Na, Na, N' Na Na Na!
The Maharincess came back from our church's Vacation Bible School singing a catchy song. She's 2.5, so her version is a bit garbled and very truncated, but in the official version, the verse goes:
Every move I make I make in you,The influence of Aristotle's Physics is so obvious it hardly needs mentioning. But the chorus goes:
You make me move, Jesus,
Every breath I take I breathe in you.
Every step I take I take in you,
You are my way Jesus,
Every breath I take I breathe in you.
Na, na, n' na na na!Hey, wait a minute. That sounds a lot like another song. The words to that one are:
Na, na, n' na na na!
Those soft fuzzy sweaters, too magical to touchOh dear. But it gets worse. On Sunday morning, the big people (who are in danger of knowing better) sing a song that's quite inspiring. The chorus gets your blood pumping with these lyrics:
To see her in that negligee is really just too much
My blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold
My angel is a centerfold.
Na, na, n' na na na!
Na na na, n' n' na na na!
From the mountains to the valleysAgain, its a nice song, really it is. But then, there's an extended bridge in a mellower mood, with one word, sung over and over:
Hear our praises rise to you,
from the heavens to the nations
hear our singing fill the air.
Alleluia, alleluia,If you are familiar with the source material, it hits you: take those exact notes and text, change the meter very slightly (from simple to compound) and you've got the chorus to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.
Alleluia, alleluia....
Now I've heard there was a secret chordWell, that's okay, right? It's not so bad, anyway. It is religious in its own way, I guess. But check out the second verse:
That David played, and it pleased the lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
Well it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, and the major lift
The baffled king composing hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah....
Your faith was strong but you needed proofHeavens to Murgatroid. What kind of music do these Christian songwriters listen to? Was this borrowing deliberate, or subconscious? Which would be worse? And what does it say that I noticed?
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the hallelujah
Umie the Umlaut says, "ask your doctor about the Fredösphere!"
5 Comments:
That's why I prefer Latin.
Lynn
http://www.aeternam626.com/b2/
Good...ness. (The remark that flashed through my mind as I read this was a smidge more blasphemous.) I don't think you're imagining things. I recently visited a church with a heavy contemporary Christian music emphasis, and the music in one of the songs clearly owed a large debt to "Where the Streets Have No Name." (Not as much mischief can be made out of those lyrics as with your examples, though.) Cheers.
Chan S.
Bookish Gardener
http://fortyfour.typepad.com/bookishgardener
Lynn, I take it they sing Carmina Burana at your church.
Well, the only place I tolerate the christian god is in music, and rarely even there, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is one of my favorite songs.
You are aware that those a biblical allusions that you are objecting to. Straight from the old testement.
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