Following the Man with the Music
More in defense of contemporary Christian music
This “Music Monday” post is a follow-up to “In Defense of Christian Music,” in which I challenge Catholics, especially those who consider themselves traditionalists (affectionately known as trads) to consider incorporating gospel music, also known as contemporary Christian music (CCM) into their recreational (not their liturgical) life. If you have objections to CCM, I strongly suggest you read that post first.
I’d like to re-examine the points I made in the first article in the context of the classic CCM group known as the Imperials, whose oeuvre stretches from the 1960s to the present day. In some ways, I’m making my case tougher to argue by picking them since I well understand their music is naturally dated and is probably not serious enough for most of my readers: it might have been easier to argue the merits of a more sophisticated or recent artist-musician such as Rich Mullins or Andrew Peterson. But I have a taste for the quixotic, and in some ways the Imperials illustrate my previous points about CCM. Let me begin with a story.
Back in 1997, I was a published author for the first time, and under the aegis of my first publishers, I was invited to attend one of the very first conventions of the fledgling Catholic Marketing Network. The organizers had provided seminars, workshops, meet-and-greets, and banquets, the last followed by a night of musical entertainment. One at a time, various Catholic artists mounted the stage and strummed a guitar or sang to canned music. Their offerings were earnest, soul-filled, and of varying quality. We, the representatives of various multi-pronged attempts to build a Catholic culture, applauded appreciatively, if distractedly.
Then a tall dark Black singer in a suit mounted the platform, flanked by two gorgeously dressed Black ladies in pumps and matching jackets. A bit apologetically, he leaned into the microphone and said a few words to this effect: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to sing something a bit different from the other acts before us. You see, we are not a worship band: we are a party band. So let’s celebrate our Lord together now!”
And with those paradoxical words, he cued the music and a pulsing infectious beat with an overlay of music reverberated through the room. The two ladies started clapping rhythmically to the beat and the lead singer began to move his feet as he threw back his head and sang — WOW—and the next thing I knew, all of us in the room were pretty much on our feet and clapping and waving our hands, dancing and even singing along.
The next day, we met up with friends at a musician’s booth, and talked about the different acts. A friend who had helped organize it said, “We got some flack for including that last act, because they’re not Catholic.”
“So why did you invite them?” someone asked.
He spread his hands. “Because they were just so good.” We all nodded in agreement. None of the Catholic musicians we had seen that night could have competed.
It’s been a long time since that act in the late 90’s, and the Catholic contemporary music has gotten better and more sophisticated. Technology has made it easier for indie groups to achieve professionalism. But I want to pull out a few things from this story.
First, the singers in that act were clear about what they were to do: party! And party not with sex and alcohol, but by celebrating Someone they loved: their Savior. And yet they wore that responsibility lightly: they were not burdened down by their sincerity: there was a simple humility in their admitting they were there to entertain us by doing what they loved to do: tell us how great God is.
In short, they knew who they were and they knew who they weren’t.
I picked the Imperials because they are pretty similar to that Black gentleman’s group: they are a fun band, not a worship band. No one would dream of using one of their songs as the recessional at a guitar Mass. Their style is deliberately light, simplistic, and entertaining, but like the group above, they were highly professional.
Backup Singers for Elvis
The Imperials were conceived by a gospel quartet singer, Jake Hess, who is largely unknown outside of that musical universe but had an enormous impact on rock music through the man he influenced most: Elvis Presley. The son of a sharecropper and shape-note singing teacher and the youngest of twelve children, Hess started singing gospel professionally at the age of 16. His style was so iconic that the young Elvis who attended his gospel “sings” sought to emulate his performances in his stage mannerisms, later calling Hess his favorite singer.
Dogged by poor health, Hess was unable to stay with what was his second best known creation: his “dream group,” the Imperials. He wanted to create a “supergroup” made up of the best four or five singers in the gospel circuit. The name reflected the impulse to find the “kings” in the field to sing for the Real King, Jesus. Hess recruited members from the top bands he encountered, both singers and musicians (one of his first finds used to sing bass for the Oak Ridge Boys), and was not afraid to make innovative hires. His original lineup included a young Filipino bass singer, Armond Morales, who would become the group’s mainstay and longest-serving member, singing with them for an incredible 40 years. Later Hess added Jim Murray as second tenor, who would stay with the group 23 years and some have called one of the best tenors of the 20th century. Morales’ deep velvety bass voice was the foundation of the signature sound of the group, together with Murray’s incredible range and pure tone, voiced with an incredible sweetness that never became effeminate.
