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Religious music for less than devout

We have a thread " Jazz for someone who doesn’t like jazz. " In a similar vein perhaps "Religious music for the less than devout".

"people get ready" - Rod Stewart
"Amazing Grace" - Jessye Norman
2009 "Duets" - Five Blind Boys of Alabama, The - entire CD
1988 "Sweet Fellowship" - Acappella, the entire CD

In 1989 I was working in NJ, I may have been the only guy on the job who did not know he was working for the Irish Mafia. I would lend people the CD "Sweet Fellowship" and they were willing to pay for it but never return it:

"Here is $20 kid, go buy yourself another cuz youz can’t have mine back. Now don’t ever ask me again."


timothywright
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,806 posts
 

@213runnin, and Buddy's recordings (he converted the couple's Nashville home's front parlour into a studio, and records there. When Julie isn't feeling well, he runs a mic upstairs and records her in bed!) have a very unique, "alive" sound. Sometimes a little brash, like live music.

I forgot to mention the recordings of Minneapolis church choirs and organists made by speaker designer Robert Fulton, released as LP's on his ARK label. INCREDIBLE sound quality! Very transparent, with great inner detail (you can hear each individual voice in the choir), and very deep bass. The pipe organ's pedal notes will made your listening room walls shudder! 

pfeiffer
50 posts
 
john Lennon "Imagine"
timothywright OP
55 posts
 
May I second "Christo Redemptor" this time by Charlie Musselwhite. His version is much longer (11 minutes) and has many changes in tempo. It is a very complex and sophisticated piece

This thread will cost me some funds as I send all my money to Amazon.

Thank you to every one for their recommendations. I had 4 CDs arrive this morning, I have been "mining" this topic. The suggestions are not going to waste.


dweller's avatar
dweller
3,781 posts
 
Blind Faith - Presence of the Lord

Carlos Santana/Mahavishnu John McLaughlin - Love/Devotion/Surrender

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Lay My Burden Down

Dr. John - The Night Tripper (Gris Gris) (Voo Doo is a religion, I believe)

n80
2,116 posts
 
@pfeiffer It seems to me that Imagine is the antithesis of religious music since he is asking us to imagine what it is like with no god, no religion. I've always liked it as a song. I never liked the assumption that things would somehow be better if there was no god. 

Another song along those lines (which I also like) is Joan Osborne's song What If God was One of Us. Like Imagine there seems to be an irony that the artist completely missed.

Osborne says:

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make his way home?

To a Christian these lyrics are a little shocking. Not because they are somehow blasphemous but because what she is asking for and looking for is exactly what Jesus was. According to Christian theology Jesus was God and also one of us. A stranger. Poor. Common. Probably filthy and hungry most of the time.

I always wondered if Osborne was aware of this irony. 
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