Feed Your Ears

[Luigi]

Little Richard (real name Richard Penniman) is considered The Architect of Rock & Roll. He started recording in 1955 and was immediately successful. But from '57 to '63, he abandoned rock & roll and recorded Gospel music - at least three albums of a dozen songs each. This is "Joy Joy Joy (Down in My Heart)" from 1962, produced by Quincy Jones. It's a traditional song, maybe part of the "spirituals" repertoire. Ray Repp recorded a version of it in the immediate post-Vatican-Two era and it was sung in Catholic churches all across the nation. I think it's still used as a Sunday School song in lots of denominations. 

 

Edited July 15 by Luigi

[Luigi]

I posted a song by Keith Green previously. Here's another of his, called "To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice," which fits with the first reading today for the feast of St. Bonaventure. The lyrics are not all taken straight from the Bible, and it's always a little dangerous to put one's own words into the mouth of a prophet, or God. But he does make make the point. 

 

[Luigi]

This is the Swanee Quintet singing "Jesus Is a Rock (in a Weary Land)." It's got that steady 'walking beat' and the lyrics are really just a collection of standard phrases that developed in the spirituals era. One thing that makes it interesting is that the lead singer sings like Sam Cooke - his voice isn't similar, but his phrasings, grace notes, etc. are similar. 

 

[Luigi]

This is Emmylou Harris singing with Johnny Cash, Ricky Skaggs, and some others. The song is "Jordan." It doesn't have anything to do with today's readings, I just like it a lot! The musicians - listed below the video - are/were some of the best in Nashville. 

 

[Luigi]

This is The Byrds singing the classic "Turn Turn Turn" - words from Ecclesiastes (except last line), music by Pete Seeger. Mid-Sixties. 

 

[Luigi]

This is Clara Ward and the Famous Ward Singers, of Philadelphia, with "Time Is Winding Up." It starts with the chorus twice and then the verses come in. It's a variation on "Turn! Turn! Turn" taken from Ecclesiastes, although I don't know which was written first. Ward was a gifted singer and arranger, but she also established a booking agency for Gospel groups, helping to build the business end of Gospel music. She was quite a force in Gospel music even though she died at age 48. 

 

[Luigi]

Mattie Johnson and the Stars of Faith sing "Give Me a Little More Time to Pray." This is a high-energy number. 

 

[Luigi]

Ira and Charlie Louvin were known professionally as The Louvin Brothers. They were from Tennessee, and they had a string of hits - both Gospel and pop - in the Fifties into the Sixties. Ira was a troubled soul - married four times, shot by one of his wives when he tried to strangle her with a telephone cord, hard drink, given to fits of anger, etc. But they had a very pure sound; Ira had an impossible high clear tenor voice, and Charlie sang what's called "close harmony" with him. This is "I Just Steal Away and Pray," which has been recorded by any number of other groups since it was originally issued - it's pretty much a standard in country Gospel these days. 

 

[Luigi]

Here's Mahalia Jackson with a slow Gospel number, "In the Upper Room." 

 

[Luigi]

The Jackson Southernaires are no relation to the Jackson Five. These guys are from Jackson, MS. They started recording in the 1960s. I've been posting songs about prayer this week, and "Prayer Changes Things" sticks with that theme. They have a very traditional Gospel sound. 

 

[Luigi]

This is another men's Gospel group from Jackson, MS, The Williams Brothers. They're singing "Pray on, My Child." The Staples Singers also recorded this song - they do a more stripped down version than the Williams Brothers, who use more instruments and a back-up choir. 

 

[Luigi]

Here's another from Dorothy Love Coates and the Gospel Harmonettes with some good advice for us - "Stop! Take a Little Time to Pray." 

 

 

[Luigi]

I've previously posted another song by the O'Neal Twins. This one is "Lord, Help Me Stay Prayed Up." It's an energetic number. Everyone knows the concept of being "caught up" with work, the laundry, the bills, etc., and I like the idea that the concept can be applied to prayer. 

 

[Luigi]

Sister Wynona Carr was a Cleveland Gospel singer from the late Forties to the early Sixties. She was not all that well received in the Gospel music community because she didn't have a classic "Gospel" voice - she had more of a pop music voice. And she wrote songs in the styles of the music that was popular at the time. This is "Life Is a Ball Game," released in 1952 - it incorporates "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in the intro and the outro, and it has a beat you can dance to. But the lyrics are an extended metaphor. All in all, it's a fun song, but it still has a serious goal. 

 

[Luigi]

This is a song composed and sung by Vernon Oxford, who is not a very well-known country singer, but this is pure country - not bluegrass, not western swing, just straight up country. It sounds like what you might hear in a honky-tonk on a Saturday night. Jerry Lee Lewis also recorded this song, but I like the writer's original version better. "Lord, I've Tried Everything But You."