Thread: What is the first religious song you can ever remember learning? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
At home? At Sunday School? At school? When you joined a choir?

Songs learnt in childhood can be very powerful and can stay with you for life. One of the earliest ones I learnt was one my grandmother used to go around the house singing:

'Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done'.
 

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Posted by lily pad (# 11456) on :
 
At church, it was "When He Cometh", which, frankly, I still find rather perplexing but very fun to sing. (Which is also true of "When Mothers of Salem", another church standard back in the day.)

At the evangelical VBS in town, you know, that we took the big bus to and that paid us in chocolate Smarties for each friend we brought, it was "His Banner Over Me is Love". It has some perplexing bits too but the chorus is totally kid friendly and made sense. Also fun to sing and included actions.

Chorus:
For God loves you
and I love you
and that's the way it should be.
Alleluia.
 

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Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :
 
Given what 'his banner over me' means, not sure that's very child-friendly!

The first one I remember learning was Shine Jesus Shine, from watching Songs of Praise with my great-grandmother.
 

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Posted by Trisagion (# 5235) on :
 
I bob un sydd ffyddlon

[ 28. March 2014, 22:37: Message edited by: Trisagion ]
 

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Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :
 
The wise man built his house upon the rock
The wise man built his house upon the rock
The wise man built his house upon the rock
And the rains came tumbling down

The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
And the house on the rock stood firm.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
And the rains came tumbling down

The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
And the house on the sand went pbbth

(There were hand motions but I've long forgot them. I was about 6.)
 

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Posted by Dubious Thomas (# 10144) on :
 
Jesus loves me this I know....
 

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Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :
 
In Sunday School I can remember singing "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam"-- schmaltzy, but cute. In children's choir I remember singing "Fairest Lord Jesus". And in church I remember singing "We Gather Together" at Thanksgiving time.
 

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Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :
 
Holy, Holy, Holy by Reginald Heber. I think my parents came to dread that song as I insisted on singing it to them over and over....
 

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Posted by PeteC (# 10422) on :
 
Jesus loves me, this I know
and O come, all ye faithful, the last is still one of my favourites, although I now sing it in Latin.

When I was dragged to church as a child (and after I learnt to read) my favourite hymn was Holy, Holy, Holy which was hymn number one in the Canadian Anglican Book of Common praise. I was an inveterate reader of the Index of First Lines, and used to amuse myself during the boring parts of the service by moving back to the hymn from the Index.

Nearly 45 years a Catholic (April 6, 1969) and I still remember all those (mostly evangelical) hymns, few of which I have heard since then.
 

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Posted by MrsBeaky (# 17663) on :
 
We are one in the Spirit

We sang this regularly during Mass at my Convent School and even now I still sometimes find myself humming away....and I'm still passionate about its message too.
 

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Posted by Jante (# 9163) on :
 
The first I learnt was Count your blessings- but the one I learnt fairly soon after and which has stayed with me is Hold The Fort for I am coming, Jesus signals still. I always chose it if given the opportunity at Sunday School
 

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Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :
 
The first I remember learning was Swing Low, Sweet Chariot which I learned from my father aged about four. Rather ironic considering he we have both always been Welsh rugby supporters, I didn't learn Cwm Rhondda until a few years later
 

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Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
Earliest known (I cannot remember learning it but I must) is the last verse of Away in a Manger

I love the Lord Jesus I ask thee to stay
close by me forever and ever I pray
Bless all the dear children to thy tender care
and take us to heave to live with thee there.

However the two I remember

Dropping dropping dropping
Here the pennies dropping
everyone for Jesus
he shall have them all

which was the collections hymn every week at Sunday School.

I am H a p p y, I am H a p p y
I know I am, I sure I am
I am H a p p y.

Which was the one verse my Gran taught me. It does not even look religious until you know that there is a verse that S A V E D instead of H A P P Y

I am slightly worried about the theology of this.

Jengie
 

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Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
Lift high the Cross to the Sydney Nicholson tune.

It was at my father's Induction and I could read the hymn book for the first time. Still one of my favourites...
 

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Posted by bib (# 13074) on :
 
Jesus bids us shine with a pure clear light
Like a little candle burning in the night.
In this world of darkness so we must shine
You in your small corner and I in mine.

I can remember singing this in kindergarten (the school would probably not be allowed to indoctrinate kids these days).
 

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Posted by Galilit (# 16470) on :
 
Ditto, Bib!

