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1
MONDAY
SONGS 5
SONGS IN ENGLISH
FOR ENGLISH STUDY
EACH CLASS
1 FOLK SONG
1 POP SONG
1 LITERARY SONG
1 MUSICAL SONG
1 SACRED SONG
2
This text book file of songs in English was compiled by Paul Harvey, pen name Stean Anthony. It was compiled purely
for non-profit educational purposes. Many of the songs in this text book are not in copyright, some songs are in
copyright still. Nearly all the material may be found on the internet, including many performances and recordings of the
songs themselves, on YouTube website and other places. Copyright of the comments on the songs (editorial material) is
held by Paul AS Harvey. In compiling this textbook I have made use of internet materials, the Wikipedia encyclopedia
was very useful. There may be some errors, for which I apologize, and humbly ask you to tell me of any you find.
Paul Harvey (Stean Anthony) has published a range of books. All with Yamaguchi Shoten, Kyoto, except the first two.
Most of these books were designed to be used as textbooks for education. Please help me by obtaining and reading
these books. I would like to donate these books to prison education, as a mercy gift to prisoners.
3
Books Published by Stean Anthony (pen name of Paul AS Harvey) (2006-2013)
Yuichi Morioka (with Paul Harvey & others), Big Dipper English Course.
Tokyo: Suken Shuppan, 2006.
Paul Harvey, Eco-friendly Japan. Tokyo: Eihosha, 2008.
essays (English Educ.)
essays
All the books below by Stean Anthony published by Yamaguchi Shoten, Kyoto.
Messages to My Mother 1-7. (210 chapters on various topics)
Mozzicone 1-2.
Selections from Shakespeare 1-5. (180 passages from the works of Shakespeare)
Inorijuzu.
Songs for Islam.
Songs 365.
Sufisongs. (2012)
Saint Paul 200.
Gospel 365.
Saint John 550.
Saint Mary 100.
Saint Mary 365 book one & book two
Isaiah Isaiah Bright Voice.
Hagios Paulos. (long poem on the life of Saint Paul) (2012)
Pashsongs. (2012)
Manyoshu 365. (365 translations of ancient Japanese poetry)
One Hundred Poems (100 translations and responses to Hyakunin Isshu).
Great China 1 & 2 & 3 (100 translations of ancient Chinese poetry per volume)
Kongzi 136. (136 translations of Confucius)
Eitanka 1.
Monday Songs 1 – 5 (5 vols)
Psalms in English, lecture and text (one file per lecture, 40 written, ongoing)
essays and poems
essays
poetry
words of wisdom
faith poetry
faith poetry
faith poetry
words of wisdom
prose passages from Bible
faith poetry
faith poetry
faith poetry
faith poetry
faith poetry
poetry
poetry
poetry
poetry
poetic paragraphs
poetry pdf file
songs for English educ. pdf
Lectures faith poetry pdf
Work in Progress
Saint Matthew 365 (translation into Japanese verse-songs for singing)
Saint Mary 365 book three.
Hagios Paulos 2
Psalms in English, lecture and text (one file per lecture, 40 written, ongoing)
Great China 4. (100 translations of ancient Chinese poetry)
Soulsongs
Monday Songs 6.
verse-songs in Japanese
faith poetry
faith poetry
Lectures faith poetry pdf
poetry
faith poetry
songs for English educ. pdf
4
words
#
49
Monday Songs 5:
Folk
Pop
Literary
Jazz / Musical
Sacred Song
page
Song
Folk American: Where have all the flowers gone? & Seven Daffodils
Artist & Work
Pete Seeger & Guthrie (1960) & Brothers Four (1964) CD
5
49
49
Pop: Imagine (1971)
Literary: Undertaking & Valediction Forbidding Mourning John Donne
John Lennon
Helen Gardner, New Oxford Book English Verse 191 & 192
6
7
49
49
Musical: Deep in My Heart (1924)
Sacred: I Saw My Love on Calvary & All the Tides Have Run Out My Love
The Student Prince Sigmund Romberg B. Hendricks CD
Ty Mam Duw Live and Give Life CD 11 & 12 [Easter]
8
9
Folk Cornish: Lamorna & Cornish Wassail
Pop: El Condor Pasa (1970)
Cornish Folk Song (traditional)
Simon & Garfunkel
11
12
Literary: The Ecstasy John Donne
Music Hall: The boy I love (1885) & My old man said follow the van (1919)
Helen Gardner, New Oxford Book English Verse 193
2 Marie Lloyd songs Music Hall
13
15
Sacred: Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom Resurrection Troparion “While the stone was sealed”
Lebanon Choir on YouTube Antiphon Glory to Thy Resurrection
Folk Canada: Big Yellow Taxi (1970) Welsh: Megan’s Fair Daughter
Joni Mitchell & Welsh Traditional Lorna Pollock
16
18
51
51
Pop: Not Fade Away (1964) and Rolling Stone (1972)
Literary: The Flea John Donne
Rolling Stones & Suzi Quatro
Smith Collected Poems
19
20
51
Musical: Surrey with the Fringe on the Top (1943)
Oklahoma (1943) DVD
21
51
Sacred: Mary Don’t You Weep (1972)
Aretha Franklin Spiritual
22
Folk Jamaica: Man Smart Woman Smarter & Jamaica Farewell (1956)
Harry Belafonte
23
52
Pop: Euphoria (2012) & Morning Has Broken (1971)
Loreen & Cat Stevens
24
52
Literary: “To Celia” Ben Jonson & “Sweet Nymph” Thomas Morley
Helen Gardner, New Oxford Book English Verse 206
25
52
Musical: We’re Called Gondolieri & In Enterprise of Martial Kind (1889)
Best of G&S Gondoliers CD 3.14 & 16
26
52
Sacred: Very Early & Early in the Morning & Heaven’s Queen (1992)
Ty Mam Duw Live and Give Life CD 13 & 14 & 15 [Easter]
27
Folk English: Reynardine (1969) & The Lark in the Morning (1971) trad
Fairport Convention & Steeleye Span
29
53
Pop: Sailing (1975) & I don’t want to talk about it (1975)
Rod Stewart
30
53
Literary: Delight in Disorder & Gather ye Rosebuds
31
53
53
Musical: People will say we’re in love & Dat’s Love
Sacred: Restless (2010)
Oklahoma (1943) DVD & Carmen Jones (1943)
Audrey Assad
32
33
Folk Welsh: There is My Love (2000) & Gentle Maid (2007) & Titrwm Tatrwm (1954)
Pop: Both Sides Now (1967)
Sian James & Shannon Mercer & Meredydd Evans
Joni Mitchell
35
36
Literary: To Anthea & To Daffodils
Robert Herrick
Musical: Moonlight Serenade (1939) & In the Still of the Night (1937)
Glenn Miller (1939) & Cole Porter sung by Ella Fitzgerald
37
38
Kathleen Battle from Grace CD
39
50
50
3.8
4.6
50
50
50
51
52
53
54
54
3.5
4.0
4.0
3.8
54
54
54
55
Robert Herrick
Sacred: Daughter of Jerusalem & Had I Jubal’s Lyre, Handel
&
Mayim Mayim
Hebrew Song Mayim Mayim
Folk Irish & Scot Gaelic: An Spealadoir & Mairi Bhan (Mary’s Wedding)
Sean O Se & The Corries or Clancy Brothers
41
55
55
Pop: La Isla Bonita (2003) & Let’s Dance (1983)
Literary: Upon Julia’s Clothes & Comfort to a Youth,
Alizee & David Bowie
Helen Gardner, New Oxford Bk of Eng Verse 260 & 261
43
44
55
55
Musical: Goldfinger (1964) & Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Sacred: Psalm 23 three versions
Shirley Bassey
Bond Film Theme Songs
Herbert & Scottish Psalter & Baker
45
46
Folk American: Washington Talkin Blues (1941) & Mr Tambourine Man (1965)
Pop: How Deep is Your Love (1977) & Mr Bojangles (1969)
Woody Guthrie & Bob Dylan
Bee Gees & Sammy Davis Jr (1989)
49
51
Literary: Piping Peace & Glories of our Blood and State, James Shirley
Musical: It’s a Hard Knock Life & Tomorrow 1977
Annie 1977 Musical sung by Haruka Sugihara
53
54
Sacred: Your Eyes & Emmaus (1992)
Folk Irish: The Blarney Stone & Down by the Glenside (Bold Fenian Men)
Ty Mam Duw Live and Give Life CD 16 & 17 [Easter]
Bob Davenport & Jane and Jenny Holohan Sisters YouTube
56
57
57
57
Pop: Child for a Day (1977) & Pressing On (1980)
Literary: Redemption 42 & The Altar George Herbert
Cat Stevens & Bob Dylan
58
59
57
57
Musical: Ain’t Misbehaving (1943) I Can’t Give You Anything but Love (1942)
Sacred: 3 Herbert Hymns Let All the World & King of Glory & Teach me
Fats Waller Stormy Weather 1943 Louis Armstrong 1942
Herbert Hymns (1633)
60
61
Folk Scottish: To a Mouse (1785)
Pop: Move It (1958) & Lord’s Prayer (2008) & The Young Ones (1961) & Congratulations (1968)
Robert Burns (read by John Cairney)
Cliff Richard
63
64
Literary: The Collar & The Pulley George Herbert
Musical: Swanee (1919) & I Got Rhythm (1930)
George Gershwin songs Al Jolson & Nikki Yanofsky
66
67
Sacred: Letter of Paul to the Galatians
Folk (Rugby Anthems): Sweet Chariot Eng & Sosban Fach Wales
Mount Lebanon Choir Orthodox
South African Group
68
70
59
59
Pop: Umbrella (2007)
Literary: Easter & Love
Rihanna
71
72
59
59
Musical: Nobody Does It Better (1977) & Skyfall (2012)
Sacred: Laudate Dominum & Bless the Lord
Carly Simon & Adele Bond Film Theme Songs
Taize CD 1 and YouTube
73
75
Folk Canadian: Woodstock (1969)
Pop: All You Need Is Love (1967)
Joni Mitchell
Beatles
77
78
60
60
Literary: Pearl & Easter Wings (1633) George Herbert
Musical: Where is Love? & I’d do anything for you (1960)
Herbert Temple (1904)
Oliver! Lionel Bart (1960)
79
80
60
Sacred: To You O Blessed One & Great Mother (1992)
Ty Mam Duw Live and Give Life CD 20 & 22
82
56
56
5.0
(1992)
5.8
56
56
56
57
58
58
3.7
4.3
58
58
58
59
60
60
4.4
4.4
Total words: 47.3 K words
Robert Herrick
George Herbert
5
Monday Songs Course 5
049 Monday Songs Class Paul A.S. Harvey 3.8 Kwords
5 per class 1 Folk 1 Pop 1 Literary 1 Musical 1 Sacred & Quiz
12 classes & introduction
Folk: Where have all the flowers gone? (1960) Seven Daffodils (1964)
Pop: Imagine (1971) John Lennon
Literary: Undertaking & Forbidding Mourning, John Donne (c 1595)
Musical: Deep in my Heart, Dear Romberg (1924)
Sacred: I Saw My Love & All the Tides (1992) Ty Mam Duw Poor Clares
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Folk
American Folk
Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (1960)
Words and music by Pete Seeger
Performed by Pete Seeger
Performed by Joan Baez
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Long time ago
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing
Long time ago
Taken husbands every one
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing
Long time ago
Gone for soldiers every one
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Long time ago
Gone to graveyards every one
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing
Long time ago
Covered with flowers every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?
Comment
Classic anti-war folksong & peace-song. The first three
verses were written by Pete Seeger in 1955. Additional
verses were added by Joe Hickerson in May 1960, who
turned it into a circular song. Seeger found inspiration for
the song when reading Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail
Sholokov, in which there is a Cossack folksong with a
similar concept.
Marlene Dietrich sang the song in English, French and
German, and performed it in German in Israel, the first
time that German had been used in public in Israel since
WW2.
There is variation in the lyrics of this song. In the early
versions there is, “when will you ever learn?” and also
“gone to uniform every one” instead of “gone for soldiers”
everyone.
America had a very strong military culture and ethos, and
Seeger and others challenged this. It is easy for us to
forget how perilous the world-situation seemed to people
with conscience, following the atomic bombs on Japan,
and the development of nuclear missiles and vast armies
in the Cold War period.
Pete Seeger (1919 – )
Leading folksinger and lyricist of the second half of the
twentieth century, his songs defined the sound of the
American civil rights movement of the 1960s, including
“We shall overcome” (on his advice changed from “we
will” to “we shall”), “If I had a Hammer,” and “Turn,
Turn, Turn.” He came from an intellectually-gifted New
England family, and there are a few folksingers and
artists among his relatives. From age 19, he was a singer,
performer, and an activist for many causes that are now
considered uncontroversial, but in 1940 were very radical
– such as the abolition of the segregation of black and
white people. He was a leading member of the folk group
The Weavers in the 1950s, with a string of hits. The group
was blacklisted for being leftwing in 1953. He moved
from communism to a humanitarian and liberal socialism.
He has also contributed greatly to green issues.
+++
Seven Daffodils (1957)
Words by Fran Moseley
Music by Lee Hays
Sung by The Brothers Four (1964) Album “Sing of Our
Times”
I may not have a mansion,
I haven't any land
Not even a paper dollar
6
To crinkle in my hand
But I can show you morning
On a thousand hills
And kiss you and give you seven daffodils.
I do not have a fortune
To buy you pretty things
But I can weave you moonbeams
For necklaces and rings
And I can show you morning
On a thousand hills
And kiss you and give you seven daffodils.
Oh, seven golden daffodils
All shining in the sun
To light our way to evening
When our day is done
And I will give music
And a crust of bread
And a pillow of piney boughs
To rest your head.
Comment
Beautiful folk song, covered by many artists. Seven
daffodils are obviously a symbol of love, first of all, but at
a deeper level, the gift of heaven. Seven is a symbolic
number in the Bible, a clear sign of heaven, as found
repeated through the Book of Revelation. I don’t have
any background information about the song. It would be
interesting to know where the thousand hills might be. It
sounds like North India. But daffodils are associated
with England and Wales. Perhaps these are the Welsh
hills.
Brothers Four
Group founded in Seattle, Washington in 1957. Bob Flick,
John Paine, Mike Kirkland, and Dick Foley met at the
University of Washington, and formed a band, which,
despite personnel changes, (Mike McCoy, Mark Pearson,
Karl Olsen) has remained active up to today. “Greenfields”
(1960) was a great success, and their blend of harmony
and clarity remained popular in many parts of the world,
especially in Japan.
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace
Yoo hoo!
You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world
Yoo hoo!
You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one
Comment
John Lennon’s most successful song of his post-Beatles’
career, written under the influence of Yoko Ono’s poetry
(her 1964 book Grapefruit, as he said later). Like his song
“Give Peace a Chance,” it became an anthem of the
anti-establishment peace movement of the 1970s,
promoting an anti-war ethic among young and old. The
song appealed very widely across religious and cultural
boundaries, and is still one of the most popular songs
from that era, even in countries which do not use English
as a first language.
Like many of the Beatles’ most successful songs, it is
simple in structure and phrase. This is deceptive, since it
has a profound message. The spirituality in the song is
genuine but it requires some work to understand what it
is.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
“Imagine there’s no heaven” the first phrase, sung very
gently and sweetly, is actually a blasphemous suggestion,
considering Lennon’s Christian background. It is a
powerful beginning to the song because it challenges
those Christian assumptions. If one imagines there is no
heaven, then one must imagine that the theology of the
Church does not exist, because, if there is no heaven,
then there could be no God. But he is not saying that
heaven does not exist, he is saying “imagine that it does
not exist.” What kind of world would it be? An atheistic
materialist universe, without belief ? This was the creed
of the Soviet Union and the official point of view of
communist China.
Ahaa!
Or a modern Buddhist belief, in which the simple notions
Pop
Imagine (1971)
Lyrics by John Lennon (& Yoko Ono as ascribed later)
Produced by John Lennon & Yoko Ono
Sung by John Lennon
7
of God and heaven and hell are superseded by a practice
that liberates the soul from suffering?
century, man-made hell. So he could be dreaming about
heaven on earth.
The first invitation is shocking but the second invitation
is merciful: “Imagine there is no hell below us.” Hell is
the place of eternal torment reserved for souls who
disobey God. Lennon appears to be offering a theology
that has rejected the notion of final judgment to endless
suffering. He seems to offer a carpe diem existence,
living for today, with the suggestion that people would be
free from moral constraint.
The song is a welcome challenge to the Christian faith.
The old simple notions of what “heaven” or “hell” might
be do not persuade anyone these days. If God loves us
completely, would that God send a soul to endless
torment? And what is heaven? Being at unity with God?
Being at one with Him? And what is hell? Being cut off
from God?
There’s a good discussion of this song on Wikipedia.
“Imagine no countries.” This is an anti-nationalist
statement, which looks forward to a truer vision of
United Nations. No religion – nationalism and religion
were the cause of war and conflict for the past few
centuries of European history. Then he says, imagine the
people living at peace, without religion and without
nationalism, and invites us to join him, which implies
that this is a movement of some kind. The world to be at
one – the world to achieve unity. This is also in fact a
Buddhist concept, and the tone and ethic of the song is
Buddhist in feeling.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Literary
New Oxford Book of English Verse
Edited by Helen Gardner (OUP, 1972).
A. J. Smith, ed. John Donne: Complete English Poems,
Penguin 1971 p. 83-84.
191
The next verse draws on the primitive love democracy of
the Church, with no possessions, no destructive desires,
brotherhood, and all sharing things in common, and all
people sharing the world. A national anthem for the
whole world, which appeals to all faiths, and promotes a
rather Japanese view of peace.
The whole song is cast in “imagination.” So the point is
that this is an ideal picture that we must call into being in
our imagination. It is a utopian offering or a dream. The
skill of the song is that the work of imagining peace is
also the work of self-education in the values of the song.
Thinking and imagining in this way, promotes a more
peaceful attitude. Even today, in some parts of the world,
there is too strong an attachment to nation or to faith.
People are still prepared to go to extremes, and the song
is directed against that. Extremism, hostility, violence?
NO.
There may be some clever hints about the song in the
words chosen. The word “imagine” itself, could be
divided up to mean “I’m a gin” which means, “I am a
clever device or trap.” The sweetness of the song which
invites us to consider that heaven does not exist could be
an invitation from the Devil? The first verse might be a
false invitation, signaled by the way he sings, “Aha!”
which is a quotation from the old translation of the
psalms, a word of mockery. He later sings, “Yoo hoo”
which is a phrase used when you arrive home, “Yoo hoo!
Anyone at home?” to attract attention, signalling that it is
better content.
“All the world at one” – if the world is truly in unity, and
if the world is truly at peace, then you are in fact
imagining “heaven” without “hell.” Because hell was all
the wars of the past centuries, especially in the twentieth
The Undertaking
1 I have done one braver thing
Than all the Worthies did,
Yet a braver thence doth spring,
Which is, to keep that hid.
2 It were but madness now to impart
The skill of specular stone,
When he which can have learned the art
To cut it can find none.
3 So, if I now should utter this,
Others (because no more
Such stuff to work upon, there is)
Would love but as before.
4 But he who loveliness within
Hath found, all outward loathes,
For he who color loves, and skin,
Loves but their oldest clothes.
5 If, as I have, you also do
Virtue attired in woman see,
And dare love that, and say so too,
And forget the He and She;
6 And if this love, though placèd so,
From profane men you hide,
Which will no faith on this bestow,
Or, if they do, deride;
7 Then you have done a braver thing
Than all the Worthies did;
And a braver thence will spring,
Which is, to keep that hid.
8
§§§
192
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
1 As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"The breath goes now," and some say, "No."
2 So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move.
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
3 Moving of the earth brings harms and fears.
Men reckon what it did, and meant.
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
4 Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
The thing which elemented it.
5 But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.
6 Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.
7 If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two.
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the other do.
8 And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
9 Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like the other foot, obliquely run.
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
Comment
Two of John Donne’s witty lyrical poems, characterized
by his light-hearted ironical tone. The image of the twin
compasses used in “Valediction” is very well handled and
the poem is a warm statement of love.
Braver: finer, more remarkable
Worthies: Heroes of past ages, spec. the nine worthies:
nine famous persons of ancient and medieval
history and legend, three Jews (Joshua, David, and
Judas Maccabeus), three Gentiles (Hector,
Alexander, and Julius Caesar), and three Christians
(Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon)
[OED].
Specular: a stone for building which was transparent like
glass, “specular” means seeing, “specular orb” the
eye
If I now should utter this: the point is that, like the rarity
of the specular stone, the poet loves “virtue in
women”, which he implies (jocularly) is a
contradiction in terms
Colour loves and skin: flesh not spirit
Forget the He and She: loving the soul, which has no
gender
Profane: unholy, irreverent, low-minded
♦ What exactly is the brave thing that the poet has done?
Valediction: farewell, a poetic farewell to his mistress or
his Love on going on a journey
Tear-floods & sigh-tempests: Petrarchan motifs
Laity: the non-religious, i.e. those who do not understand
the holy nature of his love and will profane it (comic
tone)
Moving of the earth: abridged note from A. J. Smith,
“movements of our world, such as earthquakes, do
provoke speculations about what they have caused,
but the greater oscillations of heavenly spheres have
no such consequences.”
Trepidation: tremulous agitation, oscillation
Sublunary: under the moon, i.e. subject to constant
change in this earthly life
Elemented: composed, formed it
Aery thinness: gold-leaf beaten fine as the air
Stiff: firm and stable
Twin compasses: dividers used in map measurement
Obliquely: indirectly
Makes my circle just: true or complete
John Donne (1572-1631)
For a biographical note on John Donne, please refer to
Monday Songs class 45.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Musical
Deep in My Heart, Dear (1924)
From the Operetta The Student Prince (1924)
Book & Lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly
Music by Sigmund Romberg
Sung by Barbara Hendricks and Gino Quilico on CD
Duo’s de Operette EMI 1993 track 4
Kathie:
Of love I’ve often heard
And all its joy.
How every heart is stirred
Both girl and boy
But though in love alone
In tender bliss
9
My lips have never known
A lover’s kiss.
Prince:
O tell me if within your heart
You know a tender longing
Sweet as mine.
K: A spell that fills me full of joy
And through my veins like wine,
Runs joy divine.
P: It is the spring
That’s calling you and me
Joy is in the air
Cast away all care
Every song that’s sung
Tells us we are young.
K: Is this the spell of magic May?
Both:
Magic of the May?
O her call we must obey
And follow her flower-strewn way.
P: The magic of springtime is round us tonight
Enchantment is borne on the breeze.
K: And clothed in the silver of tender moonlight
The birds murmur soft in the trees.
P: As deep in the shadow your eyes look in mine
Within them a soft flame gently glows.
Both:
The breath of the night wind with perfume divine.
romance. The Prince, Karl Franz, is sent to University at
Heidelberg to finish his studies. There he meets and falls
in love with the daughter of the innkeeper, Kathie.” Deep
in the Heart is also the title of a movie about the life of
Sigmund Romberg (1954).
The duet is beautifully sung by Hendricks and Quilico.
The phrase “Magic of the May” must refer to the beauty
of the spring season. It sounds like a translation from
German. May is a month celebrated for flowers.
Sigmund Romberg (1887-1951)
More information see MS 4, 22, 38.
Barbara Hendricks (1948)
Gifted American soprano with a wide repertoire, admired
for her singing in German, excellent at these light operas.
Gino Quilico (1955)
Canadian lyric baritone with Italian background.
Performed in many operas, also light opera and musicals.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacred
I Saw My Love on Calvary (1992)
Lyrics: Ty Mam Duw, Poor Clare Colettines
Sung by Ty Mam Duw from the CD Live and Give Life:
The Crib, the Cross and the Bread of Life reissued 2012,
track 11.
Mary Magdalen’s Song
I saw my love on Calvary
He gave his life to set me free
I saw my love, his face a mask of pain
His crown of thorns was woven with my shame
P: is filled with the scent of the rose.
Both:
O love! While I live I will always enshrine …
K: your love in the heart of the rose.
Deep in my heart, dear
I have a dream of you.
P: Fashioned of starlight
Perfume of roses and dew.
K: Out paths may sever
But I’ll remember forever
Both:
Deep in my heart, Dear
Always I’ll dream of you!
Comment
Abridged comment from the internet Guide to Light
Opera and Operetta: “The Student Prince sings its way
serenely down the years as the show that epitomizes pure
Lord, I love you, why do you love me?
Why do you love me?
I saw my love on Calvary,
His touch was filled with life to me.
His arms were wide, was his embrace for me
For me, the bride, her lover’s heart to see.
Why do you love me?
I saw my love on Calvary
I heard his words, I saw him die.
Then from his side a living fountain flowed,
And like a spring, his Spirit was outpoured.
Why do you love me?
Comment
A moving song as if given by Saint Mary Magdalene
10
about the suffering of Jesus. Calvary is the name of the
place of crucifixion, also called Golgotha, which means
place of the skull. Calvary comes from the Latin
translation of the Greek word for skull (Lk 23.33). Mary
Magdalene is supposed to have been redeemed from a
life of “shame” and to have been deeply devoted to Jesus.
She was present close to the cross during the crucifixion,
and tended the body, obviously grief-stricken, and then
overjoyed to meet the risen Christ on the second morning
after his death.
+++
All the Tides Have Run Out My Love (1992)
Words by Ty Mam Duw Poor Clare Colettines
track 12.
All the tides have run out, my love, my love
All the tides have run out my love
From this rain-lashed cross-browed hill
Where I stand and watch in grief
While you do the Father’s will
All the tides run out my love.
We are creatures of clay, my love, my love
We are creatures of clay, my love
In my hands I hold the grail
For the water and the blood
All our chalices are frail
We are creatures of clay, my love.
We are mourners in black, my love, my love
We are mourners in black, my love,
As we take your body down
Gazing on the one we pierced
Then we lay you in the ground
We are mourners in black, my love.
We will wait for the sun, my love, my love
We will wait for the sun, my love
We will run from the upper room
Bringing spices you won’t need
When you walk from out the tomb
And the sun will have come, my love.
Comment
Another song sung as if by Mary Magdalene, or perhaps
one of the other women, as they witness the crucifixion.
Christ is the divinely beloved. Some elements are added.
There is nothing about rain in the Gospels, but there is
an eclipse and an earthquake. The phrase “tides have run
out” suggests that time has ended. When the tide is out
the boat cannot depart, a figurative phrase.
Creatures of clay: humanity is fragile, a quote from the
Bible (Is 64.8)
Grail: the sacred grail, this was the cup used by Christ
during the last supper, and chalice is the sacred cup
used in the Holy Communion, despite our fragility,
we have the cup of salvation to join us to Christ
We pierced: the witnesses to the crucifixion accept
responsibility for Christ’s suffering, which is
atonement for the sins of the world
In the ground: the body was laid in a tomb, which would
have been in a wall of rock or in the hillside
Upper room: the song combines the “upper room” of the
Last Supper (Mk 14.15) and Acts 2 (when the Holy
Spirit descended about 7 weeks later) with the time of
the resurrection.
11
Folk: Cornwall Lamorna & Wassailing traditional
Pop: El Condor Pasa If I Could (1970) Simon & Garfunkel
Literary: The Ecstasy, John Donne (c1595)
Musical: Marie Lloyd Songs The Boy I love 1885 & Don’t Dilly Dally 1919
Sacred: Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom Resurrection Troparion
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Folk
Cornish Folk
Lamorna
Cornish Folk Song
So now I'll sing to you
It's about a maiden fair,
I met the other evening
At the corner of the square;
She had a dark and roving eye
And her hair was covered over.
We rowed all night
In the pale moonlight
Way down to Lamorna.
(Refrain)
T'was down in Albert Square
I never shall forget,
Her eyes they shone like diamonds
And the evening it was wet
And her hair hung down in curls
Her face was covered over.
We rowed all night
In the pale moonlight
As she stepped in the cab
I asked her for her name,
And when she gave it me
Well with mine it was the same;
So I lifted up her veil
For her face was covered over.
To my surprise
It was my wife
I took down to Lamorna.
She said I know you know
I knew you all along,
I knew you in the dark,
For I did it for a lark,
And for that lark you'll pay
For the taking of your donna,
You'll pay the fare
I do declare
Comment
Lamorna is a fishing village and cove in West Cornwall,
about 4 miles south of Penzance, in an area of
outstanding beauty. A village which used to be a centre
for smuggling, and has been a colony for artists.
The Albert Square referred to may have been in
Manchester, in an earlier version of the song, and there is
an Albert Square in St Just, Penwith, not far from
Lamorna. Named after Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s
consort. There is also an Albert Square in the EastEnders
soap opera. Apparently the song is very popular in pubs.
The song is easy enough to understand, and like most
folksongs, there is innuendo. No need to explain except
to say that “we rowed all night” surely means something
else. The woman turns out to be his own wife, and he
must pay for his attempted infidelity! Donna (Italian
woman) A lady; a title of honor for a lady(instead of doña
or dona). Prima, seconda donna: the principal, or the
second, female singer in an opera (see OED).
The song was posted on The Mudcat Café website (a
forum for discussion of song). I include it because it is
well written, and a typical folk song in terms of content. I
also found this on the British Library “Sounds” archive, a
clip of 4 minutes in the “Bob & Jacqueline Patten
English Folk Music Collection.” The folk song is
probably not very old, though Wikip. article dates it to
1910.
http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Bob-and-Jacqueline-Patten-Collection/
025M-C1033X0299XX-2100V0
+++
Cornish Wassail
Traditional
Now Christmas is comen
And New Year begin
Pray open your doors
And let us come in.
Chorus:
With our wassail, wassail,
Wassail, wassail,
And joy come with our jolly wassail.
2. O Master and Mistress
Sitting down by the fire
While we poor wassail boys
Are traveling the mire.
Chorus
3. This ancient house
We will kindly salute
It is an old custom
You need not dispute.
Chorus
12
4. We are here in this place,
Orderly we stand
We're the jolly wassail boys
With a bowl in our hands.
Chorus
Devon (where there was a strong Anglo-Saxon settlement,
as the place-names tell).
Mire: mud
On the British Library Sound Archive. Called the 'Old' song. Roud Folk Song
5. We hope that your apple trees
Will prosper and bear
And bring forth good cider
When we come next year.
Chorus
Index No. 209.
See more at:
http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Bob-and-Jacqueline-Patten-Collection/
025M-C1033X0003XX-2600V0
Useful information found at:
6. We hope that your barley
Will prosper and grow
That you may have plenty
And some to bestow.
Chorus
http://www.christmas.oldcornwall.org/Wassail.htm
7. Good Mistress and Master
How can you forbear
Come fill up out bowl
With cider or beer.
Chorus
El Condor Pasa (If I could) (1970)
Lyrics: Paul Simon (1941- )
Sung by: Art Garfunkel & Paul Simon guitar
Melody (1913): Alomía Robles (1871-1942)
8. Good Mistress and Master
Sitting down at your ease
Put your hands in your pockets
And give what you please.
