Last Thursday at music practice, we did Todd Agnew’s “Grace Like Rain.” We then played it on Sunday as the offertory, just to introduce it to the congregation. It’s a great song, and we’ll be making it part of our regular reportoire.
I struggled to find the right sound to use on the keyboard. For kicks, I finally tried a French Accordion sound from my QSR sound module. I’ve used it on “Shout to the North” and a few other songs, but it’s not something I use much. Just doesn’t fit a band’s sound. But in this case, it worked. Nothing in Agnew’s recording even hints at an accordion, but we liked the sound. It gave the song an Anchor twist.
Our backup drummer, who graduated from high school last May, was there. He wasn’t playing that week, but was at practice just to hang around. He got a kick out of the French Accordion sound. I told him it reminded me of Nirvana’s “Jesus Don’t Want Me for a Sunbeam” song from the MTV Unplugged album. (The bass player also plays accordion. Who knew?) First of all, he was impressed that an Old Guy knew anything about Nirvana. Then we wracked our brains trying to remember how the accordion part went. It wouldn’t come to us.
When I got home, I called up the song on my iTunes, and then hacked out the accordion part on the piano. It was quite easy. Maybe someday I’ll play that part as the intro to some other worship song. We’ve done the Doobie Brothers “China Grove” opening to the Maranatha version of “Rock of Ages,” and the “Smoke on the Water” opening to lead into “The Name of the Lord.” That’s always fun. We’re trying to figure out how to use the Free Bird intro–the guitarists have the part down, and have messed around with using it with “Power of Your Love,” but it’s still in the experimental stage. I’m sure if I did a Nirvana intro to a worship song, it would freak out our college students.
Anyway, all of this prompted me to wonder more about the lyrics. The lyrics were actually written by The Vaselines, a group I’m not familiar with. The writer obviously knew the song “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam,” which indicates he had some kind of church background of the Bible-believing variety. The song itself speaks of some kind of inner spiritual battle which was definitely headed in the wrong direction. There is what appears to be an allusion to dying to self, and in singing it, Kurt Cobain is basically saying he’s not interested in doing that.
Anyway, here are the lyrics:
Jesus don’t want me for a sunbeam
Sunbeams are never made like meDon’t expect me to cry,
For all the reasons you had to die
Don’t ever ask your love of meDon’t expect me to cry
Don’t expect me to lie
Don’t expect me to die for me
I find all of this fascinating. Why did Cobain choose to perform this song? What resonated with him? Was there some kind of spiritual battle being waged–and lost–in Kurt Cobain? The fact that he committed suicide not all that long after the Unplugged concert speaks of something happening internally.
Anyway, just some musings on a guy I’ve come to appreciate as a truly ground-breaking musical artist who, on the inside, most definitely didn’t have things together.
