Secular Songs by Joan Armatrading

Album: Into the Blues (2007)

License This Song

lyrics

artistfacts

Songfacts®:

This song was inspired by visits Armatrading made to two very different churches. The first is a very ornate church in Oxford, England - the kind with lots of stained glass and other decoration. This church felt cold, however, and she noticed that they were playing secular music: French songs with no relation to God.

The other church was in the Caribbean, and while it was old and unadorned, the preacher was full of passion and the place had an energy and spirituality that was missing from the church in Oxford. Armatrading evokes this church at the end of the song, when the choir comes in with chants of "pray" and she exclaims, "Hallelujah."
Regarding the line, "Hear those heartfelt lieder coming from that deep bass voice," "lieder" is the German word for "songs." In her Songfacts interview, Armatrading explained that she is always looking for unusual words and different ways to express her thoughts, which is why she didn't sing "heartfelt songs."

"It's just what you do with your songwriting," she said. "You need to come up with things that are kind of interesting."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

More Songfacts:

DilemmaNelly

Kelly Rowland was the first Destiny's Child member to have a hit away from the group: her Nelly duet "Dilemma."

Killing In The NameRage Against the Machine

Tired of X-Factor winners getting the UK Christmas #1, British Facebook users staged a successful campaign to download "Killing In The Name" by Rage Against The Machine enough times to boost the song to the top in 2009, blocking the X-Factor single by Joe McElderry.

I Remember EverythingZach Bryan

Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves had both gone through divorces when they wrote and recorded the wrenching duet "I Remember Everything." It was the first #1 Hot 100 hit for each of them.

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)Sly & the Family Stone

Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" was a huge hit in 1970 and found new life when Janet Jackson sampled the bass riff on her 1989 hit "Rhythm Nation."

The G.O.A.T.LL Cool J

With his song "The G.O.A.T.," as in Greatest Of All Time, LL Cool J popularized that saying in hip-hop. He credits the boxer Muhammad Ali, who called himself "The Greatest," as inspiration.

The Battle Hymn of the RepublicTraditional

John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath got its title from a line in "The Battle Hymn of the Republic": "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored."