Ship of Fools: Double-Entendre Lyrics

Thread: Double-Entendre Lyrics Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by DangerousDeacon (# 10582) on :

Have recently come across some music to be used in a service (not at my parish) which has a distinct double-entendre. Those of a more innocent mind than me simply cannot see the double-entendre: but others see it as soon as the words are read out and break into laughter. I fear that the service could be disrupted by this.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? How did you deal with it?

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

I don't usually hang out in Eccles, so I don't know the rules on posting something like that, but...care to share?

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

When I was at college, the second verse of this Marian hymn caused much snickering and giggling in chapel. You see, the particular fruit referred to in the second half of the verse is apparently (in some circles) slang for a certain part of the male anatomy.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

Go, labor on; spend, and be spent has the memorable last verse:

quote:
Soon shalt thou hear the Bridegroom's voice, the midnight peal, "Behold, I come!"

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

Surely the classic is:

quote:
Originally written by someone more innocent than I

Jesus take me as I am
I can come no other way

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Go, labor on; spend, and be spent has the memorable last verse:
quote:
Soon shalt thou hear the Bridegroom's voice, the midnight peal, "Behold, I come!"

Another one that I suspect is not sung much these days, starts with the words,

quote:
Behold the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night,
And blest is he whose loins are girt, whose lamp is burning bright;

Posted by Offeiriad (# 14031) on :

The wonderful old processional hymn 'Jerusalem, my happy home' used to amuse our choir with the line:
Our Lady sings Magnificat with tune surpassing sweet,
and all the virgins bear their parts, sitting around her seat.

Posted by chris stiles (# 12641) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
Surely the classic is:

quote:
Originally written by someone more innocent than I

Jesus take me as I am
I can come no other way

On a similar note, at one point during the 'March for Jesus' era - it was common for the Chris Bowater song 'This is a mystery' to be sung by the marchers, which included the chorus:

quote:

Let the Bride say ‘Come’
Let the bride say ‘Come’
Let the bride of the Lamb say ‘Come Lord Jesus ‘

Which led to much snickering on the part of onlookers.

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

quote:

Lord you put a tongue in my mouth

Fnarr fnarr hyuck hyuck kersnip kersnip arf arf!

[ 22. September 2015, 11:22: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Enoch I remember that hymn - it was number 3 in the old English Hymnal and caused much hilarity among trebles in my youth.

But then younger trebles are easily amused: the line Where are ye all, ye virgins wise? was also the cause of much sniggering.

The best, mainly because of an unfamiliar word, was the fourth verse of Come, thou Holy Paraclete

quote:
What is soiled, make thou pure;
What is wounded, work its cure;
What is parched fructify;
What is rigid, gently bend;
What is frozen, warmly tend;
Straighten what goes erringly.

In the choir at home pay was deducted from anyone who corpsed; at school, detentions were given out.

[ 22. September 2015, 11:43: Message edited by: L'organist ]

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

When I was a small schoolboy in the company of other small schoolboys, we used to find it hard enough to get through the final verse of Dear Lord and Father of mankind without a snigger.

"Breathe through the heats of our desire" was sufficient to cause a wave of titters. We wouldn't have stood a chance with "Behold the Bridegroom cometh."

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

It's not a classic double entendre, as the other meaning isn't crude, but there's also a hymn that starts with the line,

quote:
"Pierce my ear, O Lord, my God"

It's inspired by scripture, Ex 21:1-6. But that doesn't let the writer off the charge of not having quite enough imagination for the job.

I've never heard it sung, but it was in some songbooks. Here should be a video of it.

Has any Shipmate actually heard it sung, or even sung it themselves?

Posted by Cottontail (# 12234) on :

It's a shame, because it is a grand old redemption hymn, but I am afraid that

quote:
Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night,
Jesus, I come! Jesus, I come!

is quite unsingable now.

Posted by HCH (# 14313) on :

I believe that an old Protestant hymn refers to "between the sheaves", often amended by mischievous boys to "between the sheets".

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
It's not a classic double entendre, as the other meaning isn't crude, but there's also a hymn that starts with the line,

quote:
"Pierce my ear, O Lord, my God"
It's inspired by scripture, Ex 21:1-6. But that doesn't let the writer off the charge of not having quite enough imagination for the job.
...

Has any Shipmate actually heard it sung, or even sung it themselves?

Yes indeed. It was a favourite of our Youth Group for a while when I was a teenager (many years ago). The meaning was explained to us when we first sang it, and I don't remember it raising any more than the odd smile after that. We didn't sing 'Take me to your door...', if I remember correctly, but 'Take me to your home...'

We were far more entertained by 'You shall go out with joy', where one of the lads could always be heard stage whispering 'Who's Joy?'

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Cottontail:
[QUOTE] Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night,
Jesus, I come! Jesus, I come!

Don't we have a private board for that?

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Drifting Star:

quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
It's not a classic double entendre, as the other meaning isn't crude, but there's also a hymn that starts with the line,

quote:
"Pierce my ear, O Lord, my God"
It's inspired by scripture, Ex 21:1-6. But that doesn't let the writer off the charge of not having quite enough imagination for the job.
...

Has any Shipmate actually heard it sung, or even sung it themselves?
Yes indeed. It was a favourite of our Youth Group for a while when I was a teenager (many years ago). The meaning was explained to us when we first sang it, and I don't remember it raising any more than the odd smile after that. We didn't sing 'Take me to your door...', if I remember correctly, but 'Take me to your home...'

Just to add that the idea of serving God through choice was all that we heard - we gave no thought at all to the issue of slavery that underpinned the lyrics.

[ 22. September 2015, 16:31: Message edited by: Drifting Star ]

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

The wife of our former Dean suggested that 'There's a Wideness in God's Mercy' was appropriate for Feast of the Circumcision, as it contained the line

'There is joy for all the members in the sorrows of the Head.'

In the Hymnal 1940 is was set to 'Beecher' which made it even worse.

Posted by Fr Weber (# 13472) on :

The Alleluia verse for Trinity 20 is taken from Psalm 108. The first time I ever had to sing it, it took me a bit by surprise as I was expected to respond to the versicle with "I will sing and give praise with the best member that I have."

Especially since the other choristers were giggling, damn them.

Posted by willht (# 17633) on :

'And then there is the story about the child who wanted to meet the vision impaired club named "Gladly'."

"gladly the cross I'd bear>"

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

It took many years of practicing self control for me to sing hymns mentioning the human breast without a snigger.

I really have to try hard not to look at anyone otherwise I would still get uncontrollable giggles.

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

Talking of which, I once heard this one, which is very hard to sing

quote:
Tossed and blown, events can floor us,
Spin the world we lose our grip..

