jkwilliams Posted July 5, 2018 Posted July 5, 2018 15 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said: I get your thinking, but the lyrics to “I Heard Him Come” still strike me as contrived, annoyingly so. I repeat: I don’t see anything remotely scriptural about rivers crawling to find Christ, even in a figurative sense. Seems to me like unbridled flight of fancy. It’s a matter of aesthetics, I suppose. Edited to add: I just read up a bit on the origen of “I Heard Him Come.” It seems the author/composer wrote it one night as a high school senior rushing to come up with a song for a seminary devotional the night before it was due. The seminary class and teacher liked it, and it caught on from there. I’m afraid the writer might have been as much or more concerned with penning impressive sounding phrases that rhyme as with expressing doctrinal truth. And how many of us as seniors in high school are especially knowledgeable about doctrinal truth anyway? I used to work with the guy who wrote the music for "As Now We Take the Sacrament" for the hymnbook and "A Young Man Prepared" for the Primary songbook. He told me that he blatantly stole the latter tune from John Williams's theme for Superman. Compare to: 1
bluebell Posted July 5, 2018 Posted July 5, 2018 On 7/4/2018 at 7:58 AM, Traela said: My teenaged daughter hates those! They're written as solos but are inevitably performed in groups, which doesn't work well. I dislike them because they all seem to sound the same. We've had good feedback from the YM and YW (especially for this year's. Last year's wasn't as popular), but I get what you are saying. It's just like with the hymns, someone's always going to dislike a song while someone else loves it. I think that's why worship music is so difficult when used in groups. 1
Scott Lloyd Posted July 5, 2018 Posted July 5, 2018 (edited) 5 hours ago, jkwilliams said: I used to work with the guy who wrote the music for "As Now We Take the Sacrament" for the hymnbook and "A Young Man Prepared" for the Primary songbook. He told me that he blatantly stole the latter tune from John Williams's theme for Superman. Compare to: Some 35 years ago, I taught the Blazer A class in Primary. I wanted to teach the boys “A Young Man Prepared” in preparation for the “Priesthood Preview” meeting that was coming up. The only way I could do it was to sing it to them there in the classroom without piano or other accompaniment. I felt self conscious about my singing prowess but decided I maybe hadn’t done too bad when one of the boys remarked, “Hey, that sounds like ‘Superman’.” Edited July 5, 2018 by Scott Lloyd 1
jkwilliams Posted July 5, 2018 Posted July 5, 2018 (edited) 20 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said: Some 35 years ago, I taught the Blazer A class in Primary. I wanted to teach the boys “A Young Man Prepared” in preparation for the “Priesthood Preview” meeting that was coming up. The only way I could do it was to sing it to them there in the classroom without piano or other accompaniment. I felt self conscious about my singing prowess but decided I maybe hadn’t done too bad when one of the boys remarked, “Hey, that sounds like “Superman”. This thread reminds me of being in my last area of my mission, in the Amazon region of Northern Bolivia called El Beni. My companion's previous companion had been taking Afterglow-type songs and writing new Spanish lyrics, usually about missionary work. He had decided, for whatever reason, that showcasing his musical talent would land him a calling as assistant to the president. He somehow talked some sister missionaries into recording his songs on cassette, and my companion received a copy in the mail. It was hilarious stuff, as apparently his Spanish wasn't very good. One memorable line from the opening number from Saturday's Warrior translates as "What is this that I hear? It could be special." One P-day, we were in a silly mood, so we wrote our own parody lyrics to a few of his songs related to our specific mission. We made our own recording on the patio roof of our house, as it was too hot to stay in our room. We were laughing so hard that it was difficult to make it through each song. Last I heard, my old companion still has that cassette. I'll have to get a copy. About the only one I remember is our reworking of Afterglow's "Joseph," which we rechristened "Elder." One line I remember is, where Afterglow had, "Joseph, polished arrow, in the quiver of the Lord," we had, "Elder, polished marble, in the slingshot of the Lord." Ah, to be young and blasphemous. ETA: For good measure, we actually did take some of the songs and write serious, faithful lyrics in Spanish, which we sent to the guy in the hopes they would turn out better than the originals had. Edited July 5, 2018 by jkwilliams 1
Scott Lloyd Posted July 5, 2018 Posted July 5, 2018 5 hours ago, SouthernMo said: I get your point, and agree with the idea that lyricists put in varying levels of thought into their writings. However - let me give you some advice: As a believing Mormon, avoid arguments that rely on ad hominem bases - especially those based on age and levels of education. You open the door WIDE open to the lack of credibility of a 14 year old in upstate New York with far less education than a modern 17 year old. Let’s keep our arguments & positions based on the merits of the message. I think the 14-year-old was unsophisticated and unschooled as well — as 14-year-olds typically are. He admitted as much (see Joseph Smith — History in the Pearl of Great Price). In fact, isn’t that why he went to pray in the first place? Because he “lacked wisdom”?
Rock_N_Roll Posted July 5, 2018 Posted July 5, 2018 As a close friend of both Joel and Kevin (Afterglow), I can say that even though much thought and work went into the creation of their songs, as with most song writers, there were times when a line had more to do with the rhyming scheme of the song and less to do with making sure it was doctrinally correct. 3
jkwilliams Posted July 5, 2018 Posted July 5, 2018 1 minute ago, Rock_N_Roll said: As a close friend of both Joel and Kevin (Afterglow), I can say that even though much thought and work went into the creation of their songs, as with most song writers, there were times when a line had more to do with the rhyming scheme of the song and less to do with making sure it was doctrinally correct. The heretics! Burn them!
