OCCUPIED COUNTRY

Jesus on the Mainline

When I was younger I used to struggle with a musical/intellectual paradox. How could I - a card-carrying atheist; heathen through and through - enjoy gospel music so much? I used to joke that if the local Sunday school my brother and I were packed off to each week had hymns as full of soul as the churches of the deep south, I'd be praising the Lord with the best of them. Alas 'twas not to be. I was subjected to a dreary, frock-coated "thou shalt not" Northern non-conformism that stifled the spirit. I knew the Devil had all the best tunes - hadn't I just seen and heard the Rolling Stones on Top of the Pops?

As the sixties rolled by and I finally became a teenager, I started hearing all these old black guys who the Stones and many other blues-based groups of the day namechecked as influences. Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson soon led me onto investigating further. Blind Blake, Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee followed and then Blind Willie McTell, Blind Willie Johnson and the creme de la creme: Robert Johnson. I'd buy compilation albums full of people with alien names like Kokomo Arnold, Cripple Clarence Lofton and Sleepy John Estes. I couldn't get enough. It was a guilty secret that hid behind the facade of the usual late sixties fare of Zeppelin, Tull and Cream. On these compilation albums there always seemed to be some gospel music thrown in. Either as a solo voice and guitar/piano performance, or as a full choir rendition. I loved it. Those *blue* notes sent shivers etc etc.

But I couldn't throw myself fully into it. It was the lyrics. Twaddle. 'Woke up this morning and my woman had gone' I could relate to. Hell it was always happening to me even at that tender age. 'What a friend I have in Jesus' just made me laugh though. As a result I slowly stopped listening and buying and turned my attention to heavy(ish) rock.

Years later I 'discover' Ry Cooder and I'm back there again. His arrangements of old blues and gospels are sublime. 'Happy Meeting in Glory', Jesus on the Mainline and many more make me realise what I've been missing. I still can't handle the lyrics though but I think I've established a compromise that can withstand a little intellectual rigour. So here I have to raise my hat to the faith (misguided though I think it is) that inspired some of the greatest music of the 20th century. In the final analysis it's a profoundly human creation and I don't have to agree with lyrics to enjoy the song do I? I mean I adore 'Hey Joe' but give a big thumbs down to the practise of carrying a gun in your hand to shoot your woman down.

So. Well done God and well done mankind for inventing him in the first place.

This post was written to a soundtrack of Ry Cooder's 'Jazz' and 'Paradise and Lunch' albums. Two of his best and a perfect way to start a weekend.

Now I'm off to see City and Chelsea. Let's hope the perfect start to the weekend continues.