Elvis got behind Jake Hess’s dream and invited the Imperials to record with him from 1966 to 1971. In a crossover that today’s CCM singers can only envy, the Imperials opened for Elvis during his 1969 Las Vegas tour, and later sang at his funeral in 1977. As I mentioned, the gospel roots of rock n’roll are visible in the history of the Imperials. Heart trouble forced Hess to retire in 1967, but he had set the group on its way to success.
The Imperials were innovators who took advantage of the latest sounds and technology: they were among the first gospel groups to use electric guitar and drums, and would become the first Christian group to have individual mics on stage, to use cordless mics, and to have a live band on stage with them, one that usualy included horns.
They were also the first Christian group to win a Grammy, to perform live at the Grammy awards, and the first group to have the #1 song (“Oh Buddha”) on three charts (contemporary, inspirational and Southern gospel) for 12 weeks, and to date they are the only Christian group to have charted a #1 hit for four consistent decades (1960-1990).
But they were pioneers in a more profound way as well. As mentioned, one of their founding members was Asian, and in 1972 they made waves by recruiting the talented Sherman Andrus, formerly of the legendary Andrae Crouch and the Disciples, as a lead singer. This made them the first gospel band to include both black, white and Asian singers.
I’ve picked some of their albums to go through. They may or may not be to your taste, but as they say, de gustibus non est disputandum. You have to remember that despite the sometimes profound words, this is light music, easy, even fluffy, entertainment music. Yet there are places in our lives for light music, and the Imperials provide that in spades. But if the most masterful songs are a harmonious blend of words and tone, where the music reinforces the message of the words, the Imperials regularly sang masterful songs.
They were not songwriters or musicians, and most of the time their band did all the playing. They were performers who covered and pioneered pieces by the best songwriters they could find, and had no problem singing someone else’s song. They knew who they were, and they knew who they weren’t.
And who the Imperials were was a top-notch singing group, and at singing they excelled. What characterizes an Imperials song is the background harmony. The group changed early on from a quartet to a band where each member took turns singing the lead while the rest sang harmony in the background. When you listen to their songs, you can usually hear Murray’s soaring melting tones blending perfectly but not exactly with Morales’s velvet deep bass, sandwiching the voices of the other singers. Long after the Bee Gees had fallen off the charts, years after Simon and Garfunkel split, the Imperials kept blending and echoing and harmonizing, filling the spaces of each piece with ba-ba-ba or do-do-do or hm-hm-hm in a way that makes their lightest pieces a robust composition.
Let’s start with their 1974 album Follow the Man with the Music. I’ve included the tracks for each song so you can give it a listen.
Follow the Man with the Music
A rousing strum of steel strings, a blast of horns, and this 1974 album pulls out of the garage and onto the highway like a Cadillac in the ‘hood. Andrus’s urgent lead warns us:
Things are gettin' rough for you
When you need a helpin' hand.
You brother said he'll help you,
But he'll help you when he can.
Jesus said, "I'll be back again: it'll be the final day!"
Well, don't you worry—He's on His way!Times are bad and the people sad
With a self-destructive look. (Yes, they do now)
There's no use tryin' to fight it
'Cause it's written in the Book. (Well, read your Bible!)
Just open up your heart and sing this song,
no matter what the people say,
And don't you worry—He's on His way!
The musical sound of the 70’s are having a moment these days in the culture so it’s worthwhile to kick back to that era in which so much of the world was steeped in confusion and despair as the Sexual Revolution and the political landscape got dark. Most musicians retreated into a feel-good don’t-care style, and this 1974 album, featuring a rare Imperials quintet of Andrus, tenor Terry Blackwood, Joe Moscheo (who left the group after this album), Murray, and Morales, follows that vibe with a difference. As the title song makes clear, that difference comes from Who they are following.
Once again in the 2020’s, we’re in a moment of dreary and hostile uncertainty similar to the malaise of the 70’s. While Christ hasn’t yet returned, this song reminds us of what the Bible promises: Behold, He is coming soon, bringing His reward. Yes, soon. Christ’s coming is closer now that it was yesterday, and ever certain. And Christ urges, “When you see these things happening, lift up your heads, for your redemption is at hand!” He tells us our response to His return should be courage and eagerness, not fear.