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Fr Weber:
The Alleluia verse for Trinity 20 is taken from Psalm 108. The first time I ever had to sing it, it took me a bit by surprise as I was expected to respond to the versicle with "I will sing and give praise with the best member that I have."

Especially since the other choristers were giggling, damn them.

How many members have you got? Is your best one for Sundays only?

Posted by Gill H (# 68) on :

It was 'take me to your throne this day' as I recall.

No-one's mentioned the Ship favourite "Your love is amazing" yet?

Your love is surprising, I can feel it rising...

[ 22. September 2015, 22:02: Message edited by: Gill H ]

Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:

quote:
Originally posted by Cottontail:
[QUOTE] Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night,
Jesus, I come! Jesus, I come!
Don't we have a private board for that?

I think the name of the private board comes from this hymn in particular the line

quote:
Your bondage is freedom; your service is song;

I had never heard of this hymn until I joined my present church, and there was a definite 'aha' moment for me the first time I sung it, when I suddenly realised just WHY our private board is so named!

Posted by Fr Weber (# 13472) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:

quote:
Originally posted by Fr Weber:
The Alleluia verse for Trinity 20 is taken from Psalm 108. The first time I ever had to sing it, it took me a bit by surprise as I was expected to respond to the versicle with "I will sing and give praise with the best member that I have."

Especially since the other choristers were giggling, damn them.
How many members have you got? Is your best one for Sundays only?

"Dammit, Gladys! That was me best member!"

Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on :

"Praise in the common things of life,
Its goings out and in"

Posted by DangerousDeacon (# 10582) on :

Our particular double entendre is the following refrain (which in an Antipodean setting can be used by Australians at the expense of New Zealanders):

Jesus O Jesus
Come and fill your lambs

It is of the Hillsong genre, I believe.

Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :

...Thy couch was the sod... amuses me, but it seems that others would find various lines in that hymn funnier.

Posted by Gill H (# 68) on :

quote:
Originally posted by DangerousDeacon:
Our particular double entendre is the following refrain (which in an Antipodean setting can be used by Australians at the expense of New Zealanders):

Jesus O Jesus
Come and fill your lambs

It is of the Hillsong genre, I believe.

Predates Hillsong by several decades - it's a Wimber song I think. Haven't heard it for many years!

Posted by Jolly Jape (# 3296) on :

It was indeed written by the late, (and one time Righteous Brother) John Wimber.

The Vineyard stable also brought us the classic Take Me Away, which brought howls of laughter from the worship band that I was in at that time.

"Pour over me, Pour over me
Your oil of perfect peace

Posted by Augustine the Aleut (# 1472) on :

In my TCD days it was a favourite parlour game to review the index of first lines for the most unsuitable possible wedding hymn. As pants the hart for cooling streams, all heated in the chase, was the winner. As with gladness, men of old. Many a time and oft. All my heart this night rejoices. All ye who seek for sure relief. And in certain dioceses, Who be that in yonder stall might ring a bell.

But to the OP- did not Handel's great aria, We, like sheep, cause delight in rural choristers who might have dropped a comma?

Posted by Fr Weber (# 13472) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Augustine the Aleut:
In my TCD days it was a favourite parlour game to review the index of first lines for the most unsuitable possible wedding hymn. As pants the hart for cooling streams, all heated in the chase, was the winner. As with gladness, men of old. Many a time and oft. All my heart this night rejoices. All ye who seek for sure relief. And in certain dioceses, Who be that in yonder stall might ring a bell.

But to the OP- did not Handel's great aria, We, like sheep, cause delight in rural choristers who might have dropped a comma?

It's a chorus, not an aria, and it's "All we, like sheep". But yes, even today it remains a source of laughter!

Adding to your list of unsuitable wedding hymns : "We plough the fields and scatter" and "See, the conqu'ror mounts in triumph."

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Fr Weber:
Adding to your list of unsuitable wedding hymns : "We plough the fields and scatter" and "See, the conqu'ror mounts in triumph."

"We plow the fields, and scatter the good seed on the land..." has always reminded me of Onan.

When I just posted this, I loved the reminder to wash my hands!

[ 23. September 2015, 17:33: Message edited by: Pigwidgeon ]

Posted by Qoheleth. (# 9265) on :

A Wesley offering, for the wedding night:

quote:
[...]
My company before is gone,
And I am left alone with Thee;
With Thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day.

(It's a glorious hymn, though)

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Its long been a favourite game of organists to put together the list of unsuitable wedding hymns and last time we arrived at the following:

at the entrance of the bride Great God, what do I see and hear
then choose from the following
O love that wilt not let me go,
Courage brother, do not stumble,
Through the night of doubt and sorrow
We plough the fields and scatter
It came upon the midnight clear
Behold, the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night
It is finished, Blessed Jesus

Of course, nowadays one deals with couples with zero knowledge of either hymns or what is suitable for church - I recently had to explain to a bride why a song by Ed Sheeran with the word f*ck in the lyrics wasn't appropriate for church [Ultra confused]

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

I believe that when Tom Driberg, to the surprise of all who knew him, married, it was suggested that 'perverse and foolish oft I strayed' might be appropriately sung...

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

I have modified the puncutation on the first two words to give you some idea how they sounded when sung...

quote:
Blow! Blow! Blow 'till I be,
but breath of the spirit blowing in me.

I don't know when that song was written, but we were singing it(and breaking into laughing fits) at Catholic school in the late 1970s. That being era in which I would have hoped that curriculum planners would be worldly enough to recognize that they were inviting mockery by giving it to adolescents to sing.

I suppose one good thing about kids being raised in the current era of easy-access raunch culture is that future adminstrators, born in the Millenial era, upon being shown such lyrics, will know enough to say "Umm, no, just no".

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

Link

Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
always reminded me of Onan.

The famous budgerigar?

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

I went to a wedding some years ago where one of the hymns was 'Fight the Good Fight'. Sadly, it proved prophetic.

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
I went to a wedding some years ago where one of the hymns was 'Fight the Good Fight'. Sadly, it proved prophetic.

I did years ago go to a similar wedding when hymn sheets were done by a printer. This one had the words, "fight the good fight" in bold. Too late to do anything about it.

Posted by DangerousDeacon (# 10582) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Gill H:

quote:
Originally posted by DangerousDeacon:
Our particular double entendre is the following refrain (which in an Antipodean setting can be used by Australians at the expense of New Zealanders):

Jesus O Jesus
Come and fill your lambs

It is of the Hillsong genre, I believe.
Predates Hillsong by several decades - it's a Wimber song I think. Haven't heard it for many years!

