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Music for Religion Lesson about Death


viz94

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Hi guys! (Just seen how much time has gone since my last writing...)

 

Our religion teacher in school wanted us to bring a song with us, which is about death (directly or in a further way).

And of course I will bring a Coldplay Song with me:-)

 

But I don't know which one...

 

What do you think?

 

First I thought of "Death and all his Friends" or "42" or "Life in Technicolor II", but I think a "classic" song ("The scientist", "TAlk", "God put a Smile upon your face", "Fix You", etc.) what be great, too.

Or what about the "new" Song "A Message 2010" from "Hope for Haiti" or a project with Chris Martin ("In the Sun" with Michael Stripe, but NOT the version with all Coldplay members, because I don't own that at that time and my iTunes Cash is empty:-( )

 

What do you think? I'm looking forward to reading your opinion:-)

 

 

-----------------------------UPDATE---UPDATE---UPDATE---UPDATE---UPDATE-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The last Religion lesson our teacher told us, that the song we bring with us doesn´t need to be about death. Other possible topics are Life and Love.

 

So... I think I take 'A Message 2010' from Hope For Haiti withe me.

 

Any better idea?

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I think Fix You, Death and all his Friends and 42 are good ideas. Other options are:

 

Death Will Never Conquer

Cemeteries Of London

Murder

Viva La Vida

Now My Feet Won't Touch The Ground

No More Keeping My Feet On The Ground

What If

 

These are just a few ideas, but I think it comes down to your own interpertation.

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That would be one of the rare occasions that my first choice would be "Fix You" since it was specifically inspired by dealing with death and grief and mourning, and seeing someone you love hurting because of it.

 

Daahf is a decent choice too. Probably one of the prettiest options, and it gets into the whole thing about how so much of culture is about trying to run away from death in one way or another.

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honestly death and all his friends doesn't really have to do a lot w/ death, it's just about cycling & recycling revenge (you kill my friend, i kill you, your friend kills me, one of my friends kills that friend, etc.)

i think God Put a Smile Upon Your Face would be best b/c it's about what happens after you die. if you were good & never crossed the line b/w good & bad which humans don't really know where is, "don't ever say you're on your way DOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWN." (don't say you're going to hell.)

 

 

42 is also a great choice & you can work w/ that a lot & makes the most sense!

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honestly death and all his friends doesn't really have to do a lot w/ death, it's just about cycling & recycling revenge (you kill my friend, i kill you, your friend kills me, one of my friends kills that friend, etc.)

i think God Put a Smile Upon Your Face would be best b/c it's about what happens after you die. if you were good & never crossed the line b/w good & bad which humans don't really know where is, "don't ever say you're on your way DOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWN." (don't say you're going to hell.)

 

 

42 is also a great choice & you can work w/ that a lot & makes the most sense!

Well that's what I meant when I said it comes down to your own interpretation, because I never associated God Put A Smile Upon Your Face with death/hell.

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When I first announced, about a month ago, that I’ll be preaching on Coldplay, a member of our church, Chelsea, came running up after the service and said « this is so amazing. The two things that I love the most in my life : God and Coldplay ». She said « Coldplay is the soundtrack of my life ». And then in the five minutes……. That we’ve talked, she was able to share a little bit about how this son gis played and this song spoke to her here. And the one part of that story that she told me was how one song called Fix You was so important to her and how it carried her in her time after her father had died prematurally and committed suicide. And I looked up the words to that song again yesterday and I thought « how can this not hold you and carry you and love you in a time like that ».

« When you try your best but you don’t succeed, when you get what you want but not what you need, when you feel so tired but you can’t sleep, stuck in reverse, and the tears come streaming down your face, when you lose something you can’t replace, when you love something, love someone but it goes to waste, could it be worse ? » Then the chorus « Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you ».

 

And after that conversation with her, we spent a whole week to sending those massive, well mostly I asked one question and she sent me a wonderful response to the question talking about what is it about Coldplay. When I asked her that question specifically, she responded in part by saying « listening to Coldplay music, something happens. My soul becomes alive. The pain of my broken heart subsides and I feel hope, peace, joy. But mostly hope ». It’s funny, I’m just talking to two people as the opening DVD is …… There’s something about this music, it’s almost angelic, the one woman says. There is heavenly. How cant they not be to God or from God. And for Chelsea ……reading her whole ……., she sees in these songs the truth, the beauty, the hope, the joy and them as being offered by God. Now, can you imagine a God that would be so powerful and so everywhere that he would choose to sing to you and meet you and love you wherever you’re at through a song on the radio ? Can you imagine a God that is that creative, that tender and so passionate about speaking to you and whispering to you about spirit, that he would do that exactly where you’re at, in exactly the perfect way so that you could hear him in that moment ? And noteven with a lot of recognition, just a sudden whisper because you’re you. And look how my stars shine fo you. And Id do anything for you. Imagine, can you imagine that kind of God ? Now, doing it through Coldplay for millions of souls around the world. The earth is yours, it’s everything in it …………… one all truth, it’s God’s truth, if it’s really truth. And every human being are made in your image. And you are …… them and Go dis providentially holding everything in creation by a spirit. And you are all powerful. And you move all over the face of the earth. Can you imagine a God who speaks through Coldplay. Listen to how lead singer Chris Martin speaks of where he finds his inspiration. Gary Strong, our music guy, found this in a June 2008 Rolling Stone interview. The interviewer asked « what was the breakthrough song to you ? When did you become sure that this wasn’t just a college band ? » And Martin’s response : « Well, everybody is always living in fear of their trick being discovered. So there’s never a moment where I think ‘Yep, that’s it. We’re a world-class band and no one can take it away from us’. But as soon as that song Yellow appeared, I was like ‘OK, this sounds like a big single to me, let’s go’. »

