Sweet Cherry Wine lyric meaning

I'm driving around today with a friend and this Tommy James/Shondells song comes on that I love and he's never heard. During the chorus he says " is this song referencing the concept of the blood of Christ in the phrase sweet cherry wine? this could be the first Christian Rock song" he said when it ended.

It had never occured to me that this might be a meaning behind the song. I'd always heard it as an anti-war, anti violence, get down love one another, no riots, no war kinda thing. But now i'm not so sure, it got me thinking and I realize I know nothing about Tommy James at all. Any thoughts?

I am not posting this to get into any kind of religious thread or dialogue, I just thought my friend had a solid point after hearing the song for the first time, one that had never occurred to me in the last 30+ years of hearing this song and I'm curious how others hear this one.

here is a link with the lyrics...

http://www.lyricsvault.net/songs/10670.html

 

I believe the lyrics are meant to appeal to us on many levels...spiritual, political, etc.

The lyrics say it all though: "To save us, He gave us..."

"HE" is capitalized for good reason!

On a side note...TJ went on to have an album titled "Christian Of The World" a few years later!

 

TJ has also said that Crystal Blue Persuasion was not about drugs but was taken from a quote in the bible.

 

During the late 60's I recall T.J. had a little trouble with the fame/drugs thing, which probably helped his music flower from pop-rock to his psychedelic stuff. Quite a transition from the Mony Mony LP to his next two 1969 albums: Crimson & Clover and Cellophane Symphony (from the same sessions). I can't answer the question specifically about Sweet Cherry Wine without going back and looking up a few things I read years ago, but T.J. had a noticeable Christian friendly leaning by then. Soon after Cellophane Symphony the Shondells and T.J. started to fray (spurred on so the story goes by drugs) but not before recording material for his two best - and criminally unknown - albums: Travelin' & 'Tommy James' - his first 'solo' album. TJ has some of the best (IMO) psychedelic tinged rock of that era. The suberb 'Light of Day' as well as 'Meet The Comer' are barely veiled Christian songs for sure. By 1971 Tommy James was public with his new found sobriety and Christianity, and released 'Christian of The World' with its biggest charting single 'Draggin' The Line' (reached #2 I recall). That album (still one of my favorites) contains a lot of Christian themed songs without being the least bit in-your-face or preachy about it. During this period TJ was my favorite artist and my record buying tended to be screened by my mom, especially in the wake of the drug deaths of Hendrix, Janis, and her hearing about a group called Black Sabbath. So TJ's stuff passed with flying colors with her. I spun those LP's a lot with my friends without any loss of hip or cool factor......