Our class has recently turned to reading a book called Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music by NPR's Ann Powers. Powers actually visited the campus of my college last semester while I was abroad. It's a shame I missed her. Anyhow, one of the chapters intriguing me most is the third - "Let It Breathe on Me: Spiritual Erotics". It's a chapter all about the emergence of gospel as a popular art form in America. Powers links the sound of gospel directly to the need for artists and writers like Thomas Dorsey to channel what Audre Lord calls the "erotic power" of music to spiritual longing. Gospel, after all, is the merging of expressive musicality with unmistakably Christian praise. I haven't listened to much gospel at all in my life, and so it was something of an eye-opening to read about the genre in Powers' book. The first song I listened to in the chapter is the song that Powers claims began the Golden Age of Gospel, which lasted from the 30's to the 50's. It was Dorsey's hit "Take My Hands, Precious Lord" performed by soprano Marion Williams. The song takes the religious sentiment of hymns and injects it with a sound rooted in blues and jazz. Williams' voice, supported by Dorsey's piano accompaniment, is simple yet powerful. The lyrics, telling of reaching out to God for help through the hardships of life, are beautifully emoted by Williams, who effortlessly carries the tune through an authentic longing for the divine. I'm trying to imagine how this song must have sounded to a Christian audience who'd felt the sensual pull of popular music but didn't want to abandon the church completely for the realm of the secular. It must have been a godsend. Powers points to other songs like Mahalia Williams's rendition of "I Will Move On Up a Little Higher" as examples of the confluence of erotic power and Christian praise. What's really capturing me as I listen to these songs is the audacity of the vocals. Williams, Jackson, Dorothy Lee Coates, and others, are willing to reach into the limits of their voice, reaching for their highest notes as if God is found at the top. And as I think about the combination of blues/jazz with religion, I'm wondering why I haven't attached to gospel. I've been interested in the mystique of music in the sacred for a long time, yet gospel is a foreign world to me. I'm realizing the connection between the undeniably sexual aspects of popular music with how my own faith can be expressed. Powers and these singers are convincing me that I've been ignoring the erotic power of gospel for far too long.
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AuthorSam Coker Archives
April 2018
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