I was listening to my daily payer podcast, courtesy of the Jesuits at Pray As You Go, and I heard something familiar. The words of the meditation song were the same as the meditation sung by my best man at our wedding twenty years ago. But it was some other arrangement, not the Ralph Vaughan Williams melody I was familar with. This made me smile, and I started trying to sing the old tune I knew.
Later, Heidi called me on her way out to class. “Did you listen to the prayer podcast this morning? Anything sound familiar?” So we shared a quick moment.
It makes some great poetry. Better when sung. I wish my voice were in shape enough to do this justice. Anyway, here it is.
Come My Way, from The Call, by George Herbert
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a way as gives us breath;
Such a truth as ends all strife,
Such a life as killeth death.
Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a light as shows a feast,
Such a feast as mends in length,
Such a strength as makes his guest.
Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a joy as none can move,
Such a love as none can part,
Such a heart as joys in love.
It’s about that time of year. John Coltrane recorded “A Love Supreme” on December 9th, 1964 and left the world one of the greatest musical recordings ever in any genre, any decade.
I’ve been thinking about him for the last couple of weeks ever since we had this prayer session in adoration at Church. We had about 40 guys all in the chapel and the prayer leader had arranged to play some spiritual music for our reflection. Personally, I prefer silence in adoration, but I especially did not jibe with the schmaltzy orchestral religio-kitsch he chose for this 20 minute period.
I began to wonder, “Wouldn’t Jesus like to hear something updated for a change? Something good, something not churchy, something with a beat, perhaps?” There is quality music out there that gives glory to God regardless of whether it is “Christian.” And then I though of Coltrane. Jesus definitely does not get to hear enough of John Coltrane. And what would be a better selection for adoration than “A Love Supreme?”
I’m going to give it try one night. I have the midnight hour tonight by myself. Maybe I’ll bring my own tunes…
Meanwhile, here is the eponymous poem he wrote in his liner notes for “A Love Supreme.”
I will do all I can to be worthy of Thee O Lord.
It all has to do with it.
Thank you God.
Peace.
There is none other.
God is. It is so beautiful.
Thank you God. God is all.
Help us to resolve our fears and weaknesses.
Thank you God.
In You all things are possible.
We know. God made us so.
Keep your eye on God.
God is. He always was. He always will be.
No matter what…it is God.
He is gracious and merciful.
It is most important that I know Thee.
Words, sounds, speech, men, memory, thoughts,
fears and emotions — time all related…
all made from one…all made in one.
Blessed be His name.
Thought waves — heat waves-all vibrations –
all paths lead to God. Thank you God.
His way…it is so lovely…it is gracious.
It is merciful — thank you God.
One though can produce millions of vibrations
and they all go back to God…everything does.
Thank you God.
Have no fear…believe…thank you God.
The universe has many wonders. God is all.
His way…it is so wonderful.
Thoughts–deeds–vibrations, etc.
They all go back to God and He cleanses all.
He is gracious and merciful…thank you God.
Glory to God…God is so alive.
God is.
God loves.
May I be acceptable in Thy sight.
We are all one in His grace.
The fact that we do exist is acknowledgement
of Thee O Lord.
Thank you God.
God will wash away all our tears…
He always has…
He always will.
Seek Him everyday. In all ways seek God everyday.
Let us sing all songs to God.
To whoma all praise is due…praise God.
No road is an easy one, but they all
go back to God.
With all we share God.
It is all with God.
It is all with Thee.
Obey the Lord.
Blessed is He.
We are from one thing…the will of God…
thank you God.
I have seen Godd–I have seen ungodly–
none can be greater–none can compare to God.
Thank you God.
He will remake us…He always has and He
always will.
It is true–blessed be His name–thank you God.
God breathes through us so completely…
so gently we hardly feel it…yet,
it is our everything.
Thank you God.
ELATION–ELEGANCE–EXALTATION–
All from God.
