Guilty Pleasures
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    Don't ban me for saying this, but......a certain song by the now-deceased Barry White (THE Voice). As long as one stops listening to the lyrics after the first sentence, it does teach a simple, practical catechism lesson:

    "I've heard people say that
    Too much of anything is not good for you, baby."
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 420
    "Stand Up, Friends" by Haas... catchy
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Bobby gets the award for getting something I don't want stuck in my head stuck there.

    ...freedom is our song, al-laaaay-luuu-yaaaa...
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    I nominate IF I WERE A BUTTERFLY..

    "If I were a fuzzy wuzzy bear, I'd thank you Lord for my fuzzy wuzzy hair."

    I have the fond memory of singing this song to David Hughes along with a group of Columbus Ohio musicians in the middle of the Columbus Brewing Company on a busy night. Poor David had never heard the song before.
    Thanked by 3francis Jenny Casavant Organist
  • ZacPB189ZacPB189
    Posts: 70
    Deep Within by Haas is pretty. Thankfully, my classical upbringing disinterested me in P&W at a young age.
    Thanked by 2BruceL Casavant Organist
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    I don't know about 'If I Were a Butterfly' (and probably don't want to); but, speaking of winged creatures, how about 'O for the wings of a dove' (Mendelssohn)? However, I would not consider Mendelssohn a guilty pleasure... he's just not Monteverdi.

    I have never heard, nor heard of, most the the guilty pleasures listed here. Their titles or composers tip me off quicker than lightening that I don't want the experience and would be anything but aedified by it. How (honest question!) can you all seem to enjoy these literarily and musically worthless, tacky, tasteless, musics.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    A wise rule in the confessional is that when it's time to confess our guilt, we reproach ourselves, not others.
    Thanked by 9MarkThompson M. Jackson Osborn Adam Wood CHGiffen Gavin expeditus1 Mark Husey BruceL Casavant Organist
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,981
    Jackson, I can't listen to some of that stuff, either. It has driven me nuts for over 40 years. I wouldn't mind so much if our people knew it was on the level of campfire songs. However, they don't. They think it is church music appropriate for mass.

    My guilty pleasure is Wagner - 300 pound sopranos in Viking helmets and elaborate stage sets. Love those operas!
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    As an elementary school music teacher, "If I Were A Butterfly" is a staple in my repertoire. "Oh.......you gave me a heart and you gave me a smile....you gave me Jesus and you made me your child......I just thank you, Father, for making me me.........". Yes, a VERY guilty pleasure, especially at Kindergarten graduation with 40 little ones and their hand motions.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    image
    Thanked by 12CharlesW hcmusicguy Salieri CHGiffen expeditus1 Heath Ally M. Jackson Osborn ZacPB189 Jenny BruceL Casavant Organist
  • hcmusicguy
    Posts: 63
    Bring flow'rs of the fairest

    Easily one of my favorite hymns. Ever!
    Thanked by 2Jeffrey Quick bhcordova
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    How (honest question!) can you all seem to enjoy these literarily and musically worthless, tacky, tasteless, musics.


    Same reason I enjoy melted Velveeta. Or 8-bit video games.
    Thanked by 2Andrew Motyka bhcordova
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Anglo-Catholic heaven... no one knows Shine Jesus Shine


    I don't understand what the deal is with that song. More than a few Episcopalians I know seem to not only really like it (hey, there's no accounting for taste, so whatever) - but also, equate it wholly and entirely with Praise and Worship Music.

    This has literally happened to me more than once:
    PIP: When are we going to do some Praise and Worship Music?
    ME: Well we just did [some P&W song] today.
    PIP: No- I mean "Shine Jesus Shine!"

    Should I feel guilty about the pleasure I take in not ever ever ever programming that song?
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    And to more fully answer MJO question, at least for my own trashtastic musical indulgences:

    I also like cheesy Broadway music (guilty pleasure: Stephen Schwartz- Godspell, Children of Eden, Pippin), Disney cartoon musicals (love love love Lion King), 60/70s secular pop folk (Peter, Paul, and Mary; John Denver), Elton John, ethnopop and new age (Enya, Adiemus, AfroCelt Sound System), actual Irish and Canadian folk and alt-folk
    (Great Big Sea, Wailin' Jennies, Stan Rodgers...), and modern antifolk (Regina Spektor, Lumineers, Pomplamoose), and beach music (Jimmy Buffet, reggae)...