Chorus
9. I wish you a blessing
And a long time to live
Since you've been so free
And willing to give.
Chorus
Comment
The word “wassail” was originally a salutation when
drinking someone’s health, from Old English
(Anglo-Saxon). This developed into a custom at
Christmas-tide when healths were drunk from the
“wassail bowl,” and “The Wassail song” was sung.
During festivities, the head of the house would pass
around a bowl of spiced ale and everyone would drink
the health of all present. Later, neighborhood houses
would be visited. The wassail would be sung, and the
revelers rewarded with cake or ale. This would happen on
Twelfth Night or New Year’s Eve, depending on local
custom. It was considered bad luck not to reward the
wassailers!
In some localities the local cider apples would be blest.
Apples are plentiful enough in Cornwall, but are not
really typical, being more common further East. My
sources for this state that it is an old Cornish custom, but
wassail is not a Celtic word (Cornwall was Celt), and
there were in fact not many Anglo-Saxons in Cornwall in
the early Middle Ages. So this was probably a custom
which was adopted from their Anglo-Saxon neighbors in
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pop
I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail
Yes I would, if I could, I surely would
I'd rather be a hammer than a nail
Yes I would, if I only could, I surely would
Away, I'd rather sail away
Like a swan that's here and gone
A man gets tied up to the ground
He gives the world
It's saddest sound
It's saddest sound
I'd rather be a forest than a street
Yes I would, if I could, I surely would
I'd rather feel the earth beneath my feet
Yes I would, if I only could, I surely would
Comment
Lyrics written by Paul Simon to go with a famous
Peruvian folk melody (performed by the group Los
Incas).
The song is poetic, and there is obviously a message here.
Given a choice, what would one be? A sparrow or a snail?
A bird with wings or a lower order animal such as a snail.
Sparrows might eat small snails but perhaps this is
irrelevant. Sparrows and snails are mentioned in the Bible,
is it relevant? The song seems to be about freedom.
The analogy of hammer and nail is easy to understand –
to be the striking one, or to be the one who is struck. He
prefers to be the one striking.
The next verse implies that the singer wishes to escape
his present reality, because when one is tied down by
13
commitments or for whatever reason, one becomes sad.
Like a swan? To sing a swansong means to sing a song
before you die, usually a beautiful song. There seems to
be a hint about faith here. The saints and the prophets
perhaps are being suggested? Away could be read as “a
way.”
Is there a hidden reference to the Aswan Dam, that was
completed in 1970? This was a huge achievement for the
people of Egypt, and alleviated poverty considerably,
powering communities and industry with cheap
electricity.
To be a forest rather than a street: clearly the freedom of
the wilderness is preferred to urban life, and the final
verse has this message as well.
Is there anything more to this little lyric? Perhaps it
implies (with a critical irony) a selfishness on the part of
the singer, who is happy to be a hammer not a nail.
The last line, for a Jew, could imply something. “Earth
beneath the feet” could be choosing an earthly life, since
the feet are the lowest part of the body, implying a
worldly choice, a turning away from heaven.
The phrase “sail away” might be a code (found in some
of the pop songs of the 1960s and 70s), for the phrase “to
say el” i.e. to speak God’s name. “El” is found also in the
original title of the melody. You can also find a message
in the acrostic. A spiritual meaning?
The original song was the title-song of a zarzuela
(musical play) written by Julio Baudoin, under the
pseudonym Julio de la Paz. The melody is an Andean
dance tune. The original was sung in Quechua, and the
song is now officially part of the National Peruvian
Heritage.
In Jewish culture Judah Maccabee was called the
Hammer. He was a great hero who fought the Greeks
and restored honor and strength to Israel (160 BCE). Nail
in Christian culture refers to the crucifixion, so he could
be saying: I would rather be a hammer of the enemies of
God, than a nail in the cross of Jesus.
There is an irony in the cultural context of the Paul
Simon version. The original is a statement of native
Peruvian identity, and a longing for freedom. In the
colonial wars, many of the native peoples were enslaved
by the Spanish, literally tied to forced labor in the silver
mines. So it could be a meditation on that as well.
The value of the simple lyric, like all good poems, is that
it generates thought and discussion on its meaning. What
do you think it means?
Spanish Version
O majestuoso Cóndor de los Andes,
O mighty Condor of the Andes
Llevame, a mi hogar, en los Andes,
Lift me up to my home in the Andes
O Cóndor.
Quiero volver a mi terra
I want to return to my land
Querida y vivir con mis hermanos Incas,
To live with my Inca brothers
Que es lo que mas añoro
whom I have missed so much.
O Cóndor.
Espérame
Wait for me
en Cuzco, en la plaza principal,
in the main square of Cuzco
para que vayamos a pasearnos
and we will go for a walk
a Machupicchu y Huayna-picchu.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Literary
Penguin 1971 p. 53
193
The Ecstasy
Where, like a pillow on a bed,
A pregnant bank swelled up, to rest
The violet's reclining head,
Sat we two, one another's best.
Our hands were firmly cemented
With a fast balm, which thence did spring,
Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread
Our eyes upon one double string.
So to engraft our hands, as yet
Was all the means to make us one,
And pictures in our eyes to get
Was all our propagation.
As, 'twixt two equal armies, Fate
Suspends uncertain victory,
Our souls (which to advance their state,
Were gone out) hung 'twixt her, and me.
And whilst our souls negotiate there,
We like sepulchral statues lay,
All day, the same our postures were,
And we said nothing, all the day.
If any, so by love refined,
14
That he soul's language understood,
And by good love were grown all mind,
Within convenient distance stood,
Weak men on love revealed may look;
Love's mysteries in souls do grow,
But yet the body is his book.
He (though he knew not which soul spake,
Because both meant, both spake the same)
Might thence a new concoction take,
And part far purer than he came.
And if some lover, such as we,
Have heard this dialogue of one,
Let him still mark us, he shall see
Small change when we're to bodies gone.
This ecstasy doth unperplex
(We said) and tell us what we love,
We see by this, it was not sex,
We see, we saw not, what did move:
Comment
One of John Donne’s most celebrated love lyrics, a
statement of affectionate love by way of abstruse
meditation on an elevated subject. The title refers to
religious experience, an ecstasy being a spiritual
departure from the body encountering the divine, a
famous example being the religious ecstasy of Saint
Teresa of Avila (1515-1582).
But as all several souls contain
Mixture of things, they know not what,
Love these mixed souls doth mix again,
And makes both one, each this, and that.
A single violet transplant,
The strength, the color, and the size,
All which before was poor and scant,
Redoubles still, and multiplies.
When love with one another so
Interanimates two souls,
That abler soul, which thence doth flow,
Defects of loneliness controls.
We then, who are this new soul, know,
Of what we are composed, and made,
For the atomies of which we grow,
Are souls, whom no change can invade.
But, O alas! so long, so far,
Our bodies why do we forbear?
They are ours, though they are not we, we are
The intelligences, they the sphere.
We owe them thanks, because they thus
Did us, to us, at first convey,
Yielded their forces, sense, to us,
Nor are dross to us, but allay.
On man heaven's influence works not so,
But that it first imprints the air;
So soul into the soul may flow,
Though it to body first repair.
As our blood labours to beget
Spirits, as like souls as it can,
Because such fingers need to knit
That subtle knot, which makes us man:
So must pure lovers' souls descend
To affections, and to faculties,
Which sense may reach and apprehend,
Else a great prince in prison lies.
To our bodies turn we then, that so
Like a pillow: sitting together on a slope or hillock like
pillow
Pregnant: swollen
Cemented: holding hands together
Fast balm: sweat
Eye-beams: the lovers looking into each other’s eyes
Engraft: to join together as in propagating a trees
Was all the means: this was the only way to join us
All our propagation: they are chastely together up to this
point, not generating offspring
Fate suspends victory: as in the conflicts between the
heroes of Troy and Greece, decided by the gods
Our souls: the souls of the two lovers leave their bodies
Advance their state: negotiate for advantage
Sepulchral: entombed, because in ecstasy the body loses
its consciousness
Concoction: the refining of metals by heat
By love refined: if any person so refined by love (beyond
physical aspects)
Part far purer: because by hearing the communication of
our two pure souls, it would purify them
Unperplex: make clear to us
What we love: the ecstasy has revealed to them the nature
of their love
What did move: we understand the true motivation
(which we did not understand before)
Several: separate and distinct
Mixture of things: theories that the soul must contain a
variety of things
And makes both one: love makes the two souls (which
were different) the same
A single violet transplant: a weak flower is made brighter
and stronger
Interanimates two souls: the power of love strengthens
both souls
Defects of loneliness: the power of love, from soul to soul,
removes loneliness
Atomies: elements, components
This new soul: by love the two lovers in ecstasy share one
soul
Do we forbear? Why do we refrain from the physical
aspect?
15
The intelligences: the soul guides the body, its sphere of
action, a metaphor from cosmology
Dross: impure matter to be discarded
Allay: alloy, mixture of metals
On man heaven’s influence: when an angel visits
humanity, it must “imprint the air” i.e. assume a
share in the air (not being a physical reality)
Blood begets spirits: ancient idea that the blood produces
“vapors” or “spirits” which are a kind of middle
nature between body and soul
Subtle: fine, hidden, intricate
Pure lovers’ souls: the pure soul must descend from
ecstasty to “affections” (inclinations & feelings) and
“faculties” (dispositions & powers of the body) [like
spirits of the blood] to communicate thereby and rule
the body, otherwise the goodness of the soul is not
active in government of self
To our bodies turn we then: is the poet, in this highly
abstruse and elevated argument, giving a Carpe Diem
message? Or is he saying, let us embody pure love in
our actions, as love revealed?
John Donne (1572-1631)
For a biographical note on John Donne, please refer to
Monday Songs class 45.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Musical
The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery
Lyrics by George Ware 1885
Hit song for Marie Lloyd and Nellie Power
I'm a young girl, and have just come over,
Over from the country where they do things big,
And amongst the boys I've got a lover,
And since I've got a lover, why I don't care a fig.
The boy I love is up in the gallery,
The boy I love is looking down at me,
There he is, can't you see, waving his handkerchief,
As merry as a robin that sings on a tree.
Comment
The song is set within the Musical Theatre.
Just come over: it sounds like the singer has come over
from America
I don’t care a fig: I don’t care a fig about what anyone
thinks, or I have no cares
Cobbler: shoemaker
Tradesman: working for a company, there seems to be a
class distinction in the type of work but the charm of
the song is that it appeals to the working class, to
ordinary people
Borough: London divided into boroughs, town divisions
Note from http://www.songfacts.com: Written in
1885, this was Marie Lloyd's first hit song, although she
actually "borrowed" it from Nelly Power. Sentimental,
and tame in comparison with many of her songs, it was
featured in the 1957 play The Entertainer (1960 film,
Laurence Olivier). This appears was the second song she
sang, aged just fifteen, and under her own name, Matilda
Wood. She was said to have sung it regularly at the Eagle
music hall, until threatened with legal action, but "Marie
soon smoothed their ruffled feathers, and found other
songs to sing."
Marie Lloyd (1870-1922)
Larger than life musical British musical star, active at the
end of the nineteenth century and one of the first
musical stars to win popularity both in the UK and the
States. Well-known for the risqué content of her songs,
which delighted the audiences. Her private life was a
source of newspaper gossip, being married three times
and divorced twice. These are two songs from the
beginning and end of the career. Her daughter, also
called Marie (1888-1967), performed music hall. She was
greatly loved by the public in the era before cinema, when
musical theatre and music hall commanded huge
audiences.
The boy that I love, they call him a cobbler,
But he's not a cobbler, allow me to state.
For Johnny is a tradesman and he works in the Boro'
Where they sole and heel them, whilst you wait.
Spinning Jennys at Tenterden Station on 29th June 2013 YouTube
Helen Shapiro on YouTube
Don’t Dilly Dally on the Way (1919)
Lyrics by Charles Collins & Fred W. Leigh
Marie Lloyd song
Now, if I were a Duchess and had a lot of money,
I'd give it to the boy that's going to marry me.
But I haven't got a penny, so we'll live on love and kisses,
And be just as happy as the birds on the tree.
+++
We had to move away
'Cos the rent we couldn't pay.
The moving van came round just after dark.
There was me and my old man,
Shoving things inside the van,
Which we'd often done before, let me remark.
We packed all that could be packed
16
In the van, and that's a fact.
And we got inside all that we could get inside.
Then we packed all we could pack
On the tailboard at the back,
Till there wasn't any room for me to ride.
Refrain:
My old man said: "Follow the van,
And don't dilly-dally on the way."
Off went the van wiv me 'ome packed in it.
I walked be'ind wiv me old cock linnet.
But I dillied and dallied,
Dallied and dillied;
Lost me way and don't know where to roam.
Coz I just popped in
For a little drop of gin
And I can't find my way home.
I gave a helping hand
With the marble wash hand-stand,
And straight, we wasn't getting on so bad.
All at once, the car-man bloke
Had an accident and broke,
Well, the nicest bit of china that we had.
You'll understand, of course,
I was cross about the loss.
Same as any other human woman would.
But I soon got over that,
What with "two out" and a chat,
'Cos it's little things like that what does you good.
song remained popular and was recorded by Lily Morris.
Cock Linnet: cockney rhyming slang for minute
Dilly dally: to linger
Van: large covered vehicle for transporting goods,
horse-drawn, nowadays motorvehicle
My old man: “my husband,” sometimes used for “my
father”
Two out: a reference to a drink in the pub, two drinks??
Wikipedia note (abridged): The song reflects some of the
hardships of working class life in London at the
beginning of the 20th century. In the song, a couple are
obliged to move house, after dark, because they cannot
pay their rent. At the time the song was written, most
London houses were rented, so moving in a hurry – a
moonlight flit – was common when the husband lost his
job, or there was insufficient money to pay the rent. The
couple rush to fill up the van, and its tailboard, with their
possessions, in case the landlord appears. When the van
is packed up, however, there is no room for the wife. The
husband therefore instructs her to follow the van, which
she does, carrying the pet bird. Unfortunately, en route,
the wife loses her way after stopping at a pub for a drink.
Thereafter, she reflects that it would be ill-advised to
approach one of the volunteer policemen (a "special"), as
they are less trustworthy than a regular police constable
(a "copper") and might take advantage of her
inebriation.
2007 BBC film Miss Marie Lloyd, Queen of the Music Hall
Refrain:
Jessie Wallace plays Miss Marie Lloyd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfW3TxQhy20
Oh! I'm in such a mess.
I don't know the new address Don't even know the blessed neighbourhood.
And I feel as if I might
Have to stay out here all night.
And that ain't a goin' to do me any good.
I don't make no complaint
But I'm coming over faint,
What I want now's a good substantial feed,
And I sort 'o kind 'o feel,
If I don't soon have a meal,
I shall have to rob the linnet of its seed!
Refrain:
Comment
Note from http://www.songfacts.com : Also known
as "The Cock Linnet Song" and "My Old Man Said
Follow The Van," this humorous music hall number
about doing a moonlight flit was a big hit for Marie Lloyd.
The sheet music "Don't Dilly Dally on the Way. Marie
introduced this number in 1918, in the twilight of her
career. On stage she performed it dressed as an old
woman wrapped in a shawl and carrying a bird in a cage,
presumably not a live one. Although it became one of her
best known songs, she did not actually record it. Marie
Lloyd died in October 1922 aged only fifty-two, but the
Lily Morris
on YouTube from 1934 film
Danny La Rue
on YouTube
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacred
Here is a sacred hymn from the Divine Liturgy of St John
Chrysostomos, which is the prayer service of the Ancient
Greek Orthodox Church. This is usually sung in Greek,
and is translated into Old Russian in the Holy Russian
Church, and in Japanese in the Japanese Haristos
(Russian) Church. In the last few years this beautiful
ancient liturgy, with all the hymns, has been translated
into modern English, and is now sung in English in the
Orthodox Church of America and elsewhere. This has
made it much more accessible to people who read
English.
The short hymn below comes from a sung version of the
Liturgy posted on YouTube by Mount Lebanon Choir of
Byzantine Music (Antioch). The chant occurs near the
beginning of the service, during the singing of the
Antiphons (short hymns) which precedes the reading of
the Epistles and the Gospel.
Troparion of the Resurrection Tone One
17
While the stone was sealed by the Jews,
And the soldiers were guarding
Thy most pure body,
Thou didst arise on the third day,
O Saviour,
Granting life to the world.
For which cause,
The Heavenly Powers
Cried aloud unto Thee,
O Giver of Life:
Glory to Thy resurrection, O Christ!
Glory to Thy Kingdom!
Glory to Thy Providence!
O Thou who alone art the Lover of Mankind.
Wisdom Attend!
Come let us worship and fall down before Christ!
Save us, O Son of God,
Who art risen from the dead
Who sing to thee alleluia.
Repeat of chant.
Comment
This is an English translation of an ancient Greek hymn,
sung in the divine service, celebrating the resurrection of
Jesus Christ (so it is appropriate for Eastertide). Beautiful
music is one of the great treasures of the Orthodox
Church. The singing style, which is here adapted for
English, dates back to the time of the Byzantine Empire
and the publication of the Nicene Creed in 325. Singing
is often unaccompanied and sung according to different
tones.
Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom
This is the most important liturgy (prayer service) used
in the Byzantine rite (ritual practice of that church). The
text of the liturgy constitutes the words and hymns used
in worship, and are blessed and holy, since the purpose is
to unite the worshipper with God. The content of the
liturgy was vital because it set out the nature of belief for
the worshipper, being both prayer and explanation, and
as time went by, it became a text which could not be
changed (or not easily changed), and thus it defined the
nature of Church.
This particular liturgy was named after the great saint,
John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), who was a leader of the
church, the archbishop of Constantinople in the 5th
century. He made an important contribution to it. In that
early period, the church was still seeking to define clearly
the nature of Christian Theology (as opposed to Jewish
theology in particular) and the most important concept in
this respect was the Holy Trinity, and the relation of
Christ to God the Father. The Liturgy defines that
relationship, and the statement of belief itself (called the
Nicene creed dating from 325) which is included in the
Liturgy, is also used by nearly all Christian Churches
today. Translated into Russian, the entire liturgy is sung
in the church service (unlike modern Protestant churches
in which only the hymns are sun) and there are many
musical settings by the great Russian composers.
18
And put up a parking lot.
Comment
Song with a strong ecological message, and a deeper
message underneath. Joni Mitchell discussed this song
with a journalist [from wikip.]: “I wrote 'Big Yellow Taxi'
on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and
when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the
curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the
distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking
lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart ...
this blight on paradise. That's when I sat down and wrote
the song.”
Folk: Big Yellow Taxi (1970) Merch Megan (traditional) Mitchell & Pollock
Pop: Not Fade Away (1964) Rolling Stone (1972) Rolling Stones & Quatro
Literary: The Flea, John Donne (c 1595)
Musical: Surrey with a Fringe on Top (1943) Oklahoma
Sacred: Mary Don’t You Weep (1972) Aretha Franklin
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Folk
Canadian Folk
Big Yellow Taxi (1970)
Written by Joni Mitchell
Performed by Joni Mitchell, from the album Ladies of the
Canyon (1970)
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum.
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And they put up a parking lot.
Hey farmer farmer
Put away that D.D.T. now.
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man.
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
In the final verse, the topic changes, and she refers to
personal grief – the death of her father. The bright
melody and tempo is at odds with the protest message.
But this is in fact a frame for her own grief, and a poetic
statement. The powers that be have ruined the world, and
goodness is lost, and we must cherish the goodness we
have. This is also our own family, our father and mother,
they must be cherished before they are taken from us.
There is another message here, hinted at in the song
hook. “They paved” sounds a bit like “they pay.” The
good have paid for Paradise with their lives of goodness
and sacrifice, up there, there is a place for us to “park”
the taxi. Listening to the repeated hook, over and over, it
calls on us to “put up” to paradise. This is an injunction
to prayer. The song title “Big Yellow Taxi” means “a big
taxi to God,” a hint about the deeper meanings in these
kinds of songs. The name of God is hidden there, as it is
of course, in her own name.
Hot spot: entertainment venue
Spots on my apples: over-use of chemicals and
insecticides to produce “perfect” fruit is bad
DDT: insecticide which caused enormous ecological
damage
Screen door: hinged storm door, used in America, or with
a mesh in summer to keep insects out, and allow the
breeze in, used widely before air-conditioning. This is
a poetic image for finality, a home-image. It is also
the screening done by time, separating us from what
we had.
Some excellent performances of this by Joni Mitchell on
YouTube
More information about Joni Mitchell (1943 –
54 & 60.
+++
Welsh folksong
Megan’s Fair Daughter (Merch Megan)
Music by John Parry
Lyrics translated by John Oxenford
Performed by Lorna Pollock (Accordion)
) at MS
19
Arrangement by Chris Peterson.
http://www.cpmusic.com/tradmus.html
1. A welsoch chwi 'rioed mo Elin merch Megan
O gwmpas ei gwaith yn ddiwyd a llon?
Mae pob peth a wnêl yn bleser i'w weled
A'i gwên yn y ty fel heulwen ar don.
Bydd cysur a mwyniant o'i gwyneb yn t'wynnu
Wrth olchi a smwddio a gweithio'n ddigwyn
Yn beraidd o'i min bydd miwsig yn llifo
Mor swynol â llais yr eos mewn llwyn.
2. Mae Elin yn lân a gonest ei chalon,
Ei phurdeb a'i ffydd yn glodus trwy'n gwlad.
Caredig yw hi a hoffus a thirion,
Anwylyd ei mam, llawenydd ei thad.
Bydd cysur a mwyniant o'i hwyneb yn t'wynnu
Wrth olchi a smwddio a gweithio'n ddigwyn
Yn beraidd o'i min bydd miwsig yn llifo
Mor swynol â llais yr eos mewn llwyn.
English Lyrics: John Oxenford
(this appears to be a very free translation)
1. I see her in dreams, she trips to me lightly,
With joy on her lips she whispers my name.
Her eyes look in mine, so fondly so brightly,
I wake and 'tis then no longer the same.
Her glance then is chilly, her step seems to shun me,
The lips that have smiled wear the curl of disdain;
Oh! Megan's fair child my love hath undone me,
But yet in my dreams I'd see thee again.
2. Oh, Megan's fair child, in sleep thou art with me,
Wherever we walk, you go by my side;
Thou hear’st with delight the words I am saying,
I read thy young heart, I read it with pride.
But ah, when awake if I vow I adore thee,
Thy look ever tells me I woo thee in vain;
I'll trouble thee not, no more plead before thee;
I know in my dreams, thou'lt love me again.
Comment
Cannot find any definite information on this Welsh song,
found on Welsh websites, said to be traditional. The tune
is said to appear in John Parry's Twelve Airs for one and
two Guitars, 1781. Parry was born about 1710 in Wales,
blind from birth, and became a harpist. The English
translation makes a good song, and the melody played on
accordion by Lorna Pollock is very good.
Lorna Pollock (musician, teacher, performer from USA):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhWqbgjJnIs&list=PLC16C18B28F0BC6
96&index=10
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pop
Not Fade Away (1964)
Lyrics: Charles Hardin (Buddy Holly) & Norman Petty
(1957)
Vocals: Mick Jagger in the band Rolling Stones
I'm gonna tell you how it's gonna be
You're gonna give your love to me
I'm gonna love you night and day
Well love is love and not fade away
My love bigger than a Cadillac
I try to show it and you're drivin' me back
Your love for me has got to be real
For you to know just how I feel
Love is real and not fade away
Well love is real and not fade away
I'm gonna tell you how it's gonna be
You're gonna give your love to me
Love to last more than one day
Love, love is love and not fade away
Not fade away
Comment
A major hit for the Rolling Stones in 1964, this was their
signature song with which they opened many concerts, a
statement of their own intention not to fade away, as so
many rock groups do. There is also a hidden statement
there – to choose “a way” that does not fade, or not to let
“the way” fade, a hint that behind their devilish mask,
they could be angels in disguise.
It’s a great song, making a claim for love with
commitment. Also there’s an allegory there to find – who
could be singing but God or Christ, making a claim on
our love and promising to love us always, a love that will
not end? This is love bigger than a “Cadillac” a big car or
(cad = bad guy).
You’re driving me back: I try to show love to you but you
drive me backwards? Perhaps there is a hint in the song
about a failure of dialogue and reciprocation – whether
between churches or peoples. If there is love then it will
not fade away, and that will be the test of whether it is
real or not. The false love will not last and will fade.
Rolling Stones
One of the best known of all the sixties bands, and all
the more remarkable for the way that they have survived
intact for more than 50 years. Formed in 1962, members
Mick Jagger (1943), Keith Richards (1943), Charlie Watts
(1941) and Ronnie Wood (1947) have been full time (Wood
joined in 1975). Symbols of rebellious youth, the
anti-thesis to the Beatles. Both Mick Jagger and Keith
Richard raised in Southern England, Watts and Wood in
London. Many of their songs have become rock
standards, and they have inspired a life-long loyalty in
20
their fans. Mick Jagger was knighted in 2003 for services
to music.
become a famous name. Reading the song more carefully,
what is she saying?
Much has been written about Jagger as a frontman to the
rock group. In the early years, he was certainly more than
just a singer, wearing different costumes, cross-dressing,
a pouting leering carnivalesque figure, chasing away the
demons by appearing to be a bit of a demon himself, but
in fact not a demon at all.
She was used, which sounds like she was exploited,
perhaps sexually. It is true that human relationships, and
the place of sexuality therein, was too casual in that
world, and women suffered the most. Perhaps she is
hinting about that.
+++
Rolling Stone (1972)
Lyrics: Phil Dennys, Errol Brown, Suzi Quatro
Vocals: Suzi Quatro
Age of sixteen I was on the road
Doing things you’ve never seen
And I've been used
I've been confused
Trying to live the life I lead
You can't put the blame on me
I've been misunderstood
Never could get satisfied
Living how you think I should
Don't tell me what to do
And don't tell me how to spend my time
I ain't got nothing to hide
I'm free to be what I want to be
And nobody owns my mind
She was confused, but she’s now confident. Perhaps she
is outlining her future as a successful woman on her own
terms in a man’s world, a woman who named the band,
and who led the boys. She was unconventional, and made
it easier for those who followed.
“Don’t tell me,” there’s a subtext in the song which
affirms alternative sexuality – to be free to love whom you
wish to love, without the chains of prejudice upon you.
Never could get satisfied: a reference to the Rolling
Stones song. This is a hint – there is no satisfaction
for some people who are by nature unconventional.
Suzi Quatro (1950 - )
Raised in Detroit, Italian background. She played in a
band with her sisters (her family is musical), moved to
the UK in 1971, and supported by Mickie Most. She had a
few hits in the 1970s, “Can the Can,” “48 Crash” and
“Devil Gate Drive.” Starred in the USA TV comedy
“Happy Days.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I've got my sunshine eyes and I've got my sunshine smile
I may be lonesome at times
I'm free to be where I want to be
And nobody owns my time
Rollin' Stone
rpt
Packed my bags and I'm on my way
Don't know what I'm gonna find
I'll just take what comes today
Tomorrow leave it all behind
It's all right now don't you worry
If you feel that you've got to roam
A rolling stone can't lean on no one
They got to keep movin' on
Rollin' Stone
rpt
Comment
Debut solo single in the UK performed by Suzi Quatro,
which like some of her later songs, hints about her own
life, and makes an affirmative statement for personal
freedom and identity.
In the 1960-70s she was a pioneer woman performer in
the rock world, the first woman bass guitar player to
Literary
Penguin 1971 p. 58
The Flea
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deny’st me is.
Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Confess it, this cannot be said
A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.
O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, nay, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
21
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
In what could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?
Yet thou triumphest, and sayest that thou
Findest not thyself nor me the weaker now.
'Tis true, then learn how false fears be,
Just so much honor, when thou yieldest to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.
Comment
A famous carpe diem poem in which Donne wittily uses a
flea as a device to persuade his mistress to requite his
love.
Deny’st me: the poet is trying to persuade his mistress to
come to bed
One blood: the result being “one blood made of two” a
child
Three lives: poet, mistress and flea
Cloistered: enclosed
Use: custom, by customary denial you are killing me??
Sacrilege: a bad joke about three in one in the flea??
Honor: reputation, chastity
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Musical
Surrey with the Fringe on Top (1943)
Writer: Oscar Hammerstein
Composer: Richard Rodgers
Sung by Gordon McRae in the 1955 film
From the musical Oklahoma! (1943)
When I take you out, tonight, with me,
Honey, here's the way it's goin' to be:
You will set behind a team of snow white horses,
In the slickest gig you ever see!
Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry
When I take you out in the surrey,
When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top!
Watch that fringe and see how it flutters
When I drive them high steppin' strutters.
Nosey pokes'll peek thru' their shutters and their eyes will pop!
The wheels are yeller, the upholstery's brown,
The dashboard's genuine leather,
With isinglass curtains y' can roll right down,
In case there's a change in the weather.
Two bright sidelight's winkin' and blinkin',
Ain't no finer rig I'm a-thinkin'
You c'n keep your rig if you're thinkin' 'at I'd care to swap
Fer that shiny, little surrey with the fringe on the top!
Aunt Eller:
Would y' say the fringe was made a' silk?
Curly:
Wouldn't have n' other kind but silk.
Laurey:
Has it really got a team of snow white horses?
Curly:
One's like snow, the others more like milk.
All the world'll fly in a flurry
When I take you out in the surrey,
When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top!
When we hit that road, hell fer leather,
Cats and dogs'll dance in the heather,
Birds and frogs'll sing all together and the toads will hop!
The wind'll whistle as we rattle along,
The cows'll moo in the clover,
The river will ripple out a whispered song,
And whisper it over and over:
Don't you wisht y'd go on forever?
Don't you wisht y'd go on forever?
Don't you wisht y'd go on forever and ud never stop
In that shiny, little surrey with the fringe on the top!
I can see the stars gettin' blurry,
When we ride back home in the surrey,
Ridin' slowly home in the surrey with the fringe on top!
I can feel the day gettin' older,
Feel a sleepy head near my shoulder,
Noddin', droopin' close to my shoulder, till it falls kerplop!
The sun is swimmin' on the rim of a hill;
The moon is takin' a header,
And jist as I'm thinkin' all the earth is still,
A lark'll wake up in the medder.
Hush, you bird, my baby's a-sleepin'!
Maybe got a dream worth a-keepin'
Whoa! you team, and jist keep a-creepin' at a slow clip clop.
Don't you hurry with the surrey with the fringe on the top!
Comment
Wittily written number from the musical, justly famous for the
melody and the romantic statement. Curly tries to persuade
Laurey of the farm to come to the Dance with him in his
carriage. The period of the musical is set in the early 20th
century, when Oklahoma was still a territory (not yet a state)
and before the era of motor cars. Curly’s pride in the Surrey is
reminiscent of a young man’s pride in his new car!
