Hip-hop, like commercial media generally, has become so dominated by bullets and booty that we might forget the sublime potential of spoken-word poetry. The strong beats and melodic hooks of hip-hop are well-suited to convey extremes of struggle and ecstasy that get bleached out of Christian soft rock.
I haven’t found an artist who does this better than Grits. This track, “Supreme Being”, is my favorite from their 1999 album Grammatical Revolution, a vibrant, many-faceted collection that also includes pounding spiritual-warfare anthems like “Man’s Soul” and “Return of the Antagonist” and the poignant, gospel-inflected “It Takes Love”.
I haven’t been able to find lyrics online; buy the album and enjoy the liner notes for yourself!
Buffalo, NY-based singer/songwriter Jason Bravo’s performances of original pop songs and classic covers can be enjoyed on his YouTube channel, BraveHealerMusic. His debut album “Between Head and Heart” is available from CDBaby.
In this concert clip from summer 2009, he’s performing Josh Groban’s hit song “You Raise Me Up”, with my best buddy Greg Bravo on the awesome guitar solos.
When I am down, and oh my soul, so weary.
When troubles come, and my heart burdened be.
Then I am still and wait here in the silence.
Until You come and sit awhile with me.
You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
You raise me up to more than I can be.
You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
You raise me up to more than I can be.
There is no life — no life without its hunger.
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly.
But when you come and I am filled with wonder.
Sometimes I think I glimpse eternity.
You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
You raise me up to more than I can be.
You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
You raise me up — to more than I can be.
Ina Duley Ogdon was a Midwestern wife and mother and Sunday School teacher during the early 20th century. Ogdon had ambitions of becoming a preacher but family responsibilities intervened. Her poem “Brighten the Corner Where You Are” was written in 1912 while she was caring for her sick father. Set to music by Charles H. Gabriel, the tune became a nationwide hit after evangelist Billy Sunday made it a staple of his revival meetings.
I first heard it this week on Enlighten 34, the Southern gospel station on XM Radio, in a lively rendition by The Statesmen which I wasn’t able to find on YouTube. (It’s featured on this album.) Instead, enjoy this old-school version by the Criterion Quartet:
This interesting 10-minute video tells the story of Ina’s life and the inspiration for the song, as well as its subsequent cultural reception.
1. Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do,
Do not wait to shed your light afar;
To the many duties ever near you now be true,
Brighten the corner where you are.
* Refrain:
Brighten the corner where you are!
Brighten the corner where you are!
Someone far from harbor you may guide across the bar;
Brighten the corner where you are!
2. Just above are clouded skies that you may help to clear,
Let not narrow self your way debar;
Though into one heart alone may fall your song of cheer,
Brighten the corner where you are.
3. Here for all your talent you may surely find a need,
Here reflect the bright and Morning Star;
Even from your humble hand the Bread of Life may feed,
Brighten the corner where you are.
Lyrics courtesy of the Timeless Truths free online library. (Click the “midi” music note icon on their website to hear the tune.)
Today, Aug. 15, is the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Catholic tradition holds that the mother of Jesus ascended bodily into heaven at the end of her life, without dying (like Elijah in the Old Testament). While this isn’t an official Episcopalian doctrine, we still celebrate today as the Virgin Mary’s feast day in the saints’ calendar. Here, James Kiefer at The Daily Office explains the significance of the Virgin Birth:
Besides Jesus himself, only two humans are mentioned by name in the Creeds. One is Pontius Pilate, Roman procurator of Judea from 26 to 36 AD. That Jesus was crucified by order of Pontius Pilate pins down the date of his death within a few years, and certifies that we are not talking, like the worshippers of Tammuz or Adonis, about a personification or symbol of the annual death and resurrection of the crops. His death is an event in history, something that really happened. The other name is that of Mary. The Creeds say that Christ was “born of the virgin Mary.” That is to say, they assert on the one hand that he was truly and fully human, born of a woman and not descended from the skies like an angel. On the other hand, by telling us that his mother was a virgin they exclude the theory that he was simply an ordinary man who was so virtuous that he eventually, at his baptism, became filled with the Spirit of God. His virgin birth attests to the fact that he was always more than merely human, always one whose presence among us was in itself a miracle, from the first moment of his earthly existence. In Mary, Virgin and Mother, God gives us a sign that Jesus is both truly God and truly Man.
