“Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah

by wifibandit 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • sparky1
    sparky1

    There you go ShirleyW...............don't forget.................hail him! hail him! hail him!

    I'm only 61 years old but I remember this as a little fellow.

  • stuckinarut2
    stuckinarut2

    Great work everyone, especially darkspilver.

    Those scans of the material are very good.

    The shameless plug for "silver and gold" is just embarrassing!

  • ShirleyW
    ShirleyW

    thanks Sparky, you're just a few years older than I am, I'm sure that one has been removed from the current songbooks

  • LevelThePlayingField
    LevelThePlayingField

    I love it here on this forum. I can really speak my mind. Ok, then. I hate the new cover. It's an ugly grey just like the new Bible. No art work or anything? Yuck.

    Try saying that at a Kingdom Hall near you.

  • darkspilver
    darkspilver

    Hey ShirleyW!


    Do the old timers here remember song number 1 from the old green songbook, it was called "Hail Him" growing up in the sixties, I remember we sang that one just one time, you can tell it's taken from a gospel rock and roller, really got you going, I know I"m not the oldest here but does anyone else remember song #1 from the old green songbook?

    There's an introductory melody, the song proper, with vocals, starts at 1.25

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uKmnAtEDGs

  • Splash
    Splash

    Thanks Darkspilver!

    This is a brilliant song to play around the fire at Christmas time when my JW folks visit!

  • credulity
    credulity

    (Not so) subliminal messages aside, parts of the "new" new songbook are hilarious.

    e.g. Song 109 ("Love Intensely From the Heart") has been cut to just one verse and the lyrics are embarrassingly bad (primary rhymes in asterisks, secondary rhymes in carets):

    "When our love is pure and intense, we make Jehovah's heart rejoice. Love is his greatest *quality*, something that we hold ^dear^. Warm affection glows in our hearts, making a loyal friendship grow. Love always acts *unselfishly*, proving our love ^sincere^. When we see a friend in need, we'll be there to lend a helping *hand*. Truly we can be a friend, someone who can *understand*. Jesus showed what love really means, helping us see Jehovah's love, touching our hearts and moving us. Tender feeling are a *start*. Love intensely from the *heart*."

    Compare the 1984 lyrics (115 - "Have Intense Love For One Another"):

    "Love that is intense and *pure*, helps us all things to *endure*, and God's favour to *secure*, serving him ^aright^. Through such love our God did *send*, Jesus Christ our loyal *Friend*, our relationship to *mend*, and with Him ^unite^. We who fear Jehovah *God*, let our feet with love be *shod*, as we walk the way Christ *trod*, showing heartfelt ^love^. In this hateful world *today*, love intense we must *display*, it is the surpassing *way*; copies God ^above^, copies God ^above^."

    The 1984 lyrics were clever. The 2009 lyrics, while substantially changed (particularly to account for the annoying every-note-must-match-a-syllable mentality), maintained the rhymes and did eliminate the repetition at the end (which was a positive step). The 2016 lyrics, in comparison, lack structure. And is "glows" supposed to rhyme with "grow"? Or "need" with "means"!? When something sounds almost right but doesn't fit, one gets the impression that little thought was put into the lyrics.

    ---

    If one adopts the JW mindset that humans are endowed with the god-given ability to sing, which should be enjoyed and exercised accordingly, one must also wonder what the rationale is for cutting songs to less than two minutes. I've always considered the "Love Intensely" song, while not the easiest to sing, to be one of the most musically superior songs, and two verses (as was the case originally in 1984, and then in 2009) was perfect, at 3.5 minutes. It wasn't too short, but nor did it drag (unlike "Be Forgiving" [Song 56 in 1966, Song 110 in 1984] which, at almost six minutes if played at the right tempo, although a pleasant enough melody, started to REALLY drag by the fourth verse!).

    Perhaps sub-2-minute songs are now preferred because they make toilet breaks impossible?

    ---

    Finally, the Kingdom Melodies are no longer displayed on the JW website, although they are still accessible if you still have the old link. I expect they will be deleted in due course.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit