COC Songs

[wtlcoc2013]

This thread makes me think of this video....hilarious!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16fqyp8UPaA

[ena]

Crawling to Zion.

That's why it took 40 years.

[MissingLink]

He arose a victor from the dark do-main
And he lives forever with his saints to reign

was changed to:

And he lives for-ever, death he over-came.

That's a new one to me, and I grew up with a dad for a song leader.

I do remember a stir being raised about Night, with Ebon Pinion. This verse:

When Christ the man of sorrows
In tears and sweat and blood

became

In tears and sweat AS blood

There was a huge stink raised about it in the church I grew up in. A few members refused to sing the song at all, even after everyone agreed to sing "as" instead of "and." Ridiculous.

[Ramblin' Jack]

We just never seemed to be able to get the "joyful" part of "making a joyful noise" down right.

This is so true. I used to cringe everytime anyone would lead "We're Marching to Zion". The way it is sung it should be "We're Crawling to Zion...and We're Never Gonna Get There". CoC can turn any song, no matter the tempo, into a funeral dirge. The only exception I ever experienced to this was at the county's one African American congregation; now, they made a joyful noise when they sang.

As someone who has visited a predominantly African-American Church of Christ congregation, I agree with this.

[JKendallDane]

We just never seemed to be able to get the "joyful" part of "making a joyful noise" down right.

This is so true. I used to cringe everytime anyone would lead "We're Marching to Zion". The way it is sung it should be "We're Crawling to Zion...and We're Never Gonna Get There". CoC can turn any song, no matter the tempo, into a funeral dirge. The only exception I ever experienced to this was at the county's one African American congregation; now, they made a joyful noise when they sang.

From my experiences with an AME church, even their funerals have more life in them as far as singing than most CoC's do in actual worship services.

Don't get me started on those infamous "Sunday afternoon sings" that came across more like marathon wakes.

The funny thing is my oldest brother and oldest cousin are both almost 80 and have told me how they can remember CoC services when they were kids in the late 1930's and 1940's, where the singing WAS spirited and uplifting and even included...(get ready for this one)...hand clapping, raising arms in the air, and shouting "AMEN!" and the end of songs. Guess that got shut down during the 'reformation of the reformation' in the 1950's.

[Struggler]

Y'all.....do you remember how "they", not sure who in the "brotherhood", decided that a line in "He Arose" was
unscriptural??

He arose a victor from the dark do-main
And he lives forever with his saints to reign

was changed to:

And he lives for-ever, death he over-came.

This was changed because someone got a bee in the bonnet
that Jesus wouldn't reign with the saints and it was unscriptural to
sing that phrase.

That was Ellis J. Crum, publisher of the Sacred Selections hymnal. He went crazy with the red pen and butchered many hymns. Ironically, "Holy, Holy, Holy" and "The Gate Ajar for Me" were left with their original lyrics, and those two are altered in almost every other C of C hymnal. The main reason his hymnal was popular for a time was not really the changed lyrics, but that he included hymns that had previously been left out of the denomination's hymnals.

[ena]

I will probably go to hell for even thinking like this, but I can't help it because it is just funny to me.

I used to decorate for Halloween, even going so far one year to have an actual hearse parked in my front yard with a casket spilling out of the back and a body rising up from it.

When my kids got older we used to have a haunted entry. We did different things every year for many years. Because we were in a new subdivision we had 100-200 kids coming to the front door. I liked one of the first ones. I had a endless loop playing screams and the doorbell cut the speakers on the porch in when you pushed the button. In effect a screaming doorbell. My son was the body in old brown plywood coffin. Inside I had Bach Tocatta and Fugue in D minor blaring. I was wearing a dark blue suit and would open the door and ask: "Have you come to view the body?" In my most seplicural voice. The casket would open itself and Mr. Body would hand out candy. You have tone it down for toddlers. Kids are really funny. The ones that like scary stuff are 10 year old boys. The ones that scream the loudest are teenage girls. Go figure? Link is to Bach so you can enjoy some well done spooky music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipzR9bhei_o

[catlady]

Does anyone have more examples of songs with lyrics that were changed for being unscriptural? I've seen several mentioned on this board but I was completely oblivious to this in my time in the CoC (I'm only familiar with the Sacred Selections hymnal.) I'm fascinated by this!

[zeek]

.

[Lev]

The second stanza of "Amazing Grace" got reworked for the Sacred Selections hymnal. It originally said "how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed". If memory serves me correctly in S.S. it was changed to "how precious did that grace appear when I his word obeyed". We all know that one could believe for a lifetime but not render full obedience and still be lost. I don't know why coC even sings this song as they have no concept of grace.

Didn't "and Grace my fears relieved" have to be changed to "and Grace my fears allayed" in order to keep the rhyme?

Lev