SOUL SURMISE

Lyric For The Day 20.1.12 from We Take Care Of Our Own by Bruce Springsteen

"Where the eyes, the eyes with the will to see
Where the hearts, that run over with mercy
Where's the love that has not forsaken me
Where's the work that set my hands, my soul free
Where's the spirit that'll reign, reign over me
Where's the promise, from sea to shining sea
Where's the promise, from sea to shining sea
Wherever this flag is flown"

-      From We Take Care Of Our Own by Bruce Sprinsgteen

We’ve had the opportunity this week to hear the first fruits of a new Bruce Springsteen record. We Take Care Of Our Own is the first track to radio and iTunes from an album Wrecking Ball to be released in March. What are the first impressions? I know mine were not great. I sensed a lack of melody, clumsy lines and a punchy political chorus that felt short of punch and authority. It might be a slight innovative twist of the Springsteen band sound and maybe Arcade Fire and Gaslight Anthem are having their way but after two albums, that I personally have not felt were crucial Springsteen, I was maybe hoping for more.

The content though has me really connected. Bruce is preaching politics at American policy at home and abroad. As with Born In The USA the patriotic should beware of stealing the song as anthemic jingoism. Yes, at first, the song has a seemingly strong positive message that America takes care of its own anywhere that the flag is flown but by the time verse two gets to the “take care of our own” it is sounding a little more ironic as it seems that there is an accusation that care is not so forthcoming at home.

It is then that the song takes us to a place that has me salivating with anticipation of the album. Bruce asks where certain American virtues are in the country’s current state. These are spiritual values and virtues and has me wondering if the spiritual intensity of Springsteen’s recent Seeger Sessions period might work their way into his own writing. That American Land is an extra track on the deluxe version of the album might suggest this and that Land Of Hope and Dreams a hymn like song in the lineage of Guthrie’s Bound For Glory and Mayfield’s People Get Ready first unveiled live in 1999 is more encouragement. Whatever my initial disappointment with the immediacy of We Take Care Of Our Own it has me needing patience to wait until March 5^th

In the meantime, vision, mercy, love and freedom of soul is the demand of the song. It seems to go out to those in power and asks serious questions as to what values and virtues are at play when those in power decide how to take care of those they are responsible for. On closer listen I sense even more. In the Scriptures the blessings God gave to his people were not to be shared in insular ways. The People of God were to be a blessing to the nations as well as to themselves. Springsteen would seem to be projecting that ultimate care where the American people fly their flag. We Take Care of Our Own is a spiritually demanding song. It demands spiritual value and virtues at the heart of the seat of power.     

SOUL SURMISING LANA DEL REY, POP'S IDEA OF HEAVEN AND A CHRISTIAN EMPHASIS...

“It's you, it's you, it's all for you
Everything I do
I tell you all the time
Heaven is a place on earth with you”

-      From Video Games by Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey has arrived on the music scene with some controversy, some mystery and a heavy dose of glamour which is maybe exactly what you need to propel you to Q cover shot even before your album is released! That album Born To Die is already one of the most anticipated records of the year. The first single Video Games that set all this speculation in motion was described by Guardian rock critic Alex Petridis as “a song about big emotions brought on by everyday events, an indolent boyfriend opening a beer, a visit to a bar, putting on perfume." Del Rey herself explained the song, "I think we came together because we were both outsiders. It was perfect. But I think with that contentment also comes sadness. There was something heavenly about that life – we'd go to work and he'd play his video games – but also it was maybe too regular.”

Del Rey isn’t the first pop singer to sing about heaven. Belinda Carlisle was sure it was a place on earth, Eddie Cochran thought there were three steps to it and Hot Chocolate thought you could find it on the back seat of their Cadillac! Coldplay’s single at the same time as Del Rey’s was called Paradise about a girl who sought to dream of a heavenly place to escape her earthly lot. Del Rey’s relationship she said had “something heavenly.”