Yes, that's the one. I will soon be hearing it at an ordination; my associate priest has promised to sit next to me and jab me sharply in the ribs if I start laughing, though I think I shall probably just turn bright red to match my stole.

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

Slightly away from hymns, the national song of New Zealanders is of course Handel's All we like sheep.

Posted by Jemima the 9th (# 15106) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Gill H:
It was 'take me to your throne this day' as I recall.

No-one's mentioned the Ship favourite "Your love is amazing" yet?

Your love is surprising, I can feel it rising...

"All the joy that's growing
Deep inside of me...."

I just cannot sing it with a straight face. I have to bite my tongue very hard.

Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on :

quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
Its long been a favourite game of organists to put together the list of unsuitable wedding hymns and last time we arrived at the following:

at the entrance of the bride Great God, what do I see and hear
then choose from the following
O love that wilt not let me go,
Courage brother, do not stumble,
Through the night of doubt and sorrow
We plough the fields and scatter
It came upon the midnight clear
Behold, the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night
It is finished, Blessed Jesus

Of course, nowadays one deals with couples with zero knowledge of either hymns or what is suitable for church - I recently had to explain to a bride why a song by Ed Sheeran with the word f*ck in the lyrics wasn't appropriate for church

Ed Sheeran in church, no (unless it's explicitly using secular songs a la a U2charist or something). Given Paul's language in some of the Epistles, can't see the issue with 'fuck' in church though perhaps not at a wedding with small children there.

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
Given Paul's language in some of the Epistles, can't see the issue with 'fuck' in church though perhaps not at a wedding with small children there.

Contemporary mores generally view the word "fuck" as unsuitable for polite company. Even many people who use the word as a part of their normal lexicon would be a little shocked to find it in church. It's probably best not to use language that some people will find offensive, even if you don't.

(And if you only ever have small children in your church for a wedding, I'm sorry...)

Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
Given Paul's language in some of the Epistles, can't see the issue with 'fuck' in church though perhaps not at a wedding with small children there.
Contemporary mores generally view the word "fuck" as unsuitable for polite company. Even many people who use the word as a part of their normal lexicon would be a little shocked to find it in church. It's probably best not to use language that some people will find offensive, even if you don't.

(And if you only ever have small children in your church for a wedding, I'm sorry...)

There are plenty of occasions where church shouldn't be polite, or should make people uncomfortable. I'm not saying this should be all the time, but it can be done effectively eg Tony Campolo. Surely there's a problem when church is too polite?

Also re small children, I was thinking along the lines of swearing in church when children are out at Sunday school, or at an evening service which tends not to have young children present. I've never seen Sunday school provision at a wedding.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

I'd really advise against "fuck" at a church wedding (the word, numskulls) because there's bound to be a highly shockable relative or fifty attending, and it really isn't kind to send them off in fits. (Though of course this may be an added inducement to some couples)

On the other hand, it does ensure that your wedding will never, ever, EVER be forgotten, lo, for fifty years to come at every family reunion...

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
There are plenty of occasions where church shouldn't be polite, or should make people uncomfortable. I'm not saying this should be all the time, but it can be done effectively eg Tony Campolo. Surely there's a problem when church is too polite?

These are different things. I agree that church shouldn't be afraid to make people uncomfortable (it's counterproductive if that happens all the time, of course). I'm not familiar with Mr. Campolo.

But there's a difference between making people uncomfortable because you're confronting their prejudices or pushing them out of their nice sheltered existence and making them confront the reality of the lives of people living a few miles away, for example (which are both good and necessary) and making them uncomfortable because you're using coarse language, which is just unnecessary.

Posted by Augustine the Aleut (# 1472) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
Given Paul's language in some of the Epistles, can't see the issue with 'fuck' in church though perhaps not at a wedding with small children there.
Contemporary mores generally view the word "fuck" as unsuitable for polite company. Even many people who use the word as a part of their normal lexicon would be a little shocked to find it in church. It's probably best not to use language that some people will find offensive, even if you don't.

(And if you only ever have small children in your church for a wedding, I'm sorry...)

A further argument against was put to me by a former colleague who works at a sexual assault crisis centre-- she advises me that she has a few clients whose memories of assault experiences are triggered by the word's use (and I've seen this happen on one occasion). One hardly needs a chorister or member of the congregation breaking down and needing assistance.

Posted by Knopwood (# 11596) on :

Funny that this should come up: I was travelling out of province and attending Mass at a church where we sang "O praise the gracious power" from the 1998 Canadian Anglican hymnal. I did a bit of a double take at the stanza which begins, "O praise persistent truth / that opens fisted minds." The image, I assume, is of a mind closed like a balled-up fist, but apart from seeming forced it made for the giggles.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Knopwood:
Funny that this should come up: I was travelling out of province and attending Mass at a church where we sang "O praise the gracious power" from the 1998 Canadian Anglican hymnal. I did a bit of a double take at the stanza which begins, "O praise persistent truth / that opens fisted minds." The image, I assume, is of a mind closed like a balled-up fist, but apart from seeming forced it made for the giggles.

Tangent alert
I don't think that one's known over here, but is the command 'O praise persistent truth' reliably orthodox? Is it hypostasising an attribute of God's character and then inviting us to give it either doulia or hyperdoulia? Ot am I just being pedantic?

Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
There are plenty of occasions where church shouldn't be polite, or should make people uncomfortable. I'm not saying this should be all the time, but it can be done effectively eg Tony Campolo. Surely there's a problem when church is too polite?
These are different things. I agree that church shouldn't be afraid to make people uncomfortable (it's counterproductive if that happens all the time, of course). I'm not familiar with Mr. Campolo.

But there's a difference between making people uncomfortable because you're confronting their prejudices or pushing them out of their nice sheltered existence and making them confront the reality of the lives of people living a few miles away, for example (which are both good and necessary) and making them uncomfortable because you're using coarse language, which is just unnecessary.

Better take that up with St Paul, then, since it's something he employs.

Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Augustine the Aleut:

quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
Given Paul's language in some of the Epistles, can't see the issue with 'fuck' in church though perhaps not at a wedding with small children there.
Contemporary mores generally view the word "fuck" as unsuitable for polite company. Even many people who use the word as a part of their normal lexicon would be a little shocked to find it in church. It's probably best not to use language that some people will find offensive, even if you don't.

(And if you only ever have small children in your church for a wedding, I'm sorry...)
A further argument against was put to me by a former colleague who works at a sexual assault crisis centre-- she advises me that she has a few clients whose memories of assault experiences are triggered by the word's use (and I've seen this happen on one occasion). One hardly needs a chorister or member of the congregation breaking down and needing assistance.

I'm a survivor of sexual assault and that hadn't occured to me - but food for thought.