    Heck- my best friends have a 2 CD set of really well-produced silly folk songs for children that I liked to listen to even when the kids aren't around to justify it.

    So - for me - a lot of the SLJ, Haas, etc stuff is just more of the stuff I like when I'm just listening to music to HAVE FUN, but with (lefty-liberal) religious lyrics that I also find moving or uplifting or whatever.

    I can definitely understand where people are coming from when they like stuff that I think is trashy or goofy or silly. I also can understand (though I increasingly disagree with) people's desire to have their preferred music at liturgy.

    But - you know - liturgy isn't about me...

  • SkirpRSkirpR
    Posts: 854
    How (honest question!) can you all seem to enjoy these literarily and musically worthless, tacky, tasteless, musics.


    For me at least, I think a lot of it has to do with the associations much of it has with my upbringing, my youth, and my development as a musician - even though (thankfully) most of the more theological dubious texts did not form me spiritually. My current opinion on avoiding its use in Church now is formed by adult discernment and serious thought and reflection, but for better or worse it formed the soundtrack to my youth, and so it will always hold a place in my heart.

    When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.


    But - you know - liturgy isn't about me...
    Thanked by 3Adam Wood Mark M. CHGiffen
  • bkenney27bkenney27
    Posts: 444
    ^ Exactly that.
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    Imagine if no one ever sang anything but someone else's idea of "appropriate" - what a dull world it would be. It doesn't have to be a filet and Cabernet to go down good. Sometimes a hamburger and beer is the most satisfying.
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    I think it's important on this thread to distinguish between what we consider "guilty pleasures" as liturgical music or as something else. I would NEVER use "If I Were A Butterfly" in the context of the Mass, but I consider it appropriate to sing at a Kindergarten Graduation prayer service. I also would like to make a disclaimer, that, despite my liking of that song and my use during non-liturgical ceremonies, my children also sing Ave Maria chant and Salve Regina during masses. It's just apples and oranges again.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    I was under the impression this was a strictly non-liturgical thread (unless otherwise mentioned)
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    "Same reason I enjoy melted Velveeta. Or 8-bit video games."

    8-bit games are just BETTER, though.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6WeVBHtL9o
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    Okay, I concede my mistake....it is truly a non-liturgical thread! :)
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 493
    Guilty Pleasures...
    1."Here there and Everywhere" at a wedding Mass.. why? because it was so much better than the "The Rose."
    2. 1930's Rossini organ music
    3. Instrumental " Nearer my God to Thee" on April 15th using the unda maris
  • CindyCeciliaCindyCecilia
    Posts: 65
    Guilty Pleasure - I can't believe that I am really going to confess this, but I LOVE old country/western music - you know, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Porter Wagoner, etc. - -
    and in the sacred genre, well, gulp - I really, really like "Hail Mary, Gentle Woman" and "Like a Seal" - the only two Landry pieces that I DO like. But no, I don't use them at Mass.
  • JahazaJahaza
    Posts: 470
    The Gaither Family Reunion
    Thanked by 3Adam Wood canadash chonak
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    "Molly B's Polka Party" TV show. That little gal is responsible for re-energizing the polka movement. She is a dynamo of looks, charisma, energy, rhythm, and has proficiency in playing many instruments.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,981
    Jahaza, I interviewed for a position some years ago in a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ.) One of the committee said, "What do you think of the Gaithers?" Of course, I had no idea what he was talking about and thought, "Why is he asking me about the Florida football team? I don't know anything about gators."
    Thanked by 2canadash Gavin
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    How (honest question!) can you all seem to enjoy these literarily and musically worthless, tacky, tasteless, musics.


