The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts

Jan Akerman Lammy Part 2

I noticed this morning that someoone had highlighted my video, available here - Lammy Part 2 

The music is from Jan Akkerman's 1974 algum Tabernakel and for me is probably the most wonderful ever. I added pics interpreting the prompts given by Akkerman (Tabernakel, Last Will and Testament, Amen, etc)/ I write at Facebook

"I added those pictures about 16 yeara ago and I just rewatched. The music is superb and although the pics are done in a fairly amateurish way they do enhance the experience expecially if you know the story which is how Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness 40 years and died before entering the Promised Land. Moses and the Law will never get you into the Promised Land only Jesus can and here I start to preach - I am a preacher after all. Thanks again Jan."

Two Books about the Beatles



One of my sons likes to buy me books on the Beatles and the Nazis (two subjects I find pretty compelling). For my recent birthday, he got me John and Paul by Ian Leslie. I read this well written book that focusses on John and Paul and their relationship, especially in song writing, close after completing a previous book on the Beatles so I noticed what was in the previous book and what was missing. Truth is the Beatles are so well documented and there are so many disputes over certain stories that it is difficult to keep up. Very interesting stab this, which I enjoyed reading. Leslie suggests that with his marriage to Linda, Paul switched from being markedly promiscuous to being markedly monogamous, which he puts down to love of extremes, probably correctly. Ian Leslie is a champion of Paul over John but tries to be fair. I still find myself wanting to favour John, even though he was clearly a monster in many respects. I guess they are both very talented people with huge flaws whose relationship with one another is tangled and full of fascination. The book contains an interesting bibliography so I am in danger of spending even more time on this subject if I am not careful.
I was very drawn to the other book because it deals with The Beatles who I love to read about and Bob Dylan, who I know much less about but who draws me for several reasons. I also like the way journalists write books. Like scholars, they make a through search then collate and write. Unlike scholars, of course, they make it interesting. I knew a lot of the stuff in this book, I guess, but by no means all of it and some of it I had forgottenn, including John Lennon's born again phase. I had also not appreciated how conservative Dylan was from the beginning, despite his way of presenting himself. The book is full of fornication and drug taking, inevitably, and also an unsual amount of throwing up, usually missing from such books. Anyway, the book gives a fairly complete history of two incredible phenomena of the sixties and beyond and where their paths crossed. Fascinating.

Where the music had to go


I have recently read a new book on my kindle - Where the Music Had to Go: How Bob Dylan and The Beatles Changed Each Other – and the World by Jim WIndolf. I was very drawn to this book because it deals with The Beatles who I love to read about and Bob Dylan, who I know much less about but who draws me for several reasons. I also like the way journalists write books. Like scholars, they make a through search then collate and write. Unlike scholars, of course, they make it interesting. I knew a lot of the stuff in this book, I guess, but by no means all of it and some of it I had forgottenn, including John Lennon's born again phase. I had also not appreciated how conservative Dylan was from the beginning, despite his way of presenting himself. The book is full of fornication and drug tking, inevitably, and also an unsual amount thrwoing up, ususally missing from such books. Anyway, the book gives a fairly complete history of two incredible phennomena of th sixties and beyond and where their paths crossed. Fascinating.

10 Popular Songs with Monday in the Title



  1. Monday Monday, Mamas and the Papas
  2. Monday morning, Fleetwood Mac
  3. Monday, The Jam
  4. Monday, Imagine Dragons
  5. Manic Monday, The Bangles
  6. Blue Monday, New Order
  7. Stormy Monday, Allman Brothers
  8. Stormy Monday Blues, B B KIng or Vlatko Stefanovski Trio, etc
  9. Rainy days and Mondays, Carpenters
  10. I don't like Mondays, Boom Town Rats

10 Bob Dylans


The term is thrown about quite loosely but this list will give you an idea. The list was prompted by a documentary I watched on Alan Hull, leader of the seventies folk rock group Lindisfarne. In the documentary fronted by Sam Fender he is referred to as the Geordie Bob Dylan. It reminded me of  a lady I met who described her father to me as the Hungarian Bob Dylan. I also recalled hearing Meic Stevens being called the Welsh Bob Dylan.
  1. The English Bob Dylan - Donovan, Richard Thompson, Billy Bragg
  2. The Geordie Bob Dylan - Alan Hull
  3. The Welsh Bob Dylan - Meic Stevens
  4. The Canadian Bob Dylan - Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot
  5. The French Bob Dylan - Jean Ferrat
  6. The Mexican Bob Dyan - Rodrigo Gonzalez
  7. The Dutch Bob Dylan - Armand
  8. The Swedish Bob Dylan - Ulf Lundell
  9. The Russian Bob Dylan - Boris Grebenshikov, Vladimir Vysotsky
  10. The Christian Bob Dylan - Larry Norman
(The Bob Dylan of punk - Reckless Eric)

PS This is a different category to "The new Bob Dylan " which we might run some time.

Day Off Week 47 2021


It was slightly Christmassy this week. I started playing Christmas music and noticed a band I'd not noticed before from Canada called Coig who have two nice Christmas albums. I also read a few pages from a collection of Christmas stories I have on kindle that I downloaded last year or the year before and went out and did some Christmas shopping! I also read some more of Northanger Abbey, which I started to reread the other day in a beautiful Chiltern Publications edition and another in the series of art books from the shelf on the landing that I began on recently. This week, it was Lautrec. Again, I had a vague idea of things but this helped get me clearer on the short lived French artist. In the evening I watched the Bake off final because others were watching it.

365 Albums 91-105


  1. Profile Jan Akkerman 1972
  2. Focus in Time Jan Akkerman 1996
  3. Uam Julie Fowlis 2009
  4. Life in a paper boat Kate Rusby 2016
  5. Introspection 2 Thijs van Leer 1975*
  6. Planxty Planxty 1973
  7. Focus Jan Akkerman & Thijs van Leer
  8. Focus 3 Focus 1972
  9. Brainbox Brainbox 1969
  10. Ommadawn Mike Oldfield 1975
  11. Springfever Joachim Kuhn 1976
  12. Lent to Maunday Thursday Page CXVI 2014*
  13. Good Friday to Easter Page CXVI 2014*
  14. Love Beatles 2006
  15. Chieftains Tears of Stone 1999
(* Suitable for Sunday playing IMHO)

Three Books


These three books have nothing in common beyond the fact that I have read them recently.

1. The band played on by Steve Turner has sat on my shelf for some time. It is a beautiful hardback full of pictures that came out a few years ago on an anniversary of the Titanic disaster. (It must have been as far back as 2011, the centenary). Anyway it focuses on the band and is full of human interest. It is published by Thomas Nelson and is written by a Christian but does not stress that. Great read. I like Steve Turner's stuff.
2. A pocket guide to Climate Change. This little guide from Answers in Genesis written by various authors does not toe the accepted line, as you might expect but takes a creationist and moderate approach, accepting that the climate is changing but urging no panic. It's a complex subject but the writers are all scientists and it was good to get some scientific light on the subject. It is interesting to know that 31,487 American scientists,including 9,029 with PhDs, have signed a petition opposing the Kyoto agreement. It would seem that people don't decide on this issue simply by looking at the science.
3. The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse by Charlie Mackesy. This hardback is a work of art with writing rather than a book in the usual sense. It came into our house as a present from one son to another recently. There was great disappointment on the part of my dyslexic son that he had been given a book but once he sat down he had it read in no time. (It only took me 15 or 20 minutes I would guess - it is there to be savoured). One has mixed feelings about it. On its own terms it is lovely and kind but maybe God (the creator of all boys, moles, foxes and horses) is conspicuous by his absence and there is a certain starkness, even loneliness that stalks the book, despite its positivity. A little research reveals, however, that Charles Mackesy is an atheist turned evangelical so perhaps this is just overhang from his past rather than anything else or perhaps I am just far too harsh on people, always expecting too much.

10 Songs with Devil in the Title


1. Lucky Devil (Frank Ifield)
2. Devil in her heart (The Beatles)
3. Devilgate drive (Suzy Quatro)
4. Suzanne beware of the devil (Dandy Livingstone)
5. Devil went down to Georgia (Charlie Daniels Band)
6. Why Should the Devil have all the good music (Larry Norman)
7. Devil woman (Cliff Richard)
8. That old devil called love (Billie Holiday, Alison Moyet)
9. (You're the) Devil in disguise (Elvis Presley)
10. Better the devil you know (Kylie Minogue)

10 Christmas Carols From Around the World

https://www.flickr.com/photos/25802865@N08/11432120663
1. Silent night (Austria)
2. Infant holy (Poland)
3. Child in the manger (Scotland)
4. All poor men and humble (Wales)
5. While shepherds watched (England)All my heart this night rejoices (Germany)

7. O little town of Bethlehem (USA)
8. O holy night (France)
9. The virgin Mary had a baby boy (Trinidad)
10. O come all ye faithful (Portugal?)