Also "Glorious things of thee are spoken" which I still love despite the main tune for it being Austria. Fascists have the best music!
 

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Posted by Hart (# 4991) on :
 
The first I can remember is Morning has broken, sung at school. I remember it because one of our punishments at school was being made to stand in a corner of the playground, watching the other children play but not being allowed participate. It was commonly referred to as "seeing play," eg. "Bertie was naughty, so he had to see play." Thus, I completely mis-parsed and misinterpreted that line "Born of the one light // Eden saw play."
 

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Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :
 
Another one here for H-A-P-P-Y in the 'primary' section of Sunday school (age from 3).

I also recall my Grandma singing all the time:

'Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain
Heavenly breezes blow
Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain
Faces all aglow
Leave all your cares behind you
looking to the sky
Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain
You and I'

Once again, looking at the words, it doesn't even seem particularly 'religious' but it certainly felt like it!

Other early Sunday School choruses were 'Build on the rock'
'I will make you fishers of men'
'I met Jesus at the Crossroads'
and many more. All these I knew before I was five.
 

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Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
Sweet Sacrament We Thee Adore

Although I heard the line "Oh with what gifts of fervent praise" as "Oh and what gives with irreverent praise."
 

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Posted by no prophet (# 15560) on :
 
Hate to say it, but it was probably Kum Ba Yah. Which is right up there with Shine Jesus Shine. Corn syrupy goodness.
 

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Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :
 
Probably either All things bright and beautiful or Awake my soul and with the sun which in those far off days quite often used to mark the beginning of the school day.

I've heard All things bright and beautiful fairly recently. I used to like the bit about the purple headed mountain, the river running by. But does anyone still sing Awake my soul and with the sun these days. It's the opposite number to Glory to thee, my God this night.
 

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Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on :
 
The birds up in the tree-tops sing this song
they fill the air with music all day long;
the flowers in the garden, praise him too
So why shouldn't I, why shouldn't you, praise him too.
 

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Posted by Abigail (# 1672) on :
 
I didn’t go to church as a child but remember learning hymns at school. There are two that I associate with my earliest time at primary school, which we seemed to sing over and over again. One was ‘Winter Creeps’ and all I can remember of it is this:

Winter creeps,
Nature sleeps,
Leaves are shed,
All is dead.

God's alive,
Grow and grive, [??]
[something about May and June]
Nought but green
Will be seen.

And the other was

For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies…

And I always used to wonder what a ‘lovewhich’ was.
 

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Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :
 
Not sure if this is the absolute first, but I recall learning to sing it in Grade 3 or so, which makes it pretty early.

Matthew Mark, Luke, and John
Heard good news and they passed it on.
Learn, listen, look and see.
The gospel books for you and me.

Good News! Good News!
The gospel means Good News.
Shout it!
Good News! Good News! The gospel means Good News!

And while I doubt that I had ever heard of Satanism in Grade 3, it must have just occured to me as a logical corrolary, because I remember singing to a friend...

Bad News! Bad News!
The devil's book means Bad News!

Granted, "the devil's book" was a pretty awkward stand-in for some hypothetical Satanic gospel, but since I did not at that point know the name of such a book...
 

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Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by MrsBeaky:
We are one in the Spirit

We sang this regularly during Mass at my Convent School and even now I still sometimes find myself humming away....and I'm still passionate about its message too.

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I think that song was meant to capture what the writer thought would have been the spirit of the early church, operating in a quasi-underground fashion as a minority faith.

Here's an obituary for the songwriter. As I had always assumed, the lyrics were a direct reference to the ecumenical movement.
 

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Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :
 
Peter Scholtes' Missa Bossa Nova

I guess Scholtes is one of the guys people might blame for the supposed aesthetic atrocity of folk-masses. I never knew those songs were supposed to be Bossa Nova. Nor, I suspect, did most of the white-bread suburbanites who sang them.
 

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Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
When I was wee, I loved singing the Sunday School songs!

'Jesus Loves Me' was probably the first I learned.

'One Door and Only One' was a favorite.

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he!

'Climb, Climb Up Sunshine Mountain'.

Now I'm singing all of these! I can't stop!

'Happy Day Express' is in my head now.

Chorister! Thanks for all the ear worms!!
 

