Heaven Playlist, Part 1--FINALLY!!

I started a heaven playlist and I noticed that I had many songs in my iTunes library (I'm sort of in the mode of switching to Spotify which isn't going so well, but we'll see!) already that had something to do with heaven. In my Resurrecting Blog post, I noted: “I love hymns!! ...

More details about my hymn life will be forthcoming soon in the blog when I start 1) writing about hymns and other songs about heaven. My vision for this is that it will turn out to be a long series of blog posts about music that I would like to be played at my wake when I die (This is not impending as far as I know, however after 35 years of cancer life, I’ve had plenty of time to think about death and resurrection to new life and I do not shirk from talking about it at all).”

Anyway, at the time I started the playlist, I was a bit worried I might be going there before too long. I’m not so much now, but I am happily finding new songs to go on the playlist! So I started a playlist with those songs that had already caught my eye, or rather my ear, while I was listening to my other playlists which are pretty much genre specific—country, hymns, contemporary Christian, and so on.

In my own library I found a few things that surprised me when I thought about them, especially Carole King's "Way Over Yonder"—one of the most beautiful songs about heaven I can think of. Maybe because there is a dearth of popular unusual songs, over the years I think I found the ones that really speak to me. At some point I decided look through my nice little collection of hymnals for other hymns that I know that also have a vision of heaven that in some way I believed in. Believe me, there are quite a few hymns or Christian songs that say something about heaven that I don't quite like. Either I just don't like the theology expressed in the hymn of how to get to heaven or I find the heaven being sung about to be extremely dull—way too dull to waste time singing about it! But there is no accounting for taste. My mom says she wants to play the harp all day in heaven! The thought of that almost makes me want to go to hell.

My own vision of heaven was made highly more imaginative after reading C. S. Lewis’ Narnia stories in college, particularly the scene where Mr. Tumnus describes heaven as an onion:

The further up and further in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside.

Lucy looked hard at the garden and saw that it was not really a garden at all but a whole world, with its own rivers and woods and sea and mountains. But they were not strange: she knew them all.

“I see,” she said, “this is still Narnia, and more real and more beautiful than the Narnia down below. ... I see...world within world, Narnia within Narnia.”

“Yes,” said Mr. Tumnus, “like an onion: except that as you continue to go in and in, each circle is larger than the last.”

While I have studied the eschatology of Karl Rahner and other serious eschatologists, and what’s more enjoyed it, when contemplating whether I hope to go there I find more helpful an imaginative vision that makes you feel you could endure it for eternity. These views are often found in such popular theology books like Anthony De Stefano’s, A Travel Guide to Heaven. And just recently at church, my husband heard a sermon on the Parable of the Vineyard, the one where the folks who work all day get the same pay as the ones who show up at the end of the day. What was great about this sermon was the priest used it to prove there would be work in heaven. Yay, I want that!! No sitting around on a cloud all day for me!

Anyway, following my search of good playlist additions in hymnals, I started a search on iTunes looking for other songs that might be about heaven. This iTunes search led me to a number of hymns that I have never heard of (though very few) and I quickly fell in love with a few of those. Plus, looking at iTunes this way also helped me to see the wide variety of musical genres that I love and have listened to or sang my entire life. Seeing that variety of genres led me to try to discover hymns and songs I was familiar with in these various genres and styles. I started listening to several versions if more than one was available and chose the ones that were my favorites. These cover the gamut from outright popular music by Carole King, U2, and Norah Jones to specifically Western English Christian music of all sorts.

I must explain this. I started to just say “Christian music,” but I have been editing some books on contextual theology and realize, of course, that my own musical education and repertoire is almost completely Western. I simply do not know hymns and songs from Africa or Asia, for example, nor do I know many Western hymns that are not in English. So really my corpus of Christian music about heaven would include the earliest Catholic music we have from requiem masses to other later classical works such as Benjamin Britten's "Heaven-Haven." Brahms’ "How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings" from the German Requiem is one of the loveliest pieces I know. Then there would be the gospel songs and hymns from quite a number of denominations which I have in some way been affiliated with—Baptist, charismatic, Episcopalian, Catholic, and on down to some classics of contemporary Christian music.

I don’t know who all would care about such a list or my expoundings on each title but I did find a number of lists of heaven songs by Googling—although none as eclectic as mine—so obviously people are interested. I have a number of friends who also appreciate hymns so maybe they will enjoy this little series. But if people come to my wake and say, “why the heck are you playing Dolly Parton or Leon Russell; this isn’t appropriate,” my family can point them to this blog series and respond, “hey, this is what Melody wanted. These songs proclaim her strong belief in a God who loves us so much he prepares us a home, one that will make us happier than anything we can imagine with no cares, no worries, no pain (or itching or night sweats or fatigue ...).” So I’m starting this series, close to 200 hymns (or there will be when this series is finished, if ever!), songs that express my belief in a God of imagination, a God who loves and cares for all creation, a God who gives us free will, but will show us infinite mercy.