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
Better take that up with St Paul, then, since it's something he employs.

Are you referring to his use of the word "σκύβαλα" in the epistle to the Philippians? (Most bible translations word this as "dung", "rubbish" etc., but "crap" or "shit" is probably closer to the right sense.)

The Apostle is clearly using the word for effect here. I'm not familiar enough with biblical Greek to have a good feel for exactly how unacceptable the word was in polite discourse.

Mores change. Perhaps this kind of language is becoming more acceptable again (a few hundred years ago, most of today's four-letter words would have been commonplace, and just for fun, I'll reference the splendidly-named Roger Fuckbythenavele

The word "shit" carries with it two kinds of disgust. It carries the disgust associated with the physical referent - actual human excrement, conjured up without euphemism, in its most blatant and real sense. It also carries with it the artificial disgust of the symbol, which is the thing governed by contemporary mores. The apostle clearly intends to invoke the former disgust, but it's not clear to me that he intends to invoke the latter.

The word "fuck" invokes powerful disgust in the latter sense, but none at all in the former sense. Certainly it carries slightly different overtones than some of its more polite synonyms, and I can think of plenty of contexts in which I would choose to use it for that reason; none of those contexts would involve the presence of my mother, or about 80% of my church congregation.

Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:

Mores change.

Certainly do.

For example, in evangelical circles use of the word "crap" has become unexceptionable in the last couple of decades.

(If someone describes a prophetic scenario different from theirs as crap, is that scatological eschatology or eschatological scatology?)

Listening to my wife speaking in church recently, I was disconcerted when she described someone as being "up himself".

She did it naively, as she is not the sort of attention-seeker who likes epater les bourgeois, and was taken aback when I suggested to her later that it might possibly have caused offence, but in fact there was no feedback at all.

Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :

In All Things Bright and Beautiful we have praise for "The Purple Headed Mountain."

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Geoffrey Chaucer uses the word' shiten' to signify 'dirty', or possibly 'smeared with dung', in the 'Canterbury Tales'.

If it's good enough for Chaucer, it's good enough for me......

(What a truly wonderful language English is.....)

Ian J.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

A priest acquaintance not too long ago referred (in his sermon) to someone as a 'putz.'

I told him afterwards that my understanding was that was the Yiddish slang word for the male organ -- in other words, he had called someone a 'd*ck' from the pulpit.

He wasn't at all embarrassed, and said that he thought it meant 'jerk.' (And maybe it did)

Posted by DangerousDeacon (# 10582) on :

And of course, 'jerk' also has another meaning ...

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

One son was commenting at the weekend about a brethren funeral he and his brother had attended on Friday.

Son said he was glad one of the hymns was not, " Up from the grave he arose, " as he would have giggled. It has been sung at brethren funerals down here.

Posted by Bax (# 16572) on :

Verse 4 of "Now the Day is Over" is always good for a laugh:

Grant to little children
Visions bright of Thee;
Guard the sailors, tossing
On the deep blue sea

Oo-er missus etc etc

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by DangerousDeacon:
And of course, 'jerk' also has another meaning ...

Isn't it US for w**k? Has it got any other meaning? It's odd that I get the impression that it is more politely acceptable than w**ker - hence my asterisks -, even though it seems to have the same meaning.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

I wouldn't bother asterisking wanker: I heard it used on a radio 4 afternoon play in the late 80s (admittedly to my surprise). But I don't think I'd use the word in church.
On a slight tangent, ISTR an American film from the late 80s called, I think, The Shag, which was about a competition in the dance of that name. It contained all sorts of splendid, to a British ear, conversations along the lines of 'Do you think Marybeth (or whatever) will shag with me in the contest tomorrow?' and 'I can't believe we're going to shag in front of the Governor'. [Snigger]

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

"Shag" was also a hairstyle and a type of carpet.

Posted by Matariki (# 14380) on :

I half remember a hymn from the old Methodist Hymn Book which had a line about "sailors tossing on the sea." It generated much smirking from us youth group members.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

'jerk' does not, at least in most of the US, have the same implication as wanker. It's rather general meaning is a person who is (variously) rude, unthinking, ill-mannered, and other similar attributes in combination. (At least from my experience in the Midwest, and upper and lower south.)

Posted by Knopwood (# 11596) on :

Yes, but in verb form, it can be a synonym for "to wank".

Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
"Shag" was also a hairstyle and a type of carpet.

And the expression "Like a shag on a rock" is indicative of exposed isolation - as well as extremely uncomfortable bonking.

Another illustration of different usages in different cultures is the mirth with which Australians respond to Americans enthusiastically "rooting" for their sports teams.

Posted by John Holding (# 158) on :

Surely the shag on a rock was "the common cormorant or shag" -- a seabird -- once hymned by Hilaire Belloc or, possibly, Ogden Nash.

John

Posted by Gill H (# 68) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Albertus:
I wouldn't bother asterisking wanker: I heard it used on a radio 4 afternoon play in the late 80s (admittedly to my surprise). But I don't think I'd use the word in church.
On a slight tangent, ISTR an American film from the late 80s called, I think, The Shag, which was about a competition in the dance of that name. It contained all sorts of splendid, to a British ear, conversations along the lines of 'Do you think Marybeth (or whatever) will shag with me in the contest tomorrow?' and 'I can't believe we're going to shag in front of the Governor'.

Ah, memories of my first week at Uni, when the Christian Union all headed down to the Fresher's Week disco (yes, disco, that dates me!). One of the girls was a very sweet girl from Tennessee, who certainly wouldn't have taken part in any immoral goings-on. So it was rather disconcerting when she jumped onto the dance floor and shouted loudly "Say! Anybody here know how to shag?"

We did explain to her. Once we had regained the power of speech...

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

[Killing me]

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

A tangent somewhat similar: when I was doing Homiletics, we each had to preach to class.

One of the guys who knew his way around customs and language etc preached a pretty decent sermon.

One Nigerian girl, very strait laced, finished her critique with the words, "Well done. You can keep it up for me all night."

The whole class collapsed in long lasting laughter. Even the lecturer was doubled over laughing. The poor guy preaching was amazed. She had no idea what she had said.

Not so funny was later when I and another woman were asked to explain just what she had said.

Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on :

quote:
Originally posted by John Holding:
Surely the shag on a rock was "the common cormorant or shag" -- a seabird -- once hymned by Hilaire Belloc or, possibly, Ogden Nash.

John

Precisely, hence the expression "like a shag on a rock", as in "He was left standing there like a shag on a rock", meaning isolated and exposed like a lone seabird on a storm-swept outcrop.

But hence, too, the ambiguity which people with a puerile sense of humour who think there is nothing as funny as a schoolboy double entendre (like me) are all too ready to exploit.

