Monthly column on hymns and songs

It was back in the swinging sixties - as we used to call them in the nervous nineties.

In the charts, the Beatles; with the World Cup, England; on stage and TV, kitchen-sink drama. Out of this mish-mash came a quote which has stuck with me ever since. To be frank, ever since last year when I first heard it.

A noted dramatist of that period said, in response to complaints about the dearth of creative talent, that there was no shortage of playwrights. He continued, 'The trouble is, they are all writing the same play'.

Hands up all those who know what I am going to say next. Well, am I right? You song-lovers should know. There are a great many of you around; and a great many who are composing the material you sing each week. The trouble is, they are all (nearly!) writing the same song. Is that too cynical? I would go further; some have written the same song a dozen times or more, and given it a different name each time. They sometimes even find a different tune, but the words have that all-too-familiar ring.

This can happen to secular plays, renewal songs, foursquare hymns, and even (I have heard) preachers; 'He's always saying the same thing... Hear one of his sermons, and you've heard the lot'. So where do we go from here?

Not, please, into denial mode. 'He's just against plays/songs/hymns/sermons!' It just won't do. Part of my work for the past six years has been to help mainly younger preachers not to fall into this trap; forward, please, the Cornhill Training Course. Dramatists will have to fend for themselves. But who will help the writers of hymns and songs?

Self-criticism

The Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland offers a service of manuscript criticism for hymns. The Association of Christian Writers provides similar help for writers of both poetry and prose, also for an agreed fee - without claiming special expertise in the song field. The London Bible College has a Department of Music and Worship.

But while self-criticism is not enough, it must be the beginning and end of any such educational process. The start, because you have to admit you need help. The end, because only you can make the final decision whether to go ahead and offer your work to the word - starting with your own church. If you love your neighbour as yourself, you will not want to lumber any of them with material you would not particularly appreciate if you were on the receiving end. Equally, you may think your friends are very supportive in their praise; would you be honest with one of them who had written something embarrassingly awful?

There is nothing wrong with a small dose of warm excitement to hear others singing your material; but have you the same enthusiasm to see your friends (or rivals) get that breakthrough, and the same joy when they do?

One other thing; sometimes a writer thinks he/she has created, if not a masterpiece, then at least a potential hit. One question: 'What else have you written?' It is possible, but highly unlikely, that your first attempt to put pen to paper will succeed where thousands more have not. Dredge the memory for another piece of useless information from those sixties; when the Beatles went to sell their talents to some producer or other, they took 200 songs with them. No need to overdo it; but they did get somewhere. The children of this world are sometimes wiser in their generation than the children of light. And those 200 were not all the same song.

Same old song

Self-criticism

Christopher Idle

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