Joy soars in the chorus as Murray sings the descant:
Let the Lord lead the way!
The end is near and it can be such a happy day!
Glory, glory, hallelujah—A better day is comin' to ya
Let the Lord lead the way! (Don’t you worry!)
Things are gettin' bad today,
And tomorrow will be worse!
Wars will come with the devil as he spreads his final curse!
But all you have to do is talk to Jesus every day,
And don't you worry—He's on His way!
Sure, it sounds simple: but isn’t it true? All we have to do is pray to our Lord daily, follow Him, walk in His way, and put aside worry: worrying is against our religion, after all.
If I could find the right words to say
To tell you just what Christ means to me,
I'd say He's more than I could show
And more than you'll ever know.
If you could have seen me just yesterday,
You'd know why He's life and He's breath to me.
You'd know why He's more than I could show,
And more than you'll ever know.
More, more, so much more. He’s more than you may ever know.
This is a Christian man’s love song to God. I remember one guy talking to me about why it’s easier for women to connect with Jesus. “Sure, they can just think about Jesus like they’re in love with Him. But me, I’m a dude.” Maybe he’d just never seen grown men express their deep love for God in words, as Jim Murray does in this song, with the rest contributing strong harmonies on the chorus.
It’s true that dudes—men—often have trouble putting their strongest emotions into words, and this song articulates that difficulty simply. It especially emphasizing the difference, the before-and-after of conversion to Christ. The singer reflects on the change wrought by the Lord in him in a way that all of us should. What would we be without Him?
The third track, done in five-part harmony, is a message to our corrupt society straight from the words of Scripture, particularly to the Church:
If My people
Which are called by My name
Shall humble themselves, shall humble themselves and pray
If My people
Which are called by My name
Shall seek My face and turn from their wicked ways,
Then will I hear from heaven, then will I hear from heaven
Then will I hear and will forgive, forgive their sin
…I will forgive their sin
And heal their land.
Fellow Catholics, here are our marching orders, via a 1970s gospel band, first spoken by God in 1 Chronicles 7:14: humble ourselves, pray and seek the face of God, and turn from wickedness. These words are no less pertinent today than then. As Our Lady warned at Fatima, we must pray and do penance and humble ourselves before the Lord to ask pardon for sin to seek God’s forgiveness and healing for our land.
Unlike the best-selling New-Age screed, this track tells a secret worth learning: about the importance of morning prayer. Done in a country ballad style with acoustic strumming, the poem, sung in a five-part harmony, is worth absorbing by every Catholic:
I met God in the morning,
When the day was at its best
And His presence rose like sunrise,
like a glory in my breast.
All day long His presence lingered,
All day long He stayed with me,
Then we sailed in perfect calmness
Over a very troubled sea.
Other ships were blown and battered,
And other ships were sore distressed,
But the winds that seemed to drive them
Brought to us a peace and rest.
Then I thought of other mornings
With a keen remorse of mind,
When I too might lose the moorings
With His presence left behind!
So, I think I know the secret,
Learned from many a troubled way:
You must seek Him in the morning
If you want Him through the day.
As someone who has frequently staggered out of bed and jumped frantically into the day without a thought for God, this song has nudged me any number of times to remind me: it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a better way. Even if it’s just a moment of silent surrender, reaching for His hand, it makes a difference.
Track 5 & 6: Medley: Spread a Little Love Around, God’s Mighty Peace
As a Pentecostal group, the Imperials delighted in performing songs their church audiences knew, and most of their early albums contain a medley of old favorites. This first sound like a direct response to Ricky Skagg’s anthem of the same name. It shares the same happy-clappy optimism, but it’s rooted not in nice feelings about humanity but in confidence in God, as the lyrics reveal. Also, the lyrics are straight-up evangelism. If God has changed your life, why wouldn’t you share Him with others?
I'd like to tell you a story
Of what has happened to me
My heart was burdened with sorrow
And my life with misery,
But then, so quickly it happened,
I found a Love so true,
And now, how else can I thank Him
But to share His love with You?
You've got to spread a little love around,
Show the world what you have found!
Life is full of joy and happiness
When you find the Savior's love!
You've got to spread a little love around,
Share it with the one who's down,
Spread a little love, yes,
Spread a little love around!
Then the music moves naturally into the second hymn in the medley, “God’s Mighty Peace.”
