Christmas – Now & Then

In 1972, we picked up a record that had a huge influence on our musical take on Christmas. There’s certainly something in me, my make-up, that steers me away from the more conventional or popular styles of Christmas music. We fell in love with the ‘Matthew Green Orchestra’, with its driving guitar & Moog synth backings, pop-folk style singing. Popular Christmas carols done like folk songs. I was never going to be able to do the songs in church-hymn style – these grabbed me. ‘We Three Kings’, ‘Away in a manger’, ‘Angels we have heard on high’ and a host of others have been part of our repertoire ever since.
Some of the music is folk song anyway. Others, like ‘Silent Night’, were written & performed on lute in the first place & ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ is a calypso song.
Of course, this suits me fine. I wanted to be able to celebrate Christmas in a way that was real to me. I wanted to play these songs with guitar. Though there’s a few that don’t really go (‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ a good example), most do, & I think some work far better with a pop-folky style.
So on Christmas Eve, at the 2 early services at St Stephen’s (6.30 & 8.30) we’ll lead the music for our Lessons & Carols Service with Dorothy Mann & Beth Christian on vocals, Jon Mann on bass, Thom Mann on drums, Monica Christian on keys & Robin Mann on guitar & vocals.
‘O Come, all ye faithful’!

Feed us now, Bread of life

Unlike ‘Comfort, comfort’ I remember very little about the writing of this song. The date attached to it tells me that it was 1976, the year I wrote a big number of songs. The style says I probably worked most of it out on piano, even though it’s a bossa nova rhythm which is more guitar. Which came first, words or music? I don’t know. They often happen together, though either may be changed completely along the way.
As with many of my songs, it’s both a prayer & a faith-statement: v.1 is all prayer, in v.2 only lines 2,4 & 8, & in v.3 lines 3 & 4, 7 & 8. The themes that are strong are found in many of my songs: love, mercy, promise, trust & the closeness of God (‘God is here, oh, so near’)
It’s a slow song, & done this way it gives space & time to the words. I always like to start it simple, add a little in verse 2, then fill it out in verse 3.
It’s been chosen for tomorrow at St Stephen’s & I’m pleased to be part of the music group that’ll play it.
‘May we always feed on you, on the bread that is true’

Comfort, comfort all my people

4 days after our twin sons were born (July 7 1975), by Caesarean at 38 weeks (& still they were 6 lb 7 oz & 7 lb), I went to see Dorothy in hospital after the day’s work. She was crying, & had easily got all the new mothers in the ward crying too. The prospect of mothering these 2 new boys, along with our almost 2 year old daughter was daunting! I of course did what any caring, considerate husband would do — I wrote a song! Never one of Dorothy’s favourites, it’s been widely used and loved. And perhaps it’s the only song of mine that I remember exactly where I was when the idea of it came into my head. After leaving the Queen Victoria Hospital (no longer functioning), driving back to my brother’s place, a rainy night, at the corner of Greenhill & Fullarton Roads, ‘Comfort comfort’ happened. Of course, it wasn’t ‘all’ there, but the essential details were.

Comfort, comfort all my people
with the comfort of my word.
Speak it tender to my people:
"All your sins are taken away."
1. Though your tears be rivers running,
though your tears be an ocean full,
though you cry with the hurt of living, comfort, comfort!
Every valley shall be lifted ….

Years later, I was asked if I could write 2 verses for the Christmas Bowl Appeal in 1988. I did, & recently I used one of these verses quite a few times when I was singing with people in Victoria & New South Wales.

1. Though we build strong walls for prisons,
though we feast while others starve,
though we fill this world with weapons, comfort, comfort!
Every prisoner will be rescued,
every hungry mouth be filled,
every gun will rust, forgotten, comfort, comfort!
2. Though we fracture God's creation,
though we stand so far apart,
though we fail to love each other, comfort, comfort!
Every wall will crack and crumble,
every stranger will be friend,
every one embrace another, comfort, comfort!
A good song to use during Advent, especially when the text it’s based on (Isaiah 40) is one of the readings.

Waiting

‘They were waiting … for the promises to be fulfilled … Now the time has come … we’ve been waiting, Come, Lord Jesus’
Mixed up season is Advent. We look back, look forward. Meanwhile, the event we’re hoping for has already happened. But still we say & sing the prayer ‘Come, Lord Jesus’.
Back in 1989 I tried to put these contradictory thoughts into a song ‘They were waiting’ (in All Together Everybody 1991). Like many songs, it goes from telling a story to prayer. The story goes from then to now – again, like so many songs & prayers in Christian traditions: ‘They were hoping, we’ve been hoping — come, Lord Jesus, won’t you come.’
And still we wait, & hope, & watch for pretty much the same things as they did 2,000 years ago. They were waiting for peace, no more fighting. So are we. They were hoping for justice, no oppression. So are we. They were watching for signs, for singing, celebration. So do we.
Come, Lord Jesus, won’t you come!

