As well as Leonard Cohen I've also recently received the new CD from veteran Irish folkie Christy Moore: it includes some great new material, some covers and a live version of Rory's Gone, a tribute to Irish blues legend Rory Gallagher . The lyrics for the unfamiliar go as follows:
And Rory's gone,
To play the blues in heaven.
Above the clouds,
With all the angels singing there.
His records scratched,
Like his beaten-up old Fender,
But the songs are strong,
And the notes hang in the air.
Gone with Steve Ray,
And Jessie Ed Davis.
They died too young,
And much too premature.
Another rock'n'roller,
Gone but not forgotten,
As his old guitar still mourns and plays,
And wails and screams the blues.
It sings for Mississippi Fred,
And Muddy Waters, Son House, Sleepy John,
And the Nighthawk too.
Blacks, whites, blues and greens,
All the colours mixed together
Now Rory's gone to Heaven.
Since Rory's gone to Heaven,
To play the blues.
And Rory's gone to play,
The blues in Heaven.
I've sung along to this in concert halls and on ipods for years but suddenly it hit me;
if someday every tear will be wiped away ...
will they sing the blues in heaven?
What will become of the genius of Rory, Muddy, Stevie Ray et al.
And suddenly I'm back in Bournemouth discussing the Whitley lecture over dinner and pondering the question: 'Are disabilities healed/ made whole in heaven?' I think what i remember of the conversation brought us to some consensus that disability was only a burden in a society unable to accommodate its difference and so in heaven the tears of disability are indeed all wiped away, but the physicality of who we are, complete with what are now seen as 'imperfections', remain a part of our eternal existence.
Which leaves me wondering about some of my favourite music: if all our causes of pain are themselves transfigured in the eschaton what are the blues singers going to sing about? I fear that endless happy clappy shiny music would leave me hankering for the woundedness of earth ... (maybe that will be their inspiration) ... but even the majesty of my favourite classical works need regular supplementing with the bended strings of an electric guitar.
it seems to me that God has got the work cut out ...
could this be the biggest challenge to the Almighty
just how do you go about resurrecting the blues?
7 comments:
Oh, absolutely! You know, I think the blues will be something like Jesus' wounds - wounds, but transfigured and glorified... a weak and earthly analogy might be how the blues is transfigured and remade in (the best) jazz?
Thanks for that Mike,
in other places i have written about music as a metaphor for God and then the church ... so i like this idea of the way new music arises out of a transfiguration of existing practice ... blues itself coming from the spirituals and them from ... etc etc. Nice to hear from you
Presumably a resurrected blues would have to begin 'I woke up this morning...'?
The first gig I ever went to was Rory Gallagher at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester in 1974/5. Just by reminding me, you've given me a glimpse of nostalgic heaven. Thanks Craig.
On a more theological note, I'm not big on transcendence, but it does seem to me that music takes me into a realm beyond the limitations of my rational, linguistic consciousness and into somewhere which can only be labelled Other.
Whilst I can appreciate pretty much all genres of music, it does seem to me that there is something God-like in pop music's ability to keep re-inventing itself.
I might even go so far as to suggest that the Church is a bit like one of those NostalgiaFM-type radio station, forever harking back to a 'golden age' of popular music. Whereas 'young people' have actually moved on and are listening to new, exciting and even occasionally edgy music on the internet.
Of course, I'm in my late forties, so I'm happy listening to Rory on Spotify.
Yes, I think the blues will still exist, but perhaps (as you’ve both said), developed into something which is also praise.
I tend to appreciate music that acknowledges the rubbish in life, but also reminds me of the hope:
"Just because I'm losing,
doesn't mean I'm lost" Coldplay
"If I don't feel it anymore,
I still can believe it.
And if I don't see it anymore,
Still, I know it's for sure" Duke Special
After all, isn't that what many of the Psalms do? (See Brueggemann’s classifications, and the excellent work done by Helen Dare on how this applies to our worship)
Is praise without reference to the reason for a saviour just hollow?
Shored Fragmetns we could take a communal shot at this song writng thing:
I woke up this morning
And my stone was gone ...
That said, short of anything by Billie Holiday, one of my favourite blues songs has to be by John Archer:
"They put me in prison for stroking a smurf...
Oh yeah, they put me in prison for stroking a smurf...
I said they put me in prison for smoking a smurf...
Now I won't feel blue any more"
Ticks all the boxes!
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