Google is such a powerful tool. Gosh, we can find out almost anything almost as quickly as you can type. Watch a commercial and you know that you know that actor from somewhere. No problem. One minute of googling tells you he had a small recurring role on Little House on The Prairie, married a girl he met on the set and had 4 kids. He now does commercials and writes children’s books. Aw, isn’t that nice?
That is the upside of google. The tool has the potential for good, but alas information giveth and information taketh away. Sometimes you are just better off not knowing things. Like the singer of a song you really like donated a million dollars to Planned Parenthood. You can never listen to that song again. You wish you never googled it.
This is what happened to me today. One of my all time favorite Christmas songs is “What Child is This?” That song, more than just about any other has always put me in the Christmas mood. When Burle Ives or the Chipmunks couldn’t get it done, “What Child Is This?” never failed me. Never. Well, that is until this Christmas.
Up until yesterday I was vaguely familiar with the song Greensleeves, but had never really though about it. That was until I saw this Snickers commercial.
How fascinating, thought I. My favorite Christmas hymn has the identical musical settings as some ol’ English ditty. Why, let me Google it to find out more about this fascinating bit o’ history. That was when the I got hit with the double whammy of Google/Wikipedia TMI. Too much information. Turns out that this beautiful, beautiful music that never failed to conjure thought of the Angelic hosts was most likely written 500 years ago about a hooker. Yes, that is right, a hooker.
Wikipedia glibly informed me that “It is widely thought that Lady Green Sleeves was a promiscuous young woman and perhaps a prostitute.[1] At the time, the word “green” had sexual connotations, most notably in the phrase “a green gown”, a reference to the way that grass stains might be seen on a lady’s dress if she had made love outside.”
Goodbye angelic hosts, goodbye Christmas, So long Santa 🙁 I hope you are happy Google. I worried I would never be able to listen to that song again without that [cursed] “information” in the back of my mind. But I decided to try. So I went to YouTube and found this lovely version by a lovely young angelic Catholic girl named Charlotte Church. Give a listen.
Isn’t that beautiful. You know, I should Google Charlotte Church to find out more about this beautiful lil’ angel.
Oh. Crud.
November 14, 2008 at 2:22 am
There was a quote from Chesterton (or Lewis, my memory is poor), which talks about how the pagan rituals and practices were baptized by Christianity. That they were signs (abet very poor ones) of what was to come.
Beauty is God’s, and so also is beautiful music. So just think of this music as being baptized by Christianity; taken from it’s low purpose and used for a much higher one.
November 16, 2008 at 4:52 pm
First, there is about 20% of academia who’s sole job it is, is to SOMEHOW inject sexual innuendo into places where it never existed. Just because it’s on the internet, or even generally accepted, does NOT mean it is true. This information is true about the _song_ Greensleeves, but not necessarily about the _music_. The music is older than the popular adaptation in the 1500s. This is VERY common in music history. Certain melodies are universally loved, and constantly adapted for their age.
Second, there is a much better point to be made here. Kerry Livgren of the band Kansas “Dust In The Wind” fame, did a solo project after his conversion as an experiment. He composed and produced a contemporary christian rock album – an unheard of genre at the time. He hired Ronny James Dio (the second singer to lead Black Sabbath) to sing two of the tracks. He got TONS of flack for this, with the accusation that Dio was a satanist. He came back asking, {I paraphrase} “Why a satanist would agree to sing on a christian album. More importantly, what is a “christian” album? If a satanist sings Amazing Grace, does it make it less moving of a song? If Amy Grant sings a jingle, does that make it “sanctified”?”
Truth and beauty do not find their ownership in copyrights or in the enemy’s fold. Go ahead and enjoy the music! Mother Teresa would.