Slick: smart
Gig: A light two-wheeled one-horse carriage
Scurry: move rapidly
Surrey: American four-wheeled two-seated pleasure carriage
Strut: to walk proudly, used for the horses
Nosey pokes: busybodies, curious people
Isinglass: semi-transparent substance
Rig: horse and carriage
Kerplop: sound of something falling in water
Sun is swimming: a figurative expression, floating?
Header: heading up, rising
Medder: meadow
Clip clop: sound of the hooves
22
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacred
Mary Don’t You Weep
Traditional Spiritual
Sung by Aretha Franklin from “Amazing Grace” live
performance double LP 1972
Listen Mary don’t you moan
Pharaoh’s army got drowned
All of those men got drowned
Mary don’t you weep
Tell Martha not to moan
If I could I surely would
Stand right upon the rock
Yes I would
I would stand right where Moses stood
Pharaoh’s army got drowned
I knew you knew that story
Of how they got drowned
I’m going to tell the story
Of two sisters called Mary and Martha
They had a brother called Lazarus
One day while Jesus was away
That dear brother died
Well now Mary
Went running to Jesus
She said, Master! My Sweet Lord!
If you had been here
My brother would not have died.
Jesus said
Come on and show me
Show me where you buried him
Show me where you laid him down
When they got back
Jesus said
If they are any of you this evening
Any of you that don’t believe in me this evening
I am going to holler and freak out!
Oh yes I am.
He said Lazarus! Lazarus!
Hear my voice, O yes!
He got up walking like a natural man
O yes he did
Jesus said
Now now now now Mary
Mary Mary don’t you weep!
Because you see Pharaoh’s army
They got drown-ded in the red sea!
Comment
This is a Spiritual (sometimes called a Negro Spiritual
but that term is not used so often these days) dating back
to the time of American slavery. It is a chant that runs
together Mary and Martha’s plea to Jesus to save their
brother Lazarus (family from Bethany, Gospel of John 11),
with the salvation of the people of Israel as they fled the
army of Pharaoh in their flight for freedom. Franklin is
adapting from the song as she goes forward in the live
performance.
It is also a statement for women’s power – don’t weep
Mary and Martha, don’t weep all you sisters, those bad
guys are finished forever, & if I could I would be a
prophet of power like Moses. This plea for power was
especially important for Black American women, who
were oppressed by the cultural prejudices within male
African-American culture. In fact, she is leading the
congregation like a minister, and if there’s anyone who
doesn’t believe in Jesus, she is going to holler (yell) at
them with her huge voice!
The song also records the suffering of the slaves – for
them “Pharaoh” represented everything that was unjust
to them, the whole wicked system of slavery. The song
holds together the salvation of the Jews from the slavery
of Pharaoh and the false beliefs of Egypt, with the
resurrection of Lazarus (life given by Jesus), so the song
is also a concise summary of the Christian message.
Further note: there is also a possibility that the refrain is
referring to two other Marys. Mary, mother of Jesus and
Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron, who sings a victory
song after the defeat of Pharaoh, and who is called Mary
in some old translations.
On the internet you can find an excellent version of this
by Bruce Springsteen.
23
Folk: Man Smart, Woman Smarter & Jamaica Farewell (1956)
Pop: Morning Has Broken (1971) & Euphoria (2012) Stevens & Loreen
Literary: “To Celia” Ben Jonson & “Sweet Nymph” Thomas Morley
Musical: We’re Called Gondolieri & In Enterprise of Martial Kind (1889) G&S
Sacred: Very Early & Early in the Morning & Heaven’s Queen Poor Clares
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Folk
Jamaican Folk
Man Smart, Woman Smarter (1956)
Written by Norman Span
Sung by Harry Belafonte
From the Calypso Album (1956)
I say let us put man and a woman together
To find out which one is smarter
Some say men but I say no
The woman got the men and they should know
And not me but the people they say
That de men are leading the women astray
But I say, that the women of today
Smarter than the man in every way.
That’s right de woman is uh smarter
That’s right de woman is uh smarter
That’s right de woman is uh smarter, that’s right, that’s
right.
Ever since the world began
Woman was always teaching man
And I you listen to my bid attentively
I goin’ tell you how she smarter than me.
Samson was the strongest man long ago
No one could a beat him, as we all know.
Until he clash with Delilah on top of the bed
She told them all the strength was in the hair of his head.
You meet a girl at a pretty dance
Thinking that you would stand a chance
Take her home, thinking she’s alone
Open de door you find her husband home.
I was treating a girl independently
She was making baby for me
When de baby born and I went to see
Eyes was blue it was not by me.
Garden of Eden was very nice
Adam never work in Paradise
Eve meet snake, Paradise gone
She make Adam work from that day on.
In the garden of Eden Adam built a home
When he settled down Eve start to roam
Many a night he spent in pain
Whenever Eve was able, she was raisin’ Cain!
Comment
A comic song which reverses the African-American
masculine assumptions about women, but with a joke in
the words. Belafonte is singing a form of Jamaican
dialect. There are different versions of the song with
additional verses. I have added a verse I found on the
YouTube version which is rather amusing.
The women got the men: are better than
Not me, but the people: is there a sense what the “people”
say is not so good?
Smarter: cleverer, but there is another nuance here –
perhaps a joke that women are more cunning and
artful than men. Smarter also means better looking,
fashionable
Smarter: a smarter = to make a man “smart,” causing
men pain, a Jamaican word – so the title has two
meanings
Bid: speech (Jamaican dialect)
Independently: not being married? Keeping her for
himself ?
Raising Cain: to cause a lot of trouble (clever pun on
Cain and Abel)
Harry Belafonte (1927 –
)
Career as a singer from the 1950s, won immense
popularity for Caribbean calypso, and became a world
star. Born in New York, but spent 8 years of childhood in
Jamaica. After school, he served in the US Navy. In New
York he met Sidney Poitier, and started drama school,
and started singing to pay for acting classes. He was
given a recording contract and his album Calypso (1956)
became a best seller. It featured the well-loved “Banana
Boat Song,” with the signature line, “Day – O!” He sang
humorous songs, and starred in films and on TV. He was
the first African-American to win an Emmy (1959). In
those years, it was still a struggle for anyone with
non-white ethnicity to be successful on film and TV.
From his early years he worked and promoted hundreds
of projects for the freedom of the oppressed, and has
been highly honored in the US and abroad.
Norman Span is credited with this calypso, and also
“Mathilda” and “Brown Skin Gal.” “Mathilda” is also a
comic calypso performed by Belafonte.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTDvCLAT8hg
+++
Jamaica Farewell (1956)
Lyrics by Irving Burgie “Lord Burgess”
Sung by Harry Belafonte
From his album “Calypso” (1956)
24
Down the way where the nights are gay
And the sun shines daily on the mountain top
I took a trip on a sailing ship
And when I reached Jamaica I made a stop.
Ethiopians. I failed to see any good in the hypocrisy of
that.”
Sung rather well at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4r5C6MUqO4
Chorus:
But I'm sad to say, I'm on my way
Won't be back for many a day
My heart is down, my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston Town.
Down at the market you can hear
Ladies cry out while on their heads they bear
Ackie rice and salt fish is nice
And the rum is fine any time a year.
Chorus
Sounds of laughter everywhere
And the dancing girls swing to and fro
I must declare my heart is there
Though I've been from Maine to Mexico.
Chorus
Down the way where the nights are gay
And the sun shines daily on the mountain top
I took a trip on a sailing ship
And when I reached Jamaica I made a stop.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pop
Morning Has Broken (1971)
Lyrics: Eleanor Farjeon (1931)
Music traditional Gaelic tune “Bunessan”
Sung by Cat Stevens (from the album Teaser and the
Firecat 1971)
Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the word.
Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass.
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day.
Chorus
Comment
Calypso. One of the hit songs on Belafonte’s
phenomenally successful album, the first LP to sell more
than a million copies.
Gay: happy & joyful. This has an additional meaning
these days. Ironically, Jamaica is said to be one of the
most homophobic places in the world!
Jamaica: fifth largest island of the Caribbean, former
name was Santiago under Spanish possession. Britain
took over in 1655 and it was called Jamaica.
Independent from 1962. A commonwealth state with
Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.
Kingston Town: capital of Jamaica
Ackee: tropical fruit tree indigenous to West Africa,
brought to Jamaica in 1793. Poisonous when unripe,
when properly prepared the fruit is eaten with fish
and rice. National fruit of Jamaica.
Interesting quote from Belafonte, where he makes a
distinction between “faith” and “religion”
[ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000896/bio ]: “To me, faith as
practiced all around me was blindly tied to religion, and
religion was preachers in Harlem and Jamaica passing
the hat for Jesus and driving off in fancy cars. It was nuns
invoking the Christian spirit and rapping my knuckles
with sticks. It was priests blessing Italian troops on the
newsreels, sending them off to slaughter defenseless
Notes
This is originally an English hymn published in 1931 in
Songs of Praise. Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) was a
children’s author and poet and wrote the hymn as a song
for spring. She published it later as “A Morning Song for
the First Day of Spring” (1957). The familiar piano
arrangement on Stevens' recording was performed by
Rick Wakeman, a classically trained keyboardist with the
English rock band “Yes”. The hymn has a visionary
purity which is most powerful. It is often taught to
children and sung in schools, and so is associated with
childhood and this probably adds to the evocative sense
of newness and hope that the hymn conveys. It is a song
to the dawn. Stevens sang this so well that he became
identified by it.
The song is connected for me (pash) with a sense of
Englishness because of the song of the blackbird. Word
is Logos, God’s word at the beginning of Genesis and
also John 1. “His feet” are the feet of God or Jesus. A
Buddhist might understand this as the feet of Gautama.
The expression of ownership, “mine” is like a song by
David in the Psalms. The beauty of the morning or of
the sky at night is understood as a personal gift from God.
This is re-created each day new. It’s a beautiful modern
Psalm.
+++
25
Euphoria (2012)
Words and Music: Thomas G:son and Peter Bostrom
Performed by Loreen
Why, why can’t this moment last forevermore?
Tonight, tonight eternity’s an open door.
No, don’t ever stop doing the things you do.
Don’t go, in every breath I take I’m breathing you.
Euphoria, forever till the end of time.
From now on, only you and I, we’re going up up up up up.
Euphoria, an everlasting piece of art,
A beating love within my heart, we’re going up up up up up.
We are here, we’re all alone in our own universe,
We are free, where everything’s allowed, and love comes first,
Forever and ever together, we sail into infinity,
We’re higher and higher and higher, we’re reaching for divinity,
Euphoria, forever ’till the end of time,
From now on, only you and I, we’re going up up up up up.
Euphoria, an everlasting piece of art.
Forever we sail into infinity,
We’re higher, we’re reaching for divinity,
Euphoria, euphoria,
We’re going up up up up up.
Euphoria, an everlasting piece of art,
Euphoria, euphoria.
We’re going up up up up up.
Speak to infinity: “Infinity” is a name for God.
Sufism
Sufism is an ancient sect within Islam, which puts
emphasis on prayer, chanting and dance to induce a
trance-like ecstasy and feeling of oneness with God. A
strong emphasis is placed on the experience of God’s
love. It was a religious movement that put emphasis on
personal experience of God, and some of the Sufi
teachers made pronouncements which were strongly
rejected by the Islamic authorities. Nevertheless, Sufism
still flourishes today. It is found in North Africa, Middle
East and strong in Turkey. Allegorical poetry is a strong
feature of Sufism. A source may have been the wedding
poem in the Old Testament, “The Song of Solomon,”
which is interpreted as an allegory about God and the
soul. Sufism is attractive especially to Christian monastics
because Sufi practice and Christian mysticism are close.
Loreen (1983 )
Lorine Zineb Noka Talhaoui (born in Stockholm), better
known by her stage name Loreen, Swedish pop star. She
represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012
in Baku, Azerbaijan with her entry “Euphoria” and won
first place. Both her parents are Berbers from South
Morocco. Heal is her debut studio album, released
October 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcnWysA9gxo
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Comment
Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Successful
in the charts. A passionate love song, and when you view
the YouTube that’s very clear.
Literary
But when you read the text, the allegory appears. It is a
kind of Sufi song about unity with God. Love for the
beloved (God) is lifting the singer higher and higher.
Intense love in rapture to heaven.
We are going up: this is a universal way to describe
religious advancement, whether climbing stairs to the
monastery on the mountain, or rising to heaven itself.
Euphoria: medical term, to mean feeling happy and
content. In common usage, this means a sense of elation,
of great happiness at good news. From Greek eu: well,
and phoria: to bear, i.e. feeling well or good.
Is there anything else here? When you listen to it, it
sounds like “You For Ya.” Can Ya mean God? Hallelujah?
Is it a code for the cross? When I listened carefully I
heard her sing, “You for I AM.” “I am” is the ancient
name of God in the Old Testament.
The word “sailing” is used here. In some of those pop
songs from the sixties, this is a code for “speaking about
God.”
Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
206
Song To Celia (c 1616)
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss within the cup
And I’ll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove’s nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honoring thee
As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be,
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent’st it back to me;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself but thee!
26
Comment
Ben Jonson’s most famous lyric, which was given a
melody and is still sung. From the 19th century it was a
popular song for amateur performance.
Drink to me with your eyes: make a promise or a word of
blessing with your eyes only (without raising the wine
to drink)
Leave a kiss within the cup: instead of wine let there be a
kiss there for me, as intoxicating as wine
Thirst from the soul: he is not in fact seeking religious
consolation here, but asking for love to be requited
Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
Long-lived contemporary of Shakespeare, highly talented
poet and (unlike Shakespeare) classical scholar,
associated with the court, writing many Masques, as well
as stage plays, and poetry. Educated at Westminster
school under William Camden, a great scholar. Served as
a soldier and an actor, and from 1597 worked as actor and
playwright. His plays were performed at the Globe
Theatre with Shakespeare in the cast. In 1598 he killed a
fellow actor in a duel, and escaped hanging by pleading
benefit of clergy, being branded instead. He converted to
Catholicism, and then 12 years later, converted back to
Anglicanism again. He wrote masques for the court, and
his major plays were written in the ten years from 1605,
including Volpone, 1605. He was at the centre of a wide
circle of literary acquaintance, meeting famously at the
Mermaid Tavern. He was granted a pension by James I in
1616. He collaborated with Inigo Jones on many court
masques, their work ending in a famous quarrel. “As a
man Jonson was arrogant and quarrelsome, but fearless,
warm-hearted, and intellectually honest” (Drabble).
Sung versions of this song by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf,
Laura Wright and Johnny Cash can be found on
YouTube.
§§§
Sweet Nymph Come to thy Lover (c 1595)
By Thomas Morley (1557-1602)
Sweet nymph come to thy lover,
Lo, here alone our loves we may discover,
Where the sweet Nightingale with wanton glosses,
Hark! her love too discloses.
Comment
A short madrigal written at the time of Shakespeare, a
golden age for such music. Thomas Morley was a prolific
composer of madrigals for the court. He also published
sacred music as well.
Sung version on YouTube by Alfred and Mark Deller.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Musical
We’re Called Gondolieri (1889)
From The Gondoliers Act One (beginning)
W.S.Gilbert & A.Sullivan
ACT I The Piazzetta, Venice (1750)
Duet – Marco and Giuseppe.
We’re called gondolieri,
But that’s a vagary,
It’s quite honorary
The trade that we ply.
For gallantry noted
Since we were short-coated,
To beauty devoted,
Are Giuseppe and I
Are Marco and I.
When morning is breaking,
Our couches forsaking,
To greet their awaking
With carols we come.
At summer day’s nooning,
When weary lagooning,
Our mandolins tuning,
We lazily thrum.
When vespers are ringing,
To hope ever clinging,
With songs of our singing
A vigil we keep,
When daylight is fading,
Enwrapt in night’s shading,
With soft serenading
We sing them to sleep.
We’re called gondolieri, etc.
Comment
From Act 1 of the Savoy Opera, The Gondoliers (1889),
music by Arthur Sullivan and lyrics by W. S. Gilbert. The
two gondoliers Marco and Giuseppe introduce
themselves.
The opera is an affectionate spoof on popular Italian
romantic opera, and you can hear that in the slightly
ridiculous way they lengthen the vowels at the end of the
lines. Gilbert’s love of intense rhyming is found here,
with some witty and amusing rhymes appropriate to the
subject: nooning & lagooning & tuning. For fans of this
kind of opera, the wittiness of the rhymes is part of the
cleverness of the work, something that can be seen also
in the work of W.H. Auden and also Tim Rice.
Gondolieri: the men who poled the gondolas in the
Venetian canals, Gondoleers
Vagary: deviation from the normal course, a prank, an
extravagant idea, meant here to mean “untruth”
Short-coated: to wear short-coats, when we were little,
27
short-coats are infant garments
Nooning: at midday
Lagooning: punting the gondolas in the Venetian lagoon
Thrum: to strum a stringed instrument
See the excellent Gilbert and Sullivan archive website
He sent his resignation in,
The first of all his corps, O!
That very knowing,
Overflowing,
Easy-going
Paladin,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/
+++
In Enterprise of Martial Kind (1889)
From The Gondoliers Act 1
W.S.Gilbert & A.Sullivan
In enterprise of martial kind,
When there was any fighting,
He led his regiment from behind
He found it less exciting.
But when away his regiment ran,
His place was at the fore, O
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Nobleman,
All: In the first and foremost flight, ha, ha!
You always found that knight, ha, ha!
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Nobleman,
When, to evade Destruction’s hand,
To hide they all proceeded,
No soldier in that gallant band
Hid half as well as he did.
He lay concealed throughout the war,
And so preserved his gore, O!
That unaffected,
Undetected,
Well-connected
Warrior,
All: In every doughty deed, ha, ha!
He always took the lead, ha, ha!
That unaffected,
Undetected,
Well-connected
Warrior,
When told that they would all be shot
Unless they left the service,
That hero hesitated not,
So marvelous his nerve is.
All: To men of grosser clay, ha, ha!
He always showed the way, ha, ha!
That very knowing,
Overflowing,
Easy-going
Paladin,
Comment
From Act 1 of the Savoy Opera, The Gondoliers (1889),
music by Arthur Sullivan and lyrics by W. S. Gilbert. The
plot turns on the point of who is the true king of
Barataria, a fictional kingdom of which Venice is the
capital. The name “Barataria” is taken from Cervantes’
Don Quixote.
The Duke and Duchess of Plaza Toro, in Spain, have
arrived with their daughter to discover the true king, and
marry their daughter to him (she was married “by proxy”
when an infant, and is therefore the legitimate Queen).
Some time ago, the old king was killed in an insurrection,
and the prince was stolen away in his youth. For various
reasons, it is believed that either Giuseppe or Marco is
the true king, and so the comic opera proceeds.
The Duke of Plaza Toro, a grandee of Spain, is a gentle
satirical portrait. There is satire on his pretensions to
rank and dignity, and the song teases the topic of military
valor. “Plaza Toro” literally means the place of the Bull.
This is a Gilbert & Sullivan “patter song” (a mild version).
The patter song is a rapidly spoken and sung witty
monologue with a satirical edge – such as “My Name is
John Wellington Wells” from The Sorcerer (1877). Note
the rapid rhyming lines again.
To talk bull: to talk nonsense, untruths
Grandee: Spanish nobleman of high rank
Exciting: used in an old sense negatively here of “being
made enthusiastic in an indecorous way,” to be
“excited” was inferior and undignified
Fore: front
Gore: blood
Paladin: knight errant, champion
Grosser clay: inferior composition, lower rank
Find out more about The Gondoliers from MS 3, 7, 9.
“When a Merry Maiden Marries” is a lovely number.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacred
28
Very Early (1992)
track 13.
Benedictus Antiphon for Easter Day Morning Prayer
Very early on the Sunday morning
Just after the sun had risen
They came to the tomb, alleluia.
Comment
Short sacred hymn written by the Poor Clare Sisters at Ty
Mam Duw Convent (“House of God” in Welsh) (Lk 24.1).
An antiphon is used as a preface to a longer hymn (such
as the Benedictus), or at certain intervals in the Divine
Service.
+++
Early in the morning Mary (1992)
track 14.
Early in the morning Mary
Running back to Calvary
Found to her complete amazement
That the stone was rolled away.
So she went and woke up Peter,
Early, at the break of day
Telling him the tomb was empty
Who had stolen the Lord away?
John and Peter came up running
John was first, but stayed outside.
He believed that Christ was risen
As the empty tomb implied.
Jesus came to all his friends then
Eating fish and honeycomb.
I will be with you, forever
You will never be alone.
Thomas who refused to listen
Seeing Christ, was stunned and awed
In the scars he placed his finger,
Shouted: You are God and Lord!
Then to Galilee, returning
Peter said: Let’s go and fish.
We all said: We’re coming with you.
Here’s a treat we cannot miss.
Jesus, waiting on the seashore
Told us: cast your nets abroad.
When the nets were filled to breaking
John exclaimed: It is the Lord!
Comment
Song celebrating the resurrection as though sung by one
of the disciples. Style is reminiscent of Tim Rice who
wrote the lyrics for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
The Mary mentioned is Mary Magdalene from John 20.
The comment about John believing that Christ was risen
is an interpretation of the following verses (Jn 20.8-9):
“Finally the other disciple [John], who had reached the
tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They
still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to
rise from the dead.)” The point is that he believed in the
resurrection before knowing that it was foretold by the
prophets – this was very important to the early church –
the proof of Jesus as Messiah in the witnessing of the
resurrection, and the link with the holy prophets. The
other details come from the Gospel narrative. Jesus
proved to his disciples that he was not a ghost, but that
he had really returned to life, by eating the fish and
honeycomb. Likewise, Thomas was able to feel the
wounds. The emphasis is on the real incorruptible
physical reality of the body of Christ, which is important
– the prophesy that God the Father would not allow the
anointed one, the holy one, to see corruption, i.e. to decay
as a dead body (Ps 16.10 & Ps 49.9).
+++
Heaven’s Queen Rejoice (1992)
track 15.
Heaven’s Queen rejoice, Alleluia.
He whom thou didst bear for us, Alleluia
Rose as he foretold, Alleluia
Pray to God for us, Alleluia.
Comment
An English version of the well-known Latin hymn Regina
Caeli, sung at Easter.
29
Folk: Reynardine (1969) & The Lark in the Morning (1971) Fairport C. & Steeleye S.
Pop: Sailing & I don’t want to talk about it by Rod Stewart (1975)
Literary: Delight in Disorder & Gather ye Rosebuds, Robert Herrick (1648)
Musical: People will say we’re in love & Dat’s Love (1943) Oklahoma Carmen Jones
Sacred: Restless by Audrey Assad (2010)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Folk
English Folk
Reynardine (1969)
Traditional British Folk
Sung by Sandy Denny
Performed by Fairport Convention on the Album “Liege
and Lief ” (1969)
One evening as I rambled
Among the leaves so green
I heard a young woman
Converse with Reynardine.
Her hair was black, her eyes were blue
Her lips as red as wine
And he smiled to gaze upon her
Did that sly old Reynardine.
She said, "Kind sir, be civil
My company forsake
For in my own opinion
I fear you are some rake."
"Oh no," he said, "No rake am I
Brought up in Venus train
But I'm seeking for concealment
All along the lonesome plain."
Your beauty so enticed me
I could not pass it by
So it's with my gun I'll guard you
All on the mountains high
And if by chance you should look for me
Perhaps you'll not me find
For I'll be in my castle
Inquire for Reynardine.
Sun and dark, she followed him
His teeth did brightly shine
And he led her above mountains
Did that sly old Reynardine.
Comment
Dramatic folk poem sung with great power by Sandy
Denny. Reynardine (the name means fox) is a folk
anti-hero in this ballad, and it is unclear whether he is a
fox or a man, perhaps both. The song has the power of
the ancient European fairy tales collected by Grimm,
where the wolf plays a similar role in “Little Red Riding
Hood.” “Venus train” is obviously a literary addition,
meaning “in the retinue of the goddess Venus,” or
perhaps a way of saying, “at the service of beauty.” At
the end of the ballad “his teeth shine brightly”
suggesting that the young woman in question will be on
the dinner menu.
There is possibly a clever joke which reverses the surface
meaning. “Inquire for Reynardine” could sound like “In
choir for reign – our dine.” (this could be a Christian hint
– feasting in the reign of Christ the King). The next line
is also another hint: “Sun and dark she followed him” –
“Son and Ark she followed him.” Son of God and Ark of
the Covenant – so that the suggestion of these hints is
that this Reynardine is a disguised Christ, leading her up
to heaven. But perhaps I am going too far!
Ramble: wander, a word favoured in folk song
Reynard: French for Fox
Fairport Convention
British folk rock band founded in 1967 by Ashley
Hutchings, Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson. Sandy
Denny (1947-1978) joined to sing on “Liege and Lief ” but
left soon after. The band has continued up to the present,
with a different line-up of performers. Ashley Hutchings
went on to found Steeleye Span, the other principal
British folk rock band.
+++
The Lark in the Morning (1971)
Traditional English
Sung by Maddy Prior
Performed by Steeleye Span from CD “The Lark in the
Morning” (2003) 2.1
Lay still my fond shepherd and don't you rise yet
It's a fine dewy morning and besides, my love, it is wet.
Oh let it be wet my love and ever so cold
I will rise my fond Floro, and away to my fold.
Oh no, my bright Floro, it is no such thing
It's a bright sun a-shining and the lark is on the wing.
Chorus:
Oh the lark in the morning she rises from her nest
And she mounts in the air with the dew on her breast
And like the pretty ploughboy she'll whistle and sing
And at night she will return to her own nest again.
When the ploughboy has done all he's got for to do
He trips down to the meadows where the grass is all cut
down.
Chorus:
30
Oh the lark in the morning she rises from her nest
And she climbs to the dawn with the dew on her breast
And like the pretty ploughboy she'll whistle and sing
And at night she will return to her own nest again.
Comment
Folk-rock arrangement of a traditional English folk song.
An aubade – lovers saying farewell in morning. The most
famous example of this is in Romeo and Juliet. This is a
conversation between two lovers and one needs to work
out who is speaking to whom. It seems that there is a
shepherd and his beloved, who is called “Floro”. She says
the morning is wet, stay longer with me. He says, I must
go, even if it is wet and cold. In fact, it is a good morning
and the lark is in the sky. But when the shepherd has
gone, the song seems to hint that his beloved then visits
the “pretty ploughboy” (like a lark rising up and
returning), and the ploughboy is happy enough. The
grass being cut down in the meadows, suggests
haymaking-time, lark rising and singing, early to mid
summer, perhaps June. An ominous hint also there in the
grass “all cut down.”
Lark: a joke in the title, lark is both the bird and an
adventure, something fun and lighthearted
Floro: unusual name, one would expect Flora meaning
flower. A town in Norway is called Floro, a western
town opposite the Shetland Islands. Perhaps a
departure point for the Vikings in their voyages to the
British Isles?
Trips: to go joyfully, also to trip over (as in error)
Note from the website “Mainly Norfolk” (about English
folk song):
The Lark in the Morning Roud 151
Ballad Index
ShH62 . Ralph Vaughan Williams collected the tune and
first verse of “The Lark in the Morning” on April 24, 1904
from Mrs Harriet Verrall, of Monk’s Gate, Horsham in
Sussex and published in the Folk Song Journals. Roy
Palmer added further verses from a printed broadside
when he included it in his book Folk Songs Collected by
Ralph Vaughan Williams. You can find many
performances of this on YouTube.
http://mainlynorfolk.info/steeleye.span/songs/thelarkinthemorning.html
For more information about Steeleye Span see MS 1, 6, 24,
42.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pop
“Sailing” (1975)
Written by Gavin Sutherland (1972)
Vocals: Rod Stewart
From the album Atlantic Crossing (1975)
I am sailing, I am sailing
Home again cross the sea
I am sailing stormy weather
To be near you, to be free.
I am flying, I am flying
Like a bird cross the sky,
I am flying, passing high clouds,
To be with you, to be free.
Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Thro’ the dark night, far away
I am dying, forever trying,
To be with you, who can say?
Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Thro’ the dark night, far away
I am dying, forever trying,
To be with you, who can say?
We are sailing, we are sailing,
Home again, cross the sea.
We are sailing stormy waters,
To be near you, to be free.
O Lord, to be near you, to be free,
Oh Lord, to be near you, to be free,
Oh Lord
Comment
A popular anthem from the 1970s, appearing very simple
but with depth when you read it carefully. It was a
number one hit for Stewart and remains his best-selling
UK song. It seems to be a love song, like an old Scottish
ballad. From far away the beloved is sailing home again.
But in the middle of the song there is the phrase, “I am
dying” which changes this sense. “I am dying to be with
you” = I want to be with you very much, but also, “I am
dying, because I cannot be with you.”
“To be free” suggests that the singer is in some kind of
imprisonment. The song ends with “Oh Lord” which
sounds like an intensifier, “Oh Lord” = “Yes, really,” but
it is also a hidden prayer to Jesus, or to God.
Cross the sea and cross the sky is a hint at some level
about the cross of Christ.
From land to land, or from earth to heaven? It is also an
allegory about the passage to heaven, and a peaceful song
for that.
Gathering these points together perhaps the song is an
allegory about emigration, leaving a land where the
church and faith is dying or suffering persecution, going
to a promised land to be free and to be close to God. The
music video showed Rod arriving in New York harbor
(dressed-up looking like an angel). Album title is Atlantic
Crossing. Stewart in fact has spent most of his life in the
US (from the time of that song, 1975). The song is a
reminder that long ago the Church (led by angels) arrived
31
in America. New life and new birth.
Rod Stewart (1945 )
Singer-songwriter, raised in London, Welsh and Scottish
background. He has had a very successful career,
remaining popular, and is one of the best-selling British
singers, with many top-hits, singles and albums. In his
late teens he tried to become a professional footballer.
Football remains one of his passions. He supports Celtic
United (Scotland) and Manchester United.
A poetic song which hides its meaning quite well,
perhaps suggesting that we have to look up at the stars in
the sky and see that they are not a mirror of what we are,
but a better reality. So the phrase “mean nothing to you”
could be a criticism of someone (perhaps the listener to
the song).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Literary
As the 1975 video for “Sailing” showed, there is also a
gender-statement being made by Stewart. He looks
androgynous or bisexual or gay. A similar statement was
made by David Bowie at this time, and this was the style
of “glam rock.” One of his best songs is about the
murder of a gay man 1977 “The Killing of Georgie Part 1
& 2.” His philosophy is “live and let live.” Allow people
the freedom to be what they are.
+++
“I don’t want to talk about it” (1975)
Written by Danny Whitten (from the band Crazy Horse) (1971)
Vocals: Rod Stewart
From the album Atlantic Crossing (1975)
I can tell by your eyes that you've probably been cryin' forever,
And the stars in the sky don't mean nothin' to you, they're a mirror.
I don't want to talk about it, how you broke my heart.
If I stay here just a little bit longer,
If I stay here, won't you listen to my heart, whoa, my heart?
If I stand all alone, will the shadow hide the color of my heart?
Blue for the tears, black for the night's fears.
The stars in the sky don't mean nothin' to you, they're a mirror.