 

Then the interviewer asked : « it’s funny that you say ‘appeared’. You wrote it. » And Martin’s response : « The bad songs come from me and my knowledge of how to write a song, and the good ones come from somewhere – I have no idea where. And they tend to be sort of flying moments at about 2:00 in the morning. You just have to be there to catch it. That’s how I feel about the good ones. »

 

And the day Gary showed me that quote, I was studying up on Dylan for last week. And I just read that morning this quote about Bob Dylan saying where he get his inspiration from. « The songs are there. They exist all by themselves for someone to write them down. I just put them down on paper. If I don’t do it, somebody else would. » Then the quote goes on to a …… friend of him saying that he believes God gave them all of the songs. And when I read that, I was reminded what Vincent Van Gogh said when he painted all of his beautiful yellowish paintings. « I do not invent the whole picture. On the contrary, I fin dit already in nature, only it must be disentangled. » It’s already there, which reminded me of what I’d read in an orbituary from a fiddler, a Canadian fiddler named Oliver Schroer, who died a few months ago and he’s quotes in his orbituary as saying « I don’t write music. I catch it as it goes by. It’s all floating by for the taking. » And all of those quotes reminded me of what I’ve read in an essay written by doctor Trevor Hart about an old hundred and fifty preacher named George McDonald, who said « everything of man must have been of God first. So what the poet ‘creates’, he really only ‘finds’. The patterns are always present in the mind of God, awaiting ou discovery ». And McDonamd, who was hugely read by Tolkien, …………………………………………………….. all these big christian writers of the past, he would that unless you have the imagination for it, you can’t even see it. And all of those quotes reminded me of the first time I had my Coldplay epiphany experience. When I was, did I ever mention that I cycled accross Canada, somewhere in Northern Ontario ? And I was really under Van Gogh at the time, so all the yellow, especially all the little yellow flowers one the useless weeds and the ditch. Everyone seemed to just scream out that God was there. Van Gogh, well, he said it when he painted yellow, he was painting the presence of divine in the world and so I was seeing yellow, you know, halfway around the country. And then somewhere around Northern Ontario, I was writing about that and then I got up at night and when I got out to watch……….. I looked up at the stars and i twas like a Van Gogh painting. It was like that one, right ? And there was a yellowish aurora. It was so bright, so beautiful, i twas like I was standing before the face of God. And thinking about yellow and what Van Gogh had to say about the presence of God. So I wrote that in my blog and then the next day, a friend ……… comment on the blog « you got to listen to that Coldplay song Yellow ». And so I listened to he song and I re-lived that memory of that sky and I started crying because it’s like God singing. Did you catch it when we were saying it ? It’s like he could be singing it to you. I came accross an ocean for you. Play the song.

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When I first announced, about a month ago, that I’ll be preaching on Coldplay, a member of our church, Chelsea, came running up after the service and said « this is so amazing. The two things that I love the most in my life : God and Coldplay ». She said « Coldplay is the soundtrack of my life ». And then in the five minutes……. That we’ve talked, she was able to share a little bit about how this son gis played and this song spoke to her here. And the one part of that story that she told me was how one song called Fix You was so important to her and how it carried her in her time after her father had died prematurally and committed suicide. And I looked up the words to that song again yesterday and I thought « how can this not hold you and carry you and love you in a time like that ».

« When you try your best but you don’t succeed, when you get what you want but not what you need, when you feel so tired but you can’t sleep, stuck in reverse, and the tears come streaming down your face, when you lose something you can’t replace, when you love something, love someone but it goes to waste, could it be worse ? » Then the chorus « Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you ».

