The second of three blogs.
Welcome back, so, after last time, let's start with another question,
When did we start grafting portions of other songs into the song we were playing?
We were now not simply flowing from one song to another but using the chorus or bridge of a different song and dropping it into our playing, then we’d return back to the original song. Our playing (my playing!) was a nightmare for the Overhead Projector operator. That’s right – the OHP, it replaced songbooks in the mid-1980s, and was eventually and slowly replaced by the video projector, throughout the first decade of this century.
Before anyone was using the term, mashup, it started to happen, when time allowed, in our worship slots.
While performing live, Led Zeppelin would drop recognisable phrases, sometimes a whole verse of another group's material into their own songs. As a composer, Page was known for his memorable guitar riffs. Again, listening to bootlegs, he’d sometimes briefly play the riff of a third song to help splice two other songs together in their live sets. For any real fans out there, Black Dog from their fourth album was often played live with the introduction of Out on the Tiles from their third album release. As a fan, I loved these touches. I loved the sense of fun and freedom it gave to the songs. Twenty years later, some New York rapper would probably use the idea in their studio and call it, sampling.
My worship song-base was growing, and my style meant they were all (words and chords) completely logged into the hard-drive of my memory; I was able to flow from one song to another, or just splice familiar and powerful sections of a classic chorus into the flow of whatever I was playing. Why did I do this? When did this happen in Christian worship? Had it been modelled for me by some prestigious worship leader? All I do know, is that I just loved the creativity, and often the excitement it stirred, when Led Zeppelin would do it.
Let’s jump ahead ten years. My quirky approach to worship-leading was gratefully welcomed in most charismatic environments; and all because of the serendipity result of a life-long learning difficulty regarding processing language. Traditionalists struggled, as I jumped from one song to another and sometimes just gave them a blast of a triumphant chorus. The person responsible for word projection, may have been happy, perhaps recognising my approach as more Spirit-led, though sadly they suffered from not knowing where I was going next. Please note, it’s now the 1990s, the notion of prophetic and extempore worship was emerging. I was never into pure performance. Hand on heart, and with a clear conscience, I simply sought to worship God in spirit and truth. Personally, not being tied to a book, photocopied chord sheets or eventually some digital tablet, gave me freedom, space and options. Place a music-stand in front of me and it's like giving me a pair of blinkers to wear. I sense myself becoming partially blindfolded to the Holy Spirit - I can't afford the risk of eclipsing God's presence by being consumed with too many practical issues: the band, the sound, the mic, the foldback, ... take away the safety net, if I've done my preparation, and more importantly, if I've done my spiritual preparation, then take the stabilisers off the bike and let's WORSHIP! You can practise as much as you like - please do! Memorize more and more songs - it pays dividends in the long run. Nurture the worshipper within you for hours on end in your own home - learn to feed your spirit, not just your talent.
As the century turned, I started getting invited to extended times of worship. I mean seriously extended, often 24-hour events. Sometimes just an evening (6-hours), a half day of 12 hours. When travelling abroad, such events could be 48 hours, then later in my home city, at that time, we did an annual 100-hour event leading up to Pentecost Sunday. In the early days of 24-hour events, often six or seven different church worship groups would take it in turns to fill an hour. A schedule was posted, and off we went, participating in the worship when not actually playing. Of course, you could sleep if needed, it wasn’t an endurance test for individuals, it was a Tabernacle of David styled approach to maintain a ceaseless act of praise. Sometimes you’d hide in the kitchen for half an hour to fill up on caffeine and other unhealthy snacks. There’s so much I could share about these early days of multiple hour events. Intercessors loved to attend them! The brave ones would jump up, interrupt the band (sort of sensitivity) and encourage a prayer focus, five or ten minutes later we’d be singing again. The prophets would prophesy, either instigating further intercession, or a worship focus. New songs emerged, as extempore praise became increasingly a must for the more apt and gifted worship leader. These were both exciting and fun times. Of course, some people couldn’t quite access the journey. Playing worship songs for one hour was way outside their comfort zone and available song-list! Some of these church musicians hadn’t allowed, or even considered the developing role of prayer, intercession, and prophetic interventions within the scope of biblical praise. In brief, they hadn’t allowed for God! Some hour slots required few songs, the spiritual value of anointed repetition had been understood by many attending, and so these often simple songs were partnered with the power and presence of Scripture, prophetic words and intercession – brilliant! Some hour-long sessions were painfully dull, and a true test of endurance. These slots were normally led by competent musicians, but sadly less competent worshippers. The main flaw, they simply took their Sunday morning 15-minute worship slot and multiplied it by four adding the necessary additional songs. It probably looked good on paper. Unfortunately, we weren’t playing on paper! We were attempting to bring a sacrifice of ceaseless praise into the very heartbeat of the heavenly courts. Sadly, and frustratingly, Sunday morning church compared to the anointed room in a house of prayer, or some seriously dedicated ‘holy’ space are two very different worshipping environments.
As the second decade of the twenty-first century took hold, those musicians who prepared on paper fell away from committing to such events, whilst many of the rest of us were chomping at the bit to have two-hour long slots. Once you understand biblical praise without the restrictions of a church service, you’ll discover that 60 minutes is woefully inadequate!
And those (so-called) worship leaders that didn’t get it – will not only, not get it, but very probably their ministering presence will stop the rest of us from getting it too.
Though I have learnt that God can be very gracious when faced with our inadequacies and spiritual ignorance, I’ve also walked away plenty of times, and left the room. Sometimes you can discern we’re just going to be stuck singing songs until the clock says, ‘you can go home’. On those occasions when I sense the Spirit is being shackled to someone's inexperience and spiritual malnutrition, I’m not embarrassed to go home early. Even the best and most anointed songs in other settings, can sound boring when the musicians fail to understand their job!
I love to lead and facilitate a two-hour worship slot.
History, commentators and the statistics probably all agree that the greatest pop group was The Beatles. It was reported in 1971, that George Harrison was completely shocked on hearing that a typical Led Zeppelin show was rarely ever less than two hours in length. With an expletive in his language, he replied, “The Beatles never did more than 20 minutes!” Perhaps Sunday morning worship should be modelled on them?!
Led Zeppelin and worship leading, the journey so far. Yes, I heard them roll one song into another. Yes, I heard them play songs with little to no verbal explanations or introductions, and yes, I loved it when I detected them splicing other songs into their performances.
I had heard and seen The Song Remains the Same, I’d listened to two BBC recorded sessions and three or more bootlegs mainly from their early legendary US tours. In 1969, when they were still starting out, their encore often took the shape of an extensive medley of rock’n’roll classics - check it out!. Among their heroes being honoured by their cover versions were, Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran. This section could easily change night by night, in both contents and length. These four musicians were simply pulling on their memories and playing the songs of their youth. Sometimes Plant would forget the words, and the seamless transitions may not have always been that smooth. But above it all, they were having fun – and the audience loved it!
I started to be given two-hour worship slots. Great, Led Zeppelin regularly did two-hour long concerts. [to be continued, Led Zeppelin & Worship Leading III]
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