I don't want to talk about it, how you broke my heart.
I don't want to talk about it, how you broke this ol' heart.
My heart, whoa, my heart.
Comment
A great love song and a beautiful melody, sung perfectly
by Rod Stewart.
There seem to be different speakers in the song, or
different personas. Looking at the stars, one finds
mirrored there one’s self. Is one unable to look beyond
one’s own suffering? The suffering one or self replies,
you broke my heart.
Will you listen to the sadness and the suffering and also
the love that is in my heart? Someone weeping, someone
suffering – a shadow of grief, something in the past
which was too bad to talk about, a heart broken in an old
grief, and never healed from that.
Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
251
Delight in Disorder
A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness;
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction;
An erring lace which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher;
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbons to flow confusedly;
A winning wave (deserving note)
In the tempestuous petticoat;
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility;
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.
§§§
254
Gather ye Rosebuds
also called
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry:
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.
Comment
32
Two of Herrick’s most famous lyrics. The first wittily
describes the fashionable casualness of expensive clothes
as being more beautiful than too much precision. It is
also a criticism of “precision,” which was another name
for puritanism. The more zealot Protestants of that era
(whom their opponents called Puritans) refused to wear
gorgeous & expensive clothes and favored plainness in
diction, and in church ornament and practice, casting
away all the decoration and art that characterized the
Catholic Churches (Baroque era). Herrick is also praising
a “royalist” style over a “roundhead” or “parliamentarian”
style. The disorder in the dress that he is praising is also
suggestive of amorous attentions or provocative of
amorous attentions, and that is also part of the joke.
Lawn: fine linen resembling cambric
Enthrall: enslave, but here holds
Stomacher: waistcoat
The second lyric, “Gather ye Rosebuds,” is one of the
most famous Carpe Diem poems in English. It is a
pastoral song, smoothly and fluently phrased. There are
two well-known Pre-Raphaelite paintings inspired by this
lyric, painted by John William Waterhouse, 1908 & 1909.
Born to a prosperous goldsmith in London. Graduated
from St John’s, Cambridge in 1617, became a follower of
Ben Jonson, was friends with a wide literary circle,
ordained as an Anglican minister in 1623, and accepted
the living of Dean Prior in Exeter in 1630, writing his
poetry in country seclusion. Expelled from his living by
the Protectorate in 1647, and published Hesperides in
London in 1648, with a great number of poems. With the
restoration of Charles II he returned to Devon where he
remained. According to local tradition, he kept a pet pig,
which he taught to drink from a tankard, and one day
threw his sermon at the congregation with a curse for
their inattention.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Musical
Here is the gist,
A practical list of “don’ts” for you.
Don’t throw bouquets at me,
Don’t please my folks too much,
Don’t laugh at my jokes too much,
People will say we’re in love.
Laurey:
Don’t sigh and gaze at me.
Your sighs are so like mine.
Your eyes mustn’t glow like mine,
People will say we’re in love!
Don’t start collecting things,
Give me my rose and my glove.
Sweetheart, they’re suspecting things,
Curly:
Some people claim that you are to blame as much as I.
Why do you take the trouble to bake my favourite pie?
Grantin’ your wish I carved our initials on that tree,
Just keep a slice of all the advice you give so free.
Don’t praise my charm too much,
Don’t look so vain with me,
Don’t stand in the rain with me,
Don’t take my arm too much,
Don’t keep your hand in mine,
Your hand feels so grand in mine,
Don’t dance all night with me
’till the stars fade from above.
They’ll see it’s alright with me,
Comment
Well-loved number from the musical, Curly and Laurey
sing about their love, though Laurey at this point is
refusing him. In the original, the spelling and
pronunciation indicates a rural Oklahoma accent. I have
modernized the spelling here.
People will say we are in love (1943)
Writer: Oscar Hammerstein
Composer: Richard Rodgers
Sung by Gordon McRae and Shirley Jones
From the musical Oklahoma!
(Duet: Curly Mclain and Laurey Williams)
Gist: summary
Carved initials on the tree: lovers used to do this, but not
acceptable nowadays
Just keep a slice of the advice: follow your own advice
Laurey:
Why do they think up stories that link my name with
yours?
Dat’s Love (1943)
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein 2
Music: Georges Bizet
Book: Oscar Hammerstein 2
Carmen Jones 1943 Broadway, 1954 film
Sung by Carmen: Dorothy Dandridge, dubbed by Marilyn
Horne
Curly:
Why do the neighbors gossip all day behind their doors?
Laurey:
I know a way to prove what they say is quite untrue
+++
Love’s a baby that grows up wild
33
And he don’t do what you want him to
Love ain’t nobody’s angel-child
And he won’t pay any mind to you
One man gives me his diamond stud
And I won’t give him a cigarette
One man treats me like I was mud,
And all I got, dat man can get.
Dat’s love, dat’s love, dat’s love, dat’s love!
You go for me and I’m taboo
But if you’re hard to get, I go for you
And if I do, then you are through, boy!
My baby, that’s the end of you!
So take your cue, boy!
Don’t say I didn’t tell you true
I told you truly, if I love you,
Dat’s the end of you!
When your love-bird decides to fly
There ain’t no door that you can close
She just pecks you a quick good-bye
And flicks de salt from her tail and goes
If you listen then you’ll get taught
And here’s your lesson for today
If I choose you, then you’ll get caught
But once I got you, I go my way
Dat’s love: That’s love (using “d” to imitate the
pronunciation)
Flicks the salt from her tail: perhaps deriving from the
expression “catch a bird by putting salt on its tail”
which appears to a phrase taught to children
First verse from the original
L'amour est un oiseau rebelle
Que nul ne peut apprivoiser,
Et c'est bien en vain qu'on l'appelle,
S'il lui convient de refuser.
Rien n'y fait, menace ou prière;
L'un parle bien, l'autre se tait,
Et c'est l'autre que je préfère;
Il n'a rien dit mais il me plaît.
Love is a rebellious bird
That none can tame,
And it is well in vain that you summon him
If it suits him to refuse
Nothing to be done, threat or prayer.
Here’s one talks well, here’s another who is silent;
And it's the other that I prefer
He says nothing but he pleases me.
Part of the refrain
Comment
Aria from the musical Carmen Jones, which is an English
translation of the famous aria “L'amour est un oiseau
rebelle” called the “Habanera” [Danza Habanera = a
Cuban dance] from the original opera Carmen by
Georges Bizet (1875).
Carmen in the original opera was a new kind of heroine,
a vital fiery temptress, dangerous but irresistible. Th
song encapsulates that characterization. The music was
adapted by Bizet from a melody that he assumed was
Spanish folk, “El Arreglito,” originally composed by the
Spanish musician, Sebastián Yradier. It’s a great song,
and the English version is a witty translation, and the
original music is preserved. It has a very distinctive four
beat rhythm.
Carmen Jones was set in contemporary World War II,
deep south America. Unusually for the period, the cast
was entirely African-American. In the original opera, the
women are working in a tobacco factory in Seville, and
this has been updated to a parachute factory. Carmen
Jones is the “gypsy” Carmen, who seduces the good
soldier Joe, who abandons his sweetheart. Carmen is then
unfaithful to Joe and pairs up with Husky, a boxer. Joe
cannot bear this and kills her.
The song uses some Southern speech, such as
“angel-child” which could mean something like
sweetheart.
Pay any mind: pay any attention to you
Stud: a kind of button
Si tu ne m'aimes pas,
Si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime;
Prends garde à toi!
If you won’t love me
Then I’ll love you
And if I love you
Then watch out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReqRP2d-JAg
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacred
Restless (2010)
Lyrics: Audrey Assad and Matt Maher
Sung by Audrey Assad (from CD “The House You’re
Building” 2010)
You dwell in the songs that we are singing,
Rising to the Heavens, rising to Your heart.
Our praises filling up the spaces
In between our frailty and everything You are
You are the keeper of my heart.
And I'm restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
Oh God!
I am restless, I'm restless
'Til I rest in You, 'til I rest in You
Oh God!
34
I wanna rest in You.
Oh, speak now for my soul is listening
Say that You have saved me,
Whisper in the dark.
'Cause I know You're more than my salvation
Without you I am hopeless,
Tell me who You are
You are the keeper of my heart
You are the keeper of my heart
Rpt
And I'm restless
Still my heart, hold me close
Let me hear, a still small voice
Let it grow, let it rise
Into a shout, into a cry
Still my heart, hold me close
Let me hear a still small voice
Let it grow, let it rise
Into a shout, into a cry
Rpt
And I'm restless
Comment
Pop song which is really a modern psalm. Sung with
passion, and a raw and tender commitment which gives
the words great strength. The song achieves the goal of
appearing to be modern and new, and a statement for
today, but in fact the words and meaning are just the
same as the Psalms of David. David prays in the psalms
for the peace of God to be granted to him, for the sense
that God is with him, that he is within the safety of divine
love, and this is the assurance that Assad is asking for.
The song is a prayer and she could have said “Amen” at
the end. Two phrases in the song come directly from the
Bible: KJV Ps 37.7 “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently
for him.” KJV 1 Kings 19.12 “And after the earthquake a
fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a
still small voice.” The phrase “still small voice” is famous
also from the nineteenth century hymn “Dear Lord and
Father of Mankind” by John Greenleaf Whittier (1872).
You can find Audrey Assad singing this on YouTube and
also on Vimeo.
Restless: without peace, unhappy, insecure
Rest in you: to repose in your love, to remain in your love
Audrey Assad (1983)
Born in New Jersey to an American mother and Syrian
father. Raised in the Plymouth Brethren (Protestant).
Very gifted musically. Problems at school led to her
studying at home during her teens. She converted to
being Catholic in 2007. She met the Catholic musician
Matt Maher in 2008, who gave her help in performance,
and following that, she made the CD “The House You’re
Building,” produced by Marshall Altman, and this was
critically and commercially successful.
35
English (which probably comes from Welsh). [Try to sing
the words at the same speed that she does!] She also
sings a couple of verses which I do not have the text for.
Folk Welsh: There is My Love (2000) & Gentle Maid (2009) & Titrwm Tatrwm (1954)
Pop: Both Sides Now Joni Mitchell (1967)
Literary: To Anthea & To Daffodils, Robert Herrick (1648)
Musical: Moonlight Serenade (1939) & In the Still of the Night (1937)
Sacred: Daughters of Jerusalem & Had I Jubal’s Lyre Kathleen Battle (1995)
Sacred Bonus: Mayim Mayim (Hebrew Song) (1937)
Dacw: see there!
‘nghariad: Angharad beloved one
Lawr: down
Berllan: orchard
For more information about Sian James see MS 27, 31.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++
Folk
Welsh folk
There is my love Dacw 'nghariad
Traditional Welsh
Sung by Sian James on CD Pur (2000) track 5
Dacw ’nghariad lawr yn y berllan
O na bawn i yno fy hunan
Dacw’r ty a dacw’r sgubor
Dacw’r ddrws y beudy’n agor
Dacw’r dderwen wych ganghennog
Golwg arni sydd dra serchog
Mi arhosaf dan ei chysgod
Nes daw ‘nghariad, daw fy nghariad
Dacw’r delyn, dacw’r tannau
Beth wyf well heb neb i’w chwarae?
Dacw’r feinwen hoenus fanwl
Beth wyf nes heb gael ei meddwl?
There’s my love down in the orchard
Oh, how I wish I was there myself
There’s the house and there’s the barn
There’s the cowshed door open.
There’s the great branchy oak
It’s got a pleasant look
I’ll wait in its shade,
Until my love comes.
There’s the harp, there the strings
What am I with no one to play it for?
There’s the lively, careful maiden
How much closer am I to winning her?
Comment
Sian James commented on this song: “A travelling tailor
by the name of Thomas Elias was noted singing this
song at Llangammarch in 1828. It remains to this day one
of our most popular folk songs. Depending on the mind
of the listener, this can be quite a saucy number!” The
version that Sian James sings has the refrain: “Tw rym di
ro rym di radl didl dal” and “Ffaldi radl didl dal, ffaldi
radl didl dal, Tw rym di ro rym di radl didl dal,” which
are musical phrases without meaning, like “folderol” in
Gentle Maid Fenyw Fwyn (2009)
Traditional
Sung by Shannon Mercer on “Wales: Land of Song”
(2009) CD track 9
Fenyw fwyn, gwrando gŵyn
Dyn yn curio er dy fwyn;
Mae i mi ddirfawr gri
Ddydd a nos yn d’achos di;
Wylo’r dwr yn ail i’r don,
Gwel fy mriw o dan fy mron;
‘Does a ddyry Iechyd imi,
Ond tydi, Lili lon.
Lili lon, y funud hon
Teimlaf ddyrnod ddirfawr don;
Dyro di i myfi
Loches yn dy galon di;
Oni chaf fi brofi’r hedd
Sydd yn dyfod o dy wedd,
Yn dra buan, Eneth wiwlan,
Bydd fy rhan yn y bedd.
List to me, gentle maid,
At whose feet my love is laid;
Day and night, ‘tis my plight
Thus to lack my heart’s delight;
Tears I weep as doth the wave,
For one look alone I crave;
This will end me,
Nought can mend me,
Send me not to my grave.
Love allures, life endures
All but this disdain of yours;
Willingly let there be
Refuge in your heart for me;
If my soul you will not save
By the favor that I crave,
Let me love you
Ere I leave you,
None may love in the grave.
Comment
No more information available on this song. The English
translation is a good carpe diem message. Text came
from the pdf file issued by Mercer’s CD.
36
For more information about Shannon Mercer see MS 35,
41, 45.
Comment
From the liner notes to the original 1954 recording by
Meredydd Evans. “This is a delightful love song. The
internal rhymes and the occasional alliteration form a
pleasing pattern. Titrwm Tatrwm – these are meaningless
syllables.”
ww.shannonmercer.com
+++
Titrwm Tatrwm
Traditional
Sung by Meredyd Evans
Welsh Folksongs LP (1954)
Meillionen: clover
Mwyn: mild, gentle
track 13
Titrwm, tatrwm, Gwen lliw'r wy,
Lliw'r meillion mwyn rwy'n curo,
Mae'r gwynt yn oer oddiar y llyn
O flodyn y dyffryn deffro.
Chwyth y tan, mi gynnith toc,
Mae hi'n ddrycinog heno.
For more information about Meredydd Evans see MS 45.
He has been at the forefront of promoting Welsh culture
for the past 60 years working as a broadcaster, educator
and singer.
Here is Meredydd talking about the recording on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogDIc0242KI&list=PLB391BB7FC117D149
Performed by the band IONA
Os ymhell o'm gwlad yr af
Pa beth a wnaf a'm geneth?
Pa un a'i mynd a hi efo mi
Ai gadael hi mewn hiraeth?
Hed fy nghalon o bob man
I fryniau a phantiau Pentraeth.
Rwf Weithiau yn Llundain, ac weithiau yng Nghaer
Yn gweithio'n daer amdani,
Weithiau yn gwasgu fy hun mewn cell
Ac weithiau ymhell oddi wrthi:
Mi gofleidiwn flodau'r rhos
Pe bawn i'n agos atti.
(www.ionamusic.com )
on YouTube very well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ud2h1dyzcA
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pop
Both Sides, Now (1967)
Written by Joni Mitchell, from the album “Clouds” (1968)
Performed by Joni Mitchell
Bows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way
English Translation [adapted from Evans’ liner notes]
Titrwm, tatrwm, Gwen, my lamb
You’re the color of clover,
I’m knocking at your door.
The wind is cold from the lake.
Awake, flower of the vale!
Blow on the fire to light it
It’s stormy outside.
If I go far from my country
What will I do with my love?
Shall I take her with me,
Or leave her to pine?
Where ever I am
My heart flies home
To the hills and valleys of Pentraeth.
Whether in London or Chester
Working as best I can for her.
Sometimes together in my small room,
And sometimes I’m far away.
Would I were near her
To hold in my arms
My rose-bloom again!
Lliw: color
But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way
But now it's just another show
You leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away
I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all
Tears and fears and feeling proud
37
To say “I love you” right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way
Oh but now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost but something's gained
In living every day
I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all
I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all
Comment
Joni Mitchell commented on how the song came to be
written (from Wikiped.): “I was reading Saul Bellow's
Henderson the Rain King on a plane [March 1967] and
early in the book Henderson the Rain King is also up in a
plane. He's on his way to Africa and he looks down and
sees these clouds. I put down the book, looked out the
window and saw clouds too, and I immediately started
writing the song. I had no idea that the song would
become as popular as it did.” The song was very
successful, winning a grammy for best folksong. It has
been covered by dozens of artists.
This is a justly celebrated song, the singer-poet
criticizing herself, and also offering wisdom about
existence. Looking at clouds from above, and from below
– the clouds are faith and belief, the illusions of belief,
appearance of clouds as angelic, or as trouble and
suffering, rules to follow, and morality to know (both
sides of clouds, the beauty of faith and the
commandments to follow). She recalls the illusions of
clouds and she does not understand what the real
message is.
The meaning is deliberately open, and balanced between
a Buddhist point of view, in which the illusions of
existence are in fact the only reality to understand, and
detach oneself from; and the other point of view, which is
to understand clouds, love and life properly, which is to
know the beauty of heaven and the struggle against
adversity, that true love is pain and sacrifice, and that life
itself is the reality of God (which she has avoided saying).
So she is singing in criticism of herself, which is in fact
criticism of the world around her who thinks in such a
way. It is a song for God.
Joni Mitchell (1943)
Highly gifted singer-songwriter and artist, a leading
figure in Canadian music and art. Born in Alberta, raised
in Saskatchewan. From an early age she showed
precocious ability both in drawing and poetry. She
studied art in Calgary, which she abandoned to follow a
folk-singing career. She moved to Toronto, worked in
small jobs, became pregnant and gave up her daughter
for adoption. Then turned to songwriting and
performance, was married briefly, and continued
performing in New York, building up a strong reputation.
Her debut album came out in 1968 “Song to a Seagull.”
She designed and painted the album cover, as she
continued to do throughout her career. The second
album was “Clouds” 1969. Many of her songs from this
period are now classics. “Blue” followed in 1971, which
was hugely successful. She has been highly influential on
a wide range of musicians, and has continued in work up
to the present. Listen also to “Woodstock” and “Circle
Game.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Literary
256
The next theme is romantic love. The joy of young love
and its illusions, the fairy tale that appears to come true
(most fairy tales in fact have grim endings). Now her
relationships are casual, and she tries not to hurt people,
and romance is absent, or perhaps she is talking about
her role as a singer. Her conclusion is that she knows
only the illusions of love – as with clouds, she does not
know love.
Trying to do good for others in your life, and looking at
life from the point of view of winning and losing (both
sides), and the conclusion is that life’s illusions are all
that remain. Looking at life from happiness and sadness,
but remembering only the illusions? Is that the meaning
of the song? Is it such a bitter understanding?
To Anthea, Who May Command Him Anything
Bid me to live, and I will live
Thy Protestant to be;
Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee.
A heart as soft, a heart as kind,
A heart as sound and free,
As in the whole world thou canst find,
That heart I'll give to thee.
Bid that heart stay, and it will stay,
To honor thy decree;
Or bid it languish quite away,
And 't shall do so for thee.
Bid me to weep, and I will weep,
38
While I have eyes to see;
And having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.
Bid me despair, and I'll despair,
Under that cypress tree;
Or bid me die, and I will dare
E'en death, to die for thee.
Thou art my life, my love, my heart,
The very eyes of me;
And hast command of every part,
To live and die for thee.
§§§
258
To Daffodils
Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon,
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attained his noon.
Stay, stay
Until the hastening day
Has run
But to the even-song;
And having prayed together, we
Will go with you along.
We have short time to stay as you,
We have as short a spring,
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you or anything.
We die,
As your hours do, and dry
Away,
Like to the summer’s rain,
Or as the pearls of morning dew,
Ne’er to be found again.
Comment
Two attractive lyrics by Herrick. The first poem is cast as
a love poem but it could almost be a disguised lyric
addressed to Christ, or a poem of loyalty to the King.
“Eyes” for a religious poet of that period, is a hint about
faith – true faith in God. Daffodils is a beautiful poem
meditating on the evanescence of life in a classical tone,
achieving in itself a classical purity of statement.
For biographical details see above MS53.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Musical
Moonlight Serenade (1939)
Music: Glenn Miller
Lyrics: Mitchell Parish
Sung by Ono Lisa 小野リサ
I stand at your gate
And the song that I sing is of moonlight.
I stand and I wait
For the touch of your hand in the June night.
The roses are sighing a Moonlight Serenade.
The stars are aglow
And tonight how their light sets me dreaming.
My love, do you know
That your eyes are like stars brightly beaming?
I bring you and sing you a Moonlight Serenade.
Let us stray
Till break of day
In love's valley of dreams.
Just you and I,
A summer sky,
A heavenly breeze
kissing the trees.
Don't let me wait,
Come to me tenderly in the June night.
I stand at your gate
And I sing you a song in the moonlight,
A love song, my darling, a Moonlight Serenade.
Comment
This song was issued as an instrumental arrangement
and was an immediate success, famous for the
clarinet-led saxophone section. It’s a classic which does
not age, the Glenn Miller signature tune. The lyrics were
added later by song writer Mitchell Parish. There’s a
Bossa Nova cover of this by Ono Lisa which is rather
good.
Glenn Miller (1904-1944)
From a rural background, studied briefly at University of
Colorado in Boulder, but spent most of the time
polishing his musical skills. He dropped out of the
university and committed himself to playing music. This
was the era of the Dance Bands. He wrote music and had
a book of jazz melodies published in 1927. Highly gifted
both in performance (trombone) and composition.
Associated with many big names through the 1930s. He
formed his own band in 1937, and went on to forge a
distinctive sound signature, which was all important in
the era of radio. Everyone listened to the radio, and it
was an advantage if they knew who the band was. It was
also an era in which performers could make a fortune
from record sales, and by 1942 Glenn Miller had records
in all the juke boxes. Other famous melodies include “In
the Mood” (1939) and “Chatanooga Choo Choo” (1941).
Ono Lisa (1962)
Bossa Nova singer, sings in Portuguese, English and
Japanese. From Sao Paulo, Brazil, ethnic-Japanese, lived
alternatively in Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro. Sold 200
thousand copies in Japan of her 1999 album “Dream.”
39
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZssFI8PcOqE
§§§
+++
In the Still of the Night (1937)
Lyrics by Cole Porter
From the film of the musical “Rosalie” (1937)
Sung by Nelson Eddy in the film (@ 1.17 mins)
Sung by Ella Fitzgerald on the CD The Cole Porter
Songbook.
In the still of the night as I gaze out of my window
At the moon in its flight, my thoughts all stray to you.
In the still of the night while the world is in slumber
Oh the times without number darling when I say to you
Do you love me, as I love you?
Are you my life to be my dream come true,
Or will this dream of mine fade out of sight
Like the moon growing dim, on the rim of the hill
In the chill, still of the night.
Comment
Superb romantic number from the musical Rosalie by
Cole Porter. The phrasing and melody is just perfect,
Cole Porter lifts the art of song writing to literary heights.
The song has a classical simplicity and clarity of phrase,
and seems to me to be like a perfect adaptation from
ancient Chinese or Japanese, where there are many
poems on exactly the same theme. The lyrics to the
previous number are similar in this respect.
Rosalie film (1937)
A musical comedy. An American footballer falls in love
with a princess in disguise when she is studying in
America. He goes to find her in her Balkan nation,
thinking she is a peasant, only to discover that she has
been promised in marriage to a prince. The couple meet,
and after overcoming various problems, including a
revolution, are united together in America. Starring
Nelson Eddy as Dick and Eleanor Powell (tap dancer) as
Princess Rosalie. Cole Porter wrote the numbers. The
film is extravagant in its huge set-pieces, and the quality
of the costumes.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacred
“Rejoice Greatly”
Sung by Kathleen Battle on Grace CD (1995)
George Frederic Handel (1685-1759)
From Messiah (1741) No 18 (Zecharaiah 9: 9-10)
Libretto adapted by Charles Jennens (1700-1773)
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion;
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee;
He is the righteous Saviour,
And He shall speak peace unto the heathen.
Rejoice greatly
da capo
“O had I Jubal’s lyre” Air 56 from Joshua (1747 Oratorio)
Sung by Kathleen Battle on Grace CD (1995)
O had I Jubal’s lyre and Miriam’s tuneful voice
To sounds like his I would aspire,
In songs like hers, rejoice.
My humble strains but faintly show
How much to Heaven and thee I owe.
Comment
Two Handel airs sung by Kathleen Battle. The first is
from Messiah, one of a series of prophecies from the Old
Testament about the Messiah which constitute the
oratorio. The quotation from Zechariah refers to Christ’s
triumphant arrival in Jerusalem, which is reported in the
Gospels (Mt 21.5). Joshua was Handel’s fourth oratorio
based on the biblical story of Joshua. He was the leader
who brought the people of Israel to the promised land.
Jubal is from the Book of Genesis and is the father of all
musicians (Gen 4.21). Miriam is the sister of Aaron and
Moses, who sung a victory hymn (Exod 15.21).
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), although of German
origin (Saxony) is credited as being the greatest of the
British composers. He was highly-gifted musically, and
after extensive study, spent four years in Italy, winning
renown. He was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector
of Hanover, the future King George I of Britain. From c.
1715 he was resident in England. He became a British
subject (1726) and composed most of his great works
while working in Britain, becoming a composer to the
Chapel Royal. In his early career he was a master of
Italian opera, and in his maturity he developed the
English oratorio in a series of unsurpassed masterpieces
– Saul, Messiah and Samson among others.
Heathen: people who do not worship God
For more information about Handel see MS 7 & MS 22 &
MS 26 & MS 34 & MS 35.
Kathleen Battle (1948 )
Highly-gifted soprano, one of the leading singers of her
generation, at her best she has magnificent coloratura.
Opera debut in 1975, worked in opera and recital.
African-American roots, Methodist Church singing in the
choir, and university, taking a master’s degree in music
education. Wide repertoire, Mozart, Handel, Donizetti.
She has also recorded Church music and Spirituals. She
sang the Lord’s Prayer for the Pope’s visit to the White
House.
+++
Mayim Mayim (1937)
Hebrew Song and Dance
Music by Emanuel Pugashov Amiran
40
“U’ shaavtem mayim b’sasson mi ma ain ei ha Yeshuah.”
U’ shaavtem mayim b'sasson mi ma ain ei ha Yeshuah
U’ shaavtem mayim b'sasson mi ma ain ei ha Yeshuah
Mayim mayim mayim mayim - hey mayim b'sasson
Mayim mayim mayim mayim - hey mayim b'sasson
Hey hey hey hey
Mayim mayim mayim mayim mayim mayim b'sasson
Mayim mayim mayim mayim mayim mayim b'sasson
U’ shaavtem: and you shall all draw
mayim: water
b'sasson: with joy
mi’ma’ain’ei: from the wells
ha Yeshuah: the salvation, also this is the word “Jesus” in
Hebrew
In verse 2 we have the name of God repeated “Yah,” very
unusual.
Lesson on pronunciation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yti8o1K_7Fw&feature=related
Comment
This is a Hebrew folk song & prayer taken from Isaiah
12.3 “Therefore with joy you will bring forth water from
the wells of salvation” written to celebrate discovery of
water in 1937. It is one of the first songs taught to Jewish
children, and also used as a song on Erev Shabbat,
Sabbath evening.
It is a holy song of joy and celebration. It is also a song
sung by children around the world. It is useful to
consider the whole of Isaiah chapter 12, which supplies
the context for this verse:
Isaiah 12 (NRSV)
A Song of Thanksgiving and Praise
1 You will say in that day:
I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
and you comforted me.
2 Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the Lord God is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.
3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
4 And you will say in that day:
Give thanks to the Lord,
call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that his name is exalted.
5 Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be known in all the earth.
6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, O people of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
The whole chapter is a psalm of thanksgiving and praise
to God for comfort after tribulation. The wells of water
are a central Jewish and Christian symbol for the
life-giving power of the word of God. This symbolism is
found in the Gospel of John, when Jesus sits by the well,
and receives a drink of water from the Samaritan woman,
and utters the beautiful words, “Everyone who drinks this
water will be thirsty again, but if you drink the water I
give you, you will never be thirsty. It will become a
fountain within you, welling up to eternal life.” And she
replies, “Let me drink this water.” (Jn 4.13-15)
Glossary
There are some good clips on YouTube of this song and
also dances.
41
Folk: An Spealadóir Mairi Bhan (1934)
Pop: La Isla Bonita (1987) & Let’s Dance (1983) Alizee & Bowie
Literary: Upon Julia’s Clothes & Comfort to a Youth (c 1650) Robert Herrick
Musical: Goldfinger (1964) & Diamonds are Forever (1971) Shirley Bassey
Sacred: Ps 23 Three Versions Herbert, Scottish Ps, Baker
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Folk
Irish Folk
An Spealadóir also An Speladoir
Traditional
Sung by Sean O Se
On the CD “An Poc ar Buile” Gael Linn 2010 track 3
Le meán an fhómhair dá chaitheamh dom
By mid-autumn I was spent
Ba mhór dubhach mo scéal
My story was a very sad one
Go breoite, brónach, atuirseach
Sick, sorrowful and weary was I
Gan sólás insa' tsaol
Without consolation in life
Mo pháircín féir gan gearradh uaim
My little field of grass uncut
De dheascaibh clainn an Bhreacluain
On account of the family of Brackloon
'Gus féar na gcomharsan treascartha
And the neighbors' grass already cut
Á chíoradh le gréin.
And dried by the sun.
Curfá: Chorus:
Dá bhfaighinnse speal ó Shasana
If I had a scythe from England
'Gus crann ó Locha Léin
And a handle from Lough Leane
Cloch is clár is gaineamh air
A stone and a board and sand on it
Ó dhúiche Uí Néill
From the country of O'Neill
Do chuirfinn faobhar ar maidin suas
I would give it an edge in the morning
'Sheasódh ar feadh na seachtaine
That would stand for the whole week
Is bearrtha 'bheadh an t-acra
And the acre would be cut
Le fáinne an lae.
By daybreak.
Do shmaoiníos féin im' aigne
I was thinking to myself
San oíche trím' néal
At night while I slept
Go raibh beirt fhear óga chalma
That there were two brave young men
Do mhaíomh a bhfaobhar
Boasting of their sharpness
Féna ndéin do ghaibh mo theachtaire
My message was dispatched to them
Chun mo pháircín féin do ghearradh dhom
To cut my little field for me
'S is grámhar, fáilteach freagarthach
And loving, welcoming, responsive
Do thánadar araon
They both came.
I gcóir is i bhfaobhar bhí speal acu
Ready and sharp they had a scythe
Le fáinne an lae
At daybreak
'S do luíodar siúd go slachtmhar glan
And they leaned cleanly and tidily
Is iad ag baint an fhéir
Into the work of cutting the grass
Seala beag don eadartha
A little before milking time
'S a lán don lá gan caitheamh fós
And a great part of the day not yet spent
Do bhí dóthain siúd di leagaithe
Enough of it was cut
'S é bearrtha go cré.
