A favorite song for the season is simply called "The Easter Song"...Written by a member of the Protestant group, 2nd Chapter of Acts--though in my opinion, recorded most beautifully by Keith Green (a rabid anti-Catholic). The best line is "Jesus Christ is no longer dead"....not because of itself, as such, but because of what it says without words--if Jesus Christ is NO LONGER DEAD--then he MUST have BEEN dead. The price of sin is the absolute seperation of the soul from God--which is a price which WE cannot pay....ONLY Jesus, as man and God, could pay that price.
Love the reference to PDQ Bach......a favorite is 'The Unbegun Symphony', playing on Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" (his 9th if I remember correctly.)
Mark, I lived in Nashville during the Jesus People movement days (mid-1970's), and used to see the 2nd Chapter of Acts live at the Koinonia Bookstore/Fellowship. I have an old cassette recording somewhere of me and my singing partner, doing "Two Roads." Thanks for reminding me of what was good about those long-ago days.
I still have some old recordings from back in the late 70's and early 80's--some re-released on CD, others that I transfered to CD myself. Larry Norman--not great music, but fun, and a lot of styles; Chuck Girard--especially a song that remains VERY important to me (Lay Your Burden Down); even an album released locally, written by someone I knew...Paul Quarella, titled 'Book of Love'--mostly for one song, (Peter, James, John) the only song I've ever heard revolving around Jesus' in the garden finding the 3 asleep.
And this was all when my family used to go camping most weekends during the summer, and at least once a year went up near Weston and we went to Mass at the Weston Priory while the original monks who made the albums were there...Looking back on it, the liturgies there were quite silly, with their own additions....but fond memories none-the-less.
Mark, I look back and see that some of what I experienced then was sometimes silly, but that the actual churches I attended in those days were not silly. But Tony, on the other hand, had had the church of his youth taken over with the silly (and worse). It's been a ministry of mine (and his, once we met me) to encourage traditional hymnody and to avoid to the extent possible the debased and (as I might sometimes gasp, "the heresy" that had and still has taken over church music. I have many fond memories of my Jesus People days, and some very sad ones, too. But it was something like boot camp, too!
Yes -- PDQ Bach! There was a while when we had really intelligent comics whose work did well on vinyl records... PDQ Bach, the early Bill Cosby, Tom Lehrer, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore ... Others sometimes harsher and often racier, but still crazily inventive, like Firesign Theater, Robert Klein ... What happened to all of that?
"Jesus Christ is no longer dead" -- powerful way to put it. Milton: the Son speaking to the Father:
I must admit, to my shame, never having read Milton, Dante or any poets--I tried, once, but had neither the patience nor ever a teacher able to guide me...if only I could have studied under Robin Williams, lol.
All of the old comedy that was so good came from people who, even if not "classically" educated, had at least received SOME education.....Now, well, the best we can hope for is a comedian who is current with the latest commercials.
I don't often see any reference to Peter Cooke & Dudley Moore...brilliant (I even have a CD of the Dudley Moore Trio, some great jazz.) A sad reality is that so much of the great comedy from Britain is gone--often because way back, the recording tapes would get deleted & reused!
Oh, Mark, don't get me going on those great old Brit shows which were "wiped" (as they used to call it) to reuse the tapes. YIKES. And you are right the that particular set of comics were well-educated, and that their comedy was an expression of actual genius. It says a lot that John Cleese stopped doing gigs at universities because he said that the students no longer had any sense of humor. and that he just couldn't take it anymore. But oh, to have MORE of those old recordings back!
A favorite song for the season is simply called "The Easter Song"...Written by a member of the Protestant group, 2nd Chapter of Acts--though in my opinion, recorded most beautifully by Keith Green (a rabid anti-Catholic). The best line is "Jesus Christ is no longer dead"....not because of itself, as such, but because of what it says without words--if Jesus Christ is NO LONGER DEAD--then he MUST have BEEN dead. The price of sin is the absolute seperation of the soul from God--which is a price which WE cannot pay....ONLY Jesus, as man and God, could pay that price.
Love the reference to PDQ Bach......a favorite is 'The Unbegun Symphony', playing on Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" (his 9th if I remember correctly.)
Mark, I lived in Nashville during the Jesus People movement days (mid-1970's), and used to see the 2nd Chapter of Acts live at the Koinonia Bookstore/Fellowship. I have an old cassette recording somewhere of me and my singing partner, doing "Two Roads." Thanks for reminding me of what was good about those long-ago days.
I still have some old recordings from back in the late 70's and early 80's--some re-released on CD, others that I transfered to CD myself. Larry Norman--not great music, but fun, and a lot of styles; Chuck Girard--especially a song that remains VERY important to me (Lay Your Burden Down); even an album released locally, written by someone I knew...Paul Quarella, titled 'Book of Love'--mostly for one song, (Peter, James, John) the only song I've ever heard revolving around Jesus' in the garden finding the 3 asleep.
And this was all when my family used to go camping most weekends during the summer, and at least once a year went up near Weston and we went to Mass at the Weston Priory while the original monks who made the albums were there...Looking back on it, the liturgies there were quite silly, with their own additions....but fond memories none-the-less.
Mark, I look back and see that some of what I experienced then was sometimes silly, but that the actual churches I attended in those days were not silly. But Tony, on the other hand, had had the church of his youth taken over with the silly (and worse). It's been a ministry of mine (and his, once we met me) to encourage traditional hymnody and to avoid to the extent possible the debased and (as I might sometimes gasp, "the heresy" that had and still has taken over church music. I have many fond memories of my Jesus People days, and some very sad ones, too. But it was something like boot camp, too!
Yes -- PDQ Bach! There was a while when we had really intelligent comics whose work did well on vinyl records... PDQ Bach, the early Bill Cosby, Tom Lehrer, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore ... Others sometimes harsher and often racier, but still crazily inventive, like Firesign Theater, Robert Klein ... What happened to all of that?
"Jesus Christ is no longer dead" -- powerful way to put it. Milton: the Son speaking to the Father:
Behold me then, me for him, life for life
I offer; on me let thine anger fall;
Account me Man; I for his sake will leave
Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee
Freely put off, and for him lastly die
Well-pleased; on me let Death wreak all his rage.
Under his gloomy power I shall not long
Lie vanquished; thou hast given me to possess
Life in myself forever, by thee I live
Though now to Death I yield, and am his due
All that of me can die, yet that death paid,
Thou wilt not leave me in the loathsome grave
His prey, nor suffer my unspotted soul
Forever with corruption there to dwell,
But I shall rise victorious ....
I must admit, to my shame, never having read Milton, Dante or any poets--I tried, once, but had neither the patience nor ever a teacher able to guide me...if only I could have studied under Robin Williams, lol.
All of the old comedy that was so good came from people who, even if not "classically" educated, had at least received SOME education.....Now, well, the best we can hope for is a comedian who is current with the latest commercials.
I don't often see any reference to Peter Cooke & Dudley Moore...brilliant (I even have a CD of the Dudley Moore Trio, some great jazz.) A sad reality is that so much of the great comedy from Britain is gone--often because way back, the recording tapes would get deleted & reused!
Oh, Mark, don't get me going on those great old Brit shows which were "wiped" (as they used to call it) to reuse the tapes. YIKES. And you are right the that particular set of comics were well-educated, and that their comedy was an expression of actual genius. It says a lot that John Cleese stopped doing gigs at universities because he said that the students no longer had any sense of humor. and that he just couldn't take it anymore. But oh, to have MORE of those old recordings back!