Stalker and Amazing Grace

Two recent books celebrate and explore seminal works of art which are infused with Christian spirituality:

"In Zona, Geoff Dyer attempts to unlock the mysteries of a film that has haunted him ever since he first saw it thirty years ago: Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. (“Every single frame,” declared Cate Blanchett, “is burned into my retina.”) As Dyer guides us into the zone of Tarkovsky’s imagination, we realize that the film is only the entry point for a radically original investigation of the enduring questions of life, faith, and how to live."

Gregory Halvorsen Schreck writes that: "The films of the late Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky represent an exceptional Christian vision. His artistic vision was profoundly original and provocative, yet also profoundly Christian. It is impossible to separate his art from his faith. A Russian Orthodox Christian, Tarkovsky stated that his films "are one thing, the extreme manifestation of faith." At the base of his work, at the very conception of his ideas about form, lies his spirituality ... Tarkovsky's films offer a redemptive vision that expresses a solution to society primarily in terms of spiritual regeneration. As he wrote, "The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as example. The aim of art is to prepare a person for death, to plough and harrow his soul, rendering it capable of turning to good." (Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time: Reflections of the Cinema [Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1986], 43)."

Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace by Aaron Cohen is "a fascinating and thoroughly researched exploration of the best-selling gospel album of all time":

"For two days in January 1972, Aretha Franklin sang at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles while tape recorders and film cameras rolled. Everyone there knew the event had the potential to be historic: five years after ascending to soul royalty and commercial success, Franklin was publicly returning to her religious roots. Her influential minister father stood by her on the pulpit. Her mentor, Clara Ward, sat in the pews. Franklin responded to the occasion with the performance of her life and the resulting double album became a multi-million seller—even without any trademark hit singles. But that was just one part of the story.

Franklin’s warm inimitable voice, virtuoso jazz-soul instrumental group and Rev. James Cleveland’s inventive choral arrangements transformed the course of gospel. Through new interviews, musical and theological analyses as well as archival discoveries, this book sets the scene, traces the recording’s traditional origins and pop infusions and describes the album’s enduring impact."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aretha Franklin - How I Got Over.

Why gospel's heroes go unsung

This week's Church Times has an excellent article, extracted from Steve Turner's newest book An Illustrated History of Gospel, which if you're not a subscriber you won't be able to read until Friday.

Turner's main point - that the gospel roots of r&b and rock 'n' roll are as strong as those of the blues - is one that I made in my God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You series of posts. His secondary point - that these gospel roots are played down in a way that rock's blues and country roots are not - is similar to that which I am documenting in relation to modern and contemporary art through my Airbrushed from Art History series of posts.

Turner begins with the Dixie Hummingbirds at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival before commenting that:

"Hearing them gave plenty of clues to where American popular music had found a lot of its inspiration. You could hear the beat of Motown, the vocal tricks of people like Otis Redding and James Brown, and the guitar licks of Bo Diddley. You could also see the dance moves of Mick Jagger and the suave uniforms of groups like the Temptations and the Impressions ...

Gospel music, along with country, blues, and jazz, was the main tributary flowing in to rock and roll ...

Yet, of all these forms of music, gospel is the least known about and appreciated by lovers of rock."

As demonstration, Turner points to the way: rock magazines "regularly celebrate the legends of country, blues, and jazz, but almost never the legends of gospel"; the Glastonbury Festival has "featured the country star Johnny Cash on the main stage, as well as the blues guitarist Buddy Guy, but never one of the greats of gospel music"; documentary-makers "go in search of the ghosts of Robert Johnson, Hank Williams and Charlie Parker, but never the ghosts of Thomas Dorsey and Clara Ward"; and when Rolling Stone compiled its list of 'The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time' there was not a single gospel performer:

"Yet, of the artists selected, a third either sang in gospel groups as teenagers or were profoundly affected by gospel. Ray Charles loved the voice of Archie Brownlee of the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi; Aretha Franklin originally modelled herself on Clara Ward; Little Richard copied his vocal swoops from Marion Williams; and Elvis was inspired by the on-stage antics of the Statesmen Quartet's James "Big Chief" Wetherington, who used to quiver his legs."

Charlie Gillett, in The Sound of the City, observed:

"Between 1948 and 1952 the potential connection between the emotions of gospel singing and the expectations of adolescent listeners of popular music occurred to various singers, record-company executives, and composers. Indirectly and directly gospel styles and conventions were introduced into rhythm and blues - and constituted the first significant trend away from the blues, as such into black popular music."  

The downplaying of gospel, Turner argues, has ideological roots:

"People outside the Church can appreciate its authenticity, excitement, vocal skills, and musical inventiveness, but they are left cold, or possibly even offended, by the point of view of the lyrics. If a singer is expressing passion for Christ, uninitiated listeners cannot relate to it in the way they could if the passion was for Johnny or Diana."

Gospel , he suggests, as a result "seems completely opaque to someone unfamiliar with the worship, praise, and instruction that it was intended to promote." Yet he notes that rock musicians themselves often have "a much more informed appreciation of gospel" with Brian Eno, in particular, having argued that gospel recordings "absolutely vibrate with life" and concluding: "My feeling about gospel is that it's about time there was a music that actually moved you enough to make you shed tears again."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clara Ward Singers featuring Marion Williams - Packin Up.