Pop’s idea of heaven is some place of happiness and usually the self indulgent kind; at least it is judged on whether it is happy or heavenly for me. The Biblical idea of heaven seems to have a different emphasis. It is not so much heaven for me as about creating a new heaven and a new earth of justice and shalom for the entire cosmos; indeed St. Paul suggested went he earth itself was yearning for it. For the follower of Jesus the idea of heaven is about being part of the building of a Kingdom where God reigns. Even within Christianity, we need to confess, we have tended to self indulge it and make it about me and my heaven. The eschatological hope of this new heaven and earth for the Christian is a certain promise; it is the climactic culmination of God’s story. Yet, it is not for the Christian to get comfortable or complacent in that “something heavenly” yet. There is Kingdom work to do and feeling content in it while others live outside of it should disrupt the contentedness.

Lyric For The Day 17.1.12 from Born To Be Loved by Lucinda Williams

You weren't born to be abused
And you weren't born to lose
You were born to be loved
You were born to be loved

You weren't born to suffer
And you weren't born for nothing
You were born to be loved
Mmmmm you were born to be loved

-      From Born To Be Loved by Lucinda Williams

A beautiful and tender song off Lucinda Williams’ Blessed album Born To be Loved tells us what humanity’s original intention was; to be in a loving relationship with God, creation and fellow human beings. How it has all gone wrong, which sadly gives Williams the lines of reality in people’s  lives. We are abused. We do suffer. We do feel purposeless. Many experience these perversions of how it was meant to me more than others.

I imagine Williams’ aim would be to turn such feelings around and to actually love. This is the essence (to name another Lucinda song) of Christianity. Love is at its heart and any other version is not authentic. To be loved by God is to love each other. We were all born to be loved.  

LYRIC FOR MLK DAY 16.1.12 from Up To The Mountain by Patty Griffin

“Some days I look down
Afraid I will fall
And though the sun shines
I see nothing at all
Then I hear your sweet voice, oh
Oh, come and then go, come and then go
Telling me softly
You love me so”

- from Up To The Mountain by Patty Griffin

On Martin Luther King Day I thought it would be good to use a song about the peaceful revolutionary. U2 was too obvious so this one from Patty Griffin got the nod. Griffin is a phenomenal talent as a songwriter and vocalist; for me she sits in Emmylou Harris territory. Up The Mountain (MLK Song) appeared on another stellar album of quality songs, Children Running Through, released in 2007. Since then it has had covers by Kelly Clarkson and Susan Boyle, my goodness me!

A folk spiritual Up On The Mountainside has a real sacred feel. Griffin doesn’t mention the social campaigning vocation of Dr. King explicitly in the lyrics. Instead she looks deep into the spiritual core that strengthened the love that King expressed. The song doesn’t ignore the massive difficulties that King faced in changing the very white face of America but then seems to find the places where he found his hope and his peace and his courage.   

SPORT SURMISING ON SOCCER RULES Pt 1

Everybody hates it. Nobody talks about it. It is on very many occasions absolutely pointless. The only reason for doing it is to slow up the game and frustrate the opponent. It is just on the right side of cheating but cheating it feels. My solution is that there should be no substitutions in Soccer after the 85^th minute. I am amazed that no one has ever suggested it but it seems to me it would make sure that managers can’t interfere with the spectacle that is the exciting end of a soccer match.  

You can hear the backlash already. “But it is tactical.” “There can be more injuries at that time of the game.” There are certain sympathies with the latter but we have no time to have doctors pronounce “injured” and we know the problems that that caused in Rugby. We don’t want to have players playing on with broken necks as the late Bert Trautmann did for Manchester City in the 1956 Cup Final. Yet, five minutes plus injury time which, unless you’re leading against an Alex Ferguson side, is normally three to four minutes is not too long and ten men increases the excitement. More crucially it is a more challenging dilemma to a manager’s tactical skills than bringing on two subs in extra time at 30 second intervals! The Meerkat would say, “simples!”