And clipped like hair close to the earth.
Comment
Translation of this traditional song from Kerry found on
the internet, and also the Gaelic version. There are
probably inaccuracies here. This version differs from the
booklet I have. There are often different versions of these
folk songs. I chose this one for the topic, which is
universal to European folk (harvesting the hay) and also
for Sean O Se, who sings this beautifully. Also, the
English translation is poetic, apart from the strange last
line! “And it shaved to the earth,” which I have altered as
above, after looking at a couple of online Gaelic
dictionaries. Although I cannot read Gaelic or Welsh, I
have included Gaelic texts in this book, being a pdf file,
and it is very easy to check words with the online
dictionaries. There are excellent resources which have
brought the Celtic languages closer to everybody. One
needs to know the original language for the true beauty.
Civilization advances yet!
This version found on:
http://www.celticlyricscorner.net/amhlaoibh/anspealadoir.htm
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, well-known traditional singer
and musician of Danú fame sings “An Spealadóir” (a
West Kerry song) and together with Michelle Mulcahy on
accordion and Billy McGlynn on bouzouki:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhumiVUEiCs
For more information about Sean O Se see MS 18, 19.
Séan Ó Sé is well known as a singer of Irish songs. His
fine tenor voice is frequently heard on radio and he is
42
regularly featured on television. He is best known for his
evergreen recording of "An Poc Ar Buile" with Séan Ó
Riada.
+++
Mairi’s Wedding Mairi Bhan
Written by John Bannerman 1934 in Scottish Gaelic
Now considered to be Scottish Gaelic Traditional
'S i mo ghaol-sa Màiri Bhàn
Màiri bhòidheach sgeul mo dhàin,
Gaol mo chridh'-sa Màiri Bhàn,
'S tha mi 'dol 'ga pòsadh.
Thuit mi ann an gaol an raoir,
Bha mo chridhe shuas air beinn,
Màiri Bhàn ri m' thaobh a' seinn;
Tha mi 'dol 'ga pòsadh.
'S ann aig céilidh aig a' Mhòd
Thachair mise ris an òigh'
'S i-se choisinn am Bonn Òir;
Bi mo ghaol do Mhàiri Bhàn
Dìleas, dùrachail gu bràth,
Seinnidh sinn d'a chéil' ar gràdh;
+++
English version written
by Hugh S. Roberton (1936)
Adapted from the above.
Alternate title for the song
“The Lewis Bridal Song”
1. Over hillways up and down
Myrtle green and bracken brown,
Past the shielings through the town
All for sake of Mairi.
Chorus:
Step we gaily, on we go
Heel for heel and toe for toe,
Arm in arm and row on row
All for Mairi's wedding.
2. Red her cheeks as rowans are
Bright her eyes as any star,
Fairest o' them all by far
Is our darlin' Mairi.
Chorus
3. Plenty herring, plenty meal
Plenty peat to fill her creel,
Plenty bonny bairns as weel
That's the toast for Mairi.
Chorus
+++
Literal translation by J. Mark Sugars, 1999
Refrain:
She's my darling, Fair Mary
Pretty Mary, story of my song,
Darling of my heart, Fair Mary,
And I'm going to her wedding.
I fell in love last night,
My heart was on top of a mountain,
Fair Mary beside me singing;
I'm going to her wedding.
At the ceílidh at the Mòd
I met with the lassie,
And she won the Gold Medal;
My love for Fair Mary would be
Faithful, sincere forever,
We'll sing of our love to each other;
This information came from:
http://ingeb.org/songs/overhill.html
Comment
This is a Scottish folk song originally written in Gaelic by
John Bannerman (1865–1938) for Mary C. MacNiven
(1905–1997) on the occasion of her winning the gold
medal at the National Mod in 1934 (Scottish national
song contest). She did not in fact get married until some
six years later. Roberton was a choirmaster and a leading
light in Glasgow, and he cooperated with Bannerman on
other songs.
Shieling: pasture for grazing cattle, or cottages
Rowan berries are red
Meal: oatmeal (in Scotland)
Peat: used for burning
Creel: large wicker basket
Bairns: children
Ceílidh: gathering to tell stories, dance and song
Corrie: circular hollow in the Scottish mountains
Lewis: northern island of the Outer Hebrides
Sung by The Corries in English on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgiRY0rYuu4
The Corries
Scottish folk group founded in the sixties, comprising of
Roy Williamson (1936-1990) and Ronnie Browne (1937- ).
Popular in Scotland and featured on TV, greatest success
in the 1970s with anthems such as “Flower of Scotland.”
Won an award for their TV show in Scotland.
43
Scottish Gaelic
Language which developed from Old Irish, when settlers
came to Scotland from Ireland around the year 400,
founding a kingdom. The previous language was Pictish
(spoken by the tribes which fought the Romans) which
has completely disappeared. Gaelic suffered from the
incursion of the English language and culture from the
south, now being spoken mainly in the NW and islands.
A language of cultural importance, as in Ireland, being
the language of bardic poetry and song. There are some
60,000 speakers remaining. Population of Scotland about
5 million. A high percentage of Gaelic speakers are
Catholic, maintaining a continuity with the
pre-reformation Church, and also with Gaelic speakers in
Ireland.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pop
La Isla Bonita (1987)
Lyrics: Madonna, Patrick Leonard, Bruce Gaitsch
Sung by Madonna (1987)
Sung by Alizée (2003)
Last night I dreamt of San Pedro
Just like I'd never gone, I knew the song
Young girl with eyes like the desert
It all seems like yesterday, not far away
Tropical the island breeze
All of nature wild and free
This is where I love to be
La Isla Bonita
And when the samba played
The sun would set so high
Ring through my ears and sting my eyes
Your Spanish lullaby
I fell in love with San Pedro
Warm wind carried on the sea, he called to me
Te dijo te amo [you said to me “I love you”]
I prayed that the days would last
They went so fast
La Isla Bonita
And when the samba played
The sun would set so high
Ring through my ears and sting my eyes
Your Spanish lullaby
Loves a girl
La Isla Bonita
Comment
Originally sung by Madonna. The title means, “The
beautiful island.” Highly successful song world-wide.
Number one single in the UK and also topping the charts
in many countries. It was her first number one in France.
Bright Hispanic style melody, bringing to mind summer
holidays and youthful romance in the Mediterranean. It’s
a light-hearted song, and there seems to be nothing much
here, but there is.
San Pedro is Saint Peter – she is dreaming of the great
saint. There’s a girl there “with eyes like the desert.” This
seems to make no sense until you read it biblically. “Eyes”
mean prayer to God, and also understanding of God. A
girl who prays to God. A girl from Arabia? Or does the
word “desert” mean “what you deserve, merit?” She is a
girl with prayer and merit.
The song is also a memory about youthful passion,
associated with wildness and nature. The phrase “La Isla
Bonita” is suggesting this.
There are other hints in the song. He called to me. He
told me he loved me. Te dijo te amo. Romantic, of course,
but also a calling to the Church or to God.
Youthful passion and romance, wild nature, that time of
your life, may not, however, be so good for prayer, which
is why there’s the phrase “stings my eyes.” Romance
which ends and tears follow.
Also, the line breaks between “a boy | loves a girl.” This
is also a hint. “Love’s a girl” perhaps “Love is a girl.” The
girl is the more loving one, perhaps a hint for Mary.
Alizée (1984 )
Alizée Jacotey is a French recording artist, known
professionally as Alizée. From Ajaccio, Corsica.
Multi-talented, a good artist, also a skilled dancer. Rose
to fame when a teenager. Like Madonna, (whom she says
is an inspiration) she is a highly visible and alluring pop
icon, drawing media attention and generating news.
Although her image and performance is sexually
highly-charged (compare Madonna’s image in the 1980s),
the success she has won enables her to give a lot to
charity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjUVStwNt3k
I want to be where the sun warms the sky
When it’s time for siesta you can watch them go by
Beautiful faces, no cares in this world
Where a girl loves a boy, and a boy
+++
Let’s Dance (1983)
44
Written by David Bowie from the Album Let’s Dance
(1983)
Sung by David Bowie
Let's dance, put on your red shoes and dance the blues
Let's dance, to the song they're playin' on the radio
Let's sway, while color lights up your face
Let's sway, sway through the crowd to an empty space
If you say run, I'll run with you
And if you say hide, we'll hide
Because my love for you
Would break my heart in two
If you should fall
Into my arms
And tremble like a flower
Let's dance
Let's dance
Let's dance, for fear your grace should fall
Let's dance, for fear tonight is all
Let's sway, you could look into my eyes
Let's sway, under the moonlight, this serious moonlight
And if you say run, I'll run with you
And if you say hide, we'll hide
Because my love for you
Would break my heart in two
If you should fall
Into my arms
And tremble like a flower
Putting on the red shoes – walking into red, which is stop
or danger, or doing what you should not do. The
moonlight is serious? An audio pun “seary us”? Burning
us?
There is little joy in the video of Bowie performing this,
and the voice does not sound happy either. It’s a song
about bad choices. The message is: “Let us not dance if
we have to wear red shoes and dance the blues!”
But the opposite meaning is also possible. Let us put on
the red shoes (the shoes of being bad, of danger, and
sexual life) and dance the blues (blue the color of heaven
and holiness). A paradox?
Have I got the interpretation right on this one?
David Bowie (1947 -- )
Born David Robert Jones. In the public eye from the end
of the 1960s, with unusual pop content, and
showmanship, with various persona adopted. A large and
loyal fan base built up. Admired for his artistic invention
and style, a high-brow aesthetic kind of pop. Starred in a
number of films. One of the great British pop stars to
have remained popular, he has just released a new album,
“The Next Day” (2013). One of the first stars to be open
about his sexuality, publically stating that he was gay and
bisexual (1972). His work was aimed at removing stigma
and prejudice. He turned down a knighthood in 2003.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Literary
Let's dance
Let's dance
Let's dance, put on your red shoes and dance the blues
Let's dance, to the song we're playing
Let's sway
Let's sway, under the moonlight, this serious moonlight
Let's dance [repeated]
Comment
One of his most successful tracks, No. 1 in the UK and
US, his only song to achieve this. Dance is the primal
metaphor for human love. But what is the message here?
A hint perhaps found on the cover-picture of the single
which show dance steps heading downwards. Beware of
a loss of goodness. This is a song about the danger of
going wrong. A song which is also designed to be used in
the discos of the world, with a strong rhythm and rather
relentless hook “Let’s Dance.”
The interesting thing is that the meaning of the song is
the reverse of its occasion. And this fact (which is not so
very obvious of course) did not affect the sales of the
record. People just do not pay attention to content!
260
Upon Julia’s Clothes
Whenas in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes!
Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free,
O how that glittering taketh me!
§§§
261
Comfort to a Youth that had Lost his Love
What needs complaints,
When she a place
Has with the race
Of saints?
In endless mirth
She thinks not on
45
What's said or done
In Earth.
She sees no tears,
Or any tone
Of thy deep groan
She hears:
Nor does she mind
Or think on't now
That ever thou
Wast kind;
But changed above,
She likes not there,
As she did here,
Thy love.
Forbear therefore,
And lull asleep
Thy woes, and weep
No more.
Comment
The first poem by Herrick is a famous celebration of his
beloved’s clothes, displaying his skillful use of sound. Clothing
in that period was the most important sign of wealth and status.
Liquefaction is practically a nonce word meaning the making of
liquid – referring to the appearance of the silk. Likewise, the
movement of the silk as she moves is likened to a vibration. At
the same time, as with many of Herrick’s lyrics, there is a
bawdy sense for those who wish to find it! (hint: he is not really
talking about clothes etc).
The second poem is a word of comfort that is not very
comforting – since it suggests that those in heaven have no care
for the ones on earth. It raises an interesting theological point
relating to whether saints in heaven pray for souls in their
earthly existence. It is a rather Protestant statement. He was
anti-Puritan and Royalist in sympathies.
Swinburne called Herrick “the greatest song-writer ever
born of English race.”
For biographical details see above MS53.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Musical
Goldfinger (1964)
Lyrics: John Barry, Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley
Sung by Shirley Bassey
Produced by George Martin
Theme from the film Goldfinger (1964 Bond film)
Goldfinger, he’s the man
The man with the midas touch
A spider's touch
Such a cold finger
Beckons you to enter his web of sin
But don't go in
Golden words he will pour in your ear
But his lies can't disguise what you fear
For a golden girl knows when he's kissed her
It's the kiss of death from Mister Goldfinger
Pretty girl, beware of his heart of gold
This heart is cold
Golden words he will pour in your ear
But his lies can't disguise what you fear
For a golden girl knows when he's kissed her
It's the kiss of death from Mister Goldfinger
Pretty girl, beware of his heart of gold
This heart is cold
He loves only gold
Only gold
He loves gold
He loves only gold
Only gold
He loves gold.
Comment
Performed with enormous panache by Shirley Bassey, the
theme song from the Bond film, Goldfinger. This was a
Bond movie about illegal gold bullion smuggling, reputed
to be the best of all the Bond films.
The theme song is deceptive in its simplicity. It’s actually
a true warning, an allegorical message, addressed to
young women in Africa and Asia saying, do not be
deceived by the false promises of men that work in night
entertainment and the sex trade, who offer easy money.
They invite you to your own destruction. Those men do
not care one iota for the women they exploit. All they care
about is the money they can make, and their own physical
satisfaction (gold/goaled).
The Goldfinger character brings to mind the Mammon of
the Gospels, and also the classical King Midas. There is
also perhaps a reference to false faith, the worship of the
golden calf. Death to the body, death to your dignity,
death to the soul!
There are other sinister meanings here: “the kiss of death”
could be addiction to the most powerful drugs, which
make the woman utterly powerless. “Golden” could refer
to a region in N. Thailand. Opium, heroine, the most
fatal drugs. He’s no more than a spider! The wicked one
himself.
To finger gold: criminal slang for to handle gold
To touch someone for cash – to get money from someone.
Offering an easy loan of cash when it is needed, and
then drawing you into his web, and then requiring
various services. Still a problem in Africa.
Midas: fabled king of Phrygia, to whom Bacchus granted
that all he touched should turn to gold (a gift
withdrawn to prevent his perishing of hunger), used
allusively (OED)
46
There is an interesting detail about Shirley Bassey
singing the last note of the song (from Wikip.) "I was
holding it and holding it. I was looking at John [Barry]
and I was going blue in the face and he's going, hold it
just one more second. When it finished, I nearly passed
out.” Are there any other meanings here? Are those
elephants trumpeting when she says Goldfinger? And the
word “cold” sounds like “code,” and “gold” sounds like
“goad” – he loves only goad? Perhaps irrelevant or
nonsensical, but there are meanings to be found in these
songs.
but it was a theme song to the Bond movie, and often
there’s always something in the back ground of these
songs. As I consider it now, in Elizabeth II’s Diamond
Jubilee (2012), I think there may be something else.
When Bassey sings the word “Diamonds”, and repeats
this hook-phrase, it sounds like “Daemons are forever”
which to the ignorant will mean that “demons are forever,”
but to the literate means quite the opposite, since
“daemon” is a word that means angel. It sounds like she
is celebrating gemstones over the fleeting ephemerality
of romantic love, but in fact she is celebrating the
eternity of heaven.
For more information about Shirley Bassey see MS 46.
+++
Diamonds are Forever (1971)
Lyrics by Don Black
Music by John Barry
Sung by Shirley Bassey
Theme song to the Bond film of the same name.
Diamonds are forever,
They are all I need to please me,
They can stimulate and tease me,
They won't leave in the night,
I've no fear that they might desert me.
Hold one up and then caress it,
Touch it, stroke it and undress it,
I can see every part,
Nothing hides in the heart to hurt me.
I don't need love,
For what good will love do me?
Diamonds never lie to me,
For when love's gone,
They'll luster on.
Sparkling round my little finger.
Unlike men, the diamonds linger;
Men are mere mortals who
Are not worth going to your grave for.
I don't need love,
For what good will love do me?
Diamonds never lie to me,
For when love's gone,
They'll luster on.
A rather sophisticated joke perhaps, but it was a theme
song for a Bond film after all, and they do know some
Greek over there. The big message is also hinted at in the
phrase “men are mere mortals who are not worth going
to your grave for.” Not to die for what men command,
but if one has to die, then it should be for God’s love.
Angels are forever. I have lived my life for the angels (for
God therefore). God is forever, this is the message. This
is, I would guess, what Shirley B. would be saying.
But returning to the apparent surface meaning, the
persona who is singing the song is wrong. She’s a hard
materialist, someone who has been hurt in love and trusts
no one. The last line of the song is thus a cry of despair,
hidden in a wrong-headed faith in expensive gemstones.
But the singer is actually an anti-materialist. For the sake
of her task as a singer and entertainer she wears
expensive clothes and jewels, but the true values are
elsewhere. The lesson is that we must not judge merely
by appearances. Sometimes the one that seemed the least
pure, was in truth the most pure (as was that one that met
the risen Christ Jn 20).
OED Daimon
In ancient Greek mythology (= δαίµων = daimon). A
supernatural being of a nature intermediate between that
of gods and men; an inferior divinity, spirit, genius
(including the souls or ghosts of deceased persons, esp.
deified heroes). Often written dæmon. A guiding spirit.
Not exactly an angel, but by extension it could mean that,
and certainly quite different to the later meaning which is
“demon”. Both are in fact forever, and there’s a choice to
be made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doAy4Ivcidg
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Diamonds are forever, forever, forever.
Diamonds are forever, forever, forever.
Forever and ever.
Sacred
Comment
Wittily-written, deliciously hedonistic song, proclaiming
its immorality. Is there anything else here? Perhaps not,
George Herbert (1593-1633) Psalm 23 (c 1630)
(Patrides p. 177)
Psalm 23 Three Versions
47
1 The God of love my shepherd is,
And he that doth me feed:
While he is mine, and I am his,
What can I want or need?
2 He leads me to the tender grass,
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently pass,
In both I have the best.
3 Or if I stray, he doth convert
And bring my mind in frame;
And all this not for my desert
But for his holy name.
4 Yea, in death’s shady black abode
Well may I walk, not fear;
For thou art with me, and thy rod
To guide, thy staff to bear.
Note on the music used for the Scottish Psalter version
In 1650, the Church of Scotland published the metrical
psalter: 150 psalms for unaccompanied singing.
Originally, Psalm 23 was sung to the “Wiltshire” melody.
By the 1930s, the “Crimond” tune had become the most
popular setting. The Crimond was originally composed
by Jessie Seymour Irvine, the daughter of a Church of
Scotland minister. The family lived in Crimond in
Aberdeenshire, Scotland, hence the title of the famous
tune. It is believed that Irvine wrote the tune while still in
her teens, as an exercise for an organ class she was
attending. The popularity of this tune in England grew
because of its use during the 1947 marriage ceremony
between Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. On the
Hymnary.Org website there are dozens of other musical
settings and versions of this psalm, among which the
“Brother James Air” is very good.
§§§
5 Nay, thou dost make me sit and dine,
E’en in my enemy’s sight;
My head with oil, my cup with wine
Runs over day and night.
Henry Williams Baker (1821-77) Psalm 23 (1868) adapted
Scottish Psalter 388
Hymns Ancient & Modern no. 126
6 Surely thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my days;
And as it never shall remove,
So neither shall my praise.
1 The King of love my shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never.
I nothing lack if I am his
And he is mine forever.
§§§
Scottish Psalter (1650) version Psalm 23
Hymns Ancient & Modern no. 426
2 Where streams of living water flow
My ransomed soul he leadeth,
And where the verdant pastures grow
With food celestial feedeth.
1 The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green: he leadeth me
The quiet waters by.
3 Perverse and foolish oft I strayed;
But yet in love he sought me,
And on his shoulder gently laid,
And home rejoicing brought me.
2 My soul he doth restore again;
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
E’en for his own Name’s sake.
4 In death’s dark vale I fear no ill,
With thee, dear Lord, beside me;
Thy rod and staff my comfort still,
Thy cross before to guide me.
3 Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale
Yet will I fear none ill:
For thou art with me; and thy rod
And staff me comfort still.
5 Thou spread’st a table in my sight;
Thy unction grace bestoweth;
And O what transport of delight
From thy pure chalice floweth!
4 My table thou hast furnishèd
In presence of my foes;
My head thou dost with oil anoint,
And my cup overflows.
6 And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise
Within thy house forever!
5 Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me:
And in God’s house for evermore
My dwelling-place shall be.
Comment
Psalm 23 is the best known of the Psalms of David in the
Old Testament, principally because it is considered one
of the holiest and most beautiful prayers by both Judaism
and the Church, and also, to a lesser extent, Islam.
48
Among the early psalms which are said to have been
written by King David when he was young, this particular
prayer-poem seems to have the most authentic claim.
This is because the subject matter, the coherence of the
theme, and the wittiness of the concept point to a single
gifted author.
The content is written from the point of view of a sheep,
in which the poet likens the loving care and guidance of
God to the loving care and guidance of a shepherd. The
psalm explains God in these terms. David was himself a
shepherd in his teens. The sheep metaphor runs right
through the psalm – God is my shepherd, so I have no
need of anything. He leads me to places of food and
refreshment. He cares for me in the hard times. His rod
to guide me and his staff to protect and support me. The
image of God is loving and fatherly, and this was deeply
influential on the understanding of God in the Christian
Church. In the second half of the psalm, there is a
change of topic, and God is a generous host, providing
food and drink, and anointing the head of David, or a
future king. This is taken as a prophesy of Christ. The
last line is one of the strongest statements of belief in
God’s goodness, and commitment to faith that is in the
Bible.
Please read my lecture on Psalm 23 in English versions
which I have made freely available on my website in pdf
format.
Convert: lead back to goodness, lead to God
Anointed with oil, cup full: the special status of David as
a holy king
Bring my mind in frame: put my thoughts in the best
order
Unction: anointing with holy oil, also receiving the
spiritual influence of the Holy Spirit of God
Here is the original text.
New Revised Standard Version Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me
beside still waters;
3 He restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his
name's sake.
4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no
evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they
comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my
enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup
overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.
49
Folk: Washington Talkin Blues (1941) & Mr Tambourine Man (1965)
Pop: How Deep is your Love? (1977) & Mr Bojangles (1968)
Literary: Piping Peace & Death the Leveller, (c 1640) James Shirley
Musical: Tomorrow & It’s a Hard Knock Life (1977) Annie the Musical
Sacred: Your Eyes & Emmaus (1992) Poor Clares
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Folk
American Folk
Washington Talkin' Blues (1941)
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
From the CD “Woody Guthrie: Columbia River
Collection” (1961, 1987) track 14
Long about nineteen twenty-nine.
I owned a little farm, was a-doin' just fine.
Raised a little row crop raised some wheat
Sold it over at the county seat,
Drawed the money. Raised a family.
But the dust came along, and the price went down,
Didn't have the money when the bank come around.
Tumble weeds and the black dust blowed,
So we hit the trail to the land where the waters flowed,
Way out across yonder somewhere.
Well, hot old rocks and the desert sand
Made my mind run back to the dust bowl land,
But my hopes was high and we rolled along
To the Columbia River up in Washington.
Lots of good rain. Little piece of land. Feller might grow
something.
We settled down on some cut over land
Pulled up brush and the stumps by hand.
Hot sun burnt up my first crop of wheat
And the river down the canyon just 500 feet.
Might as well have been 50 miles. Couldn't get no water.
We loaded our belongings and we lit out for town
Seen the old vacant houses and farms all around,
And folks a-leaving out, if you're asking me
That's just as lonesome as sight as a feller can see.
Good land. Grow anything you plant, long as you can get
the moisture.
I struck a lumber town and heard the big saw sing,
And when business is good, why lumber's a king;
I went to lookin' for a job but the man said no,
So we hit the skids on the old skid row.
Traipsing up and down. Chasing a bite to eat. Kids
hungry.
Heard about a job, so we hit the wheat
Made about enough for the kids to eat,
Picked in the berries, gathered in the fruit,
And the hops, peaches, and the apples, too.
Slept in just about everything, except a good warm bed.
Been to Arizona, been to California, too,
Found the people was plenty, but the jobs was few.
Well maybe it's just like the feller said,
When they ain't enough work, well, business is dead,
Sorta ailin'. Ain't no money changin' hands, just people
changing places.
Folks wastin gasoline chasin' around.
Now what we need is a great big dam
To throw a lot of water out across that land.
People could work and the stuff would grow,
And you could wave goodbye to the old Skid Row.
Find you a job. Work hard, raise all kinds of stuff, kids,
too. Take it easy.
County seat: principal town
Drawed: (dialect) drew, dialect forms used
Lit out: set off in the wagon
Skid row: run-down area of town where unemployed,
vagrants, etc. tend to gather [OED]
Hit the skids: in a steadily worsening state [OED]
Traipse: tread or tramp up and down
Ail: unwell
Take it easy: the dam would provide wealth and a better
life
Comment
Semi-biographical song about the troubles of the Great
Depression years in America and the Dust bowl (1930s),
sung and spoken in a mid-Western American accent
(Oklahoma). Guthrie experienced the suffering of the
Dust Bowl in America, so he knew what he was talking
about.
Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in the USA c 1935
America was hit very hard during these years by very high
levels of unemployment, and also by drought and erosion
in the plains, which produced devastating dust-storms,
filling the sky with dust and burying the farms. “Okies”
(farmers from Oklahoma) were forced to migrate west to
look for work. Cheap irrigation from the Great Dam on
the Columbia would solve the problems of dust-erosion
and provide cheap power.
Liner notes from the Album by Woody Guthrie:
“I saw the Columbia river and the big Grand Coulee Dam
from just about every cliff, mountain, tree and post from
which it can be seen. I made up twenty-six songs about
the Columbia and about the dam and about the men, and
these songs were recorded by the Department of Interior,
Bonneville Power Administration out in Portland. The
records were played at all sorts and sizes fo meetings
where people bought bonds to bring power lines over the
fields and hills totheir own little place. Electricity to milk
the cows, kiss the maid, shoe the old mare, light up th
50
essaloon, the chill-joint window, the schools and the
churches along the way, to run the factories turning out
manganese, chrome, bauxite, aluminum and steel.”
Woody Guthrie, California to the New York Island. (The
BPA was part of the US Department of the Interior until
the 1977 creation of the US Department of Energy).
The BPA was only 4 years old when Wood Guthrie was
commissioned to write songs promoting public power on
the Columbia River. This was an unusual commission,
because Guthrie was a known radical (with Communist
sympathies) and the US administration would not usually
employ such people. But the director of BPA publicity
was enlightened, and the project itself, which was to
provide cheap power to the whole region, was one of the
developmental aims of anyone who wished to improve
the world. Hydroelectric power, clean and cheap, was the
dream power, unlike the alternatives, coal and later
nuclear. With cheap electricity, it was possible to
eliminate hardship and poverty.
Liner notes for the song above:
Here Woody pleads the case of the transplanted dry-land
farmer up on the high Columbia plateau in Eastern
Washington, an area which became the breadbasket of
the Northwest when reached by irrigation water from
Grand Coulee Dam. This is one of Woody’s finest talkin’
blues.
You can find out more about Woody Guthrie (1912-1967)
from MS 46 & 49.
Wait only for my boot heels to be wanderin’
I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you.
Though you might hear laughin’, spinnin’, swingin’ madly across the
sun
It’s not aimed at anyone, it’s just escapin’ on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin’
And if you hear vague traces of skippin’ reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it’s just a ragged clown behind
I wouldn’t pay it any mind
It’s just a shadow you’re seein’ that he’s chasing.
Then take me disappearin’ through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.
+++
Mr Tambourine Man (1965)
Lyrics and music by Bob Dylan
Sung by Bob Dylan
From the album “Bringin It All Back Home” (1965)
On the CD the Best of Bob Dylan (1997) track 4
Though I know that evenin’s empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming.
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin’ ship
My senses have been stripped, my hands can’t feel to grip
My toes too numb to step
Comment
A number one hit on the charts, one of Dylan’s best loved
lyrics, famous also for the puzzling message. Dylan was
perhaps one of the most poetic of the sixties troubadours.
Many of his songs are allusive poems, filled with
wordplay, and alliteration, like his namesake, Dylan
Thomas, following an idiosyncratic logic which is
sometimes meaningful and sometimes meaningless,
hiding and revealing the sense as he goes along.
I don’t explain everything in my comments below,
because some lines don’t make sense to me.
“Mr Tambourine” appears to be a musician of some kind,
with a tambourine, with small cymbals (called jingles).
“Later I will follow you but not now” – when your
cymbals jangle in the morning. The tambourine is a
dance instrument and similar instruments were used by
the Jews in ancient times. This seems to be a religious
allegory, and the dancer with the tambourine was David,
and later it will be Jesus Christ. David was a dancer
before God. In the word “Tambourine Man” there might
51
be a hint. Could one read it “T am” at the beginning of
the word? T = Tau symbol of the cross, associated with
Saint Francis.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“Not sleepy:” still alive, still awake. “No place going to:”
no destination, no faith. “Jingle jangle:” the
onomatopoeia of this is good, but it is also perhaps a hint.
“J” is sometimes used for Jesus. “Angle” hinting at angel.
The rhymes “jingle and jangle” in the song, imitating a
tambourine, but sometimes meaninglessly (as in Facade
by Edith Sitwell). “Bo jangles” in the song Mr Bojangles
is a similar kind of hidden message.
How Deep is Your Love? (1977)
Lyrics and music: Maurice & Robin & Barry Gibb
Bee Gees, part of the soundtrack of the film Saturday
Night Fever (1977)
The second verse “though I know” is hinting that the
singer is in a state of sin, and in need of revelation. Left
blindly: the biblical metaphor for the faithless. Branded
on feet: feet the part of the body symbolizing sin. Street
is dead: the psalmic metaphor for false belief, which is
“the dead, or the grave.” Dreaming: dreams are often the
way that God sends revelation.
Pop
I know your eyes in the morning sun
I feel you touch me in the pouring rain
And the moment that you wander far from me
I wanna feel you in my arms again
And you come to me on a summer breeze
Keep me warm in your love
Then you softly leave
And it's me you need to show
How deep is your love?
The third verse “Take me on a trip” is a plea to be given
God’s guidance, disguised here in inappropriate
language. It sounds also like a plea for healing, for feeling
to be restored, to be rescued from disappearing into
solipsism (my own parade). The Beatles’ “Magical
Mystery Tour” is the same kind of metaphor.
How deep is your love
I really need to learn
'Cause we're living in a world of fools
Breakin’ us down
When they all should let us be
We belong to you and me
In the fourth verse “though you might hear” he is
addressing the listener. This is the sound of the music
played by the Tambourine Man. The ragged clown is the
Tambourine Man? Chasing a shadow in our lives, which
we see, perhaps chasing it away? He is also hinting
perhaps that there are chimeras we might be glimpsing in
the lyrics.
