{"id":65,"date":"2008-07-24T17:31:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-24T21:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/?p=65"},"modified":"2023-08-27T06:47:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-27T10:47:23","slug":"songs-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/2008\/07\/24\/songs-81\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs 8:1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh that you were like a brother to me
\nWho nursed at my mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s breasts.
\n<\/em>If I found you outdoors, I would kiss you;
\nNo one would despise me, either.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"I think it is fair to say that very few things have such an eternal & unbreakable connection with all things spiritual than music.\u00c2\u00a0 At its most rooted, basic moments, music was the fruit of the religious womb, so to say.\u00c2\u00a0 It began in the steeples, with songs of devotion & praise & mourning.\u00c2\u00a0 The dawn of man is itself very deeply entrenched in religion, & truly it does not surprise me in the least that music would follow in that route quite closely.\u00c2\u00a0 Thus, for me to say that I am going to devote one blog post to the historical connection of the spiritual & the musical…that is just too ludicrous for me to think about.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, this post – part 2 in the 3-part series of religion’s influences & structures in three separate media – is going to focus on the current spaces that religion occupies in the musical world.\u00c2\u00a0 Touching for just a little while on an old devotional\/spiritual number (& that is only because I love it & you deserve to hear it), this is mostly going to be about modern Christian-influenced artists & song structures.<\/p>\n

The idea behind this, I also want to point out quickly, is not to play around with WOW Worship<\/a> artists.\u00c2\u00a0 That is boring even to ponder, & not even I would want to read about it (much less write about it).\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone knows that “Awesome God<\/a>” & “Lord I Lift Your Name On High<\/a>” are covered by 30 different pop-Christian artists each year, there is no point in touching upon that here.\u00c2\u00a0 This post, then, is dedicated to people who are taking the CCM<\/a> musical aesthetic & completely re-thinking everything it used to stand for.\u00c2\u00a0 This post is to prove that there is good<\/em> Christian-influenced music out there.\u00c2\u00a0 & if you think I am wrong, if you think I cannot possibly be telling the truth, just stick with me, please.<\/p>\n

Also, one more thing before I just shut up with the foreplay & begin.\u00c2\u00a0 I realize this is not entirely consistent with my own original idea for this trio of posts.\u00c2\u00a0 I realize this does not deal with spirituality as a whole, & is just focusing on Christian influences.\u00c2\u00a0 I realize all this.\u00c2\u00a0 I do not mind, really, that it is turning out this way.\u00c2\u00a0 You shouldn’t either.<\/p>\n

I want to kick things off with the spiritual number I mentioned earlier in passing.\u00c2\u00a0 The song “There Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down” was one that I first heard on the Goodbye, Babylon<\/em> boxset<\/a> – a cedar box with pieces of cotton stuffed inside & a booklet as thick as a Stephen King novel, five discs of incredibly uplifting & thought provoking gospel music & one disc of blood-thumping sermons.\u00c2\u00a0 Buy this boxset, buy it now.\u00c2\u00a0 Regardless: the song in question was written & originally performed by Brother Claude Ely<\/a> from Lee County, Virginia (down home boy!).\u00c2\u00a0 He was a Pentecostal preacher with a very strong sense of revival & a grip on what it takes to rattle the congregation’s emotions.\u00c2\u00a0 “There Ain’t No Grave” was recorded in an Appalachian Kentucky church, & it is one of the most tense songs you are likely to hear concerning the Christian belief system.\u00c2\u00a0 It is loud, chaotic, completely erratic, & simply amazing.\u00c2\u00a0 The final verse especially, stick it out to the final verse…the shouting, the clapping, the “yessuh!”s.<\/p>\n