There's a dawning of a brand new day
And all the clouds are gonna roll away
There'll be peace and every nation's
Gonna get together.
Only love is gonna rule and reign
And the sun is gonna shine again
When God's mighty peace
Comes sweeping over the land!Every nation, every kindred will come
marching hand and hand,
and our minds will cease to wonder,
for our hearts will understand.
There’s a mystifying element here: what “mighty peace” are they talking about? Certainly there’s some Pentecostal millenarianism here, but for this Catholic listening, I thought of what we have all been praying for since 1917: the triumph of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. After the dire prophecies of war and dissolution, Mary told the children at Fatima, “But in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. Russia will be converted and an era of peace be granted to mankind.”
Today, as in the past, the conversion of Russia and world peace looks so impossible, but I am forced to contemplate this prophecy: Everything else she predicted came true. Why would I doubt her now?
When I began writing the Culture Recovery Journals, I was often overwhelmed by its seeming pointlessness. I believed (and still believe) that we are watching the ending of that incredible opportunity that was America. Why bother to write a map for how to live in the future if it’s all going to end? The 1970s Cold War pessimism of my childhood returned with a vengeance to chant doom and depression in my mind. But then I thought, “But do I believe in the triumph of the Immaculate Heart? Can I work towards that?”
Those two questions have been my guiding star in this project. In fact, my revival of interest in the Imperials probably dates from that day when I started trying to track down the half-remembered words to this song which had started playing in my head. Naive? Perhaps. Goofy? Probably. But hope sometimes appears so, and for the Christian, hope is a non-negotiable. Here are the words from the song that haunted me:
“Our minds will cease to wonder, for our hearts will understand.”
Track 7: Jesus Got a Hold of My Life
Jesus got a hold of my life, and He won’t let me go!
Jesus got into my heart, He got into my soul.
I used to feel oh so sad, but now I’m just free and glad
’Cause Jesus got a hold of my life, and He won’t let me go!
I admit that this funky song is one of my favorites. Again, for the gospel audience, this song is super-familiar and lyrically simplistic: it’s often sung as a kid’s song.
But the Imperials give it a honkey-tonk piano intro and strong baseline with blasts of horn. Each of the singers takes a solo and the whole group gets into it with Morales doing the ending call-and-response. It’s clear they are having fun with this number, and the result is memorable.
So much of our Catholic faith emphasizes free choice and striving, so it’s good to reflect that actually, we did not choose Jesus: He choose us. And while we can reject Him, there is a definitely a quality of Jesus “holding on to us” that is spread over the life of the devout Catholic. There’s a delightful involuntariness, a possession, a capture, but this very captivity sets us free, “free and glad,” as the song says. For those of us who struggle with scrupulosity and fear losing Jesus, it’s literally freedom to reflect on how Jesus has taken us to Himself, and like a loving Father, won’t let us go.
The song also addresses the listener who thinks he’s doing fine without God:
So aren’t you getting just a bit tired of fooling around?
Trying to laugh your way through life, but you’re not gaining ground?
Why not try the Lord today? Just ask Him in your heart to stay,
and you’ll find Jesus’ love to be the greatest thing that you’ve ever found.
Sure there’s some easy “assurance of salvation” theology floating around here, but as you can see from my commentary above, we Catholics can still have a moral assurance of salvation because as you know if you’ve experienced it, once Jesus woos your heart, He won’t let you go.
Let yourself be wooed.
This is a song of reflecting on the miracle of salvation. Sung in an easy speaking tone by Elvis backup singer Joe Moscheo, unlike the more urban style of the rest, it’s pure country, informal and rustic, with a classic gospel chorus by the whole group.
Why me, Lord?
What have I ever done
to deserve even one
of the pleasures I've known?
Tell me Lord,
What did I ever do
that was worthy of You
or the kindness You've shown?
This is a song that stirs up gratitude, and urges the heart towards further and deeper repentance.
Lord help me Jesus!
I've wasted it, so help me Jesus,
I know what I am.
(I do: an ungrateful sinner)
Now that I know that,
I've needed You,
So help me Jesus,
my soul's in Your hands.Tell me Lord, if you think there's a way
I can try to repay
All I've taken from You?
Maybe Lord, I can show someone else
What I've been through myself
On my way back to You?…Oh Jesus! My soul’s in Your hands.
