I am heading towards study leave starting in a few days time. First time ever and I can’t wait to get my head and heart refreshed in some space. So, on my way into meetings in London today I picked up the book of Leonard Cohen poetry I started ages ago – Book of Longing (Penguin, 2007) – and thought I’d dip into it. I think my attention span is reducing by the day at the moment.
Then I came across his poem Thing. It starts like this:
I am this thing that needs to sing / I love to sing…
It concludes as follows:
I am this thing
that wants to sing
when I am up against the spit
and scorn of judges
O G-D I want to sing
I am
THIS THING THAT NEEDS TO SING
What is it about human beings that makes us want to sing? I remember Jim Wallis saying that when he and his colleagues were arrested in Washington DC they used to annoy the police officers who jailed them by singing all night. he said that you just can’t stop Christians singing. He is right (and not just about Christians).
One of the fallacies I grew up with in church was that God wanted to hear our praises at all times – even when everything is rubbish, we must praise God. When I grew up two things bugged me:
(a) I began to wonder what sort of God it was who urges his friends to lie through their teeth about what is going on in their lives and in their head. So, the worship leader would urge us to ‘leave the business of the day/week at the door of the church and bring our worship unencumbered by all the worries and troubles of life’… and I would think that was stupid.
(b) I read the Psalms and found expressions of regret, complaint, lament, shouting at God, questioning, whingeing, praising, asking, and just about everything else that goes into real life in the real world with real people in real relationships. Psalm 137 (‘By the rivers of Babylon’) wasn’t exactly a load of laughs.
Again, it is the poets and artists who put their finger on the truth. Human beings are made to be honest with God and each other – singing different songs at different times of life and not worrying about whether God can cope with our complicated emotions.
Tonight I feel like repeating Cohen’s lines. I’m just not entirely sure which song I want to sing.
November 24, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Much of Cohen’s song is among the most dismal music I know, a true trial.
If you are unsure try “Stardust” which is a beautiful evocation of . . . nostalgia and other emotions.
More should take the steps from “I cannot sing” to “I need to sing.”
November 24, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Well now , I don’t know about you but certain situations or triggers make me trill like a Song thrush or an old rook!
Sorry oh , but dear Mr Cohen can sound utterly lost and depressing, more like ‘One more for the road’ etc.
You visited Poole last week, and if you glimpsed Poole park as I often do , I always think of the trumpety bits of Tuxedo Junction- so sing /airplay BBB ah bo bah bbo boo- Poole park- Poole park- All a question of translation!
The need to join in with a good thumpy chorus driven hymn, loudly and clearly is stuff for the soul deep cleansing, as is a softly sung chant/whisper!
A melancholy song ‘Is that all there is’ Peggy Lee – becomes too emotional.
The wonderful hymn writers of old just knew that we should put all our negatives to one side, and affirm the positives – just sing about it, yes, everything. Even if it’s ‘Raining in my heart’-(Buddy Holly).
You have to listen to African women singing as they pummel their mealie meal, now that is something completely different. Beautiful. Or many Africans wailing in grief for the loss of a loved one.
We all have voices, sing we must!
November 24, 2009 at 10:39 pm
This may be wildly inappropriate , but they don’t sing them like they used to in grandmas day. This is an old song, so sweetly acted and sung, life never changes , does it?
November 24, 2009 at 10:53 pm
I couldn’t disagree more with the two previous posts. Leonard Cohen is only depressing if you think all music should sound like the X Factor! Cohen is up there with the greatest North American songwriters (Dylan, Springsteen, Young, Cash etc).
His lyrics are superb – and speak of a genuine spiritual quest.
My personal favourite lyric is from ‘Suzanne’:
“Jesus was a sailor
When He walked upon the water
And He spent a long time watching
From His lonely wooden tower
And when He knew for certain
Only drowning men could see Him
He said,’All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them’
But He, Himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
You want to travel blind
And you know he will find you
For he’s touched your perfect body with his mind.”
November 24, 2009 at 10:57 pm
True_Belle, that is the first time any Cohen-hater (or anybody else for that matter) has put a YouTube clip in a comment! Wonderful!
November 24, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Almost everybody (and I mean that literally) enjoys singing. Singing releases endorphins and is good for the body, the heart and the soul. It releases emotions, whichever ones they are and gathers a community together. Singing is good and everyone should do it!
‘Be still, for the presence’ works for me, even at my lowest points. “No work too hard for him, in faith receive from him” is sometimes to hard to sing but the words touch me deep inside and I believe them. I am reassured and strengthened.
