Thank you for the Music and the Songs We're Singing..

Listened to the church service today via FB, but didn't manage to get it until almost halfway through - or five minutes into the Sermon. Didn't matter, just meant that I missed a lot of the introductory items and the wisdom story. The Sermon surprised me, because it was from an intern minister who I'd mixed feelings regarding. Her sermon was about reclaiming things like the American Flag and Religion from those who've tainted it.
It belongs to no one, just as God belongs to no one person or religion. Patriotism is protesting and attempting to protect one's constitutional rights. And Jesus? He had a lot of amazing things to say, that maybe we should consider and think about promoting - such as "love one another", "share", "there's enough for us all to share equally", and "treat others as they wish to be treated and as you would wish to be treated with kindness".

It ended with a remastering of the ABBA song Thank you for the Music. It skipped the first lyric and went with the chorus only, kicking all the other lyrics to the curb. (Which I'd have done to, the chorus is lovely on its own.)

I've also been thinking about a random comment on some social media platform - can't remember which one - which stated "where are all the protest songs for this period?"

And I thought, but we have so many already that fit? Today, when she talked about reclaiming the flag - I thought of Johnny Cash's song about the American Flag. Ragged Old Flag It's an odd song - and like most of Cash's songs can be interpreted more than one way. Also thinking about Bruce Springsteen's song Born in the USA which was co-opted without Springsteen's permission by the Regan in the 80s. Listening to that song, I realize it's not at all what Regan and the Republicans twisted it into, but something else entirely. Still Patriotic, still featuring the American Flag, but it is in reality a protest song, with a lot of ironic twists and turns.

Then of course, there's Woody Guthrie's classic song, that he wrote as a counter-point to God Bless, America (which he had massive issues with). Guthrie a folk singer who traveled the breath of the US, often on the back of a rail car, wrote songs on what he saw - as a way of chronicling what he observed and felt about the towns and places he visited. He, like Springsteen, Cash, Mitchell, Young, and Dylan used music to tell stories.
Interestingly enough, Springsteen and Dylan have done covers of this one. As have many others. And I honestly think it should be the rallying cry we use now.

Here's the versions of it, in case you are interested?
( several versions of the song )

( here's the original lyrics )

And then there's this haunting song from the film MockingJay part of the Hunger Games film quartet.

The Hanging Tree

***

There's other songs of course..empowering ones, like 500 Miles or this version 500 Miles, same title, different songs.

And of course, this past week, I've been thinking of Nine Inch Nails - whose songs often feel like primal screams in the brain. They do a rendition of Kristofferson's Hurt (made popular by Cash) - Hurt and of course the one with David Bowie and the original with CASH

Or... American Idiot by Green Day - which screams frustration much like a primal scream, where no one can quite hear you without preaching peace kindness and forgiveness in a whisper.

I often think music says it better than any prose.

Here's Michelle Shocked's song Quality of Mercy. It feels like a protest song in its own right, and is about forgiveness. And Bruce Springsteen's Dead Man Walking,
not to mention the previously linked Amazing Grace, which is the plea of a former slave ship owner for forgiveness from God for his sin of slavery, which to the enslaved is an unforgivable one.

And Harry Belafonte's classic Turn the World Around

I'll leave you with that...I know there are more. But this post is long enough?

Thank you for the Music and the Songs We're Singing..

Listened to the church service today via FB, but didn't manage to get it until almost halfway through - or five minutes into the Sermon. Didn't matter, just meant that I missed a lot of the introductory items and the wisdom story. The Sermon surprised me, because it was from an intern minister who I'd mixed feelings regarding. Her sermon was about reclaiming things like the American Flag and Religion from those who've tainted it.
It belongs to no one, just as God belongs to no one person or religion. Patriotism is protesting and attempting to protect one's constitutional rights. And Jesus? He had a lot of amazing things to say, that maybe we should consider and think about promoting - such as "love one another", "share", "there's enough for us all to share equally", and "treat others as they wish to be treated and as you would wish to be treated with kindness".

It ended with a remastering of the ABBA song Thank you for the Music. It skipped the first lyric and went with the chorus only, kicking all the other lyrics to the curb. (Which I'd have done to, the chorus is lovely on its own.)

I've also been thinking about a random comment on some social media platform - can't remember which one - which stated "where are all the protest songs for this period?"

And I thought, but we have so many already that fit? Today, when she talked about reclaiming the flag - I thought of Johnny Cash's song about the American Flag. Ragged Old Flag It's an odd song - and like most of Cash's songs can be interpreted more than one way. Also thinking about Bruce Springsteen's song Born in the USA which was co-opted without Springsteen's permission by the Regan in the 80s. Listening to that song, I realize it's not at all what Regan and the Republicans twisted it into, but something else entirely. Still Patriotic, still featuring the American Flag, but it is in reality a protest song, with a lot of ironic twists and turns.

Then of course, there's Woody Guthrie's classic song, that he wrote as a counter-point to God Bless, America (which he had massive issues with). Guthrie a folk singer who traveled the breath of the US, often on the back of a rail car, wrote songs on what he saw - as a way of chronicling what he observed and felt about the towns and places he visited. He, like Springsteen, Cash, Mitchell, Young, and Dylan used music to tell stories.
Interestingly enough, Springsteen and Dylan have done covers of this one. As have many others. And I honestly think it should be the rallying cry we use now.

Here's the versions of it, in case you are interested?
( several versions of the song )

( here's the original lyrics )

And then there's this haunting song from the film MockingJay part of the Hunger Games film quartet.

The Hanging Tree

***

There's other songs of course..empowering ones, like 500 Miles or this version 500 Miles, same title, different songs.

And of course, this past week, I've been thinking of Nine Inch Nails - whose songs often feel like primal screams in the brain. They do a rendition of Kristofferson's Hurt (made popular by Cash) - Hurt and of course the one with David Bowie and the original with CASH

Or... American Idiot by Green Day - which screams frustration much like a primal scream, where no one can quite hear you without preaching peace kindness and forgiveness in a whisper.

I often think music says it better than any prose.

Here's Michelle Shocked's song Quality of Mercy. It feels like a protest song in its own right, and is about forgiveness. And Bruce Springsteen's Dead Man Walking,
not to mention the previously linked Amazing Grace, which is the plea of a former slave ship owner for forgiveness from God for his sin of slavery, which to the enslaved is an unforgivable one.

And Harry Belafonte's classic Turn the World Around

***

This week, my church hosted a traveling high school choir from Transylvania. The Unitarian Church has its roots in Romania and Transylvania or so I'm told.

Translyvanian Choir

And here they are thanking their host families in the US in song

***

From someone who can neither sing or play a musical instrument, Thank you for the music world.