Getting church songs stuck in your head: c/d?

Most of the songs from my old Baptist Hymnal are fucking excellent. Getting "How Great Thou Art" or "Great is thy Faithfulness" stuck in your head; well you could do worse!

When I survey the wondrous cross On which the prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride

Whenever I think of a hymn, the lyrics I can't remember just morph into "Danny Boy."

Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth
Of fall upon your knees & hear the angels' voices

I love old hymns v much, they can choke me right up on certain days for no really good reason at all. Plus the musical notation used to be a lot more richly filled in -- "modern" hymnals with skeletal choral parts are lose, lose, LOSE.

The melody to "How Great Thou Art" is really annoying in the chorus, though -- that high note, eurgh.

I can still sing my whole Barmitzvah passage, but no longer in the requisite just-breaking teenage voice

And then I cried, Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit

Sometimes when this place gets kind of empty,
Sound of their breath fades with the light.
I think about the loveless fascination,
Under the milky way tonight.

Bet i was teh only one to come up with that one huh

I always liked http://www.carols.org.uk/once_in_royal_davids_city.htm

The doxology is pretty classic stuff.

otoh, A Mighty Fortress is Our God is awful weak beer and, when permanently stuck in the forebrain, would madden whoever it did not kill.

Ohh noooo, I like A Mighty Fortress, the supporting parts are great.

Mostly because they're frequently in opposition to the melody.

Classic. I grew up Catholic, so I get shit like "Gather Us In" and "On Eagles' Wings" stuck in my head.

lol on eagles wings was the first one that popped into my head when i read this thread title

"Gather Us In" is the best: "Gather us in, the RICH and the HAUGHTY. Gather us in, the PROUD and the STRONG."

haha now i remember that one too

was that like sung during the opening of the mass when the priest & his crew marches in?

And "Mighty Fortress" is the theme music to puppet cartoon "Davey and Goliath." I selected it for inclusion in my first wedding ceremony (in a Catholic church) for that very reason, and the priest was all "Well, that's certainly a very Lutheran choice!"

this happens to me a lot. i played a church gig for years, and nearly all of my bands play some gospel trads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwRC2QoEkyg

I don't remember, deeznuts. Another favorite: "Be Not Afraid."

When I go to "Contemporary" protestant services the music is so insipid, lyrically and compositionally. Teenage love songs to Jesus. Crikey.

be not afraid
i will be with you always
come - follow me
blah blha blah blah blah blahhhhhhh

weird, i had 'under the milky way tonight' stuck in my head all day yesterday.

I guess I am just used to A Mighty Fortress being sung at a lugubrious pace by a congregation of mediocre voices, accompanied by a ham-fisted organist. If permitted, I would have crawled beneath the pew and cowered.

i think 'over in the gloryland' is my favorite gospel song

http://www.gospelchops.com/

I get Mormon kids songs stuck in my head:

Book of Mormon stories that my teacher tells to me (dun dun)
Are about the Lamanites in ancient history (dun dun)
Long ago their fathers sailed from far across the sea (dun dun)
Given this land
If they live
RIGH-TEOUS-LY!

This one has kind of a Middle-Eastish vibe to it. My friend played the melody tuned down a few octaves on a bass and it sounded a little like Ulver.

If You Could Hie to Kolob is another Mormon song with an interesting arrangement.

I really like Grant Green's "In the Spirit" record, but I was brought up churchless, and besides a few gospel things here and there mostly only have heard things like "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." That one there is as dud as music has ever been.

Book of Mormon stories on the Gibson

"Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam" is fun as a kid bcz there was some tradition of hopping out of the chair whenever the BEAM part came up and yelling the word BEAM super load.

Okay Book of Mormon Stories is just kind of a rude jam all around.

Like a wicked slowed-sown version from Danielle Dax wld pretty much be the ultimate.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord? stuck in your head: C.

Annnnnnd he WALKS with me and he TALKS with me stuck in your head: D.

I like to sing "Do You Hear What I Hear" (more an Xmas carol than church song and therefore off-topic, but what the hell) changing the lyrics to:

A child, a child sleeping in the night
with a head as big as a cow,
with a head as big as a cow.