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Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Trisagion:
I bob un sydd ffyddlon

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jengie Jon:


Dropping dropping dropping
Here the pennies dropping
everyone for Jesus
he shall have them all

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quote:

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Originally posted by Abigail:
I didn’t go to church as a child but remember learning hymns at school. There are two that I associate with my earliest time at primary school, which we seemed to sing over and over again. One was ‘Winter Creeps’ and all I can remember of it is this:

Winter creeps,
Nature sleeps,
Leaves are shed,
All is dead.

God's alive,
Grow and grive, [??]
[something about May and June]
Nought but green
Will be seen.

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Winter creeps,
Nature sleeps;
Birds are gone,
Flowers are none,
Fields are bare,
Bleak the air,
Leaves are shed:
All seems dead.

God’s alive!
Grow and Thrive,
Hidden away,
Bloom of May,
Robe of June,
Very soon
Nought but green
Will be seen!


 

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Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :
 
Having been taken to church every week since I was one week old I'm pretty sure most of the hymns and songs soaked into my consciousness long before I was aware of them. I know that quite early on I learned all the children's "standards" in Sabbath School -- Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, The B-I-B-L-E, etc. I had forgotten about "Jesus Bids us Shine" until someone mentioned it above, but that was one of the ones I learned quite early on too.

But the songs that linger with me longest are the ones my great-aunt, who was my daily caregiver while my parents worked and in whose house we lived, used to sing to me. "When He Cometh" was one of her favourites and to this day it takes me right back to the kitchen of my childhood. Another one she often sang, which I haven't heard anywhere else, was,

Someone shall enter the pearly gates
By and by, by and by
Feast on the pleasures that there await,
Shall you? Shall I?

It had a very haunting, melancholy tune (at least, as my aunt sang it) which seemed to fit well with the theological message, which as a child made me feel that salvation was a bit of a matter of random chance. Anyone else remember that one?
 

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Posted by Abigail (# 1672) on :
 
Thank you Drifting Star!

Yes, 'Grow and thrive' makes more sense
 

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Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by jedijudy:
Does anyone else get a smile remembering 'Do Lord'?

'This Little Light of Mine' is still a favorite with our choir, sung to a jazzy accompaniment.

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quote:

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Originally posted by balaam:

quote:

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Originally posted by jedijudy:
Does anyone else get a smile remembering 'Do Lord'?

'This Little Light of Mine' is still a favorite with our choir, sung to a jazzy accompaniment.

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You have just created an image in my mind of a New Orleans marching band playing this song.

Thank You.

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I hope I don't ruin your image if I tell you our NO marching band is just me on the piano.
 

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Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
I can remember starting school round about the time new hymn books were bought. Everyone in the school who could read was given a hymn book. I was very pleased that I'd learnt to read before starting school, so I was the youngest person in the school to have my own hymn book. The first one I remember singing from it (rather a mouthful for a five year old) was:

Mine eyes have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord

And I remember several of the boys singing the chorus with great gusto, but to the 'teacher hit me with a ruler' words.
 

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Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Cathscats:

When the road is fought and steep (clap, clap)
Fix your eyes upon Jesus....

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Rough and steep surely


This was out of 'Youth Praise' (no 96, I've just looked it up!!) and it was one of the few I was able to play on piano (as it was in C major) on the rare occasions when our regular pianist was on holiday - this was in the 'Bible Class' when I was a teenager. On those weeks we were restricted to the four or five songs that I could play.
 

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Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :
 
Chorister wrote:

quote:

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And I remember several of the boys singing the chorus with great gusto, but to the 'teacher hit me with a ruler' words.

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In Grade 3, we were allowed to bring records to school for the teacher to play, and one day a girl brought an album that contained "The Battle Hymn Of The Children"(as apparently it is known). The teacher turned it off in the middle, saying curtly "I don't like the words".

This same teacher(who could fairly be described as pint-sized) also once gave us an unprompted lecture about how the Randy Newman song Short People was offensive to short people.

[ 31. March 2014, 01:07: Message edited by: Stetson ]
 

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Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :
 
I can't remember what we sang at Sunday school - their music was as boring as everything else about that denomination, so the memories are all from morning prayers at St Mary's Infant School: 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' was probably the first, followed by the immortal and unforgettable 'Over the Sea There are Little Brown Children'. 'Jesus Loves me, This I Know' must have been one of those, too. In my dotage, I am sure they are the songs that will come back to me. Oh - they just did!
 

