Christian music nostalgia

12/9/2011

Now and then I find myself in a state of nostalgia for the Christian music I grew up listening to. This week I’ve been remesmerized by the songs of Leslie Phillips (now known as Sam Phillips). Even though the words no longer mean what they used to mean to me, there’s nothing like going back to long-ago-deeply-loved music that had lain dormant for a couple of decades and recalling it as if it I’d last listened to it only yesterday. Below is one of her songs (“Heart of Hearts”) that tugged at my heartstrings (others: "I'm Finding" and "You're the Same"). These are not by any stretch the deepest or most creative songs in the world; I'm not sure whether it was the words, the music, the memories, the knowledge that Phillips later found her way of fundamentalism like me, or all of the above, but they gave me that proverbial chill down my spine.

Verse 1:
Tears in the city
Nobody`s really surprised, you know
My heart`s taken a beating,
Existence is bleeding me dry, you know

Chorus:
Way down, in my heart of hearts
Way down, in my soul of souls
Way down, I know that I am a fortunate girl
To have known divine love

Verse 2:
The world is in shambles, I`m just a young girl
But its getting a little bit old to me

I`m already aching, the years have been taking
A little bit of a toll on me

Repeat Chorus
Instrumental

Verse 3:
Two in the morning, the siren is warning
That everything is not quite all right
The city is sleeping and I`m
Down on my knees in the night, tonight

Repeat Chorus

Anyone else out there have an experience like this? Do you periodically go back to the old Christian music you used to love and let it wash over you to bring back those indelible memories?

Mary

12/10/2011 02:35:22 am

I find myself analyzing the words of christian music and finding errors in the words. This does take away my enjoyment of christian music.

Andrew

12/10/2011 02:40:18 am

Definitely. I agree with Mary, though, the words can be distracting. There's a handful of songs (Rich Mullins ring a bell?) that it seems like I must have heard/sung well over 1000 times growing up. If I hear one today, I can't help but sing along a little. I'm a sucker for nostalgic music... It still has some meaning to me, even if it's not the intended meaning.

John

12/10/2011 12:54:04 pm

Yeah, I have those moments some times. The other day I wanted to listen to classical music and stumbled onto a website which had the whole of Handel's Messiah, the performance by the London Philharmonic I was raised listening to. I played the whole thing through, and thrilled to it again for the first time in years.

Maria

1/1/2012 12:51:25 pm

I do! I have several songs I used to sing, including Nearer My God to Thee and Morning Has Broken, on my phone. And a Casting Crowns song called "Does Anybody Hear Her." I like to listen to these--not all the time, but a big thing for me as I left xtianity was realizing that that choice opened up the ENTIRE world for me: not just the nonchristian sector. Seen that way, christian music is no more outlawed now than humanist music.

She is running
A hundred miles an hour
in the wrong direction
She is trying
But the canyon's ever widening
In the depths of her cold heart
So she sets out on another misadventure just to find
She's another two years older
And she's three more steps behind

Does anybody hear her?
Can anybody see?
Or does anybody even knows she's going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her?
Can anybody see?

She is yearning
For shelter and affection
That she never found at home
She is searching
For a hero to ride in
To ride in and save the day
And in walks her prince charming
And he knows just what to say
Momentary lapse of reason
And she gives herself away

If judgment looms under every steeple
If lofty glances from lofty people
Can't see past her scarlet letter
And we never even met her

I like the tune, and besides, everyone needs a momentary lapse of reason now and then. :)

Cheers!

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Author

Kenneth W. Daniels (1968-), son of evangelical missionaries, is the author of Why I Believed: Reflections of a Former Missionary. He grew up in Africa and returned as an adult to serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Niger on the edge of the Sahara Desert. While studying the Bible on the mission field, he came to doubt the message he had traveled across the world to bring to a nomadic camel-herding ethnic group. Though he lost his faith and as a result left Africa in 2000, he remains part of a conservative Christian family. He currently resides with his wife and three children in suburban Dallas, TX, where he works as a software developer.

Christian music nostalgia

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