Those Wonderful Kingdom Songs

by Quendi 56 Replies latest jw friends

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  Quendi

  The song "From House to House" has an interesting history behind it, talesin, that might interest you and some others. Harold King was its writer. He wrote it while imprisoned in China for being a Witness missionary when he was in solitary confinement. Harold King was not your average Witness but quite an intelligent man. He had studied mathematics and while in solitary confinement he created a routine to keep himself sane. He would pretend to spend the day in field service. He had a "magazine route", "Bible studies", people who would argue and/or debate with him, and even "not-at-homes". I thought that was amazing when his story was related to me. When the communist authorities realized they weren't going to "reeducate" him, he was released and expelled from the country. He's been dead for years now, but that particular kingdom song is still in the Witness musical repertoire.

  Quendi
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  BreathoftheIndianNose

  Half of them sound like the jurassic park theme song and one of them is nearly an exact replica of the free willy theme song. That's what I noticed often while at the meetings.
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  harleybear

  WORST SONG BY FAR SHULAMITE MAIDEN (SP???) that's how fond I am of it. Every stinking JW wedding that lousy song was used. When I got married to my former JW husband I refused to have that song and got a lot of flap for it. That should have been a hint on how THAT marriage would work out.
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  Quendi

  LOL @ harleybear!! The song I hated most was "Not Neglecting the House of Our God" whiich had a ridiculous 9/8 meter. What was that all about? I also remember reading somewhere a comment one Witness made about the kingdom songs being "spiritual food" from the 'faithful slave.' I alomost lost my lunch when I read that. "Spiritual food", indeed! The remark was in response to this Witness saying he had heard that many people did not appreciate the kingdom songs. In typical Witness fashion, neither he nor the 'faithful slave' ever bothered to research this and learn why people don't like the music.

  Quendi
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  talesin

  That's interesting, Quendi, thanks. I watched part of his vid on youtube. The Buddhists brought him a food package once a month? Curious, in Mao-ruled China. :)
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  mamochan13

  Thanks for that piece of info, Quendi. I vaguely recall parts of the story. I now recall that when they released that songbook there were a number of individual stories about the composers that they shared. I guess there was too much "individual" credit assigned and they had to make it more generic.

  I had forgotten that Shulamite wedding song, Harley. I played it for many a wedding. I did once, though, have a unique experience playing at a wedding back in about 1971-72. A fairly new witness got married and requested that a brother who was a former opera singer actually sing during the ceremony. She chose a song about love, I can't recall it right now. Maybe "God's way is love"? But the lyrics were far more appropriate for the occasion. I've never seen a live performance at a JW wedding outside of that one time.
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  3rdgen

  I also remember the old green songbook. There was a song I'll bet the society would like to revive. It was something like "Follow the greater Jeptha" The line was "Follow the Greater Jeptha who can not fail. Following him we will prevail." I can still remember my dad singing it with gusto!
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  3rdgen

  There was another which had the line :"The sword of Jehovah and of Giddeon" The pink book changed the lyric to "And work for it's sanctification" It watered down the message. LOL
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  ShirleyW

  Is the song "Take Sides with Jehovah" still in the latest songbook, that one's been around since the green songbook

  And how about that Hawaiian sounding song,#19 I think from the magenta colored book,
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  3rdgen

  I might be able to stomache the meetings if they had songs like the Doobie Bros "Jesus is Just Alright with Me".