[ 29. September 2015, 09:56: Message edited by: Kaplan Corday ]

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:
'jerk' does not, at least in most of the US, have the same implication as wanker. It's rather general meaning is a person who is (variously) rude, unthinking, ill-mannered, and other similar attributes in combination.

'Jerk off' means 'wank', but 'jerk' by itself does not mean this in the US.

Moo

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by John Holding:
Surely the shag on a rock was "the common cormorant or shag" -- a seabird -- once hymned by Hilaire Belloc or, possibly, Ogden Nash.

Never heard the expression 'shag on the rock' and would advise against using it for the obvious reasons already aired. However, the poet was wrong. The Cormorant and the Shag are two different species. Neither lays its eggs in a paper bag.

I think the poet may have been Isherwood.

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

I think it is taken from Psalm 102:6. Older translations used the word pelican but translation was changed as a pelican is a water bird,. Emphasis is on wilderness and solitude. It was a common phrase in prayer when I was in brethren, especially at morning meeting to describe Christ.

(Morning meeting =breaking of bread=communion)

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:

quote:
Originally posted by John Holding:
Surely the shag on a rock was "the common cormorant or shag" -- a seabird -- once hymned by Hilaire Belloc or, possibly, Ogden Nash.
Never heard the expression 'shag on the rock' and would advise against using it for the obvious reasons already aired. However, the poet was wrong. The Cormorant and the Shag are two different species. Neither lays its eggs in a paper bag.

I think the poet may have been Isherwood.

It's a common saying here and no-one but no-one would think of any alternative uses of "shag" when using it.

You're right abut Isherwood being the author.

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

It appears in dictionaries of Aussie slang and sayings.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lothlorien:
I think it is taken from Psalm 102:6. Older translations used the word pelican but translation was changed as a pelican is a water bird,. Emphasis is on wilderness and solitude. It was a common phrase in prayer when I was in brethren, especially at morning meeting to describe Christ.

(Morning meeting =breaking of bread=communion)

?? ! A Shag is also a water bird, usually found only on sea coasts, unlike Cormorants which are found both on the sea and on lakes, rivers and reservoirs.

Both species, though, do perch on rocks and other things sticking up out of the water.

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

While the phrase a shag on a rock is well known down here, I can remember only the translation of a pelican in Brethren prayers. I wondered at the revised translation too.

Posted by earrings (# 13306) on :

Mr cheesy wrote

quote:
It took many years of practicing self control for me to sing hymns mentioning the human breast without a snigger.

I really have to try hard not to look at anyone otherwise I would still get uncontrollable giggles.

As someone who has recently had a mastectomy references to troubled breasts etc tend to raise giggles in me too. You have to laugh....

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

The good thing about worshipping alongside mostly old people in a church is that there's no sniggering about supposed 'double-entendre lyrics'. Maybe it's because they're not up to date with modern slang/colloquialisms. Or don't have such dirty minds, generally speaking.

Posted by ThunderBunk (# 15579) on :

quote:
Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:
The good thing about worshipping alongside mostly old people in a church is that there's no sniggering about supposed 'double-entendre lyrics'. Maybe it's because they're not up to date with modern slang/colloquialisms. Or don't have such dirty minds, generally speaking.

I would regard that as a tragic side effect of aging. Your mileage clearly varies.

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

The downside is when something tickles you (like "The Trump of God shall sound") you have a struggle to explain why you're in fits of giggles.

In the particular case above, it didn't help that my flatmate had commented just the previous day during a thunderstorm that God must have had a Dopiaza with tarka dhal and extra onions.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Well, I've often thought that the line about "Jesus taking the highest station" must refer to Snowdon Summit.

One hymn which is almost unsingable today is "I sing a song of the saints of God"; it has the lines: "And one was a doctor, and one was a queen, and one was a shepherdess on the green". Not least because the author was one Lesbia Scott.

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
The downside is when something tickles you (like "The Trump of God shall sound") you have a struggle to explain why you're in fits of giggles.

That makes you giggle??

I suppose I've always had an old head, so I appreciate not having to find this sort of thing hilarious. As I say, this is one of the good things about being part of a mostly elderly congregation.

These sorts of congregations are also less likely to sing dodgy, mirth-inducing worship music, of course. Traditional hymns have their strange turns of phrase, but familiarity must dull their comedic effect.

I don't know if anyone ever compares hymnbooks for this sort of thing, but the ones I've seen in use in the Methodist church over the past few decades have included a good number of 20th c. social justice type hymns. These tend not to have much humour in them, intended or otherwise.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

No. Not many laughs in the two Freds (Kaan & Pratt Green).
One of the many reasons to loathe and detest the works of K*v*n bloody M*yh*w is that they bowdlerise things like 'heat was in the very sod' and 'at that stable rude and bare', which of course just solemnly recognises that they choirboys will snigger at them. Pillocks.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Albertus:
No. Not many laughs in the two Freds (Kaan & Pratt Green).
...

Though having a hymn writer called Pratt is fairly funny, particularly bearing in mind that his hymns aren't very good - a bit ponderously earnest for my tastes.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

Barrel of fun compared to the other Fred! Actually FPG was not a bad poet in his way- Larkin chose one of his for his Oxford Book of C20 English Verse- and I've always wondered why his hymns were so duff. But this is straying into DH territory.

[ 30. September 2015, 16:25: Message edited by: Albertus ]

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

quote:
Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:
[I don't know if anyone ever compares hymnbooks for this sort of thing, but the ones I've seen in use in the Methodist church over the past few decades have included a good number of 20th c. social justice type hymns. These tend not to have much humour in them, intended or otherwise.

True of the URC, too. Some of them are not really singable, in my opinion. And, in any case, too many of them in one service tends to put a dampener on things.

While we're talking along this line, am I the only person to think that some of the Wild Goose words are too "heavy" r "wordily worthy" for the traditional Scottish tunes which are used to sing them? Of course, I'm a mere Sassenach ...

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

'I Sing a Song of the Saints of God' having been mentioned above. This Sunday School song -- I hesitate to call it a hymn -- has become firmly planted in many TEC parishes -- even to the point of being sung at EVERY funeral in a certain parish I won't name.

I nearly caused a choir riot in one church I served for refusing to program it on All Saints' Day.

The Lesbia Scott text is bad enough as it stands, but it has been subject to countless chorister naughtinesses, the most egregious probably being the substitution of 'and one was laid by a fierce wild priest' for the original 'and one was slain by a fierce wild beast.'

Plus the theology is dubious at best. IMNSHO - YMMV

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

[Killing me]

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

I've never met that hymn, but looked it up. It's dire. How about these un-immortal lines:-

"You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,
in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea;
for the saints of God are just folk like me,
and I mean to be one too."