In what order shall I consider and write about these? Genre? No, because there are too many that cross genres. They might be old-timey hymns but sung by a classical singer(s). Alphabetical—well, that shows no imagination. (Just when I started writing about imagining the contemporary Christian song "I Can Only Imagine" started playing.) Chronological? Again, no imagination. I think the serendipity of writing while I'm listening to the shuffled playlist is what will work. At least to start. So first song up:

•  "When I Get Where I'm Going." This is imagination of the wildest, best sort. The country singer Brad Paisley recorded this song. I remember when the video of this song came out about 2006. It was enormously moving. Various folks were shown holding a framed photo of someone they had loved who had died, some of them quite famous. As soon as he sang, “I'm going to walk with my granddaddy” I wanted to find my great-grandma Doshie and give her a hug; I remember how she always smelled sweet and it was like I imagine hugging the Pillsbury Doughboy—she was just soft all over! I never met either of my biological grandpas, so it will be amazing to meet them and get to know them. “I'm gonna land beside a lion And run my fingers through his mane”; the songwriter said that he remembered the story that the lion would lay with the lamb when writing that line. That’s an image I also really love as a metaphor for the end of all strife and war. In fact, Miriam and were just looking at a book I just gave her for her birthday, an illustrated Cherry Tree Carol. The really cool thing about it was that there were lots of animals in it and animals that prey on each other were living in harmony with Mary and the pregnant Mary. This image has the fox with the chickens and lamb, and the cat with the bird. “I'm going to love and have no fears.” How beautiful is that thought! Not to have any worries about whether your love will be returned or rejected, jeered at by others? This song is made even better with the addition of Dolly singing with Brad!

• "Won't It Be Wonderful There." This is a gospel song I feel like I have known all my life, or at least I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know it. Written in 1930, I think it was in all the hymnals I grew up with (a reminder to myself at some point to rant about hymns giving way to ‘worship songs’ and hymnals to projected lyrics). Anyway, I remember for ages wondering what the heck are ‘heart-bells’ and why do they ring when I sing joyously. I chose the Ricky Skaggs and family version, featuring his dad. This is probably not the most beautiful version but I really like the down home effect of a normal family singing together; though how awesome would it be for normal to mean Ricky Skaggs plays mandolin and other strings with you? This shows the annoyance of moving from iTunes to Spotify. Spotify doesn't have Ricky Skaggs, so, I'm moving to George Jones' version--well, that is never a hardship! (UPDATE: Yes, the Skaggs family was there--I just wasn't using Spotify correctly and I also found it on YouTube.)

• "When We All Get To Heaven." This has definitely better poetry than "Won’t It Be Wonderful There" and is another gospel song I think I knew forever—Hymnary, not surprisingly, states it is in 256 hymnals they list. It was written in 1898. I like this for the line, “Let us then be true and faithful, trusting, serving ev’ry day.” This is a partial description of how I think we get to heaven—each day making choices to be true to Christ. Nothing about how God was wrathful and Jesus had to pay our penalty in order to satisfy that wrath. Just me personally, but I don’t see how you can trust a wrathful God. I chose Brad Paisley singing. He just has such a nice natural voice and there is some great harmony and of course his guitar pickin’, but also you feel he means it.

• "You Hold Me Now." One of my few choices of contemporary worship music, this one is a Hillsong United song with verses describing what it will be like when we reach heaven and see Jesus. For this line alone I would love it: “When the wars and violence cease and all creation rests in peace!” It seems so seldom that heaven songs reflect on what reaching heaven means for creation; so many heaven songs are incredibly individualistic. But the Kingdom of God will encompass all creation, even if we have somehow destroyed it (see my blog on The Hopkins Manuscript for a bit of theologizing on this).

• "People Get Ready." Not sure how I knew Chambers Bros version and not Curtis Mayfield’s original version, but nevertheless it is definitely Chamber Bros I have sung along with for ages. This song is mega-classic, with Rolling Stone calling it the 24th greatest song of all time! It’s been covered a jillian times by some really great artists from many genres. The gospel-influenced song uses train imagery that is so often used in black gospel to evoke the Underground Railroad. “Faith is the key, open the doors and board 'em, There's hope for all among those loved the most.” “You don’t need no baggage, you don’t need a ticket, you just thank the Lord.” I myself happen to love train travel, so it fits me to a tee in many different ways. The laconic feel of this version about getting ready is part of why I love train travel (though I usually wind up rushing anyway!). More next time!