Lyric For The Day 15.1.12 from Prodigal Son by The Rolling Stones

“Well a poor boy took his father's bread and started down the road
Started down the road
Took all he had and started down the road
Going out in this world, where God only knows
And that'll be the way to get along

Well poor boy spent all he had, famine come in the land
Famine come in the land
Spent all he had and famine come in the land
Said, "I believe I'll go and hire me to some man"
And that'll be the way I'll get along

Said, "I believe I'll ride, believe I'll go back home
Believe I'll go back home
Believe I'll ride, believe I'll go back home
Or down the road as far as I can go"
And that'll be the way to get along

Well, father said, "See my son coming after me
Coming home to me"
Father ran and fell down on his knees
Said, "Sing and praise, Lord have mercy on me"
Mercy”

-          From Prodigal Son by The Rolling Stones

A friend and I chuckled recently that it would not be easy to do our Fitzroy The Gospel According To... series on The Rolling Stones. Actually it would be more than easy. Littered across the Stones’ catalogue, which I need to confess I am just really investigating for the first time, are lots of songs like this one; Christian and related to the blues and Gospel. Songs like Shine Your Light, You Gotta Move,  Salt Of The Earth and You Can’t Always Get What You Want lay a good foundation.

Keith Richards no doubt picked this up from Robert Wilkins' whose original, written in the twenties, was called "That's No Way To Get Along." It is a story song. The negro slaves carried their Bible and theology in songs and here is a fine example. It sticks straight to the storyline that Jesus used in his story but embellishes it with singing and grace. No tweaks to the story like U2 gave it in The First Time this might be the closest that The Rolling Stone get to the Gospel. This is God the Father running to the wasteful sinner because of nothing but love and grace. A great message for the hedonistic drop out culture of the 60s, if the Church had only been there is a conduit!

Lyric For The Day 14.1.12 from Awake My Soul by Christopher Hunter

“When the hole I’m in is far too deep

When words fall far too short

When nothing but denial will do

When hurt the truth distorts

 

Awake my soul to promise

Awake my soul to see

The unseen hand of grace and love

That holds and carries me”

-      From Awake My Soul by Christopher Hunter

Don’t attempt to iTune or Spotify this song as it’s as yet an unrecorded song by my Youth Director at Fitzroy; maybe someday! It is a great lyric and tune and again was used by Chris in his alternative service last Sunday night. It is again an honest song of earthly sojourn where we can find ourselves in spaces where words and rational thought seem to not reach as far as we need to, in seeking solution or resolution, and when the hurts of life knock the truth you believe in about so much that your certainties get bashed out of shape.

This is a prayer for such a time. Reminding me of Mark Heard’s Strong Hand of Love we are asking a God that we can’t even see at this point of our distance down the hole to carry us through our dark night of the soul. Another reminder that this Christian thing is all of God and nothing of ourselves.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS - BLESSED

Here’s a record that I very foolishly ignored last year. Twenty years ago in Cork city I fell in love with the music of Lucinda Williams in a second hand store. Sweet Old World lit up my life. I loved her songs and her swagger. After waiting what seemed like a lifetime (six years) for Car Wheels On A Gravel Road I lost my ardour over a few records. Yes, World Without Tears, reconnected but West and Little Honey didn’t catch me, the latter being the first of her records that I didn’t even buy never mind eagerly on the day of release. It got worse. Blessed nearly slipped my radar entirely, even though Ms Williams actually dueted on one of my favourite songs of the year, Over The Rhine’s hymn-like Undamned.

 Then my friend Gary Burnett made Blessed his Album of the Year and I discovered a deluxe edition with all the tracks demoed in a kitchen and I was sold. And very glad I was. Lucinda Williams is an Austin, Texas meeting point of rock, blues, country and folk. Her band strides out like a thoroughbred; strong, incisive and carrying little weight! It rocks... it rolls... it struts... and it soothes. On top of the svelte sound Williams writes great lyrics; her dad’s a famous poet for goodness sake. Blessed sees her tackle a range of subject matter, Soldier’s Song contrasts the horrors of a soldier’s day with the ordinary day of his loved one at home; Copenhagen and Seeing Black deal with friends’ deaths, the latter about Vic Chestnut the fullest rock chick strut on the record; and songs like Sweet Love and Kiss Like Your Kiss about the ecstasy of William’s happy love and marriage.  

