Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???

Subject: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 13 May 02 - 05:04 PM

Fer instance...

Todd Snider has a really cool song called "Somebody's Comin'"

"Tell all those people at the end of the line
Somebody's comin'
Tell all those people holding "I'll work for food" signs
Somebody's coming"

It's obviously a song about Jesus but in a cool kinda subtle way...

Now, I'm not X-tian at all... and I'm certainly not religious... (as a matter of fact, I'm anti-agonised religion, in the grand tradition of guys like George Carlin!) but I'd LOVE to cover this song...

Is it too much of a reach?

How far do you reach?

How far is too far?

;-)

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: GUEST,The Magic Atheist
Date: 13 May 02 - 05:29 PM

Don't think of it as literal, think of it as metaphor--which is the level that it works for you on--when you get it so it feels right to you, it will fit right in with the other stuff you do--too far is when you love the song, but you can't get it to work--

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 13 May 02 - 06:01 PM

Interesting... but the song is actually a little heavy handed to be metaphor... Perhaps I'll post the lyrics to better explain...

But...

I wasn't really looking for specific advice about this one song... I more just wanted to chat about the subject in general...

Do AAing folkies sing "drinking" songs? I suppose would be another example...

;-)

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 May 02 - 06:13 PM

Well, I can sing from the Atheist Hymnal, so why not? It's just a slightly farther-than-usual stretch of my ecumenism.

Anyway you have MY permission to sing it! *G*

~Susan

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 May 02 - 06:32 PM

I think to sing any song you've got to believe it in some way while you are singing it. That can mean you are singing in a character that isn't exactly you, but in a way that's what we're doing all the time.

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 13 May 02 - 06:34 PM

"you've got to believe it in some way while you are singing it."

Cool...

I'm reminded of the poster in Mulders office on X-files... "I WANT to believe"

;-)

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 13 May 02 - 06:34 PM

I'd say if you can sing it with conviction, go for it. If it's something that moves you to sing it for an audience then it's probably a song you can do. If there's bits that bother you, perhaps you should let it be someone else's song.

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: CapriUni
Date: 16 May 02 - 12:34 AM

I posted to this a long message to this thread, yesterday, during one of the brief times that Mudcat was working... and the 'Cat stopped working in the middle of the [Submit Message] procedure... I was hoping the message squeaked through under the wire, but it didn't. So I'll try to sum up in two (or more) lines:

1) Don't just write (or sing) what you know...

So many people seem to think that the old saw "Write what you know" means they have to be more or less autobiographical. But the truth is, we know much more about life than the stuff that statistics (such as beliefs about religion) reveal about us. The important stuff, such as our emotional compasses, tends to be stuff we all share. 2) ...but what you Believe

As others have said before me, you have to have some integrity, some conviction, behind what you are singing. So -- to take the song you gave as an example -- you don't believe in the song's message about Jesus of Nasereth. But there probably is something in that song you can believe in, even if it's not in the surface message (maybe the idea conveyed not to give up hope), or you wouldn't have called it "a really cool song".

To use your second example... I am a tea-totaller, but I love singing drinking songs. Most of them are not "about" drinking, anyway, but about friendship and living with enthusiasm -- and those things, I can champion with a clear conscience, because I agree with them.

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 May 02 - 12:40 AM

Well said CapriUni!

;-)

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 May 02 - 12:48 AM

I agree. I don't care if the subject of a song is falling in love, or a S/He Done Me Wrong song or praise to a Saviour or a mournful cry of angst- at that moment, you'd better believe it...

Of course, there are people, even singers, who pay little attention to the lyrics of a song, who resonate only to the music or the rhythm or the mood. And that's OK, I suppose. It usually shows, though. IMO

I have sometimes introduced a song with the comment that I may not believe what the song is saying, (Hey, am I going around slitting some faithless maid's throat?) but that I do believe in honoring its point of view.

I say, do it, Clinton. And let us know people's reactions!

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: GUEST,ozmacca
Date: 16 May 02 - 12:49 AM

I'm reminded of some sage advice I was given more years ago than I care to recall.