This amuses me.

depends on whether you attend(ed) a church where they play traditional-style music or crappy casio keyboard shit written by old church ladies

Have you seen Jesus my Lord?
He's tall and he's blue.
Take a look (take a look!) open your ey-yes -
He's taller than you!

that should probably just read "eyes"

thanks guys, i have 'down by the riverside' stuck in my head now

I didn't know that Neil Young made church songs!

tho i guess that's more a song i sung in imaginings of what church should be like. also a campfire song. i haven't been to church all that regularly, in my life.
xpost

would full on go to any church that sings only neil young songs

i mean 'church'

that's the song in the church video i posted, robyn

I sang "Down by the Riverside" in high-school choir. That's probably how I know half the spirituals I know ("Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho," "Ain't That Good News," etc.) rather than in church.

btw i'm white

i'm jewish

rock of ages cleft for me
let me hide myself in thee

weird

Old ones, classic.
Happy-clappy new ones, as popularised by creepy evangelist fundamentalist churches, dud.

Having the lyrics to "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord" permanently ruined by a bit in a David Mamet play, dud. (Now I always hear the "He is screaming down the alley in a black and yellow Ford" bit for the second line).

Oh come on, you didn't sing this as a kid?

Gory, gory Hallelujah,
Teacher hit me with a ruler
I hid behind the door with a loaded 44
Now teacher doesn't teach at my school no more

Joy to the world
Saddam is dead
We barbecued his head
What happened to his body?
We flushed it down the potty
And round and round it went (x3)

I heard my grade-school cousin sing this one about OSAMA. How times have changed.

I found myself whistling Eternal Father, Strong to Save the other day, that tune is amzing.

amaazing*

where could I go but to the lord

xpost At boarding school we sang that hymn as well as hymns to the tunes of land of hope and glory and the german national anthem. It was a catholic school but iirc we pretty much only sang protestant hymns.

..and I have not been to "mass" since i left the place

I went to a super-small Pentecostal church where the Pastor's son was a music major, so we got like CCM worship tunes done in a jazz fusion style. It was actually pretty cool, I looked forward to church every week just cause the band was hot. Call the lyrics vapid if you want, but I sang the shit out of them "happy clappy" songs when I was 12 and really believed them too.

nice recording of Eternal Father, Strong to Save here

Mr. Big Hoos, this is a revelation of your spiritual background that I much appreciate. Thank you.

abbzott we sang that one with 'the teacher' in place of saddaam, we knew what was up

its all u man, its all u xp

be not afraid
i will be with you always
come - follow me
blah blha blah blah blah blahhhhhhh

I think it goes:
Be not afraid
I go before you always
come, follow me
and I will give you rest

The best verse for sure is the one that goes "you shall stand before the pow'r of hell and death is at your side."

i get old school gospel stuck in my head on the reg fwiw

"down by the riverside" and whatnot"

"On Eagles Wings" is also stellar and played at, like, every Catholic mass. Weddings, christenings, the 23rd Sunday in ordinary time, whatever. It's particularly tearjerky at funerals. I think I'm doing fine, then--WHAM--"On Eagle's Wings" starts up and I'm sobbing.

I doubt there are that many Sundays in ordinary time...

oh man i haven't heard the phrase ordinary time in ages

All other time is EXTRAORDINARY.

Of course it is. By definition.

One of the things we did a lot at Bible Camp was go to The Barn every evening to sing some songs together to praise Christ. Several of the camp counselors would bring their acoustic guitars up to the front, and they'd have an overhead projector displaying the lyrics to various songs they would play for us. The lyric sheets were always accompanied by hand-drawn art complementing the lyrics (song about Christ's love making you "shine" --> assorted diamonds drawn into the margins). One of the songs that really sticks out is "I Want More of Jesus" because the art was a guy pushing a lawnmower with a big shiteating grin on his face, and we were supposed to actually pronounce, for whatever reason, "more" as "mower." The lyrics were

I want more of Jesus
More and more and more
I want more of Jesus
than I've ever had before (yee-haw!)
I want more of his great love
so rich and full and free
I want more of Jesus
so I'll give him more of me!

The verses got faster and faster and faster. Such great fun. There was also a camp dog named Festus that roamed the grounds.