I understand exactly how she feels. Of all the meaningful songs in my life, this one still has the power to choke me up, at least a little, every single time I sing it. What is it about "Amazing Grace"? The lyrics, the music, the combination, or some inexplainable third element that makes it greater than the sum of its parts? A friend in grad school was on an ongoing quest to find as many melodies as he could that scanned well with the poetry of AG. His favorite success was the theme song to Gilligan's Island. Go ahead, try it. You know you want to. Same powerful words? Yes. The choke-up factor of that version? Not so high. I've never heard alternate lyrics to the AG melody, so I have no experience with reversing the experiment.
Whatever the reason, I'm thankful for it. The world is a better place with this song in it. And, of course, with the availability of said amazing grace. Nothing like the ring of incredible truth to make the meaning more, well, meaningful.
4 comments:
You know, if you just reverse the process for the Gilligan's Island theme, you can catch a tiny glimpse of the power of the tune to Amazing Grace. It gives the Gilligan's Island theme a sort of "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" / "16 Tons" feel. Works pretty well until they switch it up and the end, where you're left dangling at the end of one verse with the phrase "the millionaire and his wife..."
And so, once again, the Professor and Mary Ann get left off the list of casualties, this time joined by Ginger ("the movie star") among the unknown victims of this fateful day.
Try "House of the Rising Sun"... it works. My church band did it about a month ago. I wanted to shoot myself. But not literally. Then we couldn't have had our fun dance partay the other night.
:)
Let's also not forget that she complains *ahem* "THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD". I know she's mostly deaf, but someone I used to know encountered this same complain. I suggested that a miracle occured, but that was later dissmissed. As far as the song itself, rent the movie Amazing Grace, it's new to dvd (came out today). A great movie, I highly rate it.
Let's also not forget that she complains *ahem* "THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD". I know she's mostly deaf, but someone I used to know encountered this same complaint. I suggested that a miracle occured, but that was later dissmissed. As far as the song itself, rent the movie Amazing Grace, it's new to dvd (came out today). A great movie, I highly rate it.
Post a Comment