Sincerity is ultimately the key to succeeding. You've got to be sincere about whatever you do ... and if you can't be sincere, then fake it.

Seems to work for most folks - politicians to name but two (faced, that is).

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: Socorro
Date: 16 May 02 - 01:53 AM

Better be careful, though. If you start singing songs about Jesus, you could end up Christian - it happened to me! (Through traditional black gospel music)

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 May 02 - 02:04 AM

Couldn't hurt, Socorro! Just don't sing the slitting-the-faithless-one's throat songs. :)

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 16 May 02 - 02:47 AM

I like singing sea shanties but, although I'm the son of a mariner, I've never been further than the North Sea ferry to Zeebrugge.
I sing songs about the countryside but I'm a city boy.
I know loads of Irish songs and play Celtic jigs and reels but I've only ever been to Ireland on holiday.

If we were only allowed to sing or play what was within our own experience then my repertoire would be pretty thin. I work in an oil refinery. There isn't much romance when your job is boiling oil.


Doug C

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: Genie
Date: 16 May 02 - 02:49 AM

Clinton, I love to sing Sixteen Tons, Okie From Muskogee, Detroit City, Summertime, Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen, and Seven Nights Drunk (among many others). I'm not male, not a redneck, not an Okie, hardly a coal miner or auto worker, not Jewish, not a mother, etc., etc. But, then, who wants to hear a song about a middle-class American white broad who never married or had kids (and isn't singing the blues about that) or underwent any great tragedy?

As several have pointed out above, the question is whether you can relate to the feelings and ideas expressed in the song. I CAN relate to "another day older and deeper in debt," for instance!

Anyway, that's my $.02 worth.

Genie

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: kendall
Date: 16 May 02 - 07:11 AM

"Agonized" religeon; I like that CH. Mind if I steal it? I always figure that if I can sing a plaintive love song from a woman's point of view, I can't get much further out in left field! However, I do get a chuckle out of hearing pre teen girls singing the clean version of "Blow the man"

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: kendall
Date: 16 May 02 - 07:12 AM

DOWN!!

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: GUEST,T-boy
Date: 16 May 02 - 07:49 AM

I would have thought all folkies go through this to some extent, after all we are interested in songs from a social context which is no longer our own. There are traditional songs about foxhunting, cripples and beating up foreigners which don't necessarily accord with my own views but it doesn't stop me singing them. Hymns too, and I'm an atheist.

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 May 02 - 08:20 AM

Well met, Socorro!

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: 53
Date: 16 May 02 - 10:28 AM

Keep on playing gospel music and wait for what happens. You will be surprized.

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 May 02 - 12:32 PM

Well, I can tell ya there's absolutely NO danger of me becoming a X-tian...

Maybe I'll hve to come up with a disclaimer for when I do sing the song...

:-)

Subject: RE: Help: Playing a song that don't suit ya???
From: CapriUni
Date: 16 May 02 - 12:35 PM

Socorro and 53 --

Perhaps singing will lead to believing, especially if that belief is buried somewhere deep insidee, and the song brings it forth (like an old fashioned hand pump brings water up from the depths).

But in my case, when I was a young teen, I tried desperately to be Christian, and to abandon my earlier beliefs in magic as not being suitable for the real grown-up life I was just entering. I even composed (but didn't write down) long, complex hymns to God and Jesus which I would sing at the top of my lungs (or from the depths -- singing from the top of your lungs won't give you much voice). But it didn't take.

I finally found spiritual peace and joy when I grew up to be Pagan, embracing my earlier beliefs.

But that's just it: the beliefs have to come from inside you, and not be defined by the labels those in the society at large impose on you.

I still sing a few Christian hymns, now and then (such as "Amazing Grace", "Joys Are Flowing Like a River, and "How Can I Keep From Singing?"), because they really are some of the most aesthetically beautiful songs in the tradition, but I don't focus on any specific religious teaching they express, but rather on their expression that life is a Divine gift, and the world is full of joy.