I absolutely love the psalms. They fascinate me. Human Beings have not changed in all those thousands of years. We still feel the same emotions. I recently worked hard on Psalm 72 with our choir and have been struck by its relevance ever since. Essentially it’s “why do bad people seem to get away with the wrongs they do? Fortune smiles on them, whilst I struggle to do the right thing and receive no reward. What’s the point of that? I might as well join them”
We’re heading towards my favourite carol – It came upon the midnight clear. I love the vision of angels still singing the same song after so many years. Also “O hush the noise ye men of strife and hear the angels sing” and looking forward to a time when we on earth sing back the song which now the angels sing.
I hope you find time to do lots of singing Nick!
November 24, 2009 at 11:05 pm
*too hard (sorry!)
November 25, 2009 at 12:00 am
I know this blog is about singing, not about Leonard Cohen, but seeing Cohen live was my spiritual highlight of 2008. At 74 he sang for nearly three hours, then skipped off the stage like a teenager as if he could have done it all again.
Really sincere good wishes and prayers for your study leave/sabbatical Nick.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
November 25, 2009 at 12:10 am
What a lovely post! I am not a Cohen fan but only because I have not really listened to enough of his songs to make me one. The song, though, reminded me of Emily Dickinson’s well-known lines:
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops at all…
I read in an article some years back that 1 in 8000 people have a condition that physically makes them unable to sing in tune – they just don’t have the nervous control over their vocal chords. Not all those 1 in 8000 people can be the folk I meet who say they are tone deaf. I have come to the conclusion, with John Bell, that our singing is so integrally part of “us” that when we are told to shut up or stop singing (especially as children) we believe it with an intensity that physically overrides our control of our vocal chords and stops us singing. It is really sad, I think, to encounter someone who somehow needs the Spirit of God to set them singing again because some thoughtless parent or teacher has told them that their singing was rubbish. How careful we have to be with our words!
November 25, 2009 at 12:46 am
Thanks, Andrew, I quoted that in a sermon last Sunday! Brilliant stuff.
November 25, 2009 at 7:14 am
Hi Nick – enjoy your study leave. I’m not sure what song I want to sing either, there is so much sadness and badness in the world, but also huge amounts of joy and gladness. It’s enough to make your head spin! But when reaching the spinning head stage, Jesus is our rock to hang on to.
Anne.
November 25, 2009 at 9:49 am
Who’s Leonard Cohen?
November 25, 2009 at 12:16 pm
“I fell into an avalanche
“It covered up my soul . .
“When I am not this ugly hunchback that you see
“I sleep beneath the golden hill.”
and
“When I last saw you
“You looked so much older
“Your famous blue overcoat
“Was torn at the shoulder.”
“I see that you’re building
“Your little house
“Deep in the desert
“You’re living for nothing now
“I hope you’re keeping some kind of record.”
Leonard Cohen was banned from the BBC because he insisted on cutting his cheek with a razor blade on air, if they let him on.
I don’t sing his songs any more, even gentle nostalgia is rather less depressing.
November 25, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Point taken, but not EVERY song or poem is depressing!
November 25, 2009 at 3:12 pm
True, but even Cohen’s “Suzanne” is full of angst.
The Hoagy Carmichael – Bix Beiderbecke version of “Barnacle Bill the Sailor” is pretty . . . robust. Sorry, cannot post YouTube link, hospital outpatients might object.
‘Stardust” is truly a beautiful tune, and the words are clever and wistful. Worthy addition to anyone’s repertoire.
November 25, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I’m late to the comments again.
I don’t think giving words and voice to our despair is the same as being depressing. There are times when sad music can make a low mood worse but there are times when happy music is just totally inaccessible. Sometimes reality does seem pretty miserable, and I’m glad that Leonard Cohen (and Psalm 137, for that matter!) is around to make that a little less lonely.
As for not knowing which song to sing… I find it’s more important to sing something. It might take a few tries to find the song I’m looking for, but that seems to be more constructive than hesitating so much that I just don’t start.
Enjoy your study leave — will you be blogging? I already have trouble keeping up!
November 25, 2009 at 11:00 pm
I caught the Leonard Cohen concert on TV and bought the album straight after. For those of approaching 60, the reference to himself at that age as ” just a mixed up kid with a crazy dream”
was hilarious, and I resolved to give a copy to my friends as they hit the big 6 – O so they appreciate how cool you can be at 75. He made Brian Ferry look seriously uncool!
November 25, 2009 at 11:26 pm
I know that many lead lives which bring them to various views and speeches.
Lennie (as a ’60s g/f called him) wrote:
“He trained a hundred women just to kill the unborn child.”
I find that sort of denunciation unpleasant at best.
His obsession with sado-masochistic martyrdom is in the same bracket in my book.
November 26, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Leonard Cohen again? He’s not a patch on Jedward.
November 26, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Talking about Leonard Cohen singing is a fascinating thing – he is a fascinating guy with fascinating things to say. But most of the regferences above are talking about his writing rather than his singing. Writing about singing is a bit like dancing about architecture, perhaps?
