Richard in Manchester - thanks for the citations. I suppose for some people Everybody Hurts is a hymn! It's wonderful song which was greatly enhanced by the production (by LZ's John Paul Jones no less). However, if you have ever tried to play it and perform it with people who aren't familiar with 12/8, they usually don't catch it the first time around. You're right about that swing too. it's not a bad TS.

I guess what struck me as odd about the JW hymns is that there all composed within the past 100 years and composed quite deliberately to highlight certain sections of Scripture. They do not contain personal experience or personal revelations as popular hymns do. These were composed specifically to be used along side certain scriptural texts and themes. Knowing this, you'd think, wouldn't you, that the composers would have tried for less awkward Time Signatures?

While the regulars of course have learned these and know them, every newcomer I have ever met has had to work a bit to get in the "swing" of these hymns. And no, they aren't awful. Some are incredibly beautiful.

There's one I had sung to me that I don't have the music or words to and it's simply sublime. I believe it's called 'Take Sides With Jehovah" and predates the current hymnal by a good 50 years. If anyone has the words, I'd be grateful. The woman who sung it was recounting to me the first place she'd heard it at a national convention in Yankee Stadium in the 1960s. I so wish I had field recorded her rendition. Her happy memory of the event embued her performance with a beauty I can't begin to describe.

I know people look down of JW Hymns and I understand their criticisms. I am not criticising so much as observing. I find their hymns lovely and uplifting. I enjoy that their lyrics are all either direct Scripture or paraphrases of Scripture. Some of my favorite Protestant Hymns are like that.