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Posted by Galilit (# 16470) on :
 
We had "The King of Love My Shepherd is" last night and I recalled wishing - partly out of 8 year old erotic yearning and partly out of kiwi suburban lack of comfort /physical affection - at the lines "And on his shoulder gently laid/And home rejoicing brou-ou-ght me"

Actually it was a very Good Shepherd-y service and I wished I'd worn my bush shirt...
 

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Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
This is going to sound odd, but my earliest memory of "learning" a religious song was The First Nowell, in which I sang one of the verses as a duet with another girl at the school carol service when we were in Primary 2.

It's still one of my favourite carols.
 

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Posted by Tulfes (# 18000) on :
 
Hope I've got these words right:

Wide, wide as the ocean
High as the heavens above
Deep, deep as the deepest sea
Is my Saviour's love.
I though so unworthy
Still am a child of His care
For His love reaches me
And His love teaches me
Everywhere.
 

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Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
The actions are important!
 

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Posted by leo (# 1458) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by ken:
The actions are important!

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quote:

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Originally posted by ken:
The actions are important!

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Especially whacking the kid either side of you on the "Wide, wide..."
 

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Posted by Caissa (# 16710) on :
 
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus.
 

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Posted by Porridge (# 15405) on :
 
I remember attending a Sunday School class with a neighbor's child, and learning "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" while wondering what the heck a Bible was (I came from a non-church-going family), how I could possibly "belong" to someone I'd never met, and what my weakness and his strength had to do with anything. It was most confusing, and the teacher didn't appreciate my efforts to sing in harmony (which was all I ever got to sing at home).
 

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Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :
 
Some memories of very early Sunday School (Methodist) days:

Climb, Climb Up Sunshine Mountain
Back of the Loaf (which I didn't understand at all)
Do, Lord (from summer assembly)

and also (unfortunately)
KumByYa (yes, even in those distant days)

My favorites were always the ones with motions. I not so long ago convulsed a choir rehearsal by doing all the motions for 'All Things Bright & Beautiful'
 

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Posted by Arabella Purity Winterbottom (# 3434) on :
 
I can't remember. I used to stand with my dad, who was choirmaster, from the time I was about 3, and I'm sure I learned all the standard Anglican hymns by the time I was about 6. Apparently I sang everything an octave higher than usual.

Probably my favourite thing I remember learning at a young age was an anthem version of Fairest Lord Jesus. Still like the tune.
 

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Posted by ChaliceGirl (# 13656) on :
 
Rise and Shine , in Girl Scout camp, when I was about 7.
 

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Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :
 
Maybe a tangent - but I took my kids to see Colin Buchanan last Friday. The cheese factor around the publicity, CDs my mate already had for his kids etc was so overwhelming that I expected to have a really bad time, and thought twice about taking my kids. But they loved it, and I warmed to him - he came across genuinely warm and funny, which made memory-verse songs somehow OK.

So now in my mind I have '10-9-8, God is great' and 'In Ephesians, in the bible, chapter 4 verse 32, God says be kind to one another, God says be kind to one anaaahhhhhther' rattling round my head.

6-yr old told me before school today that she was glad she's met 'a sort-of-pop-star, and not a silly one that eats drugs'.
 

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Posted by maleveque (# 132) on :
 
'Jesus Loves Me'
'Do Lord'
and 'Away in a Manger'
My mother tells me that when I was very small, during a very quiet moment in the Sunday service (Daddy was a priest, so was not in the pew with us), I burst into loud, vaguely tuneful song, singing, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!"
There was another moment, when the congregation *was* singing, that I sang along, but with my own song: "What do you do with a drunken sailor, earl-eye in the morning!"
- Anne L.
 

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Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
When I was finally allowed to go to Evensong (after begging for about a year), I was able to take my lovely Christening present - a BCP with hymns in the back. I loved to peer at the tiny writing and sing along. The main one I can remember was 'hearts and minds and hands and voices' (Angel Voices Ever Singing). It's still a favourite now.

Later, I was able to join the choir (our church being forward thinking enough to allow girls to join - although only boys could be crucifer and serve in the sanctuary). The hymn I had to sing for audition was one I'd never heard before 'Faithful Shepherd Feed me' - I remember stumbling over the 3rd line as I wasn't too good at reading music at first. But they still let me in!
 

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Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Tulfes:
Hope I've got these words right:

Wide, wide as the ocean
High as the heavens above
Deep, deep as the deepest sea
Is my Saviour's love.
I though so unworthy
Still am a child of His care
For His love reaches me
And His love teaches me
Everywhere.