Marian doctrines and legends can be a sticking point for modern Christians. Personally, I enjoy believing that I live in the kind of universe where a virgin birth could happen, but Mary’s significance for me goes beyond this story. She’s been a personally comforting presence for me when I needed to experience the maternal side of the divine.
Mary is Woman in a complex and uncategorizable way. Nowadays many think of virginity as a stifling ideal (and certainly Mary has been deployed by the church to stigmatize female sexuality), but in Biblical times, when women were men’s property, the power to say “no” to sex was a proto-feminist act. The early female martyrs’ refusal to marry was their way of declaring allegiance to something higher than the social order; their lives, they asserted, had a value beyond the price that their fathers and husbands had set on them. Yet Mary is also a mother, reminding us that the gift of life occurs in the flesh as well as the spirit. By containing contradictory functions within herself, she represents womanhood as not reducible to any one of them.
Enjoy this recording of Joan Baez singing the traditional folk song “Virgin Mary had one son”, from a 1977 concert:
Virgin Mary had a one son,
Oh, glory halleluja,
Oh, pretty little baby,
Glory be to the new born King.
Well, Mary how you call that pretty little baby,
Oh, pretty little baby,
Oh, pretty little baby,
Glory be to the new born King.
Well, some call Him Jesus, think I’ll call Him Savior
Oh, I think I’ll call Him Savior
Oh, I think I’ll call Him Savior,
Glory be to the new born King.
Riding from the East there came three wise man,
Oh, came three wise man,
Oh, came three wise man,
Glory to be the new born King.
Said, Follow that star, you’ll surely find the baby,
Oh, surely find the baby,
Oh, surely find the baby,
Glory be to the new born King.
Legendary folk singer Joan Baez was a straight ally before it was cool. This song from her 1977 album Blowin’ Away was written in honor of her gay fan-base.
At night in the safety of shadows and numbers
Seeking some turf on which nothing encumbers
The buying and selling of casual looks
Stuff that gets printed in x-rated books
Your mother might have tried to understand
When you were hardly your daddy’s little man
And you gave up saluting the chief
To find yourself some relief
Finely plucked eyebrows and skin of satin
Smiling seductive and endlessly Latin
Olympic body on dancing feet
Perfume thickening the air like heat
A transient star of gay bar fame
You quit your job and changed your name
And you’re nearly beyond belief
As you hunt down a little relief
The seven foot black with the emerald ring
Broke up a fight without saying a thing
As the cops cruised by wanting one more chance
To send Jimmy Baldwin back over to France
And a trucker with kids and a wife
Prefers to spend half of his life
In early Bohemian motif
Playing pool and getting relief
My favorite couple was looking so fine
Dancing in rhythm and laughing in rhyme
In the light of the jukebox all yellow and blue
Holding each other as young lovers do
To me they will always remain
Unshamed, untamed, and unblamed
The altar boy and the thief
Grabbing themselves some relief
The altar boy and the thief
Catching a little relief
Words and music by Bob Hartman
Based on Psalm 95:7-8, Hebrews 3:13
(Chorus)
Don’t let your heart be hardened – don’t let your love grow cold
May it always stay so childlike – may it never grow too old
Don’t let your heart be hardened – may you always know the cure
Keep it broken before Jesus, keep it thankful, meek, and pure
May it always feel compassion – may it beat as one with God’s
May it never be contrary – may it never be at odds
May it always be forgiving – may it never know conceit
May it always be encouraged – may it never know defeat
May your heart be always open – never satisfied with right
May your heat be filled with courage and strengthened with all might
Let His love rain down upon you
Breaking up your fallow ground
Let it loosen all the binding
Till only tenderness is found
I was listening to my favorite satellite radio station, XM 81 (a/k/a the gay party music station), the other day, and heard this song which seemed to be about the question of God’s existence and how life had no meaning without God. This excited me for two reasons. First, I like to see the Gospel pop up in unlikely places. Second, this song brings together two worlds that many people try to keep apart. Sam Sparro is an openly gay pop star who’s using his art to voice our spiritual questions and yearnings, outside the predictable niche of Christian contemporary music.
