Feed Your Ears

[Luigi]

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes recorded "Why Is Love Such a Sacrifice" in 1980. On the surface, this is a straight-up American pop love song with a dynamite brass section. But a good love song can often be interpreted as applying equally well to one's relationship with God as to one's significant other - after all, God is a pretty significant other! So notice the religious terminology throughout. Fr. Mike Schmitz often emphasizes that love requires sacrifice, and that's sort of the point of this song. 

 

[Luigi]

Ralph and Carter Stanley wrote "Who Will Sing for Me?," a song for singers. This is Emmylou Harris' rendition, with 
Vince Gill on tenor harmony. 

 

[Luigi]

Here's June Carter Cash on the last album she recorded. Her voice is rough, and she's sometimes short on breath (heart problems). She's singing "Meeting in the Air," originally recorded by The Carter Family (including her mother, Maybelle Carter) in the 20s or 30s. This is another song for singers. There are a number of songs in the  Gospel repertoire that celebrate crossing into heaven and/or singing in heaven. The Catholic hymn repertoire doesn't have anything like that, at least that I can think of. 

 

[Luigi]

Sister Shirley Caesar sings "Satan, We're Gonna Tear Your Kingdom Down" a cappella with a good-sized choir. What I find impressive about the song is that she addresses Satan directly, without fear, in the full knowledge of the power of Jesus' name and the power of prayer. There's nothing like this, that I know of, in the Catholic song repertoire although I believe their is in the prayer repertoire (prayers of exorcism would be even stronger than this). 

 

[Luigi]

Here's the Marshall Family singing "Exactly What I Need." It was popularized by Dottie Rambo, a well-known Southern Gospel singer with a long career. But I dislike her version - and all other versions - intensely. The Marshalls, however, do a dynamite arrangement of it. NOTA BENE: This particular YouTube video has a couple of problems - 1. the first couple of words (When I thought I needed...) didn't get recorded, and 2. the volume is pretty low. You can find a cleaner recording of it if you search for "Requests [1976] - The Marshall Family" - that's the whole album, and this song is the third track. 

Judy Marshall (the daughter) sings lead, and her brother David provides good harmonies on the chorus, but what I particularly like about this recording is the mother's alto harmonies. 

This song reminds me of Job and of God's providence. 

 

[Luigi]

"Beatitudes" by Sweet Honey in the Rock. They sing a cappella only (occasional drums are permitted). I've heard the Beatitudes read in church any number of times, but I actually learned them from Sweet Honey in the Rock's sung version. 

 

[Luigi]

In 1969, "O Happy Day" by the Edwin Hawkins Singers was a hit on the pop charts. It's hard to imagine something similar happening these days. 

 

[Luigi]

Jennifer sings Leonard Cohen's "Bernadette." Warnes explored a vocation to religious life in her youth but decided to pursue a professional singing career. I'm not sure I approve of Cohen appropriating a lot of Catholic terminology, imagery, and symbolism for his love songs, but this one isn't too bad. I mentioned previously that a good love song can be interpreted in terms of one's relationship with God; this is the obverse of that - a religious story applied to a love relationship. For what it's worth. 

 

[Luigi]

Willie Mae Ford Smith was never as famous as Mahalia Jackson, but she sang very much in the same style and time period. Here she sings "I'm Glad Salvation Is Free." It starts slowly, with a strangely dissonant piano accompaniment, but then the chords become more standard, she picks up the pace, and she builds the volume until right at the end. 

 

[Luigi]

Here's Van Morrison's 1991 rendition of "Be Thou My Vision" on his album Hymns to the Silence. The original lyrics are a very old Irish-language prayer - maybe 4th century, maybe 7th or 8th century, maybe 10th or 11th century. The lyrics were translated from Old Irish to English in 1905 by Mary Elizabeth Byrne (this was the height of Irish nationalism, including the reclaiming of all things ancient Irish, as a form of resistance to English political domination). Then a second woman, Eleanor Hull versified Byrne's English words in 1912. And it's been popular ever since. 

The lyrics were set to Slane, a traditional Irish folk tune, in 1919. A number of other composers have set completely different lyrics to the same tune. 

Morrison sings in a gutsy style rather than a churchy style, with standard rock instruments plus traditional Irish instruments. He's one of the few pop musicians who is unabashedly Christian and records religious songs on pop albums. 

 

[Luigi]

"Sit Down, Servant" is completely new to me. I found it only yesterday or the day before. Clearly, it's a traditional spiritual with the line repeated three times followed by the punchline (Sit down and rest a little while). I found fuller, more professional versions on YouTube, but what strikes me about this particular video is that it's completely honest - apparently, the family matriarch has died, and the family at the graveside is singing her home. It's so simple and it's so beautiful. 

 

[Luigi]

The Soul Stirrers, pre-Sam Cooke (they sound almost like The Mills Brothers!), sing "Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb." This must have been recorded around 1950. "Sit Down, Servant" demonstrates that the old songs are kept alive in the Gospel tradition, and "Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb" demonstrates the opposite trend - Gospel music picks up on current events and uses them to tell the Christian message. But those kinds of songs do sound dated some years later. 

 

[Luigi]

Here's John Anderson's "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal." It's not a spiritual or hymn -it's a straight-up country pop song from 1981 (32 years ago!) but the singer is obviously a believer. He doesn't preach - the song is about improving himself rather than other people - but the includes unabashed and unashamed references to kneeling & praying & "Lord." You don't hear a lot of that in today's pop music. 

 

[Luigi]

Little Cedric and the Hailey Singers give us "Born Again" from 1983. This is a sort of an upbeat altar-call kind of song. It doesn't have a lot of new or unique lyrics, but it's got a dynamite beat and Little Cedric has a dynamite voice. 

 

[Luigi]

And now for something completely different. And completely irreverent. If you find the title offensive, I recommend you not listen to the song - it's not blasphemous or anything, but serious Catholics might find it... shall we say "inappropriate." In any case, Charlie Worsham can sure enuf pick and sing.