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Hee! This was what I used for morning calisthenics in one of my preschool classes.
I was going to say "Jesus loves me" was my first,but come to think of it, "Rise and Shine" evokes earlier memories for me.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
I remember "Wide, wide as the ocean", "Jesus bids us shine" and "the wise man built his house upon the rock" from Sunday school. I don't know when I learned them, but definitely before I learned to read. My family went to church every week so I knew most of the usual hymns and choruses before I started school.

A couple of years ago I was at a service in a church where a "worship group" usually leads the singing, but something went wrong with the laptop and the thing that projects the words of the songs onto a screen stopped working. The vicar got us all singing "Wide, wide as the ocean", with actions, and it turned out that everyone knew the words!

The old ones are the best ones.

 

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Posted by A.Pilgrim (# 15044) on :
 
In my first year at primary school at the end of the day we would put the chairs up on the desks and then all sing the last verse of Away in a manger: 'Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay close by me ...' which must be the first religious song I learned. On the occasions that I get to sing this carol at Christmas it takes me right back to being five years old again.

Angus
 

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Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
Not the first song but... at my primary school we used to sing grace before lunch every day:
Thank you for the world so sweet,
Thank you for food we eat,
That you for the birds that sing,
Thank you, God, for everything.

Trite but it has stuck in the mind.
 

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Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
Don't know if it's the oldest I can remember, but there was a song that now drives me mad because 40 years later all I can remember of it is a line "the apple and cherry tree row after row" and the refrain "for the maker says so".

Or something like that; as I say, 40 years.

Google comes up diddly-squat. Anyone know?
 

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Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :
 
I was around seven years old.

It was 'There is a Green Hill far away'.

I was a sensitive child and came home and wept buckets because I took it to mean that I had personally caused Jesus such pain.

It was the verse -

"We may not know, we cannot tell,
what pains he had to bear,
but we believe it was for us
he hung and suffered there."

which did me in.
 

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Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

quote:

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there was a song that now drives me mad because 40 years later all I can remember of it is a line "the apple and cherry tree row after row" and the refrain "for the maker says so".

Or something like that; as I say, 40 years.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Chamois:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

quote:

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there was a song that now drives me mad because 40 years later all I can remember of it is a line "the apple and cherry tree row after row" and the refrain "for the maker says so".

Or something like that; as I say, 40 years.

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I remember singing a very long song at school which included a the words, "the beans and potatoes row after row" with the refrain "onward ever onward go"

Could this be the same one?

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quote:

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Originally posted by stonespring:
I think it's a Christmas song for me and most people.

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Same here - probably "Away in a Manager". I also remember learnng "Lord of the Dance" at infants school - and being convinced it was about the Lord's furniture shop.

Tubbs
 

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Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Lord Jestocost:
I learned "Lord of the Dance" at a very early age, but I hadn't realised the cosmic significance and depth of what it says until its recent appearance on Rev reminded me of the words. It is so totally not a kids' song about dancing.

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quote:

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Setting different words to the same hymn tune is so old, I'd hate to call it lifting.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Stetson:
Matthew Mark, Luke, and John
Heard good news and they passed it on.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Mamacita:
My dad used to say this little rhyme: "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, hold the horse while I get on." I never knew it was a parody on an actual song!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

quote:

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Originally posted by Chamois:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

quote:

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there was a song that now drives me mad because 40 years later all I can remember of it is a line "the apple and cherry tree row after row" and the refrain "for the maker says so".

Or something like that; as I say, 40 years.

---

I remember singing a very long song at school which included a the words, "the beans and potatoes row after row" with the refrain "onward ever onward go"

Could this be the same one?

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Hard to imagine it wasn't. But what was the damned thing? Lyric searches bring up nowt!

It's really really bugging me!

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• The lambs and the calves and the foals that are born,
  The beans and potatoes, the roots and the corn,
  The apple and cherry trees, row after row:
  Onward! Onward ever, onward go!

quote:

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Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
... you can dance the Gay Gordons to the tune ...

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Heretick! The Gay Gordons has to be danced to Scotland the Brave.
[/tangent OFF]
 

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Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :
 
Cyberhymnal to the rescue. The quote rung a bell but of coming across it sometime later than my infancy. Not quite sure if it was during leading a Holiday Bible Club (some of the volunteers were quite a bit older than me) or just people reminiscing.

Oh wait a second Kaplan Corday posted it here in 2011.