I believe in you
You know the door to my very soul
You're the light in my deepest, darkest hour
You're my savior when I fall
And you may not think I care for you
When you know down inside
That I really do
In the fifth verse “Then take me” he offers himself to the
Tambourine Man. It sounds like Keats addressing the
nightingale. “Smoke rings” are signals Indians
communicate with, here it is the false smoke of thought.
A plea to be rescued from a world of wintry sorrow, to
dance beneath a diamond sky. “Let me forget about
today until tomorrow.” A good phrase, even if
irresponsible, which sounds like a plea to be released
from a day of sorrow and suffering. “Diamond” may be a
hint about 2012, the diamond jubilee of Elizabeth II, 60
years from 1952.
Breakin’ us down
We belong to you and me
Dylan is singing about a grim universe. Much of the song
is obscure, but many phrases are good. Especially the
beautiful phrase “In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come
following you.” It is an optimistic message – after the
dark night there will be a bright morning with music.
The Byrds also recorded a version of Mr Tambourine
Man, which was a hit in 1965. This was their debut single.
The singer Jim McGuinn commented on the allegorical
aspect to the song, “I was singing to God and saying that
God was the Tambourine Man.”
And you come to me on a summer breeze,
Keep me warm in your love
Then you softly leave
Breakin’ us down
We belong to you and me.
52
Comment
Highly successful single throughout the world, used in
the film Saturday Night Fever. Covered by dozens of
artists. Vocals are by Barry Gibb, singing in falsetto.
Obviously this is a love song but it also invites
consideration as a spiritual poem. The metaphor is easy
enough to follow, it could almost be a hymn to the Holy
Spirit. Or even a happy vision.
What is the world of fools? All the forces that strive to
separate us from our true love – the romantic love in the
surface meaning, the love of Christ (or God) in the
deeper level. The song is also a plea to be united in the
love of God in such a way that the believer feels secure
and strong. This is the same plea made by David in the
psalms. A good example of a song with simple lyrics
which is also beautiful.
Visually the brothers make a beautiful iconic statement
on the video, the three of them symbolizing a Trinity.
Barry Gibb with his beard and hair looks like a gentle
Christ.
Bee Gees
Group founded in 1958 of three brothers, Barry (1946
), Robin (1949-2012) and Maurice Gibb (1949-2003).
Successful over many decades, most successful from the
1960s to the 1980s, adapting their style to the new disco
pop.
Born on the Isle of Man to English parents, the Gibb
brothers lived in Manchester, England, then moved in the
late 1950s to Queensland, Australia, where they began
their music careers. After achieving their first chart
success in Australia with "Spicks and Specks" (their 12th
single), they returned to the United Kingdom in January
1967 where producer Robert Stigwood began promoting
them to a worldwide audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpqqjU7u5Yc
+++
Mr Bojangles (1968)
Lyrics: Jerry Jeff Walker
Sung by Sammy Davis Jr
I knew a man Bojangles and he danced for you,
in worn out shoes.
With silver hair a ragged shirt and baggy pants,
The old soft shoe.
He jumped so high, jumped so high,
Then he lightly touched down.
Chorus:
Mister Bojangles, Mister Bojangles,
Mister Bojangles, dance.
I met him in a cell in New Orleans
I was down and out.
He looked at me to be the eyes of age,
as he spoke right out.
He talked of life, talked of life,
laughed slapped his leg a step.
Chorus
He said his name, Bojangles,
Then he danced a lick, across the cell.
He grabbed his pants, a better stance,
oh he jumped up high,
He clicked his heels, he let go a laugh,
let go a laugh,
Shook back his clothes all around.
Chorus
He danced for those at minstrel shows
and county fairs throughout the South.
He spoke with tears of fifteen years
how his dog him, he traveled about.
His dog up and died, he up and died,
After twenty years he still grieves.
Chorus
He said, “I dance now at every chance
in honky tonks for drinks and tips.
But most the time I stand behind
these county bars cause I drinks a bit.”
He shook his head and as he shook his head,
I heard someone ask him please
Comment
The song was said to be about a street performer, and not
about the famous dancer, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.
Originally written by a white country folk band. It is a
compassionate description of an encounter with a
down-an-out in the New Orleans gaol, with hints that the
down and out is really Jesus, because he looks with “the
eyes of age” and “talks of life.” Eyes of godliness and
talking of eternal life. The name suggests? Boj sounds
like a Slav word for God, Boga or Boh etc. Angles? When
he dances the dance it is a hidden statement of that kind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km_AeWJn2jc
What else is there in this song? It’s about
African-American and perhaps poor whites working in
bars to get a dime, dancing for a dime, and maybe
performing other services as well. Sammy Davis’s
performance (find it on YouTube) is just perfect. It is a
sympathetic statement of identity with the deprivation of
the lives of the poor – saying that there but for the grace
of God, go I. When I am old may I not be working in
such joints just to get a piece of bread to eat.
There may be a sexual connotation in the word
“Bojangles” from Southern Black speech – but I am not
convinced about this. It could also be a mockery at some
53
level, which Sammy Davis outfaces and turns into
something else (as I have discussed above).
So it seems to me that Sammy Davis is saying: dance for
God, don’t miss the boat of that opportunity, if you do, it
jangles all your life. Don’t miss that boat!
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis, Jr. (1925 –1990) was an
African-American entertainer. Highly talented and
articulate dancer and singer. One of the three members
of the rat pack of the 1950s, with Frank Sinatra and Dean
Martin. He was subject to racial prejudice and
condescension for much of his career. Even being
required to stay in a segregated hotel when he performed
in Las Vegas. A strong supporter of the Civil Rights
Movement. Widely loved and admired entertainer, he did
much to make the United States a more humane nation
on the issue of race. A child of Protestant and Catholic
parents, he converted to Judaism in 1961.
Death lays his icy hand on kings.
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill;
But their strong nerves at last must yield,
They tame but one another still.
Early or late,
They stoop to fate,
And must give up their murmuring breath,
When they, pale captives, creep to death.
Literary
The garlands wither on your brow,
Then boast no more your mighty deeds;
Upon Death's purple altar now,
See where the victor-victim bleeds.
Your heads must come
To the cold tomb;
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.
Calchas’ Hymn from scene 3 in The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses, a dramatic
poem (Dyce vol 1: 396).
James Shirley (1596-1666)
Comment
Two poems with a classical flavor, both reminiscent of
classical poetry.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
284
Piping Peace (c 1640)
You virgins, that did late despair
To keep your wealth from cruel men,
Tie up in silk your careless hair:
Soft peace is come again.
Now lovers’ eyes may gently shoot
A flame that will not kill;
The drum was angry, but the lute
Shall whisper what you will.
Sing Io, Io! for his sake
That hath restored your drooping heads;
With choice of sweetest flowers make
A garden where he treads;
Whilst we whole groves of laurel bring,
A petty triumph to his brow,
Who is the master of our spring
And all the bloom we owe.
From the Imposture, a verse drama, sc 2. (Dyce vol 5: 189)
+++
285
The Glories of our Blood and State (c. 1640)
The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armor against fate;
Wealth: perhaps this has a double-entendre
Careless: free from care
Io: a Latin and Greek shout of triumph, used in
weddings
Laurel: sign of poetic triumph
Crooked: in the sense curved, not straight
Tame one another: i.e. they cannot tame death
Purple: royal, i.e. Death is the final victor, the garlanded
“victor” will become the sacrificial victim
James Shirley (1596-1666)
Born in London, educated at Merchant Taylor’s school
and St John’s, Oxford. Took holy orders in 1620, worked
as Headmaster at Edward VI’s School in St Albans,
converted to Catholicism in 1625, lost his post, went to
London, where he wrote dozens of plays for the stage,
becoming a leading Caroline dramatist. He also wrote
masques for the court. He went to Ireland where he wrote
plays for the Dublin theatre, including St Patrick for
Ireland (c. 1639). Although a Royalist, he was able to find
a job as a school teacher during the Commonwealth. The
poem above, “The Glories” was said to be a favorite of
Charles II. He died in the Great Fire of London.
Margaret Drabble, ed. The Oxford Companion to English
Literature, (many revisions) is an excellent source of
information for authors in this MS series.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
54
Musical
Tomorrow (1977)
Lyrics by Martin Charnin
Music by Charles Strouse
Book by Thomas Meehan
Based on the comic strip cartoon Little Orphan Annie
Sung by Haruka Sugihara (Annie) 2008 YouTube
From the musical Annie (1977) movie version (1982)
Sung by Aileen Quinn in the film
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!
Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs,
And the sorrow
Till there's none!
When I'm stuck with a day
That's gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And Grin,
And Say,
Oh!
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
Till tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're only
A day
A way!
Comment
Sung by Annie the orphan when she has run away from
the orphanage and is walking the streets of New York in
the winter. She meets a stray dog, whom she calls Sandy,
and sings this song to him.
The strength of the musical is in the characterization and
singing of Annie, who is bright, spunky, and
indomitable.
Is there any message in the song? The song is very
popular – a bright and strong statement, a positive
message with universal strength. There are some jokes:
the word “dollar” sounds like “dolour” (sadness). Pay out
your last sadness and there’ll be sun tomorrow. Choose
tomorrow – a forward looking attitude. Till there’s none –
there might be a joke here “till there’s nun” (a holy sister).
Sung by Annie who might become a holy sister? Till
(until) might be a verb (to till the ground), so it might be
hinting “a holy sister will make the land prosper.” Stick
out my chin: be determined (a large chin or square jaw is
a symbol of determination). Hang on: keep going. I love
ya: I love you, addressed to the dog, but also to the world
in general, and in fact, it might be God’s favor upon us.
Sometimes “dog” is a secret way of saying “God.” Today
is hard, survive! Tomorrow will be better. One day at a
time, tomorrow is sunshine. You’re always a day away!
This might be a hint about God (Day: Dei?) a way: the
way to follow.
Perhaps I am going too far with all this, but the popular
culture and media of the last 60 years invites such
reading, and in fact, it is good to delve into the words in
this way.
The musical is based on a series of cartoons dating from
the 1930s. It’s a modern fairy-tale. Annie, an orphan, is
treated harshly in the orphanage by the mean Miss
Hannigan. She runs away, is caught and has to return. A
billionaire wishes to adopt an orphan. Annie goes to his
house. A reward is offered for information about her real
parents. In the end it turns out that her parents have died
and she is adopted by the good billionaire. On the way
she meets the president of the United States. The
musical is performed every year in schools throughout
the US, like Oliver! in the UK.
This version is sung by 杉原晴香 Haruka Sugihara (age
10), at the memorial (farewell) party for her grandmother,
Yukiko (1913-2008), who was the widow of the Japanese
Diplomat, 杉原千畝 Chiune Sugihara (1900-1986) who
disobeyed instructions when serving as vice-consul in
Lithuania during the war, and issued visas to enable some
few thousand Jews to flee, saving their lives. He was an
Orthodox Christian, and honored by Israel with the title
Righteous Among the Nations. A saint in action! Haruka
was starring in the musical in the Netherlands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN8uSYKe8D4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0bOH8ABpco
+++
It’s a Hard Knock Life (1977)
Lyrics by Martin Charnin
Music by Charles Strouse
Book by Thomas Meehan
Based on the comic strip cartoon Little Orphan Annie
Sung by the cast of orphans
From the musical Annie (1977) movie version (1982)
It's the hard-knock life for us!
It's the hard-knock life for us!
Annie: 'Steada treated
55
Orphans: We get tricked!
(whistle) Strip them beds!
(whistle) I said get to work!
Annie: 'Steada kisses
Orphans: We get kicked!
It's the hard-knock life!
Got no folks to speak of, so,
It's the hard-knock row we hoe!
It's the hard-knock life for us
It's the hard-knock life for us
No one cares for you a smidge
When you’re in an orphanage
It's the hard-knock life
It's the hard-knock life
Annie: Cotton blankets,
Orphans: 'Steada of wool!
Annie: Empty Bellies
Orphans: 'Steada of full!
Annie: Don't it feel like the wind is always howlin?
Kate and Tessie: Don't it seem like there's never any
light!
Duffy and July: Once a day, don't you wanna throw the
towel in?
Molly and Pepper: It's easier than puttin' up a fight.
Annie: No one's there when your dreams at night get
creepy!
No one cares if you grow ... or if you shrink!
No one dries when your eyes get red an' weepy!
From all the cryin' you would think this place'd sink!
O!
Empty belly life!
Rotten smelly life!
Full of sorrow life!
No tomorrow life!
Molly: Santa Claus we never see!
Annie: Santa Claus, what's that? Who's he?
No one cares for you a smidge
When you're in an orphanage!
Molly: (Making a whistling sound and imitating Miss
Hannigan)
You'll stay up till this dump shines like the top of the
Chrysler Building!
Orphans: Yank the whiskers from her chin
Jab her with a safety Pin
Make her drink a mickey finn
I love you, Miss Hannigan
Molly: (whistle) Get to work!
Comment
Work song by the orphans after being told by Miss
Hannigan to clean the room. The film versions of this
(1982 & 1999) are on YouTube, and it’s a great visual
scene, with the girls doing somersaults as they sing. The
words are easy enough to understand, and on one level
the musical is a gentle satire of those other musicals and
films on this theme, in particular Oliver! with its cast of
boys. But it is not really a satire – there is far too much
truth in the song. In the past 100 years (and still in some
places) the little children suffered a very hard-knock life.
The rhyming is witty, and the phrases from children’s
speech. It’s a message that all kids can relate on this
level.
Is there any other message in the song? There is, and it is
an important one. I don’t want to dwell on this. It is
hinted at in the word “knock” (look it up in the slang
dictionaries. OED quotes 1970 Germaine Greer Female
Eunuch 265 “The vocabulary of impersonal sex is
peculiarly desolating.”)
This hint about “hard-knock” is connected with the
campaign from the 1960s onwards to liberate women (and
girls and boys) from sexual exploitation. In many Asian
societies (and in Europe as well), even in the recent past,
it used to be considered acceptable for men to pay money
for sexual services. Women were “sold” into service on a
bond (to serve for 20 years giving sexual services, in
return for a sum of money, which was given to their
family, to ward off starvation). This kind of thing, and
variations on it, was found throughout Asia. For the
individual women concerned, it was indeed a
“hard-knock life.” The strange thing is that the men
never seemed to understand that. But world-consensus
nowadays is that this exploitation must disappear forever.
You might think that I am taking interpretation a bit too
far in this. But the hint is there at the beginning of the
song: “Instead of treated, we get tricked!” Instead of
being treated nice, we get deceived, but there is another
meaning in the word “tricked” (look it up).
Hoe: cultivate, dig the ground
To throw the towel in: to give up (metaphor from boxing)
Smidge: smidgeon, a small amount
Chrysler Building: art-deco skyscraper in New York, with
a sun-burst silver steel crown
Mickey finn: a drug-laced drink
56
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0bOH8ABpco
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacred
Your Eyes (1992)
Lyrics: Ty Mam Duw, Poor Clare Colettines, Wales
track 16.
Your eyes are going to look on a King in his beauty.
You will see a land that stretches afar and your heart will
look back on its fears.
Comment
Sacred verse (Isaiah 33.17-18). The sense of this verse is
that suffering is over, and the prophesied King is Christ,
who is before you. You will consider the fears of the past,
and you will know that such fears are over. You will see
the holy city Jerusalem. It is a salvation verse.
+++
Emmaus (1992)
Words by Ty Mam Duw Poor Clare Colettines, Wales
track 17.
Emmaus
Disciples
Jesus
Walking down a lonely road
What are you talking of ?
On a lonesome pilgrimage
You’re looking sad
Travelling the Word of God
Tell me what’s been happening
To the Broken Bread.
Why is your hope dead?
He is walking by our side
Moses foretold the Lord
Talking of the prophecies
Evil would come
Telling of the Word of God
He is the new covenant
And the Broken Bread.
From the Son of God
Stay with us the day is spent
Foolish and slow of heart
We are near Emmaus town
Slow to believe
Share with us the Word of God
Was not Christ ordained for death?
Holy and Grace
Then our eyes were opened wide
This is my body
And we recognized His wounds
Take it and eat
Found Him in the Word of God
This is the new covenant
Sealed in my blood
Comment
Song by the disciples with whom Jesus walked shortly
after the resurrection (Lk 24.13-28) Jesus is singing at the
same time, one of the sisters with a high soprano taking
His part. The words are a bit difficult to catch so I may
have made a mistake in transcription. The content of the
song is based on Lk 24. The two disciples, one of whom
is called Cleopas, are walking to Emmaus from Jerusalem,
and a third person joins them, whom they do not
recognize, who knows nothing of what has been
happening in Jerusalem. The song is written rather
cleverly, so that the part by Jesus is a comment on the line
by the disciples. The point is that the Word of god
proclaimed the Messiah, bringing a new covenant for the
whole world (not just the Jews). Christ is also the Word of
God at the same time (the Logos of the John Gospel).
Broken bread refers to the suffering of the disciples in
the loss of Jesus, and their dispersal, and it also refers to
the sharing of the bread of joy in the meeting of Jesus
again and in the Holy Eucharist. Breaking of the bread,
the breaking of the body on the cross (1 Cor 11.24). The
breaking of bread, the giving of thanks to God, the
blessings of God received.
(Lk 24.25-27) He (Jesus) said to them, "How foolish you
are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have
spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things
and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and
all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in
all the Scriptures concerning himself.
57
Folk: The Blarney Stone (trad) & the Bold Fenian Men (1916)
Pop: Child for a Day (1977) & Pressing On (1980) Cat Stevens & Bob Dylan
Literary: Redemption & The Altar by George Herbert (c 1630)
Musical: Ain’t Misbehaving (1943) I can’t give anything but love (1929)
Sacred: 3 Hymns Let All the World & King of Glory & Teach me (c 1630)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Folk
The Blarney Stone is located in Blarney Castle, which is
NW of Cork City. It is a block of bluestone set in the wall
of the castle, and if you lean over the battlements (at
some peril) and kiss the stone, it is said to grant you the
gift of the gab (eloquence). There are various legends as
to where the stone came from.
What is the difference between blarney and baloney?
Blarney is nonsense spoken like good sense, but baloney
is just pure nonsense!
Blarney: smoothly flattering or cajoling talk, also
nonsense [OED]
Baloney: humbug, nonsense USA word [OED]
Irish Folk
Irish rovers singing this on YouTube:
The Blarney Stone
Traditional
Sung by Bob Davenport
Found on the British Library Sound Archive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KYKCR2tym0
British Library Sound archive recording:
http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Bob-Davenport-Archive/025M-C1047
X0028XX-0200V0
It was on the road to Bandon one morning last July
I met a pretty colleen and she smiled as she passed by
Says I, I am a stranger in Ireland, all alone
And would you kindly tell me where I'll find the Blarney Stone.
Chorus:
There's a Blarney Stone in Kerry, there's a Blarney Stone in Clare
There's a Blarney Stone in Wicklow, and there's plenty in Kildare
There's a Blarney Stone in Sligo, and another in Mayo,
There's never a town in Ireland but you'll find the Blarney Stone.
I know that you're a Geordie, I can tell it by your brogue
There never was a Geordie, ah, but was an awful rogue.
But since you are a stranger where the River Shannon flows
Well the nearest Blarney Stone I know is underneath your nose.
Her Irish smile was broad, she winked her roguish eye
She set me heart a-thumping till I thought I'd surely die
Well I took her in me arms she never made a moan,
And I kissed away the roses on the Bandon Blarney Stone.
Comment
This is a traditional Irish folk song adapted here by Bob
Davenport, who is a Geordie. In the traditional versions
Geordie is replaced by Galway. I have also taken out the
“devil” from the song and put “never”. I found this song
when I was browsing the sound archive of the British
Library. This is a magnificent resource for listening to
real English. What is the point of the song – saying that
the Blarney Stone is underneath your nose?
Bandon: SW of Cork City
Colleen: girl
Geordie: from NE England, Tyneside area, strong sense
of cultural identity
Brogue: accent, the old Geordie dialect was difficult for
southerners to understand
Shannon: one of the great rivers of Ireland
The Blarney Stone
+++
Down by the Glenside (The Bold Fenian Men)
Words: Peadar Kearney
Performed by Jane and Jenny Holohan
'Twas down by the Glenside, I met an old woman
She was plucking young nettles and scarce saw me coming
I listened a while to the song she was humming
Glory O, Glory O, to the bold Fenian men.
'Tis fifty long years since I saw the moon beaming
On strong manly forms and their eyes with hope gleaming
I see them again, sure, in all my sad dreaming
Some died on the Glenside, some died near a stranger
And wise men have told us that their cause was a failure
They fought for old Ireland and they never feared danger
I passed on my way, God be praised that I met her
Be life long or short, sure I'll never forget her
We may have brave men, but we'll never have better
Comment
A patriotic Irish song. Note on the YouTube clip: “a song
from the Irish uprising of 1916, the Fenians being the
popular term for the brotherhood of the Republican
Army, the original IRA.” The author was a member of
the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The song was
recorded in the 1960s by the Clancy Brothers.
Irish feelings of patriotism about the struggle for an
independent nation are still very strong, even today. The
roots of this struggle go far back to the clash between
Celtic and Anglo-Saxon cultures in ancient times, to the
arrival of the Normans (who were the first to invade
58
Ireland with an English army), and then to the religious
divide created by the Reformation, and the deepening of
the rift with Elizabethan plantation.
We're getting older as time goes by.
A little older with everyday.
We were the children of yesterday.
It is important to remember how many lives were lost in
the struggle for Irish independence, and to mourn for
that. One should also (as a Brit especially) be thankful for
the tens of thousands of good Irishmen (and women)
who gave their lives for Britain, over such a long history,
serving so well in many different capacities. It was always
a complicated situation!
I was a child,
Who ran full of laughter.
I was a child who lived for today.
My eyes full of sunshine.
My heart full of smiles.
I was a child for a day.
Irish Uprising of 1916
This was a very important event in the history of modern
Ireland. It was an armed insurrection against British rule
to establish an independent Irish nation, which was
brutally suppressed by Britain (which was then at war
with Germany). Many of the rebel leaders (Irish patriots)
were executed in jail, among whom were some of the
finest of that Irish generation. There had been previous
uprisings, such as that of 1798, inspired by the American
War of Independence, and the French Revolution.
Nicely sung by the Holohan Sisters (Jane and Jenny)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah40_xMBTlA
Sung by Bob Davenport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ptEeTY6wlU
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pop
Child for a Day (1977)
Written by David Gordon
Performed by Cat Stevens, released on the album “Izitso”
1977
I was a child
Who ran full of laughter
I was a child who lived for today
My eyes full of sunshine
My heart full of smiles
I was a child for a day
We were the children
Who sang in the morning
We were the children
Who laughed at the sun
Who listened to those who spoke with their wisdom
We are the ones we would say, but
We're getting older as time goes by
A little older with everyday
We are the men who worry of nothing.
We are the men who fight without aim.
Who listen to no one, yet speak of our wisdom.
We are the pawns in the game.
We're getting older as time goes by
A little older with everyday
Comment
Performed for Unicef International Year of the Child
(1979). Note on the YouTube says that this was the last
Song from Unicef concert, sung together with David
Essex, December 1979. A song written by his brother
David Gordon.
A beautiful song with a wistful and nostalgic message. It
is a hint about the faith of the past, the Abrahamic faiths.
We were children (innocent and happy) in the sunshine
of faith. We were the children who listened to wisdom –
the wisdom of the ancient prophets. The men of today,
however, are without faith. Like chess pieces, leaders
have no will-power or aim, and care nothing about
anybody but themselves. The song is hinting that as we
get older we grow further away from what was good. It is
however rather enigmatic, and a good song for that
reason. My interpretation might be wrong however. What
do you find here?
Everyday: sometimes this might be a hint about “Eve” i.e.
falling to temptation
Yesterday: sometimes this might be a hint about Jesus
(Yes from Ies from Iesous)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qKuGKfcyLg
For more information about Cat Stevens, see the Wikip.
article which is good. He is a great man. In 1977 he
converted to Islam. He has done so much to bring
Muslims and Christians closer together in trust and love,
and this is the true saintly service of God. He has also
built and financed schools.
See also MS 40.
+++
Pressing On (1980)
Lyrics by Bob Dylan
Sung by Bob Dylan
From the album “Saved” (1980)
Well, I'm pressing on
Yes, I'm pressing on
59
To the higher calling of my Lord.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Literary
Many try to stop me, shake me up in my mind,
Say, “Prove to me that He’s the Lord, show me a sign”
What kind of sign they need when it all comes from within,
When what's lost has been found, what's to come has already
been?
Shake the dust off of your feet, don't look back.
Nothing can hold you down, nothing that you lack.
Temptation's not an easy thing, Adam given the devil reign.
Because he sinned I got no choice, it runs in my vein.
You know the adversary never sleeps. He is a roaring beast.
He always comes at the time that you expect him least.
And you know that he's responsible for death and pain and loss,
But we know we'll overcome him by the victory at the cross.
Comment
This song came from the second album of Dylan’s
Christian trilogy. First was A Slow Train Coming. A song
which proclaims God and does so in a way which brings
Abrahamic faiths together. It sounds like Saint Paul
singing. The song is well-phrased, and the content is
linked to the Bible.
“Well” and “Yes” these are also hints.
Pressing on: going forward, also making discs, also
hurrying on
To the higher calling: a hint that the song is about a holy
vocation, to work for God “hire”
Those who ask for a sign: (Lk 11.29) a hint that the singer
is like Jesus
From within: inspiration from God, the Holy Spirit
When what’s to come has already been: a deep truth that
all “revelation” is only a revelation of what was
already there, God
Shake the dust off of your feet: leave the places that
despised you
Adam: humanity
Devil reign: the wicked in power, or the wicked
controlling us
In my vein: in the blood, of humanity, also in my “vain”
i.e. my vanity
The adversary a roaring beast: quoting (Psalms 22.13)
and also (1 Peter 5.8)
At the cross: at the crossing, at the cross-roads, at the
cross of Christ
The English Poems of George Herbert, ed. C. A. Patrides
(London, 1974) 60 & 47.
George Herbert (1593-1633)
Redemption
Having been tenant long to a rich Lord,
Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancel th’ old.
In heaven at his manor I him sought.
They told me there, that he was lately gone
About some land, which he had dearly bought
Long since on earth, to take possession.
I straight returned, and knowing his great birth,
Sought him accordingly in great resorts.
In cities, theatres, gardens, parks, and courts:
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth
Of thieves and murderers, there I him espied,
Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, & died.
+++
The Altar
A br oken al tar, Lor d, thy ser van t r ea r s,
Made of a hear t, and cemented with tears.
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame,
No workman's tool hath touched the same.
A hear t al one
Is such a stone,
As nothing, but
Thy power doth cut.
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame,
To praise thy name:
T hat, i f I ch anc e t o hol d my pea ce,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
Oh let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
A n d s a n c t i f y t h i s A L TA R t o b e t h i n e .
Comment
Redemption is one of the wittiest and most accomplished
of Herbert’s poems, a sonnet in form. The poem makes
clever use of the imagery of the New Testament. The
poet is a tenant (renting out property, i.e. his life or body).
Things were not going well, so he decided to make a
change. He sought Him in heaven but was told that He
was on earth, taking possession of land that was owed to
him. He seeks the great King in high places but finds
him amongst the lowly. On being requested to assist on a
60
new lease, He grants the request, and then dies, the
implication being that his death pays for the new lease, as
Christ died in atonement for our sins. The poem is thus a
witty allegory on the transition from Judaism to
Christianity.
Resorts: old meaning place of residence
The Altar is a pattern poem, for which Herbert is famous
with his Easter-Wings. A broken altar refers to the heart
of sorrow in penance “broken spirit” (Ps 51). The
sacrifice refers to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross,
replicated in the Holy Eucharist.
Fifth son born in Montgomery, Wales in a large family,
Mother was Magdalen Herbert, the great patron of poets
and literati. Studied at Westminster school, and then at
Trinity, Cambridge. A gifted scholar and a distinguished
Latinist, he was elected public orator to the University in
1620. In the 1526 his patron Francis Bacon died, the
following year his mother, and at about this time he
abandoned his university post, and took holy orders. He
married his cousin Jane Danvers, and served as rector in
Bemerton, Salisbury, writing poetry and serving his
parish for three years. On his deathbed, he sent his MS of
the The Temple to Nicholas Ferrar (another pious
Anglican clergyman) asking for it to be published to do
good for any poor soul. It was published posthumously
and was extremely popular. The poetry lives by virtue of
its fluent and articulate wit, and the quiet sense of humor
that informs it. His brother, Edward, was elevated to the
peerage as Lord Herbert of Chirbury.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Musical
Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1929)
Lyrics by Andy Razaf
Music by Fats Waller, Harry Brooks,
Sung by Fats Waller in the film Stormy Weather (1943)
No one to talk with
All by myself
No one to walk with
But I'm happy on the shelf
Ain't misbehavin'
Savin' my love for you.
I know for certain
The one I love
I’m through with flirtin'
It's just you I'm thinkin' of.
Ain't misbehavin'
Like Jack Horner
In the corner
Don't go nowhere
What do I care
Your kisses are worth waitin' for.
Believe me
I don't stay out late
Don't care to go
I'm home about eight
Just me and my radio
Ain't misbehavin’
Comment
This was a 1929 song recorded by Fats Waller and used in
the 1943 film Stormy Weather. In an interview Waller said
that he wrote the song while he was lodging in alimony
prison, which was why he was “not misbehaving.”
Misbehaving has the nuance of “fooling around”
meaning to go out on the town with the pretty girls (when
one already has a partner).
This is a well-loved song, the original recording is a
Grammy Hall of Fame song, and judged one of the top
songs of the twentieth century. It encapsulates that era of
light-hearted jazz, a carefree attitude that typified the
twenties.
On the shelf: discarded, unused
Jack Horner: from the nursery rhyme: “Little Jack
Horner | Sat in the corner, | Eating a Christmas pie |
He put in his thumb | And pulled out a plum | And
said, What a good boy am I!” The point is that Jack
Horner is saying that he is a good boy but probably is
not (he is hiding in a corner eating the Christmas pie,
sticking his thumb into it, when you should use a
spoon). Perhaps Fats is hinting in the same way!
Stormy Weather (1943)
One of the best early African-American musical films.
Title came from a song (1933). The film is based on the
life of its star, dancer Bill Bojangles Robinson. Robinson
plays Bill Williamson, a talented dancer, who tries to
make his career. On the way there is romance with Selina
Rogers, played by Lena Horne. Other notable performers
include Fats Waller and Cab Calloway (as themselves). In
a short film there were 20 musical numbers. The
joie-de-vivre in the performance is very strong.
Fats Waller (1904-1943)
Born in Harlem, New York, son of a clergyman. Played
the piano aged six, then the organ a few years later.
Composing ragtime melodies by the age of 18. He
became a prolific songwriter and composer, and many of
his songs remain popular today. He was able to learn a
song simply by watching a performer play. One of the
great jazzmen of the early twentieth century. He was also
popular in the UK, appearing in early BBC broadcasts,
and he would also play Bach on the organ on occasion.