The thing with Leonard, of course, is that he has no choice. He was born with the gift of a golden voice…
November 26, 2009 at 10:58 pm
All the quotes I used are from Cohen songs.
I agree that he is a fine poet, and does have things to say.
I sometimes sing “There is a Green Hill” but Most of the time something more cheerful is called for.
And Cohen’s ‘take’ on many topics is dismal.
November 27, 2009 at 6:14 pm
The quality I value most in Leonard Cohen is his honesty. It’s not the job of poets to cheer us up (at least not ALL the time). Their job is to tell the truth as they see it with as much hope as they can find. (Not unlike the job of Bishops, perhaps. At least on a good day!)
November 30, 2009 at 9:27 am
I don’t know much of Leonard Cohen’s work, but I do know that there’s a great difference between ‘happy’ and ‘joy’, and ‘joy’ is more often released (for me at any rate) by profund expressions of sentiment that could not be called happy. Like Lucy, speaking of the sound in Aslan’s country (Voyage of the Dawn Treader)’”a sound to make you weep”, was it so sad then? “sad? No!”‘
November 30, 2009 at 9:28 am
Sorry, that last one was me on Duncan’s computer.
November 30, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I think the key thing with great music is that, like all great art, it helps us to transcend the limits of human words. For instance, in singing “Thine be the glory” on Easter morning, I feel the joy of the Resurrection in a way that speaking alone cannot achieve. In like fashion, listening to the St Matthew Passion is one of the most moving Holy Week experiences.
As the great American hymn has it, “What tho’ my joys and comfort die? The Lord my Saviour liveth; What tho’ the darkness gather round? Songs in the night he giveth. No storm can shake my inmost calm, While to that refuge clining; Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, How can I keep from singing?”
It is not a question of lying, I think, to proclaim God’s goodness when in times of the greatest trouble and suffering, rather it is the proclamation of the central Christian contradiction of Cross and Resurrection.
The Judeo-Christian tradition has a particular and important understanding of suffering — it does not deny it, or minimise it, or seek to escape it: it acknowledges it, but all the more loudly proclaims “I know my redeemer lives”, and nowhere is this seen more vividly and powerfully than in the musical traditions.
November 30, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Huw (comment no. 9),
I’ve just read your comment and it raises a question for me. I have no idea if I am one of the 1 in 8000 that you refer to, but I do know that I cannot sing a note. Do church musicians prefer it if people like me keep quiet and let others get on with the singing, or should we make a joyful (if unpleasant) noise to the Lord? Whichever I do, I always feel I’ve done the wrong thing. I sometimes have to try hard not to hate musicians who complain if people don’t join in and then complain if people do join in and sing badly.
November 30, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Sam Korn – that is very well written and I agree with you entirely. Thank you for expressing it so well.
Huw – as a church musician I appreciate your dilemma. I am sorry that you feel uncomfortable. Everyone should sing because, as I said above, singing is very good for you. You can’t put quality into the equation otherwise how do you define what is good enough? Should only professional singers sing hymns? Clearly not, so therefore everyone can and should sing. I may have remembered wrong but I think the person who really can’t sing also cannot hear any difference between the notes that other people sing. If you can hear a tune, you should be able to sing it, maybe with help and practice.
I once was sent a list of things to be grateful for and one of them was for the person singing really loudly and badly behind you – because that means I can hear!
We have choirs to give us a better quality of singing. Members of the congregation should not be auditioned or judged! Sing away Huw – you have every right to praise the Lord with whatever you have to offer.
December 1, 2009 at 8:43 am
Dex,
I think you should join in.
I’m a trained musician and I don’t go into a church expecting a congregation full of trained singers. But it’s wonderful when everyone in the congregation is singing confidently, whether they’re right or not.
Sometimes people who are complaining are not very confident of their own skills; they may be trying to sing the hymns without knowing the notes very well and having someone singing completely different ones, loudly and possibly not in time with everyone else, can be really off-putting. I have a pretty good ear but I would still find it difficult in a hymn I don’t know well if I don’t have the musical notation in front of me: I’m actually quite uncomfortable using most congregational hymnbooks, which only have the words. But I’m aware that it’s my reliance on the musical notation that is limiting me in that situation and I do not, ever, ask anyone not to sing in a congregational situation.
If it’s important to you to be able to sing along I would suggest you ask someone if there’s a strong, confident singer you could sit/stand next to — someone who isn’t going to be put off by a bit of the unexpected. That won’t necessarily be a formally trained singer. But it will help others not be put off, and might give you a better anchor for the right notes.
