The first of three blogs.
Okay, let’s try and get this down on paper. I’ve probably only mentioned this on two previous occasions to close friends, though I’m not sure if they ever quite understood me. It still surfaces in my own mind when thinking about extended times of corporate praise. More frustrating is that with the passing of time, I just can’t remember which came first – the chicken or the egg? The example of a respected worship leader, whom I then stole from, or the example and influence of Led Zeppelin?
So, here’s the question I’m trying to answer,
Has my worship leading style been influenced by Led Zeppelin?
The simple answer is, yes. Otherwise, why ask the question? I’m more than aware of how Led Zeppelin’s live performances have had an influence on me. Now, let’s make it clear, I’m not drawing a comparison with me and Led Zeppelin as musicians, recording artists or even with their personalities. For those of you who know me, I’m definitely no guitar virtuoso, I’m no Jimmy Page! I play a limited amount of simple chords. I have no official musical training or any natural ability, especially when it comes to keeping, or even detecting, a rhythm or time signature. I have nothing in common with Zeppelin’s musical abilities – let’s make that clear. Though… hmm? Perhaps, Robert Plant did introduce me to the emotions attached to blues singing, I was impacted by listening to such a vocalist bring their own interpretation to words, sometimes over and above the accuracy of melody or even clarity of diction. For years I’ve always encouraged worship leaders to play songs as if they were their own, to bring a sense of ownership to their execution. Just this month, I heard a worship leader teach on a You Tube channel, using the phrase, “It’s better to sound like you, than to try and sound like Elevation or Bethel and fail.” So, consider yourself warned.
The eighth Led Zeppelin album, was actually the second one I listened to (like one abnormally born), The Song Remains the Same. This was a ‘live’ double-LP, eventually released in 1976, capturing some of their material from performing at Madison Square Gardens, New York, in 1973. In stark contrast to say, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin's concerts were full of improvisation, where they would deliberately embellish many of their their original studio releases. The track Dazed and Confused, over 6 minutes in length on their debut studio album, was now three times that length when played live.
As any keen teenage fan of that era would do, I sought out bootleg recordings, and taped their earlier BBC sessions from the radio when they were occasionally re-broadcast. So that’s some of my context.
so, back to Led Zeppelin and (my) worship leading – let’s get re-focussed.
I have a question. When did we start to string worship songs together? I entered church life in the Summer of 1977, almost a year after giving my heart to Jesus in the privacy of my own bedroom - I met Jesus in a dream. I had visited two churches in those twelve months – I was bored at both! Third time lucky? (sorry, inappropriate language). Though the church I now attended was on the verge of charismatic renewal, its services still consisted of four old fashioned hymns, spaced out across the sixty-minute evening service. When the occasional new ‘chorus’ was used, it was often accompanied with a vast and unnecessary introduction – if not, explanation. How come a five-liner about Jesus being Lord needed explaining, when the aging metaphors of an eighteenth-century hymn was introduced by simply announcing its hymn number?!
So, I ask again – When did we start stringing songs together without a musical break or a verbal explanation?
I know Zeppelin was doing it at the beginning of their concerts. Their first two songs, if not three, would form an opening medley. Eventually, a brief musical break came, before the band crashed into their next song. After the third, or fourth or even fifth song, Robert Plant would eventually speak to the crowd, “Good eeeeeeeeeevening!”
I’d heard this approach on various bootlegs, I eventually saw it on the film release of The Song Remains the Same, and finally witnessed it for myself at Knebworth 1979 – August 11th. Yes, I was there for the second of their two summer concerts, their last UK gigs before the sad and untimely death of their drummer John Bonham the following year.
Was anyone in church stringing three choruses together before 1980? Or even before 1983? As that’s when I know I started to do it.
In my late-teens I’d sat through the live performances of many amusing and talented Christian singer-songwriters, with their humorous stories and wordy song introductions. Perhaps they’d learnt their craft from the folk acts of the 1960s. Did Peter, Paul and Mary laboriously explain their songs, just in case the metaphorical protest lyrics were lost on their audience – what was meant to be Blowin’ in the Wind? And of course, they needed to do it to clarify that Puff the Magic Dragon was simply an endearing child-friendly tale, and nothing to do with smoking anything!
I got my first guitar when I was eighteen years-old, that’s right, I came to it late. I had struggled throughout my school days with a learning difficulty resulting in my reading-age and spelling being way below average. So, with my guitar, I developed a pragmatic approach to playing worship songs. I learnt the songs off-by-heart. It was time consuming at first, having no music theory. Later the notion of 3-chord songs became more apparent and their corresponding minor chords. The result? When playing in public, I didn’t need to see the words or use a music book. Then Zeppelin-like, I could move from one song to another with the minimal of upheaval. I also discovered the reason people were speaking between songs was to allow them time (and others in the band) to turn the pages of their thick and heavy music books to the next song. The introduction of makeshift bookmarks and later multicoloured Post-it notes would eventually speed up these proceedings. But sadly, this came all too late for many congregations, talking between songs had become an official worship style when using the new choruses in church.
In the UK this was the era of the charismatic Bible Weeks (Dales and Downs) and the beginnings of Spring Harvest. I didn’t attend such an event until 1988, but these may have modelled stringing unannounced songs together. Wimber had arrived in 1984, and Vineyard Music was undoubtedly modelling a minimal approach in terms of speaking between songs, the new emphasis was clear and refreshing. In the Vineyard model,
the worship leader created ‘space’ through the deliberate repetition of singing simple songs, thus allowing the worshipper headspace to truly encounter and journey with God.
It made perfect sense, though it took me well over a decade to capture the notion of this in such a single and eloquent sentence.
During the Summer of 1983, I was regularly leading worship during a team’s morning devotions as part of their summer mission programme. My gap year was coming to a close and I had been given increased leadership responsibilities with the monthly intake of new volunteers over the three summer months. In the late 1970s I’d flirted with the Charismatic Movement and had a few corporate and personal spiritual experiences under my belt. Clearly some of these random volunteers had flirted too. As I naturally led one song into another, not needing to turn a page or even change the book, an intensity to our worship times emerged. Perhaps I’m detecting this more with hindsight as I write this article, but I do know it ‘felt’ different, and others present clearly engaged with a greater level of enthusiasm.
Moving on and returning to Led Zeppelin... [to be continued, Led Zeppelin & Worship Leading II]
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