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The Bible and song-writing
I was listening to this podcast by my favourite Christian author on my way back from London on Friday:
http://www.eauk.org/slipstream/podcast/tom-wright-world-changing-bi...
There's lots to think about in there, but a comment he makes about half-way through got me thinking. He's talking about the importance of reading the whole Bible, so as to get the balance of its message right, rather than raiding it for our favourite passages, or quotes to back up our own pet subjects. It's possible to get the Bible to say almost anything if you just cherry-pick verses.
I think he was talking in the context of preaching and teaching. But it got me thinking about the process of song-writing...... I've seen the advice given (possibly I gave it myself somewhere) that a good way of going about it is:
1) You get the seed of an idea
2) You play around with it - get some sort of structure
3) Then go looking for bits of Bible which cohere with the theme of the song idea
.... etc.
Well, I don't want to set aside the very real possibility of the Spirit's inspiration in this process, but I started wondering whether there might be some danger in doing things this way round. Maybe we just end up cherry picking the Bible for our favourite themes, imagining that since we found a verse to back us up then our song is therefore "Biblical", when in fact we are just projecting ourselves. Perhaps in doing it this way round we don't let the Bible speak at all?
Tags: bible, songwriting
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gav on -
hi daniel,
good post, i dont think we dont let the bible speak at all, but good challenge about cherry picking verses.
thats one of the point in the excellent 'now for a time of nonsense' by nick page.
context is vital.
God bless,
gav.
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Permalink Reply by Kev Plant on -
Hi,
Inspiration can work in a funny way, sometimes when going through / been through certain situations, being a creative sort :-) I try and write something of a song to explain / express feelings etc I will sometimes look up certain verses and place them within or work the situation around them in order to help me bring biblical teaching into that situation and in order to help me should any similar situation arise in my / anyone else I talk to's life. (I hope that makes sense). I don't see this as cherry picking tho. But...if I go down the route of just picking a verse and trying to write a song about it (which I have done sometimes in order to help the process of writing) I find that there is no 'life' in them. I always find that I need a large chunk of inspiration, however that comes, to write something that does have 'life' but also rely on Holy Spirit to bring that life and point me in the right direction so that my songs will contain truth, either by using certain verses or by making sure that what I write lines up with biblical expression.
Blessings
Kev
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Read on -
Kev
You are right - I wouldn't want to take inspiration out of the equation at all. If you set out with "I am am going to write something from this verse" or "on this theme" then it usually does come out completely dry. I really would like to write a song on the theme of being "In Christ" (in the full incorporative sense) because it's a really good and important topic, but nothing happened yet - I'm still waiting for that bit of inspiration that will set it off. It may never happen.
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Permalink Reply by Matt Osgood on -
I read your first sentence, and for a moment I had to really think who your 'favourite Christian author' was... :) silly me.
One of my most uncomfortable moments in a resound critiquing session was having a London School of Theology lecturer totally deconstruct one of my songs as being totally unbiblical, because I'd done exactly your number (3) above. After extensive re-writing it ended up as 'Lord you promised' which is on the site, but in an earlier version I'd just biblegateway'd 'faith' - taken all those verses, and constructed a song out of them without any attention to whether they were referring to saving faith, faith for healing, faith in Jesus etc etc. It was (I freely admit) utter rubbish - and despite the fact that almost all the lyrics were practically verbatim Scripture, it was nevertheless totally unBiblical.
So yes, I totally agree. I think it was Spurgeon (or Wesley? can't remember) about whom it was said if you cut him his blood would run Bibline. That kind of being-soaked-in-the-Scriptures is what's needed, because then we increasingly think and write Biblically, because our heads are full of the whole thing rather than a few key verses.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Read on
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Matt
Thanks for the honest personal example - that really helps. Sometimes its an honour to be taken apart in such an expert fashion, but it never feels like it at the time....
... and, yes, "soaked-in-the-Scriptures" is the hard work that is needed.
Favourite author's latest book is on "Virtue Reborn", by the way. He's got a big book on Paul lined up for next year.
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Permalink Reply by Matt Blick on
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@Matt Osgood Spurgeon (talking about Bunyan I think!)
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Permalink Reply by David Woodman on -
I get song ideas all over the place (usually when I'm not "trying" to write a song) but when it is a verse that has inspired something, I do tend to try to focus on the particular passage it's found in to draw from, rather than doing a tour looking for highlights that seem to fit. Not always easy to do, but using different translations of the same passage can help open it out a bit more.
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Permalink Reply by Julia Chantrell on -
And my songs are usually written in response to something's that happened [what Daniel calls 'music therapy'] which he then has to reconstruct because the theology's dodgy :-)
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Permalink Reply by Mike Kerslake on -
I think 1-2-3 works if you are rigorously self-critical or (better in many ways) get a friend with solid biblical knowledge and judgement to shake your song to see if any theological cracks appear. Tempting to skip this stage as it could be painful, though.
The other point I would make is that songs are essentially works of art and a certain amount of artistic licence is allowable. Look at Song of Songs for example. It's poetry, not science. I'm not suggesting heresy in our songs but the use of a metaphor that perhaps has some weaknesses may be acceptable in a song although it wouldn't be so acceptable in teaching from the pulpit.
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Permalink Reply by Julia Chantrell on
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That's a very valid point. If you actually analyse the lyrics from a lot of classic songs [or even just say them rather than sing them], they make less sense. Although I will admit I find mixed metaphors a tad irritating [but again, less so in a song than in a piece of prose - and I think I produce a fair few of my own].
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Permalink Reply by David Woodman on
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I guess the problem with the "Artistic Licence" view is that (rightly or wrongly) people in churches tend to remember many more songs than sermons. In which case, when writing congregational songs, I think there's less room for licence (although I'm sure I've broken my own rule unwittingly loads of times!)
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Permalink Reply by Julia Chantrell on
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Also a very valid point... it's interesting how many Psalms I can still remember in the KJV [if I put my mind to it] from singing them to the old chants for so many years as a kid :-) But I don't think Mike was actually referring to poor theology so much as slight lyrical and metaphorical weaknesses.
But please - no yodaisms...
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