 

And after that conversation with her, we spent a whole week to sending those massive, well mostly I asked one question and she sent me a wonderful response to the question talking about what is it about Coldplay. When I asked her that question specifically, she responded in part by saying « listening to Coldplay music, something happens. My soul becomes alive. The pain of my broken heart subsides and I feel hope, peace, joy. But mostly hope ». It’s funny, I’m just talking to two people as the opening DVD is …… There’s something about this music, it’s almost angelic, the one woman says. There is heavenly. How cant they not be to God or from God. And for Chelsea ……reading her whole ……., she sees in these songs the truth, the beauty, the hope, the joy and them as being offered by God. Now, can you imagine a God that would be so powerful and so everywhere that he would choose to sing to you and meet you and love you wherever you’re at through a song on the radio ? Can you imagine a God that is that creative, that tender and so passionate about speaking to you and whispering to you about spirit, that he would do that exactly where you’re at, in exactly the perfect way so that you could hear him in that moment ? And noteven with a lot of recognition, just a sudden whisper because you’re you. And look how my stars shine fo you. And Id do anything for you. Imagine, can you imagine that kind of God ? Now, doing it through Coldplay for millions of souls around the world. The earth is yours, it’s everything in it …………… one all truth, it’s God’s truth, if it’s really truth. And every human being are made in your image. And you are …… them and Go dis providentially holding everything in creation by a spirit. And you are all powerful. And you move all over the face of the earth. Can you imagine a God who speaks through Coldplay. Listen to how lead singer Chris Martin speaks of where he finds his inspiration. Gary Strong, our music guy, found this in a June 2008 Rolling Stone interview. The interviewer asked « what was the breakthrough song to you ? When did you become sure that this wasn’t just a college band ? » And Martin’s response : « Well, everybody is always living in fear of their trick being discovered. So there’s never a moment where I think ‘Yep, that’s it. We’re a world-class band and no one can take it away from us’. But as soon as that song Yellow appeared, I was like ‘OK, this sounds like a big single to me, let’s go’. »

 

Then the interviewer asked : « it’s funny that you say ‘appeared’. You wrote it. » And Martin’s response : « The bad songs come from me and my knowledge of how to write a song, and the good ones come from somewhere – I have no idea where. And they tend to be sort of flying moments at about 2:00 in the morning. You just have to be there to catch it. That’s how I feel about the good ones. »

 

And the day Gary showed me that quote, I was studying up on Dylan for last week. And I just read that morning this quote about Bob Dylan saying where he get his inspiration from. « The songs are there. They exist all by themselves for someone to write them down. I just put them down on paper. If I don’t do it, somebody else would. » Then the quote goes on to a …… friend of him saying that he believes God gave them all of the songs. And when I read that, I was reminded what Vincent Van Gogh said when he painted all of his beautiful yellowish paintings. « I do not invent the whole picture. On the contrary, I fin dit already in nature, only it must be disentangled. » It’s already there, which reminded me of what I’d read in an orbituary from a fiddler, a Canadian fiddler named Oliver Schroer, who died a few months ago and he’s quotes in his orbituary as saying « I don’t write music. I catch it as it goes by. It’s all floating by for the taking. » And all of those quotes reminded me of what I’ve read in an essay written by doctor Trevor Hart about an old hundred and fifty preacher named George McDonald, who said « everything of man must have been of God first. So what the poet ‘creates’, he really only ‘finds’. The patterns are always present in the mind of God, awaiting ou discovery ». And McDonamd, who was hugely read by Tolkien, …………………………………………………….. all these big christian writers of the past, he would that unless you have the imagination for it, you can’t even see it. And all of those quotes reminded me of the first time I had my Coldplay epiphany experience. When I was, did I ever mention that I cycled accross Canada, somewhere in Northern Ontario ? And I was really under Van Gogh at the time, so all the yellow, especially all the little yellow flowers one the useless weeds and the ditch. Everyone seemed to just scream out that God was there. Van Gogh, well, he said it when he painted yellow, he was painting the presence of divine in the world and so I was seeing yellow, you know, halfway around the country. And then somewhere around Northern Ontario, I was writing about that and then I got up at night and when I got out to watch……….. I looked up at the stars and i twas like a Van Gogh painting. It was like that one, right ? And there was a yellowish aurora. It was so bright, so beautiful, i twas like I was standing before the face of God. And thinking about yellow and what Van Gogh had to say about the presence of God. So I wrote that in my blog and then the next day, a friend ……… comment on the blog « you got to listen to that Coldplay song Yellow ». And so I listened to he song and I re-lived that memory of that sky and I started crying because it’s like God singing. Did you catch it when we were saying it ? It’s like he could be singing it to you. I came accross an ocean for you. Play the song.

God did not write fix you, Chris Martin wrote fix you. You're acting as if God is wholely responsible for everything good that an individual creates, and as a human myself, I am offended.

 

:edit:

 

Sorry, I hadn't clicked on the video and I now see you wrote the sermon verbatim. Whoever the guy is, he's an idiot.

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i would choose fix you or 42 as most people said.

 

wops this thread has remind me, of a similar work i had to do, - influence of old Greece culture in modern music- which i ended doing with just 2 albums of the same band :thinking:

 

you can only pick one song?

may be would be interesting if you could choose one of each album and talk about the difference from one to the other. :thinking:

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