It's kind of ironic that one of the last of John Lennon's songs was this lovely ballad, "Grow Old Along With Me" in which he prays "God bless our love." This is the same guy who wrote the anti-religion "Imagine". One hopes John was able to work it all out with his maker at some point. That said, Grow Old is a very beautiful song. This version is by Mary Chapin Carpenter. The only versions we have of Lennon singing it, are some home recordings which suffer a little from the poorer quality of home recording equipment of the day.
This is a beautiful song. Perfect for weddings. It's sad that Lennon was looking forward to growing old along with his wife and died very soon after he wrote it.
This unusual song by John Mayer flies in the face of the romantic poets. Love to Mayer is something you do, not something you can hold on to or something that just magically pop up in your heart. It's not a feeling that you can capture like you could scoop up a butterfly with a net. CS Lewis captured this idea in his book Mere Christianity. “Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’
your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of
the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you
will presently come to love him.”
About the only iteration of love as a "thang," that I think is accurate, is something the apostle John pointed out in one of his letters. "God," he said, "is love". All love springs from the author of love and is the wellspring of all love in the universe. There are some preachers and romantics who will argue with you that love is a "thang," but I think they miss the point. Love it seems springs from an act. It's not some magical thing that occurs when a pretty girl in a skimpy bathing suit walks by on the beach or a muscled up young man removes his shirt while repairing your porch. I think they're thinking of another "L" word besides love.
This one is one of my favorite Ray Stevens songs and that's saying something given that he also wrote the hilarious Shriner's Convention. We've all known a Sister-Bertha-Better'n-You in our time and the spectacle of her standing up in meetin' and confessing about her "love life" and "namin' names" is just too appealing an image. This thing is funny right here, I don't care who you are. This is also on my phone.
My son, Micah introduced me to this Nickel Creek song. The lyrics are beautiful and this song always makes me mist up a little bit. I'm not sure even now, as many times as I've listened to it, that I could sing it all the way through without getting all choked up. The Hand Song is one of those poignant folk songs that is beyond the typical murder ballad, folk hero song or the "I love her so much I want to lock her up inside a box and not let her out" sort of twisted love songs you find in mountain music. This song is lyrical and beautiful.
The first time I heard this song, my daughter and her friend performed this for a Sabbath morning service in Tyler. It's a driving Southern Gospel Number that makes you want to stand up and shout, "Hallelujah!" I found out the original version of the song is done by The Martins, a family Southern Gospel group. I looked them up on Youtube and got an Mp3 of them for my phone. I only got half of the version my daughter sang on video, so I went with the Martins.
This old hymn was one of the first songs that Great Grandma Doney taught to my Grandpa King when he was just a little boy. It remained a favorite all his life. My Grandpa was a praying man and I have no doubt at all that there will be some stars in my grandpa's crown. He'll get at least part of one for me. I introduced my own son to the song when he was little.
Above is one of my favorite folk singers, Burl Ives singing "Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown?" Below is my first favorite folk singers, Thomas Adolph King....
This isn't my favorite version of "Carol of the Bells". I include it because I was named after the Orchestra leader, Wayne King - at least so my mother tells me. My first name belongs to my grandfather and my great grandfather and 29 other Thomases whom I've discovered hanging from the branches of my family tree. We've all got individual middle names. There are only a few Thomas Juniors and one "the 3rd" that I have found so far, and a couple with "Thomas" as middle name. If I ever get any say so with my grandkids, I'm hoping to at least get one grandson with Thomas for a middle name. Here's Wayne's big band rendition of Carol of the Bells:
Here's another version of this song I like even better, but I do like to listen to Wayne and his orchestra run a few big band versions of Christmas songs through the old record player. Here are the Piano Guys doing a medley based around Carol of the Bells (for 12 cellos).
Then there is this one which really does make me smile! Algonquin students do a flash mob version of Carol of the Bells with the help of Darth Vader and his electric guitar.
If you go to Youtube, there are dozens of versions of this song
including some notable versions done as flashmobs. There are versions
with pianos, bells, voices as bells and even one version with kazoos.
One
last version I'm adding to this is the incredible version done by Peter
Hollens. This version uses 300 male voices including multiple versions
of Peter himself. It's amazing.
Note that watching and subscribing to these indie artists on Youtube helps support them.
PS: One more. This one by Lindsey Stirling on violin combines dance and snow. This one surprised me. She gets focused on her fiddle as intensely as my friend Jaime Jorge. I need to find some carols of his if he's done any. I love musicians that get this deeply into the music.
