When I was looking for subjects for A Life’s Work, I always considered a collector in search of a holy grail object. In the early days I thought I’d like to include someone like a film historian searching for, say, London After Midnight, the lost silent film directed by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney.
But when I became aware of Robert Darden and the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project, I knew I had found the right historian/archivist/superfan. For many reasons, not the least of which was the music.
So what does gospel music “mean” to me, a lapsed-Catholic/agnostic? What does it do for me?
I could go on and on, but instead I’m going to turn to the liner notes of Fire In My Bones (Tompkins Square), written by Mike McGonigal, who put together that anthology as well as the sequel, This May Be My Last Time Singing. The last sentence sums it all up.
That’s why.
Christine
I’m also an agnostic music lover, and I have yet to find ANYTHING that sounds better than an old Staple Singers’ song. I mean, I listen & love everything from Patsy Cline to James Brown to Fela Kuti to AC/DC to Beethoven to Bob Marley to Muddy Waters, but nothing I’ve ever heard manages to capture the beauty & raw power of Mavis Staples’ voice backed up by only her siblings & Pops playing his guitar softly in the background.
Some songs have some light drumming in the background, too, but I have yet to understand how such a simple formula can sound so amazing! It still amazes me every time I listen to them. To this day, I still get shivers every time I hear the beginning of “Sit Down Servant”, then I can’t help but clap along once the song gets going.
I don’t think the words exist to adequately explain this classic gospel sound… I just know it when I hear it, and I love it!
🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ddLu-11UE0
David Licata
[For some reason Christine’s link didn’t attach. Here is Sit Down Servant by the Staples, it’s a fantastic song.]
You did a great job explaining its appeal, Christine. I’m with you on all counts.
I have a theory about why certain songs affect us the way they do. I think it has something to do with, let’s call it frequency. I think certain voices hit certain ears in a way that act as a key to our usually locked places. It doesn’t actually have to be the frequency in kilohertz or whatever, or a voice, it can be an instrument. But it usually a voice that moves me to tears. Guitars come close. I think though, that it’s not JUST a singer, it is the song, too, and the arrangement, and the rhythm. And when those things are all lined up, that’s when the magic happens. That’s when you get head-bopping and foot-stomping and hand-clapping. With me, it happens with all kinds of music, but most frequently with old school black gospel music.
It’s not a very good theory, but it’s a theory.
Thanks for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful comment.
Robert
I think all of you are wonderfully on target! I don’t know why it hits me on a such a gut level and I’ve spent a good portion of my adult life listening to it. Certainly there is the stock response that some Christians give me — it’s the message of God speaking to you. And, as a believer, there is some of that. But to me, this is something DEEPER than religion, at least 21st century white Protestant religion. When you couple the heart-felt religious experience with a direct, apostolic connection with the use of that music as a life raft during slavery times AND connect it in a direct line to the Motherland of Africa AND set it to an irresistible beat that was forged in the furnances of a couple thousand years, to me, the question become, how CAN you resist it? This is soul music. Our hearts, our souls, and our dancin’ feet all YEARN for it!
David Licata
Thank you, Bob. You said it all.
Amen.
Christine
As Bob Marley sang in one of this songs, “One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain.” 🙂
Here is another video of Reverend Louis Overstreet illustrating the power of this music. As I mentioned, I’m agnostic, but when I watch & hear this video, I experience something I feel is probably much akin to what his congregation is experiencing.
Maybe it is the power of God, or maybe just our tribal roots’ connection to dancing around a fire while a drum plays, or who knows. But whatever it is, I don’t think there is any other music out there in the whole world that has the same power (at least that I’ve heard). Whether I understand where that experience stems from or not has no effect on how wonderful the music sounds to my ears! 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLfOjQRRL5g
(David, can you please attach the video if it doesn’t post, either? Thanks!)
David Licata
Oh that video is amazing. Rev. Overstreet was tapped into something deep, there is no doubt.
I’ve said it before, I would sell my soul to be able to play guitar like that.
Christine
Bob, you said it perfectly: “Our hearts, our souls, and our dancin’ feet all YEARN for it!” There is just something about this music that touches something deep down in our souls, even us honkys!
LOL 🙂
And David, the thought of this music as a “key to our usually locked places” really resonates with me. Maybe in our modern, rushed life, connecting with “friends” mostly through Facebook, etc., we are missing that connection of community & the strength it gives us, and this music taps into that.
And I’d love to be able to play guitar like that, too!
David Licata
Glad you liked that bit about the key.
And I think you’re definitely on to something about how gospel music is “community” music. Oh sure, a Phish fan could argue so are jam bands. But strength, too? I know Professor Darden has a lot to say about how this music braced the civil rights movements. But maybe that’s for another time.
Christine
As much as I love so many different genres of music, I personally have never fully understood the appeal of Phish (or the Grateful Dead) that so many other people I’ve known seem to feel, even under the influence of the warmth of the community, (among other things). 😉 Sure, there’s nothing wrong with it, and it’s a fun time…
But classic black gospel music just has *something* no other music I’ve heard has. I know I haven’t heard any Dead or Phish in the background, or intertwined in the chanting, in any footage I’ve personally seen of the many “Occupy” movements.
So, put that in your pipe & smoke it, ya dang hippies!
LOL
😀
David Licata
I was a Dead fan for about 10 minutes in 1978. Never actually heard Phish, though people tell me Trey Anastasio is a fine musician.
Oh great, now I’ve alienated all the Dead and Phishheads out there.
Christine
They will forgive you… despite their bad taste in music (LOL), they an amazing group of people!
I shared a house in college with a bunch of Dead Heads, which I nicknamed
“The Hippie House”, and I’ve remained really great friends with many of them. If it wasn’t for that, I probably never would have listened to the Dead or Phish.
Something that’s funny is that every conversation I’ve had with a Dead Head where I mention that I think Jerry Garcia is one of the worst singers I’ve ever heard, the inevitable response I ALWAYS get is, “Yeah, but he’s a great guitar player!”.
Another thing that stands out to me is that Dead Head music is 99% white, while classic gospel is 99% black.