iGod

Who is the most commonly sung about person in a song, dead or alive?

Here's a useless bit of trivia picked up from the Chris Evan's drive-time show last night on Radio 2.

Apparently the most frequently mentioned name in a song is...God!  This is followed by Jesus. Interestingly, the devil makes an equally high appearance at number three. A space where perhaps the Holy Spirit might have occupied to give us a truly triune experience, given the songwriting opportunity.

Does the devil have all the best tunes?  Okay, I hear you, let's not go there.

ASD

"Before All Things" - A Song for Easter

Dan Wilt has posted an Easter hymn on his blog, based on Colossians 1:15-20. He has also kindly included words and chords too.

Apart from a Sunday gathering I can also see this song working really well in a small group. It is a great meditative song and full of wonderful truths. Take time to watch it if you can.

ASD

Larry Norman - 8.4.47-24.2.08

Just heard with great sadness that American Christian musician Larry Norman has died over the weekend.  What a remarkable man he was. Coming out of the Jesus Movement in the 60s,he gave Christian music the credibility in a time when it was, quite frankly, well, naff.

Although his rocky bluesy style of music might not survived the last decades too well, he deserves to be remembered rightly with much fondness and affection.

For myself, I remember seeing him, only once, at the Greenbelt festival in 1988, I think.  I was not a practising Christian at the time, but found myself being dragged along to the August Bank Holiday weekend event. His music stood out from all the other folksy and pseudo heavy metal stuff there. I instantly loved his music and lyrics.  They were honest, passionate and real. He told it how it was.

When he sang, 'Why don't you look into Jesus/He has the answers' it touched me deeply. For anyone else to sing it might just have come across a tad cheesy.

There's a nice piece by internetmonk worth reading.  Otherwise read up about Larry on Wiki for his life's history and achievements. If you can get hold of Upon This Rock.

This is what he said about this album in an interview with Michael Spencer:

"Upon This Rock" was written to stand outside the Christian culture. I tried to create songs for which there was no anticipated acceptance. I wanted to display the flexibility of the gospel and that there was no limitation to how God could be presented. I used abrasive humour and sarcasm as much as possible, which was also not a traditional aspect of Christian music. I chose negative imagery to attempt to deliver a positive message, like "I Don't Believe in Miracles" is actually about faith. "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" talked about something I had never heard preached from a pulpit as I grew up. "The Last Supper" and "Ha Ha World" used very surreal imagery which drug users could assimilate. My songs weren't written for Christians. No, it was not a Christian album for those believers who wanted everything spelled out. It was more like a street fight. I was saying [to Christians], "I'm going to present the gospel, and I'm not going to say it like you want. This album is not for you."

ASD