There's no double entendre, but it definitely gets a pious pedestrian platitude award.

Georgiaboy, you did good.

Posted by Fr Weber (# 13472) on :

"And one was hanged, and one was shot,
And one was fried on a griddle hot;
And however they died, it hurt a lot,
And I want to be one too!"

Posted by Oblatus (# 6278) on :

quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:
The Lesbia Scott text is bad enough as it stands, but it has been subject to countless chorister naughtinesses, the most egregious probably being the substitution of 'and one was laid by a fierce wild priest' for the original 'and one was slain by a fierce wild beast.'

Those who cheekily sing "...slain by a fierce wild priest" had better have also sung "And one was a beast," or I'm not impressed.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
I've never met that hymn, but looked it up. It's dire. How about these un-immortal lines:-

"You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,
in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea;
for the saints of God are just folk like me,
and I mean to be one too."

There's no double entendre, but it definitely gets a pious pedestrian platitude award.

Georgiaboy, you did good.

Pedestrian lines, but they express a certain truth that is sometimes forgotten and in stressing the banality (in a sense) of sanctity their own banality is perhaps not inappropriate.

Posted by ExclamationMark (# 14715) on :

Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:[QB]
But there's a difference between making people uncomfortable because you're confronting their prejudices or pushing them out of their nice sheltered existence and making them confront the reality of the lives of people living a few miles away, for example (which are both good and necessary) and making them uncomfortable because you're using coarse language, which is just unnecessary. [/QUOTE] Coarse language to make a point is often counter productive - it puts people off listening. There are occasions when it's simply an excuse and where it says more about the speaker than the issue in question.

There are plenty of other ways of making a point that don't involve swearing - the Vicar of Dibley broke into real life to show a video of African children. That did way more for "Make Poverty History" with the cast having white ribbons on their arms, than swearing ever did or could.

besides which a lot of swearing sounds pretty laughable when delivered in plummy middle class tones: get the real deal on a building site, then you'll rally know the hostility and intent of the words.

If you use the words in everyday conversation, then why not in church? Ah, it's a choice and situational you say - well then, choose not to use that language anywhere.

[ 01. October 2015, 10:03: Message edited by: ExclamationMark ]

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

Dead right, EM. Spot on.

Posted by OddJob (# 17591) on :

This morning whilst singing 'We plough the fields and scatter' I conjured up a mental image of God rising at an early hour in a grimy suburban locomotive shed in the mid-1960s to begin firing up British Railways' last-built steam locomotive. That's what the line 'He lights the Evening Star' could mean, is it not?

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kaplan Corday:
(If someone describes a prophetic scenario different from theirs as crap, is that scatological eschatology or eschatological scatology?)

That just went in the quotes file. [Big Grin]

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

For the sports car afficionado there is always this

quote:
Sunbeams scorching all the day;
Chilly dew-drops nightly shed;
Prowling beasts about they way;
Stones thy pillow, earth thy bed.

The Sunbeam Alpine was a nippy little car and there are still a few examples about today.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by OddJob:
This morning whilst singing 'We plough the fields and scatter' I conjured up a mental image of God rising at an early hour in a grimy suburban locomotive shed in the mid-1960s to begin firing up British Railways' last-built steam locomotive. That's what the line 'He lights the Evening Star' could mean, is it not?

Gives a whole new flavour to the idea of a Year of Jubilees.

I shall have to watch out for others.

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

Originally posted by Kaplan Corday:

quote:
(If someone describes a prophetic scenario different from theirs as crap, is that scatological eschatology or eschatological scatology?)

There used to be a cartoon on Saturday morning kids' TV called Angela Anaconda in which the teacher character used very long words. In an episode about making Greek myth dioramas, the character used the word "scatological." My children asked what it meant. I told them.

In church next morning the minister used the word "eschatological". Cue my three year old exclaiming, in clear and carrying tones "Mummy! Mummy! He's talking about POO!

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Originally posted by Kaplan Corday:

quote:
(If someone describes a prophetic scenario different from theirs as crap, is that scatological eschatology or eschatological scatology?)
There used to be a cartoon on Saturday morning kids' TV called Angela Anaconda in which the teacher character used very long words. In an episode about making Greek myth dioramas, the character used the word "scatological." My children asked what it meant. I told them.

In church next morning the minister used the word "eschatological". Cue my three year old exclaiming, in clear and carrying tones "Mummy! Mummy! He's talking about POO!

That also gets a [Overused]

Posted by Niminypiminy (# 15489) on :

On a BDSM theme, who can keep a straight face at

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together
With cords that cannot be broken ?

Posted by Miffy (# 1438) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Niminypiminy:
On a BDSM theme, who can keep a straight face at

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together
With cords that cannot be broken ?

Oh, I can, as I discovered last Sunday. Not a hint of suppressed mirth passed my countenance. Considering the theme of the sermon earlier in the service it was a feat of heroic proportions, I can tell you. Either that or I'm losing my sense of humour in my old age.

I do sometimes wonder if our vicar and our music director are Shipmates.

Posted by Circuit Rider (# 13088) on :

The second stanza of "Grace Greater Than Our Sin" can evoke a smile here in the Heart of Dixie:

quote:
Dark is the stain that we cannot hide,
what can avail to wash it away!
Look! there is flowing a crimson tide;
whiter than snow you may be today.

[ 07. November 2015, 18:38: Message edited by: Circuit Rider ]

Posted by The Scrumpmeister (# 5638) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
The downside is when something tickles you (like "The Trump of God shall sound") you have a struggle to explain why you're in fits of giggles.

Yes. This happens to me during the hymn, This joyful Eastertide. There is a verse that goes:

quote:
My flesh in hope shall rest
and for a season slumber
till trump from east to west
shall wake the dead in number.

My personal favourite, though, has to be the verse in Lord, for the years, which has the couplet:

quote:
Lord, for that word, the word of life which fires us,
speaks to our hearts, and sets our souls ablaze.

The humour relies on a particular pronunciation of "our" so may not work in all accents, but for those in which it does, the hilarity is heightened by the perfect marriage of words and music at the vital point.

Posted by The Scrumpmeister (# 5638) on :

Here it is! 34 seconds in.

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Sorry - I don't geddit! Maybe my Humour-o-meter needs recalibrating (or my ears......)?

I.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

Think pirate.
No, not that hilarious IMO either. But perhaps it helps if you're there!

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

Read "Arseholes" for "our souls". (Oh yay, I just love having that at the top of the Today's active threads listing.)

Posted by The Scrumpmeister (# 5638) on :

Oh, well.