The spiritual obsession within me found me gravitate immediately to Blessed and Born to Be Loved. The first is a proverb-like layering of lines like “We were blessed by the minister/Who practiced what he preached” (that one particularly dug deep!) or “We were blessed by the homeless man/Who showed us the way home.” Not all the lines work but, amongst humour and insight, that latter line reveals why I saw a relationship with Jesus’ Beatitudes in the Sermon On The Mount. Born To Be Loved is as tender as the record gets for a song about grace and how the world should be with everyone loving and being loved. None of us were born to be used and abused; love is the original intention. Awakening, a song of hope, suggests Williams believes a day will come when we will indeed be loved.

As someone who loves other versions, demos etc the deluxe version was a treat for me but I would disagree with a review that suggested that these rustic versions would have been enough. The robust beauty of Williams’ slurred southern drawl benefits from gun slinging guitar sharp sounds. Blessed is indeed a blessing and I am glad I got to it eventually.

STOCKI'S TOP 5 MUSIC BOOK READS OF 2011

Not all of the following books were published in 2011 but I read them in 2011 and these are my favourite 5 Music book reads of last year.

1. Brian J Walsh - Kicking At The Darkness; Bruce Cockburn and Christian Imagination

To have one of my favourite artists looked at by a theologians who knows his music and his Cockburn was a treat.

for Stocki's full review

2. Leagues O’Toole - The Humours of Planxty

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. I happened to pick up a vinyl copy of Planxty’s debut album and it got me discovering this band that featured Christy Moore who I have been researching for a project Fitzroy is now doing in March called The Gospel According To... Christy Moore. That led me to pick up this book by Leagues O’Toole in another charity shop! O’Toole has done an amazing job at not only telling the quite complicated Planxty story but also contextualising them in the history of Irish traditional music. Written the way I like musical biographies to be written. Off the record detail with really good lengthy insight to the records!

3. David Browne - Fire and Rain

This book had me living my summer in the music of 1970. Informative, culturally contextualised and intriguing.

Stocki's full review

4. Daniel Lanois – Soul Mining: A Musical Life

Lanois’ first person account of the development of his own art as musician, songwriter and producer and a few little snippets about U2, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Neil Young etc...

Stocki's full review

5. Olivia Harrison – George Harrison: Living In The Material World

This coffee book of mainly photographs that was part of the Scorcese movie project is fantastic. Tenderly and honestly done by George’s wife Olivia it is more exciting because of the never seen before private shots like the one with Dylan and Harrison playing tennis! Beautiful and brilliant!

Stocki's review of the Living In The Material World movie

Lyric For The Day 11.1.12 from Carry The Weight by Denison Witmer

“Carry the weight of your neighbor
Carry the weight of a stranger
I'm not afraid to say I don't know what to do

And so I carry the weight
Carry the weight
Carry the weight
Carry the weight

Carry the weight of each other
Carry the weight of another
I'm not afraid to say I don't know”

-       From Carry The Weight by Denison Witmer

Yesterday’s Lyric For The Day looked at Over The Rhine’s All My Favourite People that was used in Fitzroy’s alternative service last Sunday night. Here was another of the songs used. Denison Witmer’s work is infused by his Mennonite background. Actions speak louder than words and everything is laced through with gentleness and peace. Here’s a song of Christian responsibility and indeed a convicted commitment to carrying the neighbour and stranger, both recurring words from Scriptures, even when intellectual faith is not so convinced. Our priority is to carry each other and to be there for each other as we stumble and tumble in our cerebral understanding and behavioural failings and disappointments; loving your neighbour is more crucial that creedal understanding. I am immediately reminded of Bruce Springsteen’s If I Should Fall Behind. But that is for another Lyric For The Day!