If the fish swam out of the ocean
and grew legs and they started walking
and the apes climbed down from the trees
and grew tall and they started talking
and the stars fell out of the sky
and my tears rolled into the ocean
now i’m looking for a reason why
you even set my world into motion
’cause if you’re not really here
then the stars don’t even matter
now i’m filled to the top with fear
but it’s all just a bunch of matter
’cause if you’re not really here
then i don’t want to be either
i wanna be next to you
black and gold
black and gold
black and gold
i looked up into the night sky
and see a thousand eyes staring back
and all around these golden beacons
i see nothing but black
i feel a way of something beyond them
i don’t see what i can feel
if vision is the only validation
then most of my life isn’t real
’cause if you’re not really here
then the stars don’t even matter
now i’m filled to the top with fear
but it’s all just a bunch of matter
’cause if you’re not really here
then i don’t want to be either
i wanna be next to you
black and gold
black and gold
black and gold
I’m not sure why I’m suddenly fascinated with Charles Trenet. The record-store clerk described him as a “French Sinatra”. That describes the genre of music pretty well, but where Sinatra always took his persona as a suave crooner quite seriously, Trenet seems to be laughing at the affectations of his own style. He’s having so much fun that he’d rather be part of the joke than pretend to be cool.
Y’a d’la joie! Bonjour, bonjour les hirondelles
Y’a d’la joie! Dans le ciel par dessus les toits
Y’a d’la joie! Et du soleil dans les ruelles
Y’a d’la joie! Partout, y’a d’la joie!
Tout le jour, mon coeur bat, chavire et chancelle
C’est l’amour qui vient avec “je ne sais quoi”
C’est l’amour… Bonjour, bonjour les demoiselles
Y’a d’la joie! Partout, y’a d’la joie!
Le gris boulanger bat la pâte à pleins bras
Il fait du bon pain, du pain si fin que j’ai faim
On voit le facteur qui s’envole là-bas
Comme un ange bleu portant ses lettres au Bon Dieu
Miracle sans nom à la station Javelle
On voit le métro qui sort de son tunnel
Grisé de soleil, de chansons et de fleurs
Il court vers le bois, il court à toute vapeur
Y’a d’la joie! La tour Eiffel part en ballade
Comme une folle, elle saute la Seine à pieds joints
Puis elle dit: « Tant pis pour moi si j’suis malade
J’m’embêtais tout’ seule dans mon coin… »
Y’a d’la joie! Le percepteur met sa jaquette
Plie boutique et dit d’un air très doux, très doux
« Bien l’bonjour! pour aujourd’hui fini la quête
Gardez tout Messieurs, gardez tout! »
Mais voilà soudain qu’je m’éveille dans mon lit
Donc, j’avais rêvé, oui car le ciel est gris
Il faut se lever, se laver, se vêtir
Et ne plus chanter si l’on n’a plus rien à dire
Mais je crois pourtant que ce rêve a du bon
Car il m’a permis de faire une chanson
Chanson de printemps, chansonnette d’amour
Chanson de 20 ans, chanson de toujours
Y’a d’la joie! Bonjour, bonjour les hirondelles
Y’a d’la joie! Dans le ciel par dessus les toits
Y’a d’la joie! Et du soleil dans les ruelles
Y’a d’la joie! Partout, y’a d’la joie!
Tout le jour, mon coeur bat, chavire et chancelle
C’est l’amour qui vient avec “je ne sais quoi”
C’est l’amour… Bonjour, bonjour les demoiselles
Y’a d’la joie! Partout, y’a d’la joie!…