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Tommy James and the Shondells: “Crystal Blue Persuasion”

Breaking Bad is one of the best shows on television. The director uses a lot of montages, many of which show the characters cooking meth. Last week, the great song Crystal Blue Persuasion ran over the video.

These comments by Tommy James about the song are interesting:

When we asked James if “Crystal Blue” is a reference to the Book of Revelation, he replied: “Yes, it is. It’s out of the Bible. The imagery was right out of Chapter 19 of the Book of Revelation, about the lake of crystal, and just what John sees. The imagerf was just right there. ‘Crystal blue persuasion,’ although those words aren’t used together, it was what the image meant to me.”

The lyrics, “It’s a new vibration,” are about James becoming Christian, but many listeners had their own interpretation. He explained: “Of course, everybody thinks if they don’t understand what you’re talking about it must be about drugs. But it wasn’t. We were going through a real interesting time back then, and a very wonderful time. Everybody in the band, by the way, became Christian. And we’re very proud of it. And ‘Crystal Blue Persuasion’ was sort of our way of saying that in a kind of pop record way.”

The band had hits with Mony Mony, I Think We’re Alone Now  and Crimson and Clover. Here is the the website and a discography.

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