You might not have skilful hearing of pitch; so far I’ve met very few people who really can’t match pitch but some have a better starting point than others. Or you might have a good sense of pitch but have difficulty controlling your voice to match it. That’s better news in some ways: if you know when you aren’t singing the right note, then you can probably learn to follow along if you spend enough time singing (where “enough time” probably means “at least once a day for a few years”, realistically).
Whatever your situation is with pitch (the right notes), bear in mind also that part of singing well is singing at an appropriate volume. If you can’t hear the singer next to you, you’re probably too loud, which may offend people even if you are singing all the right notes. But singing loudly also greatly reduces your chances of being able to learn to sing in tune. Now, there are moments when we all want to sing a little louder, for the sheer joy of it, and I wouldn’t want you to think that singing must always be proper and controlled and constrained. The very best and most beautiful singing I have heard has been spontaneous. But singing hymns is very much a communal activity, and in situations where people can’t hear past the technical details (like getting the right notes), it might be tactful to take a gentle approach most of the time. Getting the blend and balance just right, adding your voice to others’ and keeping your ears open so that you really are singing with one voice, can be just as joyous an undertaking as belting out your favourite words at the top of your lungs.
But please, do sing. And if any of what I’ve said here makes you less likely to sing, please ignore it.
December 1, 2009 at 10:12 am
I agree that everyone should join in, and even in a small congregation those who sing out of tune can join in gently.
I know of a C of E congregation where the priest thinks he is a counter tenor, and my presence (to carry the tune in effect) was welcomed as an opportunity to inflict a considerable torture on the rest of us.
Another trial I could not endure.
December 2, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Song,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. You have helped me come to a mind on the matter – I shall finally give up attempting to sing at all, since I don’t think I can face the pain of having to practice “at least once a day for a few years”. I’ve already spent years trying and getting it wrong, and there is a limit to the sum of disappointment that a human soul can stand.
The difficulty though, is that whilst I am perfectly happy to keep quiet and let others sing, other people seem to think this is a problem. There is an assumption within the church that singing is somehow natural, but it clearly isn’t. Not only can some of us fail spectacularly to sing despite years of trying, but outside the culture of the church there is no expectation that singing is normal or natural – you only have to hear how few join in the hymns at a wedding or funeral attended mostly by non-churched people. So how do those of us who are vocally-challenged stop the rest of the church worrying that there’s something wrong with us?
December 3, 2009 at 8:35 am
Dex,
I think I have some strong arguments that singing is natural and normal; I recognise that it is not done much in secular society these days, but this was not always the case. The amount of passive listening possible today is pretty much unsurpassed in history: before about halfway through the last century, if people wanted to hear music, they had to sing or play it themselves, or hang around with other people doing the same. Most cultures have had working songs, drinking songs, lullabies, dancing songs. Singing as part of worship is only a small part of the picture.
But while I think that singing is natural and normal, I recognise that some people find it more difficult than others from the outset; some of those may be “pitch-deaf” the way some people are colour-blind (though I think the incidence of colour-blindness is much higher, something like 5%). If you have decided that the cost of learning at this stage is just too high, or if you genuinely do not have the ability, I couldn’t say.
That does put you in a difficult position, because for people who sing, singing is rewarding and important, and it’s quite understandable for them to want to share that with you. Knowing what I know of singing, if I had trouble with it I would go to great lengths to learn. But you are not me and I can’t decide for you even if I think I have more information.
I should note that the “every day for a few years” is a rough guideline; it doesn’t have to be more than 5 or 10 minutes and skipping a day now and then isn’t going to mean you have to start over, it just means it takes a little longer. I’m sorry if I presented it in a way that makes it seem unduly daunting… and at the same time, I won’t sugar-coat the issue: for some people it does take a lot of time and effort to learn to sing in tune.
I suspect if you really don’t want to sing, your only recourse is going to be to be polite and very repetitive: “I’d rather not, thanks, but I’m enjoying listening” might be a good phrase. Keep it simple and don’t go into your reasoning. As soon as you start with “I can’t really sing” you’ll have an argument on your hands from someone who thinks that everyone can sing if they only try a bit, which is clearly nonsense.
If you really do want to sing, if you do enjoy singing regardless of whether it is “correct” or not, then I encourage you to find a context where you can do so without being criticised. That might mean just singing very quietly with others, or it might mean singing alone in the shower, or some other solution.
May 15, 2010 at 5:44 pm
[...] have to do. I read a blog entry last year by Nick Baines, the ever-wonderful Bishop of Croydon (The ‘singing’ thing) where he quoted the poem “Thing” by the song-writer Leonard [...]
July 16, 2010 at 1:28 pm
[...] brought to my mind the Leonard Cohen poem I blogged on some time ago, Thing. Human beings are made to sing, made for music. No wonder the Psalms are full of songs about the [...]