All is vanity

All the readings set down for this week in the annual church diary (Australian Church Resources), leading into the season of Advent, are from Ecclesiastes:
Monday: (1:1-11) ‘Vanity of vanities…! All is vanity’
Tuesday: (2:1-16) Ditto
Wednesday: (3:1-15) ‘For everything there is a season’
Thursday: (8:14-9:10) ‘the same fate comes to all, to the righteous & the wicked’
Friday: (11:9-12:14) ‘The end of the matter … Fear God & keep his commandments’

Fatalistic?
Perhaps, but it’s a great reminder to all of us who’re inclined to get carried away by our own ideas, to keep our feet on the ground. Being realistic about life in general, & our own life in particular, is a good idea. Especially in a time when movies, TV shows, advertising all want us to wander off into some cloud-cuckoo land where we can escape the boundaries of ‘muscle & blood, skin & bone’. The old Tennessee Ernie Ford song had a fair dose of Ecclesiastes in it:
You load 16 tons & what do you get:
another day older & deeper in debt.
St Peter, don’t you call me ‘cos I can’t go -
I owe my soul to the company store

A new beginning?

Our congregation, St Stephen’s Lutheran in Adelaide, was seriously divided in 2003. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was a major problem.
While this was happening the new church year was about to begin. I wrote new words to an old tune, Hassler’s ‘O Sacred Head’. The words of verse 1 & 3 are a prayer, a plea, while verse 2 is a reflection on the beauty of the world, & the sad state of humanity.
Hassler’s tune, from the 16th century, has always been a favourite, & works just as well on guitar as on piano or organ. (Paul Simon used it for his ‘American Tune’ on his ‘There goes Rhymin Simon’ album back in 1973). With a simple rhyming pattern of ABCB (x2), it’s a great bit of music to use for the right subject.
1. Give us a new beginning
where we can start again.
So many things are broken
that only you can mend.
Your presence can revive us,
the touch of your embrace.
We walk in deepest darkness,
— show us your loving face.
2. Such beauty in a flower,
such glory in the sky;
and yet our lives unravel
no matter what we try.
Such constant disappointment
when dreams are crushed once more,
when truth is rarely spoken,
and peace turns into war.
3. O come to us, Lord Jesus,
we’re fearful and distressed.
The earth and heaven tremble
and nothing is at rest.
O come and make a new world
where tears are wiped away,
where love is like the bright sun
that rises ev’ry day.
Luther suggests we begin each day asking for forgiveness for wrongs done, & asking for a new start. Good advice, I think.

When easy answers come

I’m seriously over easy answers to hard questions!
Not that I was ever into them.
Talking with a friend last week, he gets so cross when pious answers, so-called ‘correct’ answers, are given to perplexing questions. I’d been reading the book of Job after a series of readings from there in the church year. And, of course, I wrote a song. Called ‘When easy answers come’ (the first line!), it picks up some of Job’s talk after a ‘friend’ gives answers to Job’s suffering & questions. I wish we had a lot more songs that grow faithfully out of the questions & doubts in the Bible.

When easy answers come To questions why
We look for God to hear us — There’s no reply.
In front or close behind me, You’re never seen.
If I could ever find you What would you say or mean?

Disaster strikes again We ask you why
Why don’t you ever answer Before we die?
Rich people have the power, Live long and well
Their children play in safety, They hear no tolling bell.

O God of every space, My heart it cries
For when I start to question You terrify
The darkness weighs upon me, It holds me down
Your thoughts are way beyond me And silent is your sound.

Songs like this are as much an affirmation of faith ( maybe more) as the loveliest song of praise

Love is the Law

Ages since I did any blogging!
Thought I might write some things about songs.
Love is the Law is an early one. The tune I heard on Steeleye Span’s album Hark the village wait (their first?). The song was Copsawholme Fair, a jaunty piece. Like so many of the songs I do, the tune often subconsciously links with the words. While this song has tension in it – ‘it’s always a struggle between right and wrong’ – it finally arrives at Love winning over Law. It’s one of those songs that some more conservative people have problems using, especially the last verse. It’s too free, has too many inbuilt contradictions. Unfortunately, I agreed to one or two small changes in the verse when it was published in All Together Again. I prefer the original:
We thank you, our Father, for freedom to slip,
for freedom to stumble, for freedom to trip;
Christ is our brother & Christ is our King.
Love is the song he has taught us to sing
Like quite a few of my early songs, this compares us humans with the natural world – ‘O how I wish I could be just like the sun’ – & reflects that we don’t measure up. But with ‘the promise of God’ & the encouragement to love, maybe we can become what we really are.