Thank you God. Amen.
Two homeless guys sing a charming rendition of “Amazing Grace” at Current TV. A heartwarming evocation of humble faith? An ironic commentary on the plight of the homeless? A calculated schmaltz designed to extract dollars from subway riders? Who cares. You’ll see what your current state of faith allows you to see. But the words and the voices and the smiles have power independent of their intent. Enjoy.
And don’t forget Matthew, chapter 25.
When I have a day in my new home office where I am not all wall-to-wall conference calls, I like to tune in to Groove Salad on Soma FM radio. If you like chilled out downtempo electronica — music I can work to with a funky edge — you can’t beat it.
“A good woman will pick you apart
A box full of suggestions for your possible heart
But you may be offended and you may be afraid
But don’t walk away, don’t walk away”
— Bright Eyes, “Landlocked Blues”
I like Bright Eyes a lot lately. As music and as poetry. Does Conor Oberst remind anyone of a young Townes Van Zandt, or is it just me?
I took a break and went to see a movie yesterday and there I saw it; My favorite acoustic blues group G-Love and Special Sauce leading a remix of the old Hilltop “Teach the world to sing” coke commercial. Only this time they were teaching the world to “chill” holding Coke Zero bottles on a Philly rooftop at sunset. (you can see the commercial here if you haven’t seen it already. You can also download the song and the ringtones for your phone.)
Several things ran through my mind:
1. Cool. Good to see G-Love getting some mainstream exposure after all these years.
2. He’s gonna catch a lot of crap for “selling out.”
3.Why didn’t they just have him sing “Cold Beverages?”
4.I wish they’d play it again. I’ll Google it later.
G-Love is his own thing. He raps, yeah, but he imitates nobody. After several decades, rap is no longer a genre of music unto itself. People sing in all sorts of genres and nobody refers to it as “singing music.” Rap can and is being incorporated into all sorts of other types of music beyond hip-hop. A white blues guy who raps like G-Love owes a debt to the black pioneers of the rap form but don’t compare him to them. So far as I know, there is no one out there doing acoustic blues with rap as well or as long as G-Love and Special Sauce. If there is, I’d love it if you’d enlighten me.
He hasn’t sold out either. Yet. Any long time listener knows that the commerical totally reflects his vibe and, of course, he loves Cold Beverages. It’s a perfect fit. I just hope it doesn’t go so far it becomes self-parody.
For those of you that are crying “sell-out”, those of you that think that all rap must be hip-hop, or especially all you posers that think anything not from your avant-garde ultrahip corner of the music world is lame, you need to listen to my man G-Love and just chill. Coke Zero is optional.
I think I posted on this before, but Two Zombies Later is still available from the Comfort Stand label. The difference now is that I’ve listened to it and I like it. It’s very hard to describe… lounge electronica meets muzak meets Dr. Demento? No…. well, I guess the best way to put it is if you liked the movie True Stories, this release will delight you. And the price is still right.
A visitor writes “need words and cords to “Pico de Gallo Song”. any place where I can get just that song? Please advise. Thank you.”
Well, familiar as I am with song, I’ll do the public service of posting the words to the Pico de Gallo song by Trout Fishing In America. I’ll also note that breaking into the song in a loud voice works quite well to quiet a car full of bickering children.
Chorus:
Pico de gallo
You ought to give it a try-o
Even if you’re from Ohio
It’ll get you by-o
Don’t get it in your eye-o
Unless you want to cry-o
So come on don’t be shy-o
Eat some pico de gallo
It’s got jalapenos
I reckon y’all have seen those
They’re kinda hot for gringos
And probably flamingos
Just add some tomatillos
Onions and cilantro
Lime juice and tomatos
You’ve got pico de gallo
(chorus)
It was Cinco de Mayo
And I was down on the Bayou (that’s Bi-yoh to you northern types)
With my good friend Venus de Milo
We were watchin’ Hawaii Five 0
She wanted some French Fry-os
Or maybe apple pie-o
And I said why oh why-o
We’ve got pico de gallo
(chorus. Loudly, as now the children have finally picked up the tune and are singing along)
I don’t know the chords, but it sounds like a pretty simple chord progression. I only sing it accapella myself.
