus only on a positive side - nothing's gonna ever change.
I'm also surprised how everyone who feels a deep need to be offended are just turning blind on certain portions of the lyrics: "at least that's what I'm told" (which is kinda already telling this story of being led thru the city) and "the school just looks
like shit-hole" - apparently, those people deny what schools in this area could possibly look any better because they already achieved perfection. In my humble opinion, ANY BUILDING ON THIS EARTH COULD LOOK BETTER THAN IT IS NOW.