Money vs. Sally Go Round the Roses...

Ok this is pretty obscure for most newbies but this past weekend I got a blast of great tunes in a variety of styles - and the two BEST were the old Berry Gordy, Jr. "Money" and my favorite reworking of the Jaynettes, "Sally Go Round the Roses." Many people will not think either of these tunes are particularly "prayerful" in the traditional or pietistic vein, but man have they been a part of my worldview for waaaaaaaaaay too long: a real integration of body, soul, spirit and heart.

Let's start with "Money." When I was a kid, my Aunt Donna (may she rest in peace) turned me on to the Isley Brothers, Little Richard and and the kewel dance stuff of the late 50s and early 60s. (Don't hold it against her: she liked the Dave Clark 5 more than the Beatles but that's because they sounded like Little Eva (dig "Locomotion") and she could dance her ass off to Little Eva.) She turned me on to the first version of "Money" written by Berry Gordy, Jr. and recorded by Barrett Strong. Music geeks to to: It was early Motown - pretty hot and fun - but just a start.

The Beatles' nailed this song a few years later - first in their Hamburg wildass days - and then on "The Beatles's Second Album" in the USA (also "Twist and Shout" which my dear auntie taught me to dance to with the Isely Brothers at the helm.) And when Lennon did his thing - and the boys sang back-up - my I was on FIRE!

Jump ahead nearly 20 years (ok just 18) and the Flying Lizards remake this song in a Dadaist way - part critique and part spoof - of the ego-centric, wealth obsessed 1980s: this, too, is so freakin' hot that I can't even think straight. So spot on and insightful, too.

For this song - which every church ought to use at least once for a fall stewardship campaign - these three versions bring it all together: 1) body and soul with Motown; 2) sex and candy with the Beatles; and 3) social critique and attitude with the Lizards. What could be more fun AND prophetic...?

Jump to "Sally Go Round the Roses" and the totally mysterious sound of that song. When I first heard it back in 1963 with my Aunt Donna, it sounded sexy, mysterious... and frankly underwater. The Jaynettes, who nobody really knows much about except that they were a weird marketing experiment, had a #2 hit with a song that I used to hear in my brain before I went to sleep during the summer of '63. It was haunting...

Flash ahead to the summer of love: playing guitar, falling in love with sexy hippie girls, riding around in Mustang convertibles, drinking Mateus at the beach and all the rest and who should show up by Grace Slick - before Jefferson Airplane - and SHE is singing "Sally Go Round the Roses." I fell in love with Grace - and this song - all over again. (All throughout the summer of 67, we had a girl singer in our band who LOOKED like Grace: 8 feet of legs, long straight hair and a soulful innocence as she swayed to the beat.) It is kinda psychedelic... but also mystical, too. It isn't the greatest version, but still lots of fun and I listened to IT every night that summer all over again for it connected me with the Jaynettes and my Aunt and Motown! (Even the Dead covered, "Dancing in the Streets!")

Then, at the end of the 60s, my FAVORITE version of this song was brought to birth by Pentangle - that Celtic folk/jazz meditation in song - who define this tune better than I am able to even understand: they embroider it with riffs, speculation, teasing while diving for cover without ever giving a clear articulation of what is at stake. It is pure genius!

Then there is this beautiful, soulful and killer version by Sophie and the Abusers - a cross between Patti LaBelle singing Laura Nyro and Nora Jones - so sad and hip and broken-hearted all the while aching for hope...

Now, I think of these two songs prayerfully during Lent for two reasons: they both show me how to reinterpret the old with the spirit of the times to give nuance and insight without being dated - AND - they push me towards integrating heart, soul, mind and flesh in pursuit of all that is true, compassionate and real.

Unless my spirituality can do that, it is just nostalgia and wishful thinking. To be sure, some people will call this unrepentant hippie nostalgia - and that might be true as I remember the old days fondly - but it is equally true that unless I can find ways to make the old truths real for this moment in time... they are just "dust in the wind."

Music gives me a way to experiment with the truth of God so that I can sing a new song...