back to church
Speech and song are sometimes indistinguishable.
Pastor Ezell Smith, live, Chicago (Prince of Peace Baptist Church)
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lagniappe
random thoughts on Mother’s Day
Professional jargon, whether legal, medical, psychological, whatever, is largely a desert. But once in a while you come upon a flowering tree. The great British psychoanalyst and pediatrician D. W. Winnicott (1896-1971) planted one such tree—the good enough mother.
back to church
Rev. C. L. Franklin (1915-1984), “I’ll Go”
more
George Jones (1931-2013), “Amazing Grace,” TV show, 2008
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lagniappe
radio
Today, beginning at 10 a.m. (EST), there’ll be a four-hour memorial broadcast on WKCR-FM (Columbia University).
Once I start listening to this I don’t want to stop, ever.
The Original Gospel Harmonettes (featuring MCOTD Hall of Famer Dorothy Love Coates), “He’s Calling Me,” 1955
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lagniappe
art beat: Tuesday at the Chicago Cultural Center
Hale Woodruff (1900-1980), Old Farmhouse in Beauce Valley, 1928 (featured, through June 16th, in Rising Up: Hale Woodruff’s Murals at Talladega College)
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random thoughts
It seems to be difficult, if not impossible, for me to grasp the apparent fact that the distance between, say, 2010 and 1960, when I was eight years old, is just as great as that between 1960 and 1910.
back to church
Heavenly Gospel Singers, “Let Jesus Fix It”
Live, St. James Missionary Baptist Church, Canton, Miss., 1978
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music, the greatest good that mortals know,/And all of heaven we have here below.
—Joseph Addison (1672-1719), “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day”
two takes
The Davis Sisters (feat. Jackie Verdell), “We Need Power”
TV Show (TV Gospel Time), 1964
Recording, 1959
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lagniappe
reading table
Nothing lasts, and yet nothing passes, either. And nothing passes just because nothing lasts.
—Philip Roth, The Human Stain
back to church
“He Set Me Free,” Mt. Do-Well Baptist Church, McConnells, S.C., 1991
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lagniappe
reading table
“God’s Grandeur”
By Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)The world is charged with the grandeur of God.It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oilCrushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soilIs bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.And for all this, nature is never spent;There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;And though the last lights off the black West wentOh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —Because the Holy Ghost over the bentWorld broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
They sounded so good last Sunday—let’s hear some more.
Pastor B. L. Blade with Daniel Lanois (guitar, vocals), Brian Blade (drums), et al.
“The Maker” (D. Lanois), excerpt (“Oh, river rise from your sleep.”)
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lagniappe
random thoughts
How strange it seems sometimes, like the other day in the shower, to have hands and feet.
Pastor B. L. Blade (with Daniel Lanois, guitar; Brian Blade, drums, et al.), “Louisiana Poor Boy,” Zion Baptist Church, Shreveport, La.
Most guitarists, most drummers would muck this up, thinking it needed a fill here, a roll there. Great musicians know how not to draw attention to themselves.
Too much dough? Here’s a solution: the annual marathon fundraiser for WFMU-FM, arguably the best radio station in the world (maybe the universe).
Kevin Nutt, Sinner’s Crossroads, WFMU-FM (Thurs., 8-9 p.m. [EST]); Marathon Broadcast, 2009
music clip of the day 