Scott Lloyd Posted July 5, 2018 Posted July 5, 2018 1 hour ago, Rock_N_Roll said: As a close friend of both Joel and Kevin (Afterglow), I can say that even though much thought and work went into the creation of their songs, as with most song writers, there were times when a line had more to do with the rhyming scheme of the song and less to do with making sure it was doctrinally correct. To be fair though, it was Jeff Goodrich who wrote “I Heard Him Come” years before Afterglow recorded it.
jkwilliams Posted July 6, 2018 Posted July 6, 2018 1 hour ago, Scott Lloyd said: To be fair though, it was Jeff Goodrich who wrote “I Heard Him Come” years before Afterglow recorded it. So, you’re saying Afterglow is only partly to blame.
Scott Lloyd Posted July 6, 2018 Posted July 6, 2018 5 hours ago, jkwilliams said: So, you’re saying Afterglow is only partly to blame. I’m not fixing blame. Somebody writes (or records) a song. Either you like it or you don’t. If you don’t it’s not like the artist has committed some offense against humanity. It’s only a song, after all.
Hamba Tuhan Posted July 6, 2018 Posted July 6, 2018 1 hour ago, Scott Lloyd said: If you don’t it’s not like the artist has committed some offense against humanity. It’s only a song, after all. I'm sensing that you may not have heard some of the 'music' I've been exposed to ...
jkwilliams Posted July 6, 2018 Posted July 6, 2018 8 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said: I’m not fixing blame. Somebody writes (or records) a song. Either you like it or you don’t. If you don’t it’s not like the artist has committed some offense against humanity. It’s only a song, after all. Some songs and artists are just fun to laugh about. I guess you don't find the same things I do to be humorous.
Scott Lloyd Posted July 6, 2018 Posted July 6, 2018 1 hour ago, jkwilliams said: Some songs and artists are just fun to laugh about. I guess you don't find the same things I do to be humorous. I thought your comment might have been in jest, and I almost didn’t reply. In hindsight that would have been best. Sorry to seem so austere.
jkwilliams Posted July 6, 2018 Posted July 6, 2018 7 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said: I thought your comment might have been in jest, and I almost didn’t reply. In hindsight that would have been best. Sorry to seem so austere. No problem. Afterglow has been a source of entertainment for me since I first heard them on my mission, though I don't think it's the type of entertainment they intended. We had a neighbor in Orem years ago who used to write little songs to use as her answering-machine greeting. They were gloriously cheesy, and I almost never left messages because I'd be giggling. To my great joy, she gave us a copy of a cassette she had recorded a few years earlier of Afterglow-type songs. Maybe I'm evil, but I love cheesy music, especially cheesy church music. Some of the most beautiful and moving music ever written is religious in nature. My neighbor and Afterglow are not that kind of music.
jkwilliams Posted July 6, 2018 Posted July 6, 2018 I sometimes like modern takes on Christian hymns, like this. Probably not to everyone's tastes, but I like it. One of my mission companions gave me this CD, and it struck a chord with me (no pun intended). 1
Scott Lloyd Posted July 6, 2018 Posted July 6, 2018 (edited) 22 minutes ago, jkwilliams said: No problem. Afterglow has been a source of entertainment for me since I first heard them on my mission, though I don't think it's the type of entertainment they intended. We had a neighbor in Orem years ago who used to write little songs to use as her answering-machine greeting. They were gloriously cheesy, and I almost never left messages because I'd be giggling. To my great joy, she gave us a copy of a cassette she had recorded a few years earlier of Afterglow-type songs. Maybe I'm evil, but I love cheesy music, especially cheesy church music. Some of the most beautiful and moving music ever written is religious in nature. My neighbor and Afterglow are not that kind of music. I know very little about Afterglow — next to nothing, really — but my saintly mother had an album on cassette by them that she loved so much that I can never take part in any lampooning of them. Edited July 6, 2018 by Scott Lloyd
jkwilliams Posted July 6, 2018 Posted July 6, 2018 8 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said: I know very little about Afterglow — next to nothing, really — but my saintly mother had an album on cassette by them that she loved so much that I can never take part in any lampooning of them. I understand that. My mission president used to sing "If Christ Should Come Tomorrow" in mission conferences, and he would do a spoken Spanish part in the middle, which I thought was cringe-worthy at the time. But whenever I hear that sung (which isn't often), it reminds me of a man whom I love and who treated me like his own son. I can't lampoon that at all for the same reason you don't find Afterglow humorous. 2
pogi Posted July 6, 2018 Posted July 6, 2018 5 hours ago, jkwilliams said: I sometimes like modern takes on Christian hymns, like this. Probably not to everyone's tastes, but I like it. One of my mission companions gave me this CD, and it struck a chord with me (no pun intended). I dig Sufjan Stevens! His music is good to just get lost in on a long drive - you are right though, not for everybody. I don't know if I would call any music with a banjo "a modern take" on anything though... This is an interesting and touching one he does about Jesus:
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