Gwnewch y pethau bychain

QOTD: Gospel Music

“I belong to a gospel choir. They know I am an atheist but they are very tolerant. Ultimately, the message of gospel music is that everything’s going to be all right. If you listen to millions of gospel records – and I have – and try to distil what they all have in common it’s a sense that somehow we can triumph. There could be many thousands of things. But the message… well , there are two messages… one is a kind of optimism for the future rather than a pessimism. Gospel music is never pessimistic, it’s never ‘oh my god, its all going down the tubes’, like the blues often is. Gospel music is always about the possibility of transcendence, of things getting better. It’s also about the loss of ego, that you will win through or get over things by losing yourself, becoming part of something better. Both those messages are completely universal and are nothing to do with religion or a particular religion. They’re to do with basic human attitudes and you can have that attitude and therefore sing gospel even if you are not religious.”
Brian Eno

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2 Comments

  1. As a lifelong atheist and one devoted to the music of Reverend Gary Davis, I find truth in this. My favorite gospel tune is the Rev’s Let Us Get Together (Right Down Here).

    His guitar is a little out of tune on this occasion, but, oh my.

    “Let us have our Heaven, right down here.”

    Amen to that.

  2. As a former evangelical and current atheist, I don’t agree with him atall, and I have to stretch my brain to even see where he’s coming from.

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