Maybe you have to have been in choirs and choral societies where enunciation is drilled into you. That's been my life since I was a teenager. You become very conscious of how words sound when sung together in a way that others perhaps don't even think about.

Certainly, the words "our" and "souls" together in various hymns have a very comedic effect, such as one hymn with the couplet:

quote:
Cleansing our souls from all their sin,
pouring your love and goodness in.

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

[Killing me]

Posted by kingsfold (# 1726) on :

quote:
posted by The Scrumpmeister:
Maybe you have to have been in choirs and choral societies where enunciation is drilled into you. That's been my life since I was a teenager. You become very conscious of how words sound when sung together in a way that others perhaps don't even think about.

"The quiet heart" is also another one of those that needs to be enunciated rather clearly.... both the final consonant and the aspirate...

[ 09. November 2015, 13:12: Message edited by: kingsfold ]

Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :

A boarding school favourite in the late forties was:

Let holy charity mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing;

GG

Posted by JeffTL (# 16722) on :

Then there's the one about the amphibian who does heterodox things in private..."Lead On, O Kinky Turtle."

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by JeffTL:
Then there's the one about the amphibian who does heterodox things in private..."Lead On, O Kinky Turtle."

A turtle is a reptile.
[Razz]

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

Then, also in the animal kingdom, was 'The constipated cross-eyed bear.' Sorry I don't remember what old-time Methodist hymn this is from!

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

I've heard of "Gladly, the cross-eyed bear" (misheard version of "Gladly the Cross I'd Bear"), but not sure about a constipated one. Sounds a bit like "consecrated" but don't know what hymn that could be.

Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :

Well a little googling and this came up.

Jengie

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

Long ago, while practising "Puer Nobis Nascitur" with the school choir before Christmas, the music teacher asked us if we would be so kind as to place less emphasis on the second syllable of 'nascitur' (as pronounced in church Latin). Then there were all the clever little latinists among us who insisted that rector and rectum were basically the same thing.

Posted by Jonah the Whale (# 1244) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Miffy:

quote:
Originally posted by Niminypiminy:
On a BDSM theme, who can keep a straight face at

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together
With cords that cannot be broken ?
Oh, I can, as I discovered last Sunday.

Seriously? I haven't heard his one since the 1970s. I am astonished that it is still being sung.

quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:

quote:
Originally posted by JeffTL:
Then there's the one about the amphibian who does heterodox things in private..."Lead On, O Kinky Turtle."
A turtle is a reptile.

On the subject of reptiles, I am reminded of the Prairie Tortoise. And in case anyoe didn't know God's first name, it's Peter. As in "thanks Peter God".

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

Can we mention here the Sunday School teacher known as The Terrapin- because she tortoise?

Taxi for Albertus...

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jonah the Whale:
And in case anyoe didn't know God's first name, it's Peter. As in "thanks Peter God".

And, of course, our Father in Heaven is named Harold.

(Which, oddly enough, is also the name of all of the angels who sing "Hark.")

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jonah the Whale:

quote:
Originally posted by Miffy:

quote:
Originally posted by Niminypiminy:
On a BDSM theme, who can keep a straight face at

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together
With cords that cannot be broken ?
Oh, I can, as I discovered last Sunday.
Seriously? I haven't heard his one since the 1970s. I am astonished that it is still being sung.

British Methodists still sing it. At some point in the song the congregation are usually expected to link arms and look around at each other with smiley faces.

It's a good song for Methodists; like them it emphasises unity and points of agreement rather than whatever causes discord and argument. And the British Methodist demographic is unlikely to be led astray by thoughts of BDSM.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

Or so you think!

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

Yeah, maybe. But Methodist congregations are known for singing hymns with gusto. This would be harder to do if they were trying to stifle titters as well. Don't you need to be a trained in a good CofE choir for skills like that?

[Biased]

There must be some interesting psychological stuff going on here regarding the noticing or not noticing of double-entendres in church during worship, but I'd better not subject anyone to my cod-psychology!

[ 20. November 2015, 00:10: Message edited by: SvitlanaV2 ]

Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on :

quote:
Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:
trying to stifle titters as well.

Capital punishment sounds a bit harsh.

Why not just get security to eject them?

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

You just need to put some suitable notices up

Posted by The Phantom Flan Flinger (# 8891) on :

quote:
Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:
[British Methodists still sing it. At some point in the song the congregation are usually expected to link arms and look around at each other with smiley faces.

My old Baptist church used to expect us to hold hands and sway.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Presumably the consumption of non-alcoholic Communion wine did not help you to do so.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

My friend's parish church (CofE) starts every main Sunday service with Bind us together: the rationale is that it will make newcomers "feel welcome" [Confused]

Posted by Tubbs (# 440) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Niminypiminy:
On a BDSM theme, who can keep a straight face at

Bind us together, Lord, bind us together
With cords that cannot be broken ?

Aka The Bondage Song! Quietly removed from regular rotation by Rev T I believe. It never fails to make me smile.

We had Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble at our wedding:

quote:
Did you feel the mountains tremble?
Did you hear the oceans roar? ...
Did you feel the people tremble? Did you hear the singers roar? ... Did you feel the darkness tremble

We didn't notice anything untoward whilst we were selecting hymns or getting the printed order of service done. And none of the friends who knew what we'd picked pointed them out. But when the congregation started singing [Hot and Hormonal]

. Ah well! I deliberately didn't look at my bridesmaids who did an amazing job keeping a straight face!

Tubbs

[ 20. November 2015, 13:07: Message edited by: Tubbs ]

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Tubbs:

We had Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble at our wedding:

quote:
Did you feel the mountains tremble?
Did you hear the oceans roar? ...
Did you feel the people tremble? Did you hear the singers roar? ... Did you feel the darkness tremble
We didn't notice anything untoward whilst we were selecting hymns or getting the printed order of service done. And none of the friends who knew what we'd picked pointed them out. But when the congregation started singing . Ah well! I deliberately didn't look at my bridesmaids who did an amazing job keeping a straight face!

Tubbs

I don't know this song, but the problem with it, IMO, is that it doesn't reflect contemporary mainstream spirituality in our culture. Unless you're the type who fall over and roll about as part of being 'slain in the Spirit' you don't relate 'trembling' to religion; you relate it to nervousness or romantic intimacy.

In fact, I'm guessing that some of the giggling here arises because we live in a culture (both Christian and secular) that's nervous about unbridled spirituality. Even the charismatics mostly want to be a rational, reasonable people who keep their spirituality under strict control. Adopting an attitude of levity towards our hymns and worship music helps us to do this.

By contrast, people who for whatever reason are specifically hoping for their religious worship to transport them to another less mundane place probably wouldn't find this approach very helpful.