Two other well-loved numbers are “Jitterbug Waltz” and
“Honeysuckle Rose.”
61
+++
I can't give you anything but love (1928)
Music by Jimmy McHugh
Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
Sung by Louis Armstrong (1942)
I can't give you anything but love, Baby,
That's the only thing I've plenty of, Baby.
Dream awhile, scheme awhile,
You're sure to find,
Happiness, and I guess,
All those things you've always pined for, Baby.
Gee, I'd like to see you looking swell, Baby,
Diamond bracelets Woolworth doesn't sell, Baby.
Till that lucky day, you know darned well, Baby,
I can't give you anything but love.
Comment
“I got no money but I can give you lots of love,” a song
with a universal message. Superb version of this song by
Louis Armstrong found on YouTube which I include
below. This appears to be a clip from a film, perhaps a
short film made in 1942, when he made some 3-minute
films for coin-operated viewing booths for RCM
Productions, according to The Louis Armstrong House
Museum. Note on the clip says Armstrong is acting as a
bartender, with the Luis Russell Orchestra, and dates the
clip at 1942. Louis Armstrong first recorded this song in
1929.
Some controversy about the authorship of this song, the
melody said to be by Fats Waller.
This is also performed in Stormy Weather 1943 by Lena
Horne and Bill Robinson.
Woolworth: the original supermarket selling cheap
affordable goods
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoRL2oEbE9Y
Fats Waller recorded this in 1939. There’s a YouTube version of this sung by Fats
Waller with comments and adlibs, which is rather amusing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxiOL75ASaE
For more information about Louis Armstrong see MS 25.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacred
My God and king!
The heavens are not too high,
His praise may thither fly,
The earth is not too low,
His praises there may grow.
Let all the world in every corner sing,
My God and king!
My God and king!
The church with psalms must shout,
No door can keep them out;
But, above all, the heart
Must bear the longest part.
My God and king!
Comment
Popular hymn by Herbert. Herbert’s great skill is the
ease and fluent naturalness of his rhymes, retaining wit
in the phrasing. This hymn is like a reworking of a psalm.
“Part” here means the musical part in a song.
King of Glory King of Peace (1633)
Words: George Herbert (1593-1632)
Music: Joseph Jones (1827-70) “Gwalchmai”
King of glory, King of peace,
I will love Thee;
And that love may never cease,
I will move Thee.
Thou hast granted my request,
Thou hast heard me;
Thou didst note my working breast,
Thou hast spared me.
Wherefore with my utmost art
I will sing Thee,
And the cream of all my heart
I will bring Thee.
Though my sins against me cried,
Thou alone didst clear me;
And alone, when they replied,
Thou didst hear me.
Seven whole days, not one in seven,
I will praise Thee;
In my heart, though not in Heaven,
I can raise Thee.
Small it is, in this poor sort
To enroll Thee:
E’en eternity’s too short
To extol Thee.
Three Herbert Hymns
Let All the World in Every Corner Sing (1633)
Music: tunes “Augustine” & “Luckington”
Comment
Popular hymn by Herbert. “Move” has the sense of
“petition you.” “Working breast” i.e. heaving up and
down with trouble, such as weeping or lamenting.
62
Teach Me My God and King (1633)
Music: “Sandys”
Teach me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything
To do it as for Thee.
A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye;
Or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heaven espy.
All may of Thee partake;
Nothing can be so mean
Which with this tincture, For thy sake
Will not grow bright and clean.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine:
Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws
Makes that and the action fine.
This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold;
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.
Comment
This hymn was adapted by John Wesley and used in his
hymnal 1738. Herbert’s hymns became popular during
the nineteenth century.
Tincture: coloring
Famous stone: mythical stone which could turn things to
gold
63
Folk: To a Mouse Robert Burns (1785)
Pop: Move it 1958 Millenium Prayer 1999 Young Ones 1961 Congratulations 1968
Literary: The Collar & The Pulley George Herbert (1633)
Musical: Swanee (1919) & I Got Rhythm (1930) George Gershwin
Sacred: Orthodox Liturgy Reading from Galatians Mount Lebanon Choir
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Folk
Scottish Folk (Burns)
To a Mouse, on Turning up Her Nest with the Plough
(1785)
Written by Robert Burns
Read by John Cairney (1995)
Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!
I'm truly sorry man's dominion,
Has broken nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!
I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma' request;
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't!
Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!
Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
An' weary winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.
That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e'e.
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!
Standard English translation [from Wikip.]
Small, crafty, cowering, timorous little beast,
O, what a panic is in your breast!
You need not start away so hasty
With argumentative chatter!
I would be loath to run and chase you,
With murdering plough-staff.
I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
And justifies that ill opinion
Which makes you startle
At me, your poor, earth born companion
And fellow mortal!
I doubt not, sometimes, but you may steal;
What then? Poor little beast, you must live!
An odd ear in twenty-four sheaves
Is a small request;
I will get a blessing with what is left,
And never miss it.
Your small house, too, in ruin!
Its feeble walls the winds are scattering!
And nothing now, to build a new one,
Of coarse grass green!
And bleak December's winds coming,
Both bitter and keen!
You saw the fields laid bare and wasted,
And weary winter coming fast,
And cozy here, beneath the blast,
You thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel plough passed
Out through your cell.
That small bit heap of leaves and stubble,
Has cost you many a weary nibble!
Now you are turned out, for all your trouble,
Without house or holding,
To endure the winter's sleety dribble,
64
And hoar-frost cold.
But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
Hald: holding
Thole: endure, undergo
Cranreuch: hoarfrost
Agley: asquint, askew, awry
E’e: eye
The BBC has an excellent website for Burns:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/
Still you are blessed, compared with me!
The present only touches you:
But oh! I backward cast my eye,
On prospects dreary!
And forward, though I cannot see,
I guess and fear!
Read by John Cairney on Harper Collins, an actor who
specialized in Burns readings. There is an excellent
reading of Tam O’ Shanter on YouTube by John Cairney.
Many readings of “To a Mouse” on YouTube.
Comment
One of Burns’ most famous poems, written in sympathy
with the mouse, whose home his ploughing has
destroyed. The poem is written in Scots, which is the
dialect of English spoken in Scotland at that time. The
poem lightly calls attention to the great problems of
existence. The stroke of fate which robs the poor of
home and safety. The inequity of existence, in which
there are tyrants with power, and the poor without; and so
the poor, who have nothing, and yet who must feed their
family, in desperation are forced to steal – and so risk
punishment and death; and the ones who punish them
are the powerful and the rich. Harsh world! On a different
note, the faculty of memory, and the fear of what is to
come (punishment for sin) both of which the mouse is
saved from, but which the poet is burdened with, and this
is what makes the poet human.
Pop
For a foreign reader, the difficulty with Scots is
compounded by the spelling which attempts to reproduce
the accent, in which the final syllable of many words is
elided, such as “ll” in small and wall (sma’ & wa’).
Sleekit: crafty
Cowering: fearful
Timorous: fearful
Daimen icker: an odd ear of corn
Na: not
Awa: away
Brattle: chatter
Laith: loath
Pattle: a tool like a spade
Nature's social union: happy security of your life (in
nature)
Startle: run off in fear
Thrave: twenty-four sheaves of corn, i.e. a small amount
Lave: remainder
Wa: wall
Win: wind
Foggage: green grass
Snell: bitter
Coulter: iron blade in front of the share on the plough
Cell: a small room, originally a hermit’s cave
Stibble: stubble
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Move It (1958)
Lyrics: Ian Samwell
Sung by Cliff Richard with the Drifters (UK band), later
called The Shadows
Come on pretty baby let’s a move it and a groove it
Well shake oh baby shake oh honey please don't lose it
It's rhythm that gets into your heart and soul
Well, let me tell you baby it's called rock 'n roll
They say it's gonna die but honey please let’s face it
Well, we just don't know what's a going to replace it
Well, ballet and calypso's have got nothing on
Real country music that just drives along
Well a move it
Comment
Cliff
Richard’s
debut
single.
Described
as
“Presley-esque,” and by Richard himself as “my one
outstanding rock 'n' roll classic.” “Move It” was written
on a London double-decker bus on the way to a rehearsal
by the Drifters’ guitarist Ian Samwell.
There’s a message there as well. The rhythm of rock &
roll, for your heart & soul, they say it is going to die, let’s
face it, nothing will replace it – it’s the only music – this
is another song for faith, but it is hidden behind the
surface.
+++
The Millenium Prayer (1999)
Lord’s Prayer (2008)
Melody: Auld Lang Syne
Sung by Cliff Richard
Our Father who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread
And forgive our sins
65
As we forgive each one of those
Who sins against us
And lead us not to the time of trial
But deliver us from evil
For Thine is the kingdom
The power and the glory.
Let all the people say amen
In every tribe and tongue
Let every heart's desire be joined
To see the kingdom come
Let every hope and every dream
Be born in love again
Let all the world sing with one voice
Let the people say amen.
Comment
“The Millennium Prayer” is a 1999 charity single by Cliff
Richard. The song features Richard singing the words of
the Lord's Prayer to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne.” This
was recorded to raise money for the charity “Children’s
Promise,” an Australian Charity for children. Richard
took the song to an independent label, Papillon, and the
song went to the top of the charts, becoming his
fourteenth no. 1. He achieved this even though the radio
stations refused to play his music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV04BBhIAu8
+++
The Young Ones (1961)
Lyrics: Sid Tepper & Roy C. Bennett
Sung by Cliff Richard and The Shadows
Song to the 1961 film The Young Ones
The young ones,
Darling we're the young ones,
And young ones shouldn't be afraid.
To live, love
While the flame is strong,
For we won't be the young ones very long.
Tomorrow,
Why wait till tomorrow,
Tomorrow sometimes never comes.
Love, me,
There's a song to be sung
And the best time is to sing while we're young.
Once in every lifetime
Comes a love like this.
I need you and you need me
Oh my darling can't you see.
And some day when the years have flown
Darling, then we’ll teach the young ones of our own.
The young ones,
Darling we're the young ones.
The young ones,
Darling we're the young ones.
Comment
Released as a single in 1962 it went straight to number 1.
The 1961 musical film starred Cliff Richard and the
Shadows and was the second most popular film of that
year. Universal message of youthful passion and love,
sung very well by Richard, age only 21. He still sings the
song, but it has another message. He is hinting that the
best time to find God is when we are young.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBuiTyIYpA8
Cliff Richard (1940 –
)
Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb) is a British
pop singer, musician, performer, actor and philanthropist.
Originally promoted as the British Elvis Presley, with his
band, The Shadows, he became a British pop icon of the
1960s, and developed his music in the direction of Faith
and Gospel, performing continuously since his debut in
1958. His turn to faith (he was a baptised Anglican, but
he began to attend church in the glare of publicity from
1964) affected his career, since his public image changed,
and unlike the USA, the media in the UK is far less
accepting of public statements of belief.
+++
Congratulations (1968)
Lyrics by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter
Sung by Cliff Richard
Congratulations and celebrations
When I tell everyone that you're in love with me
Congratulations and jubilations
I want the world to know I'm happy as can be.
Who would believe that I could be happy and contented
I used to think that happiness hadn't been invented
But that was in the bad old days before I met you
When I let you walk into my heart
Congratulations etc
I was afraid that maybe you thought you were above me
That I was only fooling myself to think you loved me
But then tonight you said you couldn't live without me
That round about me you wanted to stay.
Congratulations etc
Young dreams
Should be dreamed together,
Young hearts shouldn't be afraid.
Congratulations and jubilations
I want the world to know I'm happy as can be.
66
Comment
Britain’s entry for the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest held
in Spain, which lost by one point to the Spanish. The vote
was said to have been rigged by Franco, who had decided
that Spain had to win. It was a number 1 hit for Richard
in the UK and very popular throughout Europe.
A joyful love song that Richard does very well indeed, and
because of his avowed commitment to faith, it sounds
like something else. He looks and sounds happy which is
so important. What is this love that he is singing about?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7IPODeUC_c
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Literary
(London, 1974) 161 & 166.
Methoughts I heard one calling, Child.
And I replied, My Lord.
+++
The Pulley
When God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by,
Let us (said he) pour on him all we can,
Let the worlds riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.
So strength first made a way,
Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honor, pleasure,
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone, of all his treasure,
Rest in the bottom lay.
For if I should (said he)
Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature,
So both should losers be.
The Collar
I struck the board, and cried, No more.
I will abroad.
What? shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free, free as the road,
Loose as the wind, as large as store.
Shall I be still in suit?
Have I no harvest but a thorn
To let me blood, and not restore
What I have lost with cordial fruit?
Sure there was wine,
Before my sighs did dry it. There was corn
Before my tears did drown it.
Is the year only lost to me?
Have I no bays to crown it?
No flowers, no garlands gay? all blasted?
All wasted?
Not so, my heart, but there is fruit,
And thou hast hands.
Recover all thy sigh-blown age
On double pleasures. Leave thy cold dispute
Of what is fit, and not forsake thy cage,
Thy rope of sands,
Which petty thoughts have made, and made to thee
Good cable, to enforce and draw,
And be thy law,
While thou didst wink and wouldst not see.
Away, take heed.
I will abroad.
Call in thy deaths head there, tie up thy fears.
He that forbears
To suit and serve his need,
Deserves his load.
But as I raved and grew more fierce and wild,
At every word,
Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness:
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.
Comment
A dramatic interior monologue on the struggles of faith,
wittily concluded with the tender establishment of a
relation between Christ and the poet. The title of the
poem is a bit obscure, and seems to refer to a yoke – first
of all a collar of bad thoughts, followed by the resolution
to act positively however he can. It concludes with the
gentle yoke of Christ.
Struck the board: eating at table
Cordial: vital, of the heart, sincere, heartfelt, comforting
On double pleasures: he gives himself bad advice
Rope of sands: vain and destructive thoughts
Wink: close the eyes
Child, my Lord: true comfort and understanding is the
filial relationship with God
The Pulley wittily states that God gives man a measure of
affliction so that His blessings may be more fully
appreciated, and so that man will turn again to Him.
This is the Pulley to pull him up to heaven.
A span: a length of time, a lifetime
Stay: pause
This website is useful for George Herbert:
http://www.luminarium.org/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
67
Musical
Swanee (1919)
Lyrics by Irving Caesar
Music by George Gershwin
Sung by Al Jolson
I've been away from you a long time
I never thought I'd miss you so
Somehow I feel
Your love was real
Near you I long to be
The birds are singin',
Tis song time
The banjos strummin' soft and low
I know that you
Yearn for me too
Swanee! You're calling me!
Chorus:
Swanee !
How I love you, how I love you!
My dear ol' Swanee
I'd give the world to be
Among the folks in D I X I Even know my mammy's
Waiting for me
Praying for me
Down by the Swanee
The folks up north will see me no more
When I go to the Swanee Shore!
Swanee, Swanee, I am coming back to Swanee!
Mammy, Mammy, I love the old folks at home!
Comment
Popular song from the 1920s sung by Al Jolson, who was
then the most successful singer in the US. Caesar and
Gershwin, who was then aged 20, claimed to have written
the song in ten minutes on a bus in Manhattan, and then
at Gershwin's apartment. It was partly a parody of
Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home." The song was
not immediately successful, but then became popular
throughout the world, Jolson’s best-known song.
Swanee river: major river of Georgia and Florida, spelt
Suwanee. Originally misspelt in the famous Foster
song, and the same spelling used in the Gershwin
song.
Dixie: name for the Southern States of America, also a
famous song of this name
Mammy: spelling of Mummy which recalls Southern
States accent
Al Jolson (1886-1950)
Born in Lithuania, Russian Empire. Highly acclaimed
American singer, comedian, and actor. First openly
Jewish man to become an entertainment star in America.
His career lasted from 1911 until his death in 1950, during
which time he was commonly dubbed "the world's
greatest entertainer.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB5_FScm41Q
+++
I Got Rhythm (1930)
Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
Music by George Gershwin
From the musical Girl Crazy (1930)
Sung by Nicole “Nikki” Yanofsky
Days can be sunny
With never a sigh
Don't need what money can buy.
Birds in the tree sing
Their dayful of song,
Why shouldn't we sing along?
I'm chipper all the day,
Happy with my lot.
How do I get that way?
Look at what I've got:
I got rhythm
I got music
I got my man
Who could ask for anything more?
I got daisies
In green pastures,
I got my man
Ol' Man Trouble,
I don't mind him.
You won't find him
'Round my door.
I got starlight,
I got sweet dreams,
I got my man
Comment
A song written for the musical, which became a jazz
standard, and symbolized that era. Interesting comment
about the composition of this by Ira Gershwin [from
Wikip.] “George Gershwin wrote the melody and gave it
to Ira, but Ira found it an unusually hard melody to create
lyrics for. He experimented for two weeks with the rhyme
scheme he felt the music called for, sets of triple rhymes,
but found that the heavy rhyming "seemed at best to give
a pleasant and jingly Mother Goose quality to a tune
which should throw its weight around more." Finally he
began to experiment with leaving most of the lines
unrhymed. "This approach felt stronger," he wrote, "and
I finally arrived at the present refrain, with only
“more-door” and “mind him-find him” the rhymes." He
added that this approach "was a bit daring for me who
usually depended on rhyme insurance.””
68
Sung on YouTube by Nikki Yanofsky (age 14!) from
Montreal, Canada. Jewish background. Born 1994,
performing since the age of 12, highly acclaimed jazz
singer, with many famous performances. She is best
known as the vocalist of the Canadian CTV theme song
for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, "I Believe."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df9pyPxNWh0
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacred
Orthodox Liturgy Reading from Galatians
Mount Lebanon Choir
Found on YouTube
How great are thy works, O Lord
Thou hast made all things in wisdom. (Ps 95.5)
Let us attend!
Bless the Lord, O my soul
Wisdom!
Sectioned from the Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians
Reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians in the
English version of the Byzantine Liturgy of St John
Chrysostomos. In fact, the text is sung, as is almost all
the Liturgy. This version comes from a performance
posted on the internet. I do not have the name of the
singers, but this particular individual is superb. The style
is a modernized Byzantine chant, with the English
phrasing adapted to fit the shape of the music. The
performance is part of an ongoing and wide-reaching
project to make the music and prayers of the Orthodox
Churches accessible to an English-Speaking public. The
majority of Orthodox believers live in countries which do
not use English as a first language.
The passage is taken from Gal 2.16-20, and is
characteristic of Saint Paul. In terms of content, he is
wrestling with the problem of being a Jew, being one of
the chosen, and having to reject his own Jewish identity
in order to follow the culmination of faith in the divinity
of Christ. The word “justified” (KJV) really means “made
all good, forgiven of sin and purified, and made
acceptable before God.” He is saying that merely
following the rules and regulations (Leviticus) of the
faith will not bring us close to God. The law, in this sense,
is dead. It is now enough to believe that the Messiah has
come, and to follow the new simplified law: Love God
and love all people, and abolish rules and regulations
about circumcision, food and drink, and many other
things.
Let us attend!
Ye Brethren, knowing that man is not justified
by the works of the law
But by the faith of Jesus Christ
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ
That we might be justified by the faith of Christ
And not by the work of the law –
For by the works of the law
Shall no flesh be justified.
But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ,
We ourselves also are found sinners
Is therefore Christ the minister of sin?
God Forbid!
For if I build again the things which I destroyed
I make myself a transgressor
For I through the law am dead to the law that I might live
unto God!
I am crucified with Christ
Nevertheless I live
Yet not I
But Christ liveth in me
And the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me
And gave himself for me.
Peace be to thee that readeth!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Comment
Faith goes forward by making things clearer and brighter
and easier to understand. Specifically, Paul was bringing
the pagan peoples of the Old Greek Empire and the
Roman Empire to know the Eternal God.
Even we have believed: and so also we have believed.
Flesh: humanity, mortality, a negative term for Paul,
opposed to the spirit, linked to the word “sin”
Justified by Christ: achieved by following Christ’s
teaching, by avoiding sin, by accepting Christ as Messiah
and Lord
Sinner: here Paul is hinting about the old Greek and
Roman faiths, to go back to them is “sin”
Live unto God: Paul has a strong belief that only through
Christ can one “live with God”
Crucified with Christ: the move from the Old Covenant to
the New Covenant is so radical that it requires one
symbolically to die and be reborn again, so that the sins
die and the soul is purified. Paul is also hinting about the
suffering he has endured for the sake of Christ
Galatians (letter to the churches in Galatia, a Roman
province)
A very important letter, with interesting biographical
material at the beginning. Nobody knows for certain
exactly where this church was located. Perhaps it was in
the region in Turkey around Ankara, called Ancyra, in
North Galatia. Some scholars consider that it was sent to
South Galatia, which Paul visited (Acts 13:13–14:27)
Pisidian Antioch, Iconium and Derbe. It was written
69
sometime during the ten years 48-58 before his arrest and
being transported to Rome.
Mount Lebanon (SEM choir)
School of Ecclesiastical Music, Mount Lebanon
This is an Orthodox choir developed from a school of
music, founded in 1997 by Joseph Yazbeck, singing in the
Antiochian Byzantine tradition, and achieving great
success in the world with their English version of
traditional Byzantine chant (from which this class is
taken). The school was begun under the auspices of the
Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Mount Lebanon.
“Mount Lebanon” is an ancient name for the mountain
range in Lebanon, and a political name for that region.
The choir developed out of the need to train chanters for
the Orthodox tradition. There are now many websites on
the internet with information about Byzantine chant in
English, and this is part of a new growth in the Orthodox
Churches of Europe and America.
http://www.semlebanon.org/sem/home.do
http://www.kelfar.net/orthodoxiaradio/
http://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/music/Index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOmTcKUqc3M
Note by the Mount Lebanon Choir
This was the first recording we composed and performed
in a language other than Arabic. We had exceptional time
constraints, so we composed the music, rehearsed, and
recorded the whole project in 3 days at Saint George’s
church (Jdeide – Lebanon). God’s blessing was with us
because he knew that this was an important project. The
recording and editing was done by Dr. Costy Kheir, a
chanter from the choir. The recording was distributed
throughout the world thanks to the special efforts of
Deacon Karim El Far.
KJV Original Text from Galatians 2.16-20
“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the
faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the
works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while
we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are
found sinners, [is] therefore Christ the minister of sin?
God forbid. For if I build again the things which I
destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through
the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me,
and gave himself for me.”
70
059 Monday Songs Class Paul A.S. Harvey 4.4 K words
Folk: Swing low Sweet Chariot & Sosban Fach (traditional)
Pop: Umbrella (2007) Rihanna
Literary: Easter & Love (1633) George Herbert
Musical: Nobody does it better (1977) & Skyfall (2012) Carly Simon & Adele
Sacred: Laudate Dominum & Bless the Lord, Taizé
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Folk
African-American Spiritual
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
African-American Spiritual (these used to be called
Negro Spirituals)
Chorus:
Swing low, sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home,
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.
I looked over Jordan, and what did I see
Coming for to carry me home?
A band of angels coming after me,
Coming for to carry me home.
The song has a poignant irony in the word “home.” This
is obviously heaven, but for the American slaves who
sang this song, it indicates their longing for a true home,
perhaps the home from which they were transported
against their will a few generations earlier. It is a home in
which the chains have been removed and happiness
reigns.
The song is sung at rugby union matches by the English
supporters. It was first sung in 1988 when England won a
victory at Twickenham over Ireland (after a long period
of defeat), when a hat-trick was scored by Chris Oti, a
black player on his second match, and the song was sung
in his honor. Oti (born in London) was the first black
player to play for England for 80 years.
The song has no historical connection to England or to
Black British, except that the African-American
community and England generally share the same church
(Protestant), and the song is in that tradition. Its
popularity at rugby matches has got more to do with the
powerful emotional statement of triumph over oppression,
than the religious message. It’s a kind of a victory song
for the rugby soul, and freedom for slaves.
The song was first popularized in the 1870s by the Jubilee
Singers, an a cappella group at Fisk University (first
founded in 1866, institution for African-American
excellence). The Jubilee Singers still continue today.
Chorus
There’s a 1909 recording on YouTube of the Jubilee Singers:
Sometimes I'm up, and sometimes I'm down,
(Coming for to carry me home)
But still my soul feels heavenly bound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUvBGZnL9rE
Chorus
Barbara Hendricks also sings this.
The brightest day that I can say,
When Jesus washed my sins away.
Chorus
If you get there before I do,
Tell all my friends I'm coming too.
Chorus
Comment
[Note from Hymnary. Org] “This is one of the
best-known African American spirituals in Christian
history. Its source is the oral tradition of African
Americans, but the concerts of the Fisk Jubilee Singers
brought "Swing Low" to the attention of white
audiences.”
Joan Baez sings this on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4QcFFKABPw
+++
Sosban Fach The Little Saucepan
Traditional Welsh song
1. Mae bys Mari Ann wedi gwywo,
A Dafydd y gwas ddim yn iach;
Mae'r Baban yn y crud yn crio,
A'r gath wedi scrapo Johnny bach
Sosban fach yn berwi ar y tân
Sosban fawr yn berwi ar y llawr
A'r gath wedi scrapo Johnny bach.
Dai bach yn sowldiwr,
A chwt i grys e' mas.
2. Mae bys Mari Ann wedi gwella,
A Dafydd y gwas yn ei fedd;
Mae'r baban yn y crud wedi tyfu,
A'r gath wedi huno mewn hedd.
71
Sosban fach yn berwi ar y tân
Sosban fawr yn berwi ar y llawr
A'r gath wedi huno mewn hedd.
A chwt i grys e' mas.
1. My sweet Mary Ann's hurt her finger,
And David the servant's feeling weak;
And the baby's crying now in its cradle,
The cat's scratching Johnny on the cheek
Little saucepan is boiling on the fire,
Big saucepan boils over on the floor,
The cat's scratching Johnny on the cheek.
David the soldier,
David the soldier,
David the soldier,
His shirt tail's hanging out.
2. My sweet Mary Ann's feeling better,
And David the servant's in his grave;
The baby in the cradle has grown up,
And the cat is ‘asleep in peace’.
Little saucepan is boiling on the fire,
Big saucepan boils over on the floor,
And the cat is ‘asleep in peace’.
David the soldier,
David the soldier,
David the soldier,
His shirt tail's hanging out.
Comment
Traditional Welsh folksong which has been adopted as a
rugby anthem for the Welsh national team, sung by the
supporters in the stands. The content appears to be a
description of domestic troubles, completely at odds with
rugby football, but the point is the rousing melody, and
the fact that everybody knows the words, so that the great
crowd can all sing together and make a huge noise.
There is probably a subtext here with some other
message, or perhaps the Welsh words have a double
meaning, which the Welsh supporters know, but not the
other side. Both the pans are boiling up, one is boiling
over – preparing a broth or a stew of some kind, perhaps
a porridge. In ancient Celtic times, there was a strong
belief in spirits and goblins, and these kinds of events
would suggest their presence.
The saucepans may symbolize the two nations, the little
one is Wales, the big one is England. David is a popular
Welsh name and there might be some kind of bawdy
suggestion at the end, perhaps at the expense of England.
“David the soldier” might also be the little boy of the
house, playing at soldiers.
Listening to the song, it sounds like there might be taunt
there, but I don’t know enough Welsh. Perhaps someone
can help with this puzzle!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pop
Umbrella (2007)
Lyrics: Christopher Stewart, Terius Nash, Thaddis
Harrell, Shawn Carter
Sung by: Rihanna from the Album “Good Girl Gone Bad”
(2007)
Sung by: Jay-Z (sings the first rap verse)
Gyeah, Rihanna
Good Girl Gone Bad
Take three, action
No clouds in my storms
Let it rain, I hydroplane into fame
Comin' down like the Dow Jones
When the clouds come, we gone
We Roc-A-Fellas
We fly higher than weather
And she flies it better
You know me, in anticipation for precipitation
Stack chips for the rainy day
Jay, Rain Man is back with Little Miss Sunshine
Rihanna, where you at?
You had my heart, and we'll never be worlds apart
Maybe in magazines, but you'll still be my star
Baby 'cause in the dark, you can't see shiny cars
And that's when you need me there
With you, I'll always share
Because when the sun shines, we'll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be your friend
Took an oath, I'm a stick it out to the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we'll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella
(Ella ella, ay ay ay)
Under my umbrella
(Ella ella, ay ay ay)
rpt
These fancy things will never come in between
You're part of my entity, here for infinity
When the war has took its part
When the world has dealt its cards
If the hand is hard, together we'll mend your heart
etc
You can run into my arms
It's okay, don't be alarmed, come in to me
There's no distance in between our love
So go on and let the rain pour
I'll be all you need and more
etc
72
It's raining, raining
Ooh baby, it's raining, raining
Baby, come in to me
rpt
Comment
A kind of love duet between Jay-Z, the Def Jam CEO
rapper, and Rihanna. Highly successful song on the
charts of the world, and won many awards.
The content of the song is a free-form pop-poem on the
subject of bad weather, and a promise of love and
protection. The beginning of the song is a greeting by
the rapper Jay-Z, and the song content is presumably a
reply to him. The first few lines comment on the falling
Dow Jones index, with bad weather coming in. The two
singers however, are flying higher than the bad weather
(above the clouds) so everything is going to be all right. It
is like a promise of wealth and success, and an
acknowledgement that both of them are working for God,
soaring up to heaven.
Looking briefly at the words, we should note that it is all
written in a kind of puzzling & punning code. The title
of the album is a hint. She is a “Good Girl Gone Bad” – a
good girl who has lost bad – i.e. her badness is gone. Or
she is a good girl who is saving the bad, or helping them.
Roc-a-fellas: “Rockefeller” a pun meaning Rock Stars,
also perhaps recalling the “rock” of the psalms. It
sounds like he is saying that he is with the “rock”.
Hydroplane: hydro is Greek for water, this is a positive
symbol. “Water” is often used to refer the water of the
Gospels, where is symbolizes true faith and eternal
life
She flies it better: who is this? Is this a reference to Mary?
J rain man: Jesus reign over man? J is often taken to hint
at the name of Jesus. Little Miss Sunshine,
complimenting Rihanna
Rihanna replies as a kind of protecting angel, from some
other side. In the dark times you won’t see the shiny
cars (the shining chariots to lift to heaven) and so you
need me to help and guide.
When the sun shines: when heaven is here
When the rain comes down, you can share my umbrella,
be safe with me
Magazines: this is probably a code-word, we will only be
apart in bad times, “mugger scenes”?
The hook repeats the word “Ella” and the word “ay” =
“forever” which is also Japanese for love “ay |ai.” El
or Ella – in popular media, songs and films, the
ancient Hebrew name of God (El) is sometimes
included as a sign and a blessing.
So it’s a song about love and protection. If life has been
suffering and disaster, she promises a healing love.
Who could she be? She represents or stands for a
place of safety, place of love. It must be the House of
God – is this the Church? Come in out of the rain.
Rihanna (1988 –
)
From Bridgetown in Barbados. Following her success
with this album she has become a world star.