Jengie
 

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Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :
 
Well, thanks for that! I'm not sure that I recall the whole tune, but I'm not sure I want to, now.

For the same reason (I am reminded of in that second link) that I wrote to the editor of Come and Praise, who denied that the author meant the jet planes were military ones with their umbilical hoses. He thought they were just stacking ready to land. I have tried and tried to find another working rhyme for jewelled, and totally failed. Autumn Days was the favourite in the school I taught in. It had to be rationed.

[ 09. May 2014, 17:57: Message edited by: Penny S ]
 

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Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :
 
Definitely All Things Bright And Beautiful, and He Who Would Valiant Be.
 

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Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Panda:


The first anthem I remember learning (and still know!), from a summer choir camp, age 8, was Bach's 'We hasten with eager yet faltering footsteps.' Still love it.

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quote:

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quote:

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Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

quote:

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Originally posted by Chamois:

quote:

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Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

there was a song that now drives me mad because 40 years later all I can remember of it is a line "the apple and cherry tree row after row" and the refrain "for the maker says so".

Or something like that; as I say, 40 years.

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I remember singing a very long song at school which included a the words, "the beans and potatoes row after row" with the refrain "onward ever onward go"

Could this be the same one?

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Hard to imagine it wasn't. But what was the damned thing? Lyric searches bring up nowt!

It's really really bugging me!

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It's this one, a Percy Dearmer processional. The 4 verses given on that site are verses 1, 2, 13 and 32 (!) of Songs of Praise no. 396 which I remember idly flicking through in school assembly and wondering 'who ever sings this?' Glad Karl and Chamois did. We never did.

The verse they remember is no. 8:
The lambs and the calves and the foals that are born,
The beans and potatoes, the roots and the corn,
The apple and cherry trees, row after row:
Onward! Onward ever, onward go!

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Wednesbury, thanks so much for finding this. I couldn't even remember the hymn book we used at school but of course you are right, it was Hymns of Praise.

I remember it as very long but I don't think even my school would have made us sing 32 verses.....
 

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Posted by Amos (# 44) on :
 
Dayenu
Adon Olam
Hine ma tov
Eliahu HaNavi (sung as a final verse to 'Father, Hear the Prayer We Offer,' believe it or not--Jewish melody however).
Shalom Chaverim (not sure this one counts!)

Also: 'Go Down Moses,' 'All Things B&B', and a whole raft of Christmas carols, which we made all right by shutting our mouths firmly when the name of Jesus was mentioned.

My sisters learned 'Who Would True Valour See' and 'When A Knight Won His Spurs,' and taught them to me when I was about 4; I've loved them ever since.




[ 11. May 2014, 21:48: Message edited by: Amos ]
 

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Posted by Fineline (# 12143) on :
 
I remember a religious alphabet song and a religious counting song, from my very early childhood.

The alphabet one was kind of to the tune of 'Hush little baby':

ABCDEFG
Jesus died for you and me
HIJKLMN
Gave his life for sinful men
OPQRSTU
I believe his word is true
UVW
God has promised you
XYZ
A home ahead


And here's the number song (not sure how to describe that tune) ...

1-2-3
Jesus loves me
1-2
Jesus loves you
3-4
He loves you more
Than you've ever been loved before
5-6-7
You're going to heaven
8-9
It's truly divine
9-10
It's time to end
But instead we'll sing it again


I can't say which I learnt first - I learnt lots of songs very young. The songs I liked best were 'If I were a butterfly' and 'Mr Noah built and ark' and 'I may never march in the infantry' - I liked the actions and the bouncy tunes!
 

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Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :
 
"All Things Bright and Beautiful", complete with the rich man at his castle. Later, as a believer, the first two songs I knew were "This is the Day" and "If I were a Butterfly". I think I've changed style since then, but they were important points on a journey.
 

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Posted by Daffodil (# 13164) on :
 
The first one I remember learning, as distinct from absorbing, was "Forth in thy name O Lord I go"
I joined the choir when I was about 7, but as I was small for my age, I had to wait a while before they found a choir robe small enough for me. Until that day I wore a blue two piece concocted by my mother and grandmother, with the skirt sewed on to full length petticoat to stop it falling down... Thanks family!!!!
 

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Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Tulfes:
Hope I've got these words right:

Wide, wide as the ocean
High as the heavens above
Deep, deep as the deepest sea
Is my Saviour's love.
I though so unworthy
Still am a child of His care
For His love reaches me
And His love teaches me
Everywhere.

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