Least Favorite Songs at Mass

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May I add “Companions on the Journey” to the list of bad songs?

They tried making the first communicants sing it. Talk about hard to sing without the words in front of you! Is it ‘in the love we share is the hope we bear’ or in the love we bear is the hope…’ oh, forget it. Not to mention ‘breaking bread and sharing life’. Yikes. What second-grader can remember those inane words!

I also have to add that I used to merely loathe Sing a New Church until I found out there is an old hymn with the same tune. Now I truly detest it.

As a side note, the Von Trapp Children (great-grandchildren of Capt. Von Trapp) have a cd which includes a recording of the original hymn, “Come Thou Font”.

I would also have to add “Heart of Worship”. It’s a Protestant song, but I think it’s used at some Masses geared toward youth.
Yuck.

Cathy
 
Ah, Sons of God.

I’ll date myself here but I was a mere CHILD (seriously, we’re talking elementary school) and we used to do “Sons of God”. . .

Sons of God
Hear his holy word,
gather round the table of the Lord,
Eat his body, drink his blood,
and we’ll sing a song of love,
allelu, allelu, allelu, allelu-oooh-ya.

And then we’d do

bah-dah-dah-da-da
bah-dah-dah-da-da
bah-dah-dah-da-da
da-da—da-DAH.

I forget whether it was a Pepto-bismol commercial or something equally ridiculous, but that was the ending. We sang with great verve and more than a few gestures as well.

And now to be really bad. . .

brothers, sisters, we are one
and our life has just begun
IN THE SPIRIT WE ARE ONE (the line most often forgotten, tah-dah)
and we’ll live FOR-EVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEER.

Hit that chorus. . .

Does anybody remember
Happy the man?

Happy the man who wanders with the Lor–ord.
Happy the man who knows how to live
Happy the man who never seeks reward,
Giving because he loves to give.

He needs no gold,
He seeks no gain,
He knows these things are all in vain----ain,
He needs no wealth
No honor too,
His only motto–To Thine own-oooohhn self be true. . .

I used to always sing “Happy the Clown” instead. . .which now tells you WHERE I grew up, Philly.

And who could forget,
Come down Lord, my son is ill
wracked with fever the live-long day,
he is life to me, if you will
drive death away, drive death away.
Lord do not come to my house, I’m unworthy,
Speak and the promise is sealed,
but when your word, O God, is spoken,
He shall be healed, he shall be healed.

Come down, Lord, my soul is ill
wracked with anguish the live-long day,
all my sorrowing will be still,
if you but say, if you but say,
Lord do not come to my house, I’m unworthy,
Speak and the promise is sealed,
but when your word, O God, is spoken,
I shall be healed, I shall be healed.

Come down, Lord, the world is ill
wracked with bloodshed the live-long day,
Man must struggle for peace until
You show the way, you show the way.
Lord do not come to my house, I’m unworthy.
Speak and the promise is sealed,
but when your word, O God, is spoken,
we shall be healed, we shall be healed. (we shall be healed).

Great. Now I feel like sitting down to watch Starsky and Hutch and playing with my pet rock!
 
Anything scripturally unsound and liturgically incorrect. Why can’t we just sing our liturgy (ie the parts of the Mass) and forget the rest. We have this mad urge to fill every silence with noise.

Any one know the song "When a Child is Born? There is a verse in there that goes something like it’s all a dream an illusion now - am I discerning that its absolute rubbish or do I need a very good retreat and a large embrace from the Holy Spirit.
 
Panis Angelicus and Tantum Ergo: Many thanks for the second verse of Sons of God. I can now go to sleep and not rack my brain for those last lines! I especially liked your typed renditions of those long stretched out vowels! :rotfl: :rotfl:
There is a line from a very traditional hymn (the name escapes me this time of night) that our traditional choir (including me) sang during Lent that always leaves me laughing. In this line, Jesus is referred to as “hunger bear and thirst”. I know it refers to fasting, but I always see Jesus on a good ol’ bear hunt, and a big roast haunch on the spit! LOL 😃
 
Speaking of silly lines from hymns:
“We Come to Your Feast” has a line “the fabric of our lives”.
I always think of the cotton commercial and laugh inside. Inanity is not a good attitude for Communion. I like the song somewhat after I get past that first verse, though.
 
I just thought of another one, which I luckily haven’t heard in a long time. It’s called Remember Your Love and Your Faithfulness, O Lord. The first verse is straight from the psalms:

The Lord is my light and my salvation,
I shall not fear.

The only problem is, it’s sung to the exact same tune as the theme from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! It’s all I can do to keep from laughing every time I hear it.
 
The parish I attend maybe once a week has a singer who sings I Have Loved You With an Everlasting Love during and after Communion. I’m not sure I would’ve disliked the song if it weren’t so distracting while trying to pray after Communion. I know it’s a psalm (I think it is?), but the tune just reminds me of something that would’ve come from the Disney movie Pocahontas.

JELane
 
This is a good one, so I have to add my 2 cents even if it is a long thread. I had a somewhat contradictory upbringing in terms of liturgical music, because although my parish was headed by a good old-fashioned Irish pastor who was very traditional & always had the beautiful old hymns at mass, his assistants were young 60s/70s types who promoted folk masses & all of the silly music that went along with them. In college in the 80s, many of my friends were fans of the new breed of hymns by Marty Haugen, etc. & I didn’t like that either. One of my good friends coined the perfect term for all of the silly, sappy drivel that passes for liturgical “classics” these days - Hallmark hymns! All the shiny, happy lyrics about “being together” that barely mention the Lord’s name coupled with the musical equivalent of a sleeping pill.