While searching for information on Integrated Collaborative Environments (ICE) I found this snazzy online music mag and a story about Wilco’s upcoming release in June.
Hey! I didn’t know Wilco had a new release coming out! Cool.
Speaking of serendipitous culture mag discoveries, I literally tripped over this one. There was a stack of them on the floor by the door at the store. (I’m showing my assonance…) It’s called Arthur and contains a pleasing combo of alternative music, art, and independent comix. A whole lot less mainstream than ICE, but that’s kind of how I like it.
You as a group must be either completely deaf or totally unconcerned about talent.
Me, I’d vote if I could figure out how to send a text message.
Feeding the baby on Sunday morning early. Kids downstairs watching Scooby-Do. Exploring the wonderful confusing world of online (free legal) electronica downloads. I started at my familiar Acid Planet and eventually found my way to Electronic Scene. I found two treasures — Line, kind of like the illbient love child of Groove Armada and Cornershop, and Ochre, an IDM group whose tracks (like this one called Advanced Tree Surgery) remind me of a music box gone horribly glitch-funky. Check it out. The next best thing to finding cool free legal music treasures online is sharing cool free legal music treasures online.
I had occasion to DJ a dance for the Junior High Kids at our Church last week. It’s getting decidedly harder to put together three hours of Church-acceptable dance music nowadays. Of the top ten songs in the country right now, there are maybe three that I’d figure are straight and narrow enough to play at Church. I’m pretty liberal about what I let my daughter listen to — I figure it’s better to engage her in a dialogue about the meanings of the various songs than keep her from them. And hey, I like Nelly and Outkast too, but I can’t play that stuff at Church. It’s a higher standard.
So I decided to go all Christian. Three hours of Christian dance music. The kind they don’t play on the local Christian station. Audio Adrenaline, Switchfoot, Scott Blackwell, Andy Hunter, World Wide Message Tribe, Delirious, KJ-52, John Rueben. And T-Bone. The kids seemed not to mind. The positive comments outnumbered the complaints two to one.
Anyway, I used this occasion to update my selection. I needed a coupla CDs to put together enough music to last the night. That’s how I found T-Bone. I rembered him as one of the bright spots of the dismal movie The Fighting Temptations so I picked up a CD of his.
I have about as much cred for reviewing hip-hop as I would for reviewing, say, nineteenth century French literature, but I know what I like. And ever since DC Talk decided they weren’t a rap group anymore, I’ve been looking for a favorite Christian rap act. T-Bone may be it.
His rhymes are crisp. Beats are satisfying. A bit too much stuff about street life in his lyrics in the name of “keeping it real.” I’d like a little more message and less playa posing, but at least I can listen to T-Bone and get a quality hip-hop fix without supporting the misogynistic, exploitative, and violent parts of the hip-hop ethos.
Too cool not to blog. Heard about this from Boing Boing and wanted to spread the word as I am all for encouraging this kind of thing..
Members of a a music mailing list got together and created an open source, collborative online CD called Two Zombies Later. The album, which comes complete with cover art and bookelt insert, will be downloadable for exactly three months when it will be taken down.
Get ‘em while they’re hot and free.
Music hath charms that soothe the savage…. College Student. And it doesn’t seem to matter what kind of music or even what culture the music is from.
Radiohead and Sigur Ros together in the same performance? (free registration required) Should we be worried?
Somebody once quipped, here on Overflow I think, that if Radiohead and Sigur Ros kept on their current paths they would someday release exactly the same album, independently. This description of their collaboration with choreographer Merce Cunningham indicates that they indeed are on that trajectory.