One of my first concert experiences was seeing Rod Stewart in Kansas City around 1984. I liked his early blues/rock material, and even some of his pop songs. (I am less enthusiastic about what I consider his more saccharine turn in the last two decades toward torchy covers.)

To get a sense for what his shows were like in that era, check out this raucous performance of him singing “Stay With Me” — and kicking soccer balls — with Tina Turner and Kim Carnes from 1981:

But recently I heard again a love song of sorts from a time when he was still rocking, titled “You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)” that Stewart recorded in 1977. (There was a time in the 70s and 80s when a lot of pop songs had parenthesized subtitles; that seems to be out of fashion now.)

At Mr. Stewart’s shows, the song is belted by live audiences with great feeling. It is a lovely, adulatory confession of respect, fidelity, and need. When I heard it the other day, I wondered if anyone has used it in a wedding or anniversary party, like other pop songs. (If it were, there is probably one line that might need to be excised (about the Dutch-accented woman)).

But this got me thinking about the trend toward using pop music in religious weddings, funerals, and other such important life-stage events. Although many pastoral leaders and academic theologians look down on this (at least in my experience), I think that the tension around “appropriate” music at such religious events speaks to the ways that people often find “secular” music as spiritually significant as anything that a formal religious/institution might have to offer by way of a “songbook.”

Indeed, I wonder if anyone has ever done a study of how “secular” and “religious” music is combined by couples at weddings or by families at funerals. The theological stakes here seem complicated: there is the claim of the (brokers of the) religious tradition sponsoring the service, and there are the claims of the people whose lives are being ritualized/sacramentalized/memorialized, and there are the claims of the gathered community. A theological study of how such decisions are made might be one interesting site to study the music-theology relationship.

It also occurs to me that maybe there are some religious rites/rituals where “secular” music is rare: for example, ordinations or baptisms. Is that the case? I’m interested in what R&T readers think.

Tommy Beaudoin, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

2 Comments »

1. 

   This topic Jonathan Evens and I touch on in our booklet The Secret Chord as I am convinced that the scope of the repertoire of mainstream songs can always yield a gem for a sacramental service!

   Have now curated a number of services (example) with a mix of traditional hymns and mainstream songs as the musical liturgy. Will now be adding You’re in My Heart to the toolbox…

   PB

   Comment by Peter Banks — March 3, 2013 @ 6:28 am

2. 

   Peter Banks: Thank you for this note. I hope readers will check out your work. I certainly will –
   TB

   Comment by T Beaudoin — March 4, 2013 @ 9:37 pm

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