Forgive my lack of Christian charity on this point… but if I ever hear “Eagle’s Wings” or “Sing a New Song” again, I will be convinced that I died & went to Purgatory or (dare I say) worse.
 
BrianDay said:
“Sing a New Church” has to be the worst ever.
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Yikes. Never heard that song before, but the lyrics are horrible. They just scream “It’s all about US!”
 
I, too, nominate “Sing a New Church”. There is only one church which is constantly renewing but at the same time does not change.

In fact, that was one of the songs sung at our permanent deacon pre-candidacy mass!!!

Guy
Diocese of Gaylord, MI

PS

“How Can I Keep From Singing”, however, is one of my favorites!!
 
PPS—Even tho I disagree with some of his theology, I absolutely love Marty Haughen’s “Mass of Creation”. In Fact, that was the Mass we chose for our wedding!!

Guy
Diocese of Gaylord, MI
 
Where to begin?

Look Beyond ( Look beyond the bread you eat…) The tune is crazy.
Christ, Be Our Light (Many the gifts, many the people, many the hearts that yearn to belong???)
We Remember (Oh we had to put up with this song as A MEMORIAL ACCLAMATION in the 70s, totally an abuse. Thank God this was buried with ditties like SING HOSANNA.)
Mary did you know? This song is a fav at our parish for the feast of Jesus’ Baptism. Don’t know why they pick this Sunday to sing this awful song. They even include that verse about Jesus soon setting Mary free. I see red instead of my soul being inspired.
Sing out Earth and Skies (no explantion needed)
Canticle of the Sun (#$%^&*(*^%%^&#$$@#%)
BRING BACK A SENSE OF THE SACRED! HOW CAN WE BE EXPECTED TO BELIEVE THAT GOD IS AMONG US IF WE ARE SINGING THESE HORRIBLE HOAKY SONGS. LET’s Take our church back and bring back the CHANTS and LATIN!
RJ
 
Many of you are not going to believe this. At my parish, during the Spanish masses, they regularly sing the Our Father to the tune Paul Simon’s “The Sound of Silence.” My father and I actually fell to our seats the first time we heard this. To this day I have to struggle to keep images from “The Graduate,” a movie which I did not enjoy, from my mind!

Here are the Words (with a translation):

Before the Our Father:
“Padre nuestro, Tú que estás ---------“Our Father, You who dwell
en los que aman de verdad, ------------within those whose love is real,
que el Reino que se nos prometió-----May thy kingdom promised to us,
llegue pronto a nuestro corazón,-------come soon into our own hearts;
que el amor que tu Hijo nos dejo,-----And may the love that your Son left to us,
el amor habite en nosotros”. -----------may that love dwell within us.”

Then the Our Father is said while the music plays softly.

After the Our Father:
Y en el pan de la unidad, --------------And in the bread of unity,
Cristo, danos tu la paz, -----------------Lord Christ give us your peace,
y olvidate de nuestro--------------------error and forget about our errors
si olvidamos el de los demás, ---------if we forget those of others,
no permitas que caigamos en el mal,–do not let us slip into evil,
y ten piedad de nosotros,----------------and have mercy on us,
y ten piedad de nosotros, ----------------and have mercy on us,
y ten piedad del mundo. -----------------and have mercy on the world.
 
To answer Fr. Frank’s question about “O Sacred Head Surrounded,” if it’s the same tune we sing at our church then it comes from Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion. If you haven’t listened to the “Passion” all the way through(it is very long), I highly recommend it. It is very beautiful and moving.
 
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krazykatlady:
To answer Fr. Frank’s question about “O Sacred Head Surrounded,” if it’s the same tune we sing at our church then it comes from Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion. If you haven’t listened to the “Passion” all the way through(it is very long), I highly recommend it. It is very beautiful and moving.
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Thanks. Guess I got that one wrong 😉 .

Anyone have a source for Bach’s piece described? I’d love to listen, if it is in English especially.
 
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tcaseyrochester:
Isn’t that from Proverbs??? I’ll have to go an look it up…
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It was St. Augustine and I think he actually said He who sings well prays twice. Sorry, no citation. I don’t give those out after midnight. 😃

How about the Frank Perdue song “We are many parts…we are all one body…” Blurrrgh
 
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Dave3383:
I agree with those who listed “Gather Us In” and “Lord of the Dance.” The first has too much “we” and “us” in it; the second is entirely too childish.

Let me add another to the list: “Let There Be Peace On Earth.” This one sounds more like a Bradway show-tune than a hymn. I find it a bit nauseating. 😦
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I HATE “Let There Be Peace on Earth” It is so trite. Maybe ok for sitting around the campfire-that’s it!
 
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bquinnan:
I especially dislike songs that seem to be about praising the Community rather than worshipping the Lord.

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I agree . I think they were written by sociologists.
 
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bquinnan:
I especially dislike songs that seem to be about praising the Community rather than worshipping the Lord.

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I agree . I think they were written by sociologists.
 
Least favorite: Anything with a pop, folk, Broadway, or rock melodic source; anything used for congregational singing that requires a professional performer: e.g., Eagle Wings and Gentle Woman.

Congregational singing has been “trouble” ever since it was introduced in the aftermath of the Reformation. Did you know that the first hymn written in English for public worship did not appear until 1688?

One difficulty with music in church today is that we have lost sight of the difference between music for liturgy and music for Christian summer camp or Christian cabaret. While it is too simple-minded, one might add that the test of time is one useful measure of aptness. Although some devotional “chestnuts” are not better than new music being used today. E.g., if you didn’t know the words, could YOU tell the “musical” difference between “Mother of Christ” and “Mother Macree?” There is none.
 
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