Friday, December 19, 2008
Amazing Grace - Just The Black Notes
This man explains the song's history first, so for those of you
who already know the history, be sure to stick with it or fast
forward until he sings. You will never think of the song Amazing
Grace the same way again after you have heard him sing it. Gives
you goose bumps! I promise you will rewind to hear it again.
From Doug.
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Goosebumps? Oh my, yes!!
ReplyDeleteDP, I got rid any trace of your little typo, although I rather liked it.
ReplyDeleteIt is a whole new way to think of the song, isn't it?
I am going to be controversial here. I loathe this hymn mainly because you can bet your bottom dollar that if there is a state run service after a national tragedyn this country, they always include this hymn to show they are 'being religious'. This became obvious when I went to the funeral of the mother of a friend. His brother-in-law who was running the service said at the end. 'We are not religious here(I felt like saying, Who says) but we had better do something religious so we will sing Amazing Grace'
ReplyDeleteTo me it is a dirge and I cannot wait for it to end. I avoided the film but finally went and enjoyed it probably helped by the fact the hymn was only played during the credits. Sorry.
Brian, nothing wrong with being controversial, and nothing wrong with disliking the song either.
ReplyDeleteChacun à son goût, mon cher.
"We are all connected by God's saving grace..."
ReplyDeleteI loved that quote, and I loved this entire piece.
I beg to disagree with Brian--I find this to be one of the most moving and beautiful spiritual songs I know. I never tire of hearing it, in its many forms and settings.
Thanks
Bubs, I do, too. And when he moaned it like the slaves, that blew me away.
ReplyDeleteI do like the hymn, and I like this rendering of it, too. Still, the history lesson part of the video is wrong: Newton kept right on in the slave trade after his conversion to Christianity; he didn't write the hymn until many years later; and this isn't the tune associated with the hymn in Newton's lifetime. Or so I read over on another blog, "Everyday Citizen" (http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2007/08/the_myth_of_amazing_grace.html). Of course, many youth groups still sing it to a different tune: the theme to _Gilligan's Island_.
ReplyDelete4 May, in a brief search, I found an accout at Snopes and another at Wiki. I leave it to you, the readers, to decide or do more research.
ReplyDeleteWhether the story on the video is true or not, or embellished or not, it's a lovely story.
I found two more references to the words and tune at the websites of the Cowper and Newton Museum and Amazing Grace by Mark Rhoads. These two accounts seem more reliable than those in my above comment and the story in the video.
ReplyDelete