Collaborated with numerous artists. Successful single
“We found Love” with a controversial video. Some
trouble in her private life, suffering (it is alleged)
aggression from her boyfriend, the singer Chris Brown.
Jay-Z (1969 –
)
Real name is Shawn Corey Carter, president of Def Jam
records when Rihanna auditioned. Rapper, music
producer and entrepreneur. Married to Beyoncé Knowles
(2008), one of the wealthiest and most successful of his
generation.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Literary
(London, 1974) 61 & 192.
Easter
Rise heart, thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him may’st rise:
That, as his death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more just.
Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound his name
Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.
Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song
Pleasant and long:
Or since all music is but three parts vied,
And multiplied;
O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with his sweet art.
§§§
I got me flowers to straw thy way
I got me boughs off many a tree:
But thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st thy sweets along with thee.
The Sun arising in the East,
Though he give light, and the East perfume,
If they should offer to contest
With thy arising, they presume.
73
Can there be any day but this,
Though many suns to shine endeavor?
We count three hundred, but we miss:
There is but one, and that one ever.
§§§
Love III
Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lacked anything.
A guest, I answered, worthy to be here.
Love said, You shall be he.
I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth, Lord, but I have marred them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat.
So I did sit and eat.
Comment
Two of Herbert’s best poems, the first poem in two parts.
The first could well be a hymn to sing in church. It
develops the injunction in the psalms to make a new song
to the Lord, and sing his praise (Ps 144.9). The second
half recalls Christ’s triumphant arrival in Jerusalem.
Musical
Nobody Does It Better (1977)
Lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager
Music by Marvin Hamlisch
Sung by Carly Simon
Theme song to the Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me
(1977)
Nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, you're the best.
I wasn't lookin' but somehow you found me
I tried to hide from your love light
But like heaven above me
The spy who loved me
Is keepin' all my secrets safe tonight.
And nobody does it better
Though sometimes I wish someone could
Nobody does it quite the way you do
Why'd you have to be so good?
The way that you hold me
Whenever you hold me
There's some kind of magic inside you
That keeps me from runnin'
But just keep it comin'
How'd you learn to do the things you do?
Oh, and nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, baby, darlin', you're the best.
Calcine: to reduce to quick-lime by burning
Just: correct
Part: allotted performance melody in a choir
Wood: woodwind
Strings: string instruments
Vie: compete (in song)
Multiply: repeat in singing
Straw: strew, to scatter down upon
Sweets: flowers
Sun arising cannot compare with the son arising (pun)
Baby you're the best
Darlin', you're the best
Baby you're the best.
The second poem celebrates the sacrament in the visible
Church and also in Heaven. Love is used in place of
“Jesus” and the poem is attractive for its personal and
tender tone, one of the best features of the Anglican
tradition. “Who made the eyes but I?” is a witty line –
Who created the eyes, or who created eyes for you the =
thee? “Meat” here is food, and it refers to the table of the
Eucharist in the church and also the banquet in heaven.
But the hidden message is there. The beloved’s
“love-light” is like “heaven above.” The “baby” is, in this
interpretation, the infant Jesus. This is only gently hinted
at, and for many people would be irrelevant. But it is part
of the message. The song itself is life and love affirming.
Whether conscious or subconscious, the song is giving us
the message that we are the best. A nice thing to be told!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Comment
The theme song from the Bond film, which became a hit
on the charts, in both UK and US. It received an
Academy Award nomination for Best Song. This is
obviously a love song, and the song is well known for the
suggestive lyrics (which I won’t explain).
There is something else there as well, hinted at in the title
of the song. Is it a message that God loves us? Who is the
spy? What’s the point here? I’ll give you a hint. Really it’s
about true love.
74
[2x:]
Carly Simon (1945)
Born in New York, father a prominent Jew publisher and
pianist, Catholic mother civil-rights activist and singer.
Raised as nominal Catholics. Her solo career began in
1971. Her first hit song was “You’re So Vain” (1972), but
she never revealed whom the song was about. In 1988 she
had her greatest success with the song “Let the River
Run,” which won multiple awards, written for the film
“Working Girl.” I hope to feature more of her work later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaV-6qerkqI
(Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall)
Where you go I go
What you see I see
I know I'd never be me
Without the security
Of your loving arms
Keeping me from harm
Put your hand in my hand
And we'll stand
+++
Skyfall (2012)
Lyrics by Adele and Paul Epworth
Music by Thomas Newman
Sung by Adele
Theme song to the Bond film (2012)
This is the end
Hold your breath and count to ten
Feel the earth move and then
Hear my heart burst again
For this is the end
I've drowned and dreamt this moment
So overdue I owe them
Swept away, I'm stolen
Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together
Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
At skyfall
That skyfall
Skyfall is where we start
A thousand miles and poles apart
Where worlds collide and days are dark
You may have my number, you can take my name
But you'll never have my heart
Let the sky fall (let the sky fall)
When it crumbles (when it crumbles)
We will stand tall (we will stand tall)
At skyfall
At skyfall
Let the sky fall
We will stand tall
At skyfall
O
Comment
Powerful song! It’s a love song, of course. There’s a hint
about sex (which I won’t explain). Also, it’s a bigger
statement. You, whom I love! Together we will face what
has to be faced. Difficult times. But it’s also a song for
God.
Like some of her earlier songs, there’s an apocalyptical
message here. At the end of time, when the last day
comes, we will stand together before God. The sky falling
is in fact a quotation from Isaiah (and it is a point of view
shared by Islam in the Holy Koran). But some of the
phrases are puzzling, inviting us to question the persona
of the singer. Who is singing? What is the point here?
The point is that we need to prepare for that final time,
when the sky does fall, when we have to face God. If our
account with God is “overdue” (if we have not paid our
debts to God, i.e. been sorry for doing bad, and taken
action to do good) then we’ll be in trouble.
“Skyfall is where we start.” This is a profound statement
about the beginning of the Christian Church, which
began in a very difficult time for the nation of Israel,
suffering the oppression of Rome, and divided in
response to the new Christian followers of God. Then the
disaster of disasters came with the destruction and
pillage of God’s holy temple by Rome (c. 65 CE). For all
Israel, including the early Christians (most of whom still
considered themselves to be Jews) this seemed to be the
75
very end of the world. How could the world continue
after such a thing? Following the diaspora, and the
trauma of that time, the Jews recovered, and the
Christian Church brought the Eternal Love to Greece,
Rome and even to London Town.
“You may have my number, you can take my name | But
you'll never have my heart.” An enigmatic statement.
Following my interpretation above, is it Christ (Christos)
giving his name to the new Church? You may have my
number: you may contact me, you may pray to me? What
is the Christian number for God? By the year 325, it was
decided to say that God was a mystery of “3 united in 1”,
called the Holy Trinity, a defining theological statement
for Christians.
Could it be the voice of wickedness? If this is Christ, why
can we never have “his heart”? “You’ll” this sounds like
“Yule”? Irrelevant? My interpretation seems to fall down.
Sometimes, verses are given which are purposed to drive
away opponents. Is it saying that the opponents of
“Christ with God” will never be granted the bliss of being
united with Him?
As I have said before in this Monday Songs series, pop
songs and popular culture transmit their messages in a
condensed and enigmatic way, with shifting points of
view, sometimes line by line. In this way, these texts are
in fact a rich poetic and literary statement. The reason for
this is that, since so many millions (sometimes billions)
of people hear these songs, it is good to teach something
of deeper value. Remember the Beatles singing “All you
need is love?” (1967) Reaching the world’s greatest TV
audience for the first satellite broadcast? What were they
teaching? It was a good lesson.
To stand tall: we will be proud of what we are, for the
good we have done, when the time comes to be counted.
“We will face it all together.” Let me tell my point of view
(pash). The good ones (and you will be surprised whom
God will permit to be included among that number, for
God is indeed the Eternal Love, and He is merciful) will
be together in the light – we will find there with us people
who loved us and whom we loved.
“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the
heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their
host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine,
and as a falling [fig] from the fig tree” (Isa 34:4).
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the
sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken” (Mat 24:29).
For Adele (1988 ) see MS 32
Find out more about this singer. Many songs are good
poetry. She has succeeded in being as popular in the USA
as she is in the UK. Voice has great tone!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacred
Laudate Dominum
Taizé Songs
Music: J. Berthier & J. Gelineau
Track 1 From CD “Joy on Earth” Recorded in Taizé
(1999)
Chorus:
Laudate Dominum, Laudate Dominum
Omnes gentes, Alleluia!
Solo parts:
Praise the Lord, all you nations
Praise him all you peoples, alleluia!
Strong is his love and mercy,
God is faithful forever, alleluia! (Ps 117)
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Let everything living give praise to the Lord! (Ps 150.6)
Let the earth shout to God with joy
Alleluia, Alleluia
Let the earth worship with sounds of gladness
Alleluia, Alleluia (Ps 47.1)
We come before you with joyful songs
Alleluia, Alleluia
You are our God, you have made us,
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia (Ps 100.2-3)
Let us then enter your gates with thanksgiving,
Alleluia, Alleluia
Let us give thanks and praise your name
Alleluia, Alleluia (Ps 100.4)
For you are good and your love lasts forever
Alleluia, Alleluia
Your faithfulness lasts from age to age
Alleluia, alleluia (Ps 100.5)
Comment
Song from the Taizé community in France. An English
version of Latin antiphons taken from the praise verses in
the psalms, to be used for singing praises to God in the
morning, when such psalms were traditionally sung
(during Lauds, the first of the day-hours of the Church).
Taize hymns and chants are mostly short and uplifting
prayer-phrases, with an important message, which are
chanted to bring peace and calm to the spirit. Find out
more about Taizé from MS 40.
Laudate: praise ye
Dominum: the Lord
Omnes: all
Gentes: peoples
76
Ps 117 is the shortest Psalm, and the phrase “Laudate
Dominum” is taken straight from the old Vulgate
translation of 117.1. The second verse is also very
important, being one of the most important phrases used
in the Liturgies of all churches, “For his merciful
kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD
endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD” (Ps 117.2 KJV).
The phrase “praise ye the Lord” is the meaning of the
Hebrew phrase, Hallelujah or Alleluia.
+++
Taizé Songs
Music: J. Berthier
Bless the Lord, my soul
And bless God’s holy name. (Ps 103)
Bless the Lord, my soul
Who leads me into life.
Comment
A short prayer-song from Taizé, the text is found on their
website. Many Taizé songs are found on YouTube. This
particular song is the initial phrase from Pss 103 and 104,
with a second verse added, which is not actually a
Biblical text, though it is an interpretation. Mt 19.17 “If
thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments.” The
phrase “into life” means “into life eternal, which is
heaven.” Taizé is a gateway to God’s love, and it is a
worldwide movement, with Taizé prayer meetings taking
place regularly in Japan.
See:
http://www.taize.fr/
This song is available on YouTube, as are many Taizé songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Svh-9ohg4
77
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Comment
This song was written about a month after the historic
open-air rock-concert at Woodstock in New York in
August 1969. Mitchell did not appear in the concert,
being scheduled for a TV show, but she heard about the
concert. She wrote it in a hotel room in New York City,
after seeing televised reports. "The deprivation of not
being able to go provided me with an intense angle on
Woodstock," she told an interviewer shortly after the
event. [notes from Wikiped.]
Folk: Woodstock (1969) Joni Mitchell
Pop: All You Need Is Love Beatles (1967)
Literary: Pearl 101 & Easter Wings 45 (1633) George Herbert
Musical: Where is Love? & I’d do anything for you, Oliver! (1960)
Sacred: To You O Blessed One & Great Mother, Poor Clares (1992) Ty Mam Duw
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Folk
Canadian Folk
Woodstock (1969)
Written by Joni Mitchell, from the album “Ladies of the
Canyon” 1970
Performed by Joni Mitchell
I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, Where are you going?
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's Farm,
I'm gonna join in a rock and roll band.
I'm gonna camp out on the land.
I'm gonna try and get my soul free.
We are stardust.
We are golden.
Then can I walk beside you?
I have come here to lose the smog,
And I feel to be a cog in something turning.
Well maybe it is just the time of year,
Or maybe it's the time of man.
I don't know who I am,
But you know life is for learning.
We are stardust.
We are golden.
By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and a celebration.
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky,
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation.
We are stardust.
Billion year old carbon.
We are golden.
Caught in the devil's bargain
The concert itself has gone done in rock-music and
social history for various reasons. It was an event planned
to accommodate a large number of people, but in the
event more than twice the number of people turned up,
causing logistical chaos in the region, and creating
problems for the local people. It was themed to love and
peace (part of the hippy flower consciousness of that
period, anti-Vietnam war, and socially progressive on
various issues) and to many young people, it seemed that
there was a huge movement of progressive young people
which would mean that USA policy could actually be
changed. The concert symbolized that hope. Joni
Mitchell was certainly part of that left of centre
progressive movement, but her song is not really about
that at all. [Find out more about the historic concert on
Wikiped. etc]
The song focuses on faith elements, and the idealism
seems to me to be faith-oriented, an idealism that did not
bear as much fruit as was hoped, as the 1970s wore into
the 1980s, but it is in fact still alive. Part of the problem
was the hedonistic nature of the 60s youth movement,
with extensive drug-taking and sex (rather male-centered
and male-dominated), and all the money involved.
Nevertheless, the hippy-business was at the same time a
mask for true hope and real faith, and people like Joni
Mitchell were excited by the possibility of a reenactment
of scenes with Jesus that was taking place (with the huge
crowd seated on the hillside and the speakers and singers
on the stage). This was also the same time as John
Lennon, who looked like Jesus then, was sitting in a hotel
room with Yoko Ono (March & May 1969) during their
bed-in for peace protest. This was also anti-war protest.
The Woodstock event occurred exactly 24 years after the
end of the Second World War, and most of the
participants were about that age – the abandon and
release that took place was a reaction and a healing as
well to the world-scale trauma of that time of destruction.
Make love not war motto.
Child of God: in biblical usage this means angel (usually
son of God, also a Messianic title); in contemporary
usage it probably meant a member of the peace
movement
Yasgur’s farm: this was the venue for the festival, with a
78
large natural amphitheatre used for the performance.
Get my soul free: this means to free the soul from
material desires, and false beliefs, but in
contemporary usage it could be used more loosely to
take drugs and experience a religious feeling
We are stardust, we are golden: this is an ambiguous
statement, being both very idealistic about the
participants (we are other worldly like angels?) or we
are the dust of the stars, we are mammon – it sounds
like a comment aimed at a few particular persons, an
invitation to seek heaven more directly
Back to the garden: this has various meanings, back to a
natural earth perhaps, but surely this is back to Eden,
which is back to before the Fall, to be saved by Christ,
and enter Paradise. “Garden” is also used a term
referring to religious life in holy orders, either as a
brother or a sister. She is singing about that for some
of her listeners.
Can I walk beside you? reminiscent of Christ, or the
angel with Tobias
Smog: the pollution of the city
Something turning: a new movement, situation turning
better, people turning to God
Bombers: the bombers over Vietnam, war to peace
Riding shotgun: as the wagons rode westwards taking the
land from the native peoples, men carrying rifles ready
Billion year old carbon: all life made of carbon, also a
hint about original sin, carbon = coal = fire
Devil’s bargain: he will give you worldly success then you
will have to serve him, or he will take your soul
(Faust), i.e. to sell your soul, or a very expensive
bargain – to put up with a heavy payment to get what
you need
These two phrases are key to the song – are we going to
get our soul free, or are we going to sell our soul to
wickedness? This is truly a religious choice, but for Joni
it includes political choices as well. In fact, this choice
remains.
Joni Mitchell (1943)
For biographical details see MS 54 above.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pop
33 All You Need is Love (1967)
Words by John Lennon credited to Lennon/McCartney
Included in the albums Magical Mystery Tour
& Yellow Submarine
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say
But you can learn how to play the game
It's easy
Nothing you can make that can’t be made
No one you can save that can’t be saved
Nothing you can do
But you can learn how to be you in time
It’s easy
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Nothing you can know that isn’t known
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
Nowhere you can be
That isn't where you're meant to be
It's easy
All you need is love (All together, now!)
All you need is love (Everybody!)
Love is all you need (Love is all you need)
Yee-hai! (Love is all you need)
Yesterday (Love is all you need)
Oh yeah! (Love is all you need)
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah (Love is all you need)
She loves you, yeah yeah yeah (Love is all you need)
Comment
One of the best-known Beatles’ songs, summing up what
was best about that decade. The tension between physical
love, and selfless love (agape) is there in the song. The
song was broadcast live on a program called Our World,
the first live global television link.
Paul McCartney commented on the song: “All You Need
Is Love was John's song. I threw in a few ideas, as did the
other members of the group, but it was largely ad libs
like singing She Loves You or Greensleeves or silly things
at the end and we made those up on the spot. The chorus,
'All you need is love,' is simple, but the verse is quite
79
complex; in fact I never really understood it, the message
is rather complex. It was a good song that we had handy
that had an anthemic chorus.” Comment by Paul
McCartney in Many Years From Now, Barry Miles.
McCartney is hinting that there is more to the song than
a simple anthem about love. What can we find there?
Depending where you divide up the lines, you can
generate different messages
There’s nothing you can | do that can’t be done
Negative
vs
Positive
Obviously he was a genius, and his contribution was vital.
He was also gay, and there was a great load of
psychological suffering placed upon him by the harsh
cruelty of a hurtful and prejudicial world. Within the
message of the great song of love, we need to give more
love to others, to allow them space in which to live and
breathe, and not chain them up in terrible suffering. Let
us look at the great good given and done, look at that
which is most important – this song for the whole world,
what an achievement!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Literary
This goes against the sense however. If we divide the line
like this:
There’s nothing you can do | that can’t be done
Negative
&
Negative
The song is giving us an impossible formula and in fact,
this kind of conundrum is a feature of Zen Buddhism.
The answer lies not in the negative dilemma, but in
another way, which is supplied:
But you can learn how to be you in time
It’s easy
Focus not on what is impossible in yourself but what is
possible. Be your true self as time goes on.
The Christian response is also given as a resolution: love
will enable you to do the impossible.
There was an interesting comment on the internet
suggesting that if you add three more words to the lines
“By somebody else” then you get the meaning more
clearly. (posted by someone calling themselves StevenMark)
Anything you can do or sing or make or save, can be done,
perhaps better, by somebody else. Focus therefore on
what is possible for yourself, without pride. Learn to love.
There is an interesting pun hidden in the word “nowhere”
which could divide into “now here.” So the statement
could say: “there is nowhere for you to be, & you can be
here now.” The next phrase prompts us to consider that.
Should we be somewhere better? Is there a better way to
follow?
The song ends with subtle affirmations of the Christian
message taken from the Beatles’ early songs: “Yesterday”
is a hint for Yes = Ies = Jesus. And there might be a hint
about Mary the Holy Mother at the end of the song. But
these are hints and in fact are not noticed by millions!
(pash) I’d just like to point out that Brian Epstein
(1934-1967), who managed the Beatles during the years of
their great success, and also in this great triumph, died
the following month (Aug 1967). Paul McCartney
acknowledged his contribution as the “Fifth Beatle.”
(London, 1974) 103 & 63.
The Pearl
(Mt. 13)
I know the ways of learning; both the head
And pipes that feed the press, and make it run;
What reason hath from nature borrowed,
Or of itself, like a good huswife, spun
In laws and policy; what the stars conspire,
What willing nature speaks, what forced by fire;
Both the old discoveries, and the new-found seas,
The stock and surplus, cause and history:
All these stand open, or I have the keys:
Yet I love thee.
I know the ways of honor, what maintains
The quick returns of courtesy and wit;
In vies of favors whether party gains,
When glory swells the heart, and moldeth it
To all expressions both of hand and eye,
Which on the world a true love-knot may tie,
And bear the bundle, wheresoever it goes;
How many drams of spirit there must be
To sell my life unto my friends or foes:
Yet I love thee.
I know the ways of pleasure, the sweet strains,
The lullings and the relishes of it;
The propositions of hot blood and brains,
What mirth and music mean, what love and wit
Have done these twenty hundred years, and more.
I know the projects of unbridled store,
My stuff is flesh, not brass; my senses live,
And grumble oft, that they have more in me
Then he that curbs them, being but one to five:
Yet I love thee.
I know all these, and have them in my hand
Therefore not sealed, but with open eyes
I fly to thee, and fully understand
Both the main sale, and the commodities;
80
And at what rate and price I have thy love.
With all the circumstances that may move,
Yet through these labyrinths, not my groveling wit,
But thy silk twist let down from heaven to me,
Did both conduct and teach me, how by it
To climb to thee.
§§§
Easter-Wings
LORD, who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poor:
With thee
O let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories :
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.
My tender age in sorrow did begin:
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sin,
That I became
Most thin.
With thee
Let me combine,
And feel this day thy victory,
For, if I imp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.
Comment
The first poem asserts that the poet has worldly
knowledge, and proceeds to demonstrate this, and then
concludes by his choice of Christ. He says he knows
learning, and reason, of fate determined by stars,
scientific aspects, and new discoveries – in other words
(like John Donne) he claims to be amongst the best
informed of his world, and yet he prefers Christ (and
renounces the world). In the second verse he dissects
honor and love and fidelity, in the third verse pleasure (he
that curbs them – this is the poet himself who must
control his five senses). Understanding all these things,
he knows the cost of living in the world, and also how he
must merit the love of God – and knowing this, his own
merit is insufficient, and only the silk twist of God’s
grace can lift him up to heaven. Perhaps the silk twist
could also be the teaching in the Gospels. An attractive
presentation of a central theological belief. We are left to
work out the connection between this, and the title, “The
Pearl.” “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a
merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had
found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he
had, and bought it.” (Mt 13.45)
The second poem is a famous example of a pattern poem,
celebrating Easter with two verses shaped like symbolic
wings. This could be done easily enough in manuscript.
With the development of printing conventions, it tells us
how Herbert is flexible and witty enough to challenge
them in this way.
Fall: fall of man, Adam’s fall, original sin, having first
fallen (as an ordinary sinner) he shall rise the higher
(thanks to Christ’s resurrection and redemption)
Imp: graft on, attach
Affliction: Herbert suffered repeated illnesses, and here
seeks to rise closer to God through them
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Musical
Where is Love? (1960)
Book, Music and Lyrics: Lionel Bart
From the musical: Oliver! (1960) Film (1968)
Sung by Oliver (Mark Lester in the film)
Where is love?
Does it fall from skies above?
Is it underneath the willow tree
That I've been dreaming of?
Where is she?
Who I close my eyes to see?
Will I ever know
The sweet hello
That's only meant for me?
Who can say where she may hide?
Must I travel far and wide?
Till I am beside
The someone who
I can mean something to?
Where?
Where is love?
Every night I kneel and pray
Let tomorrow be the day
When I see the face
Of someone who
I can mean
Something to
Where?
Where is love?
Comment
Oliver Twist, the leading character, sings the song after
being thrown into the cellar of a funeral parlor, which is
filled with coffins. Although the question posed in the
song is rather out of context in the musical, it is very well
said. Where indeed is love? Is romantic love the answer?
Personal response by Pash: A beautiful song and one that
speaks to me about my old home in England, where there
used to be a beautiful willow tree in the garden – and
there’s a longing to see my mother as she was when I was
the same age as Oliver then, age 12.
In the 1968 film there’s a beautiful moment when Oliver
finishes the song, and pushes at the grating, and escapes
81
from his prison among the coffins – and this is the reply
to his question.
[OLIVER]
Anything!
+++
I’d do anything for you, dear (1960)
Book, Music and Lyrics: Lionel Bart
From the musical: Oliver! (1960) Film (1968)
Duet between the Artful Dodger and Nancy, then Oliver
and Bet
[DODGER (sung)]
I'll do anything
For you dear anything
For you mean everything to me.
I know that
I'll go anywhere
For your smile, anywhere
For your smile, everywhere
I'd see.
[NANCY]
Would you climb a hill?
[DODGER]
Anything!
[NANCY]
Wear a daffodil?
[BET]
Paint your face bright blue?
[OLIVER]
Anything!
[BET]
Catch a kangaroo?
[OLIVER]
Anything!
[BET]
Go to Timbuktu?
[OLIVER]
And back again!
I'd risk everything
For one kiss -- everything
Yes, I'd do anything
[BET]
Anything?!
[OLIVER]
Anything for you!!
[DODGER]
Anything!
++++++
[NANCY]
Leave me all your will?
[FAGIN]
Would you rob a shop?
[DODGER]
Anything!
[ALL]
Anything!
[NANCY]
Even fight my Bill?
[FAGIN]
Would you risk the drop?
[DODGER]
What? Fisticuffs?
[ALL]
Anything!
I'd risk everything
For one kiss – everything
Yes, I'd do anything
[FAGIN]
Though your eyes go, pop!
++++++
[OLIVER]
I know that
I'd go anywhere
For your smile, anywhere
For your smile, everywhere
I'd see
[BET]
Would you lace my shoe?
[ALL]
Anything!
[FAGIN]
When you come down plop!
[ALL]
Hang everything!
We'd risk life and limb
To keep you in the swim
Yes, we'd do anything!
82
[FAGIN]
Anything?
[ALL]
Anything for you.
Comment
One of the best-loved numbers from the Lionel Bart
musical Oliver! the most successful British musical of the
post-war period, from before the Lloyd Webber era. It was
the first to be very successful both on Broadway and in
the West End, and is still being revived. The film won
many awards.
The musical is adapted from the great nineteenth century
classic Oliver Twist. The cast of low-lifes, who lead a life
of petty crime, are not true villains, and in fact they have
been a strong feature of the British self-image since the
time of Shakespeare. Loyalty, self-sacrifice, love and
passion are a constant theme. A few years before Oliver!
John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera was adapted for the screen –
and this is on the same subject (see Monday Songs 6 &
20). In Shakespeare there is Falstaff and his crew, and
even further back, Robin Hood and his merry men. Bart
wrote a musical about Robin Hood.
Oliver is an orphan in the workhouse who runs away to
London. He joins Fagin’s gang of pickpockets. The
Artful Dodger (the most skillful thief) and Nancy do a
semi-parodic skit, and sing the first half of the song. In
the second half, Oliver sings the same words to Bet and
to Nancy.
There is another meaning in the song, in fact, various
meanings.
It seems to me to be a hidden song of loyalty and love to
Elizabeth II from the world of theatre and music (tongue
in cheek perhaps), and from all the state services and
others, in particular from the people who served in an
unofficial capacity, and who sometimes have to do rather
difficult things. All those angels in disguise. This is
hinted at in the name of Bet, which is short for Beth,
which is of course Elizabeth. It is also, at the same time
(because there are always a few meanings going on at the
same time) a hidden song to God, or to Jesus. Ron Moody,
who plays Fagin, does in fact look like pictures of Jesus
(but also like pictures of Judas as well.) An archetypal
Jew in appearance, perhaps a St Paul in disguise – the
film features St Paul’s Cathedral in a few pointed frames,
as if to bring this to mind.
Your smile everywhere I’d see: I want to see you smile
everywhere
Daffodil: flower of Wales
Leave me all your will: leave all your money to me, or do
anything I ask
Fight my Bill: Bill Sikes in the musical, Bill is also a name
for the Police
Lace my shoe: show humility?
The drop: being hanged
Eyes go pop: eyes pop out
Plop is the sound of something falling in water
To keep you in the swim: to keep you afloat, used of
ships, to keep you going
Lionel Bart (1930-1999)
Jewish background, born in London. Studied in art
school, then started working in theatre, songwriting. He
became well-known for his pop songs, including Cliff
Richard’s “Living Doll.” Theme song for From Russia
with Love (1963). There were a half a dozen musicals in
the 1960s. His musical Oliver! which he wrote entirely
himself, remains popular today, and reading the songs
one finds the wit and joy still undiminished.
Film on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1RgUCw88FA
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sacred
To You O Blessed One (1992)
track 21.
To you, O Blessed One
Is given heaven’s bliss
The angels pause in awe
To see such love as this.
He is our heart’s desire
The dead rise in His grace
Jerusalem on High
Is blest to see His face.
Of glory He is Lord
In splendid light arrayed
A mirror shining bright
Eternally displayed.
O gaze into this glass
O Queen and Bride of Christ
May it reflect your face
And fill you with delight.
May you be robed therein
With flowers the virtues bring
Your bridal dress befit
The daughter of the King.
Comment
This is a song based upon the Fourth letter of St Clare to
St Agnes of Prague. The content is a description of the
glorified Christ in heaven, who is described as a mirror,
into which Mary, the Holy Mother gazes. The teaching
point is that Mary reflects Jesus and is reflected in him.
Thus, in her holy appearances to the saints on earth, it is
83
also at the same time, an encounter with Jesus. In heaven,
she is an angelic spirit of high honor. Mary the Holy
Mother is close to Jesus, who is with God the Father.
These letters are important texts for the Poor Clare sisters,
because they were written by the founder of the
congregation, and were preserved carefully thereafter.
Unfortunately there not many writings extant from that
time. Saint Clare was considered to be a holy saint even
during her lifetime, and her canonization was one of the
swiftest in church history. You can find the original letters
on the Ty Mam Duw website, which also has a lot of
interesting information.
http://www.poorclarestmd.org/index.html
+++
Great Mother of the Ages Vast (1992)
track 22.
Great Mother of the ages vast
Great Mother of the ages vast
She who never old doth grow
Down from the hills
Of time now comes
Once more into our world
Bearing the glistening
Snow white lamb
The new born age
Of peace and joy
Whose banner
Even now unfurled
Shall triumph o’er the past.
Comment
A note is in the CD “Someone gave us this on a printed
sheet in 1984, author unknown.”
This is an interesting song, obviously this is Mary the
Holy Mother, but the writing of the song also includes a
hint about the Great Mother of pagan cults. Is there a
problem about such a reference? No certainly not,
because the old pagan way of understanding the world,
with a million different gods in every different land, and
with some common universal themes (such as the Great
Universal Mother, or the Sun God, or creation myths) was
God’s own gift to humanity in the process of time, a
great poetry of divine love, which we understand better
the more we grow, and gain a better knowledge. In that
sense, all the love that can be understood in the figure of
the Great Mother of ancient Greek and Roman cults (and
many other cults) was really the Eternal God’s love,
hidden behind that mask. For Great Mother read God’s
love! Likewise Mary, who signifies love and mercy.
In this Monday Songs course I have quoted songs from
Ty Mam Duw and other Poor Clare CDs. Copyright for
the material remains with them. There is no profit sought
from this publication, which is purely for education.
84
I hope you enjoyed this course – God bless and may all go well!
I hope to compile Monday Songs 6 shortly.
Stean Anthony (Paul AS Harvey)
IF YOU HAVE BENEFITTED FROM THIS TEACHING MATERIAL AND ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE HARD WORK
TAKEN TO COMPILE IT, THEN I ASK YOU RESPECTFULLY TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO A REPUTABLE
CHARITY.
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CHARITIES TO SUPPORT SPORT FOR DISABLED PERSONS IN THE POOREST COUNTRIES
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