10 Benjamin Franklin Inventions



1. The lightning rod
2. Bifocals
3. The glass armonica
4. The Franklin stove
5. The library stepstool, a chair whose seat could be lifted and folded down to make a short ladder.
(Also a mechanical arm for reaching books on high shelves)
6. The rocking chair
7. The writing chair
8. The odometer
9. A pulley system that enabled him to lock and unlock his bedroom door from his bed
10. The flexible urinary catheter.

Route 66



One delight of the recent trip to America was to find ourselves on the historic Route 66 at one point. The route took you all the way from Los Angeles to Chicago. It was made famous ina  ong recorded by Nat King Cole, Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, etc.

10 Left handed guitarists


1. Jimi Hendrix.
2. Paul McCartney
3. Kurt Cobain
4. Tony Iommi
5. Dick Dale
6. Coco Montaya
7. Ali and Robin Campbell
8. Albert King
9. Ben Howard
10. Iggy Pop

(This list was prompted by the recent death of Dick Dale)

Day Off Week 12 2019


It was a fairly typical day off in that I walked the dog, had a coffee and did newspaper puzzles. I also listened to music and managed to finish Respectable sins by the late Jerry Bridges (easy to read and very helpful) and to complete most of Norwegian Wood by Murakami (recommended only with much caution). Earlier I had completed a binge watch of The Missing prompted by watching the recent Baptiste series. I also took opportunity to catch up on Bible readings, which had fallen rather behind. Watched a bit of TV with Eleri at the end of the day. 

10 Music Queens


1. Queen of folk Joan Baez
2. Queen of rap Missy Elliot
3. Queen of new age Enya
4. Queen of Latin pop Gloria Estefan
6. Queen of jazz Ella Fitzgerald
7. Queen of country Loretta Lyn (or Reba McEntire or Dolly Parton)
8. Queen of soul Aretha Franklin
9. Queen of disco Gloria Gaynor (or Donna Summer)
10. Queen of gospel Mahalia Jackson
Bonus - Queen of funk Chaka Khan and Queen of heavy metal Lita Ford
(Too many Queens of pop and soul to mention)

10 Music Kings


1. King of jazz Louis Armstrong (or Paul Whiteman)
2. King of swing Benny Goodman
3. King of soul Sam Cooke (or Otis Redding or James Brown)
4. King of surf guitar Dick Dale (slide guitar Elmore James)
5. King of rock and roll Fats Domino (or Elvis Presley or Chuck Berry or Bill Haley or Little Richard or DJ Alan Freed. Carl Perkins is King of Rockabilly.)
6. King of folk (or folk rock) Bob Dylan 
7. King of skiffle Lonnie Donegan
8. King of the blues John Lee Hooker (or B B King)
9. King of pop Michael Jackson
10. King of zydeco Clifton Chenier
Bonus  - King of reggae Bob Marley, King of Motown Smokey Robinson

10 Musical Godparents


1. Godfather of soul James Brown
2. Godfather of punk Iggy Pop (also Joey Ramone, Lou Reed and Pete Townsend)
3. Godmother of rock and roll Sister Rosetta Tharpe
4. Godfather of grunge Neil Young
5. Godfathers of French house Daft Punk
6. Godfather of shock rock (and Glam rock?) Alice Cooper
7. Godfather of Britpop Ray Davies
8. Godfather of heavy metal Ozzy Osbourne
9. Godfather of rap Gil Scott-Heron
10. Godfather of folk Ewan McColl (also Pete Seeger)

10 Female Artists on my ipod


There's a bit of a thing about women in music again I notice. Good excuse to give you a list of ten of my favourites.

1. Gabrielle
2. Blondie
3. Norah Jones
4. Sade
5. Julie Fowlis
6. Kate Rusby
7. Enya
8. Tracy Chapman
9. Joan Armatrading
10. Bojoura

Cassettes for the Charity Shop

I took these three cassettes to the Charity Shop recently. The first is a souped up version of Frank Ifield's She taught me to yodel, an old favourite; then there's After the break by Planxty which I now have on itunes; the third is a bouzouki album I bought in Cyprus years ago. I think this is it here. Cassette technology - really missed said no-one.