(Looks as if the cod-psychology wormed its way in after all. But really, I can't imagine how somehow who's genuinely yearning to 'cast their burdens unto Jesus' would be in a fit state of mind to focus on double-entendres in hymns.)

Posted by Nick Tamen (# 15164) on :

quote:
Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:
I don't know this song, but the problem with it, IMO, is that it doesn't reflect contemporary mainstream spirituality in our culture. Unless you're the type who fall over and roll about as part of being 'slain in the Spirit' you don't relate 'trembling' to religion; you relate it to nervousness or romantic intimacy.

Maybe it's a pond thing, but over here I think "trembling" would be associated more with fear in the presence of something more powerful, not nervousness or romance. And many would associate it with religion, at least during Holy Week, when Were You There is one of the more common hymns.

In the case of Tubbs' wedding, my guess is that the twittering arose thanks to the marital context rather than due to the words themselves. I would have had to stifle laughs. [Big Grin]

[ 20. November 2015, 17:10: Message edited by: Nick Tamen ]

Posted by SvitlanaV2 (# 16967) on :

We used to sing 'Were You There' at my old Methodist church, and I can imagine some of those people actually trembling. But it wasn't a typical congregation. North America is probably rather different, but no, I don't think indigenous British Christianity in general is a 'trembling' sort of faith these days.

A hymn about trembling is a rather unusual choice for a wedding, but each to his own!

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

I think it must be a pond difference, as I too was surprised to hear that trembling means anything in a romantic context. We associate it here with being either afraid or in awe.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

Lamb Chopped, I hope this isn't too shocking, but it's the association between mountains trembling and the earth moving. Perhaps I have not attained a sufficiently high spiritual level compared with other shipmates, but if I'd been there, I'd have had real trouble suppressing my amusement.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

Do you think there might be a subliminal connect with knee tremblers there too ?

Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on :

Probably most of us think of the famous line from Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls: "Did the earth move for you too?"

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
Lamb Chopped, I hope this isn't too shocking, but it's the association between mountains trembling and the earth moving. Perhaps I have not attained a sufficiently high spiritual level compared with other shipmates, but if I'd been there, I'd have had real trouble suppressing my amusement.

Nothing spiritual about it. We simply don't use "trembling" that way. We DO have "did the earth move for you?" as a set phrase, and the term "rock" (as in "don't come a-knocking") but the trembling action sounds way too ... minor. [Razz]

Of course I'm a California native.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jengie jon:
Well a little googling and this came up.

Jengie

thanks! jj

Posted by Mudfrog (# 8116) on :

Does anyone remember the Sunday School chorus:
'I will make you vicious old men'?

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Mudfrog:
Does anyone remember the Sunday School chorus:
'I will make you vicious old men'?

That gets a [Overused]

Posted by rolyn (# 16840) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Latchkey Kid:
In All Things Bright and Beautiful we have praise for "The Purple Headed Mountain."

Thank you for pointing to that one Latchkey Kid.
Used to regularly sing that line at primary school with no humorous effect. Something that comes a little later in life.

Posted by Aravis (# 13824) on :

Not very well known, but there's a song about the parable of the wedding banquet called "I cannot come" - which has those three words sung on their own, at the beginning, with a pause, before it launches into the main story.
The choir director who chose it, every time that parable was included on a Sunday, had three teenage sons. I assume he never happened to look at them while singing the song.

I did also hear someone sing it as a solo item and accidentally alter the second line to
"I have bought me a wife, I have married a cow"

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Aravis:
I did also hear someone sing it as a solo item and accidentally alter the second line to
"I have bought me a wife, I have married a cow"

Are you sure that was an accident?
[Biased]

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

My sons were all quite young, probably eight and under when that song came out on cassette.. I doubt the first reference meant anything to them, but they quickly swapped the bought wife and married cow around, laughing as they did it.

My husband was then just getting into the happy clappy, ecumenical scene after being brought up in a closed brethren group. He would wander the house singing under his breath, I cannot come, I cannot come. [Confused]

He told me it was a song written by the Spirit and therefore was totally pure. The song may have been but the hearers were not and there was much smirking and laughter.

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

The worst double entendre (IMHO) in Orthodox hymnody is where we refer to the Virgin as the "Burning Bush" (the idea being she held God in her womb but was not harmed, just as the bush was unharmed by the fire). I feel evil every time we sing it for thinking unclean thoughts.

Posted by Rosa Winkel (# 11424) on :

While singing "The angel Gabirel from heaven came", the Basque carol, to my son last night, I couldn't, as ever, refrain from accidentally singing "most highly flavoured lady". I found a version on Youtube that has the words "most highly flavoured gravy" written in the score.

Posted by Kwesi (# 10274) on :

Is this double-entendre or just pre-Freudian?

Source: Blessed Assurance (Frances Crosby)

'"Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture burst on my sight"

"Perfect submission, all is at rest
I in my saviour am happy and blest"
............. Filled with his goodness, lost in his love."

With reference to "our souls", raised above:

From O God of Bethel

"And at our father's loved abode
Our souls arrive in peace."

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

There is at least a master's thesis, if not a doctoral dissertation to be written on the Freudian implications in the hymns of Fanny Crosby!

She could have given those 18/19 century 'bride of Christ' poet-nuns a run for their money.

She was a very sick woman, bless her heart!

YMMV, of course.

Posted by Edith (# 16978) on :

Not heard for a long time but the hymn to Mary that used to be sung every May:

The sun is shining brightly
And all the world is gay
For 'tis the month if Mary,
The lovely month of May.

And the Holiday hymn sing at the end of the summer term with the refrain
O causa nostrae leatitiae

Roared out by the bad boys to Sister's bemusement

Posted by Helen-Eva (# 15025) on :

My college chapel choir used to struggle with the chorus line of "Just as I am, without one plea", namely: "Oh lamb of God, I come".

There was also something containing the line "before thy throne we sinners bend" that went very badly.

In more recent (and innocent) times, Perspice Christicola (sung to the tune Sumer is a comin' in) has at my church been abbreviated to "Pepsi cola".

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Edith:
Not heard for a long time but the hymn to Mary that used to be sung every May:

The sun is shining brightly
And all the world is gay
For 'tis the month if Mary,
The lovely month of May.

And the Holiday hymn sing at the end of the summer term with the refrain
O causa nostrae leatitiae

Roared out by the bad boys to Sister's bemusement

Time to forget the classroom pronunciation of Latin and head for the Italianesque "Lightisheay"

Posted by Fr Weber (# 13472) on :

Well, the Italianate pronunciation is something like "leh-TEE-tsee-eh", so it's still perfectly possible to get something that sounds like "tits" out of it.

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