J Walking

J Walking

Hymn 78, “One Love” by Bob Marley

posted by David Kuo | 12:23am Monday August 20, 2007

The Anglican Church in Jamaica has added songs by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh to their hymnals:

Church leaders said that Marley’s “One Love,” and Peter Tosh’s “Psalm 27” will be the first reggae tunes to be added to the collection of Anglican Church hymnals that will bring in a hybrid between reggae and traditional worship music from the island.
The move has come despite the fact that the two musicians were against the Church.
The Rev. Ernle Gordon said the two musicians may have been anti-church, but they weren’t anti-God or anti-religion. He said the songs would help modernize the hymnals, according to Canada-based publication The Record.

A hundred years from now I suspect there will be bunches of songs the recording artists never expected to end up in a hymnal. “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “One,” “Yahweh,” and “40″ by U2 come immediately to mind. What are others?



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Comments read comments(7)
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Larry Parker

posted August 20, 2007 at 10:37 am


“One” is a song about The Edge’s divorce, so that would be even more blasphemous than Marley …



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Larry Parker

posted August 20, 2007 at 10:55 am


On the other hand …
A few explicitly Christian songs have made the Top 40 over the years: “You Light Up My Life” by Debby Boone, “One of Us” by Joan Osborne, “Put Your Hand In the Hand” by Ocean, among others of course.
Alas, none of these songs are musically challenging — let alone theologically so …



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Anonymous

posted August 20, 2007 at 12:38 pm


The way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that “Good Morning Starshine” would be in a hymnal someday.



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David Kuo

posted August 20, 2007 at 1:07 pm


Larry – Really? I’d always heard the band recorded it about their relationship as a band at a time when it wasn’t clear that they were going to remain together – Achtung Baby recording era. Of course, like most of U2′s lyrics so much can be read into it.



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Heraldblog

posted August 20, 2007 at 1:56 pm


In the Presence of the Lord by Blind Faith, one of my faves.



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Larry Parker

posted August 20, 2007 at 6:30 pm


David:
We’re both right, in a way. I think the spirit of the song is that if The Edge couldn’t count on his wife, he could count on his band.
But there are some VERY angry lyrics in the song — more akin to “Every Breath You Take” than to the modern-day “Imagine” some of U2′s fans imagine the song to be.
PS — A song I missed that might actually make sense in some churches — Garth Brooks’ “Unanswered Prayers.”



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canucklehead

posted August 21, 2007 at 2:08 pm


“Are You?” Bob Seger



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