    That's why they're called "guilty" pleasures. It's kinda like being a classically trained musician, but liking rock and roll or rap, or trance or something. It's not the highest art possible, but you still like it!
    Thanked by 2Gavin marajoy
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    Interesting answers -
    ...
  • bkenney27bkenney27
    Posts: 444
    Hey! Cut it out with the judgy punctuation and LET ME BE WITH MY TRASHY INDULGENCES! :P
    Thanked by 2Adam Wood Andrew Motyka
  • Mark HuseyMark Husey
    Posts: 192
    My cassock has a zipper. There, I said it.
    Thanked by 6Adam Wood Andrew_Malton Ben Andrew Motyka Mad_Dan_Eccles BruceL
  • bkenney27bkenney27
    Posts: 444
    BAAAHAHAHAHA
    Thanked by 1Mark Husey
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    There's an old retired monsignor that often comes to concelebrate or sit in choir at the Cathedral where I frequently MC, and he also had a zipper cassock, but it was a very nice monsignor cassock with buttons and all...but behind the buttons there's a zipper.

    The man can barely move, and I always help him vest when he comes, so it surprised the heck out of me when I turned back around after talking to someone else, and the cassock was on!
    Thanked by 2Mark Husey BruceL
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    MJO-It's a guilty pleasure if a) you're an adult and b) an American.
  • RPBurke
    Posts: 25
    "They'll know we are Christians by our love," the first song I ever heard at a contemporary Mass in the late 1960s. Though something has to be done about the verse calling for us to save each other's pride.
  • NihilNominisNihilNominis
    Posts: 1,023
    J.A. Korman, Mass in Honor of the Blessed Sacrament. Particularly the Benedictus. I think the Hosanna sets just the right tone when sung in the EF just after the consecration.

    Here is a Korean-American parish choir that has never let go:

    http://sj.sunnybowl.com/choir/benedictus_korman_sacrament.mp3
    Thanked by 2chonak expeditus1
  • marajoymarajoy
    Posts: 783
    -Rain Down
    -Becker's Litany
    -Worthy is the Lamb (by Manalo I think? I like the refrain!)

    I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of.
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    Joncas's Lamb of God from the Psallite Mass is definitely one. Same motif as "Love Story". Not sure if it's a guilty pleasure, but with music like that, when one tries to figure out why it is attractive, there's usually a pop culture underlay hiding in there somewhere!
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Early motets with saucy lyrics in one (or more) of the outer voices over the liturgical cantus firmus.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuexxtDGo5c
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    Even tho I see the above as being somewhat cheezy now, encountering it was one of the key moments for my understanding of sacred music as something that could soar higher than what I was used to (in the 90s).
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Ralph Bednarz
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    image
    Thanked by 2bkenney27 bhcordova
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    A cute girl, but she seems to specialize in non-grammar.
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    @Kathy, the Pie Jesu is great and very solemn...until he interjects that little "re-qui-em" on a sixteenth-eighth (or something) rhythm. It's like, "You couldn't just leave that line alone?"
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxleH60hDJY
    Thanked by 2expeditus1 BruceL
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    Gavin, Matt Mulholland's Friday night parties seem a bit "dark emo."

    Toby Keith's "Red Solo Cup" drunks, on the other hand, are always happy ones.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    My guilty pleasure is Beethoven's Choral Fantasia -
    The Houston Chronicle's music critic once dubbed it a 'trashy little piece'...
    but I never tire of it.
    Thanked by 3Adam Wood Gavin BruceL
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 946
    My guess is that the Houston Chronicle's music critic doesn't get invited to many parties.
    Thanked by 4CHGiffen Adam Wood M. Jackson Osborn BruceL
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    Oh, I forgot... I also like Gilbert and Sullivan.

    Back to The Houston Chronicles' music critic - he once studied organ with me for about six months... he was one of the worst students I ever had, a conclusion he made unprompted himself as he quit his lessons. We are still friends... on those rare times we ever meet anymore.

    Oh, he once attended an organ recital at which an English Fancy was played, and in his review he rather doused it for not being very fancy. He was appreciative when I called him up and explained that 'fancy' was a short colloquialism for 'fantasia' (pronounced, by the way, fantaSEEah).
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