When I was younger we had song books and I recall that some of the songs were pretty catchy. Then they revised it took some of those songs out, and added more. I have to admit some songs were pretty good. Then they came out with another song book and I can honestly say whoever wrote the songs, didn’t know music. That song book sucked!
What Did You Think Of The Songs Sung At The Kingdom Hall?
by minimus 34 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
just fine
The only good things about the songs were the break from mind numbing talks and the opportunity to stand up.
-
WTWizard
These are some of the worst pieces of s*** ever written. The performance was downright lousy, and some were even "bad" according to their own standards (I am sure that a Beatles record of the same substance would have been ruled bad). Not to mention, they are designed to reinforce curses on the whole human race, and on the individual, even worse than regular church garbage.
How many of those songs had bad messages that are even worse than what you hear today on the radio, let alone in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Joke-hova the king? Where is my impeachment when I really need it? That means communism. Glorifying hardship, poverty, and sickness? Not seeking a life of ease or even our own advantage? Not even when doing so would help others in the process? Next to that filthy bible they came out of (of course, twisted around to fit jokehovian theology), these songs are perhaps the worst pieces of garbage one could listen to.
And, I mean the worst. Worse than Barbra Scheißand, who put curses in its recordings that would curse anyone that listens to it (the washtowel curses are worse). Worse than any of today's gangsta rap, which is at least out in the open (and you can defy it--or turn it off). Worse than any of the "make peace with your enemy" songs found in the late 1960s or early 1970s (Hey Jude, Imagine, and Mrs Robinson come to mind as outstandingly bad in this regard--Kingdumb maladies are worse). And the artist work is worse even than Barbra Scheißand or Yanni, both of who don't know how to make entertaining music.
And they thought Led Zeppelin music is bad? I don't think so.
-
FFGhost
For the old-timers, one of my favorite Farkel threads:
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6456/my-epiphany
Their “songs of praise” suck worse than any other songs in the entire universe. Even the songs of cats tearing each other’s eyes out while in heat are more melodious (and have better lyrics for that matter) than dub songs.
Why would Jehovah God, the Sovereign of the Universe, hand-pick as his ONE AND ONLY true and righteous organization, a group that writes the WORST melodies and the WORST lyrics possible: melodies that are designed to either bring on a screaming migraine headache, or if one is lucky, lull one to sink into a deep coma? Well, WOULD He?This pretty much says it all.
-
punkofnice
min -
What Did You Think Of The Songs Sung At The Kingdom Hall?All total and utter, non musical garbage.
The music was terrible.....'Laaaaaaaaaaazarussssssss lay sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeping.....'
Written by talent-less sanctimsistic attention seekers.
The lyrics were often terrible doggerel with poor rhyming. Some were just a propagandist's dream.
Absolute depressing filth.
In case you didn't guess, I hated every single one.
-
zachias
Unlike the hymns of christendom wt songs do not allow for the average voice. They are so broken gated and i believe were written that way so they would not sound like a hymn.
-
FFGhost
The music was terrible.....'Laaaaaaaaaaazarussssssss lay sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeping.....'
A long time ago in a Kingdom Hall far far away....
Remember when many if not most Kingdom Halls had pianos in them? Someone would play the piano for the songs before & after each meeting.
For some long-forgotten reason, for a time in our Kingdom Hall, we had, not a piano, but an honest-to-god organ.
Trouble was only one person in the congregation knew how to play it.
One night she wasn't at the meeting. What to do?
"Hey", some genius elder thought. "Let's get X, the teenaged kid who is taking piano lessons, to play the organ. A keyboard is a keyboard, right? What could go wrong?"
So, teenaged brother X started into it. The song of course was this one, "Laaaaaazarus lay sleeeeeeping...."
He got through maybe 3 or 4 stanzas before it turned into unrecognizable honking screeches.
Deep in that teenaged brain, he remembered what his piano instructor told him: "If you make a mistake, start over and do it right, from the beginning."
So, here's how it worked out:
"Laaaaaaazarus lay sleeee-" sour note. Stop.
"Laaaazarus lay sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeping, in -" Sour note. Stop.
"Laaaaaazarus -" Sour note. Stop.
"Laaaaa-" sour note. Stop.
This went for what seemed like 5 minutes. Evidently someone put a stop to the travesty, since I am not currently still sitting in that Kingdom Hall trying to sing to the screeching organ.
Not long after that, as I recall, we started using the vinyl records to provide the music to sing along to.
-
Biahi
They were dreary and depressing, I hated them, and singing to this garbage.
-
punkofnice
Ghosty - we started using the vinyl records to provide the music to sing along to.
Me and another young geezer used to set the record player to 78 from 33. Sometimes, no one knew the difference because the songs were all crap anyway.
-
dropoffyourkeylee
My personal theories:
The old pink 1966 songbook I grew up with had a lot of songs that sounded a lot like traditional hymns, in fact I think some of the tunes may have been the same as hymns with different words. The feel produced was a familiar and comfortable one to the American protestant (non-Catholic) heartland from which the WT movement got its roots. Since then a few things in the landscape have changed. Overseas growth and outreach to non-protestant backgrounds meant that the songs didn't seem familiar to potential converts. Some of the songs and/or tunes were written by non-JW or worse yet, ex-JWs (anathema to JWs). There may have been copyright issues for some of the music. Also, some of the old words, while seemingly innocuous to some, probably came across as disturbing in other areas of the world (her breasts are like towers; bees that were molested; etc).
The various songs and songbooks introduced starting in the '80's I think have been their attempt to modernize and get away from the US hymn-feel. Other churches have done the same (ie Christian rock). I don't think the WT had been entirely successful in their attempts, but I think that is where they are going. (I personally don't care for most of the new tunes, although a couple of them are not too bad)