What the saints call “the gift of tears” is amply stirred up by this song. Especially if we are complaining or feeling victimized by life, this song is a useful corrective. And as always, it reminds us to share what we’ve learned on our salvation journey with others.
An abrupt chance of style with drums, a blaring of horns and a frenetic tambourine that sounds like the leadup to a Motown hit by the Jackson 5. But the lyrics sung in chorus counter expectation.
Turn on your radio and what do you hear?
Everybody's talkin' 'bout luv.
The kind of love they're talkin' about
Isn't the kind of love that I feel right now. (No!)
Andrus soars into the lead with talking back to the chorus in the best gospel style, the back-and-forth echo of angels in the Bible and monks in the choir, here reworked into a challenge to us.
God's love— will never let you down
God's love— is everything that I have found (to be free)
God's love— will turn a man's night into day
God's love— Oh, listen to what I'm tryin' to say!
But this isn’t a call to the unchurched: it’s a call to Christians to show what we know: God’s love. Sharing God’s love with others brings you joy, even “a little bit of heaven on earth.” Also, the Christian has exactly what everyone is looking for: Christ. Andrus, cutting loose, exhorts us:
Can't you see no matter where you go
There's always someone lookin' at you?
But you can have a little heaven on earth
If you know just what to do: (know just what to do)
Know if you love your brother
Like you know Jesus loves you.
Look everyone straight in the eye
And let a little of His light shine through!
God's love— will never let you down!
God's love— I feel it in my soul!
God's love—it will change the water into wine!
God's love— everybody's tryin’ to find!
…Everybody's tryin' to find (Everybody's tryin' to find)
Everybody's tryin' to find (Everybody's tryin' to find)
Everybody's tryin' to find (Everybody's tryin' to find)
Everybody's tryin' to find
God's love!
I don’t know any Catholic who doesn’t need a reminder like this one, even one as adrenaline-pumped as this song. In the bridge, the chorus reminds us of some of Christ’s final words, “Love everyone as I have loved you.” We have what they need. Will we share it?
Track 10: Medley: Reach Out, Two Hands
Nearly all of the Imperials’ early albums contains a section which is clearly designed to stir the listener to conversion. If you know anything about Pentecostal-tradition services, you know they always include a call to repentance. The second song medley represents this, and was probably used as an altar call during concerts.
For years I’ve been saying that Protestants are great at following Christ until they start thinking about it. What I mean is that the grace they receive in baptism (recall that the Catholic Church accepts all Trinitarian baptisms as valid) actually gives them the grace to follow Christ, reject sin, pray, and follow the Holy Spirit in doing good and rejecting evil. The problems start when Protestants try to do theology, because they are simply missing too many pieces, so they end up believing fantastic things that don’t match their actions.
I’ve seen this again and again with my good Protestant friends. They feel instinctively that birth control is wrong, even if their church teaches otherwise. They try diligently to build a life of virtue, even if their church says that good works don’t matter. They persevere in suffering with patience even if their theology says believers in Christ shouldn’t suffer.
So in these churches where repentance is theologically a one-time thing, many church members use the altar call to repent again of their habitual sins, sometimes publicly (!) and beg for God’s mercy. Because of course they recognize that followers of Christ still sin, even if their theology falsely claims it’s impossible. You can see that many American Protestants are not heretics but orphans, abandoned and trying to make sense of the few bits of Christian tradition they were left with. And I honestly cannot blame the Black Pentecostal tradition which was formed when slaves, regardless of their beliefs, would have been denied access to the Catholic sacraments in any case.
This is all to say that as a Catholic, I have always treated the open or subtle calls to “come to Jesus” as precisely that: a call to come to Jesus! We Catholics should know better than anyone else that your first conversion to Christ is not your final one: there’s always more to surrender, more to discover and surrender, always a chance to go deeper and draw closer to Him.
The lyrics on the second song in the medley, leading into worship, are a touch tongue in cheek.
We are gathered here
because we all believe.
If there’s a doubter in the crowd,
we ask you now to leave. :)
With faith you can move mountains:
these are simple words but true.
We are quite a mountain
but He’s brought us here to you!
The song invites the listener to “accept Him with your whole heart, then use your own two hands. With one, reach out to Jesus, and with the other, bring a friend.” Again, this is good advice, especially when evangelizing. How can we speak to others about the Lord without reaching out to Him and begging for our own deeper conversion?
Track 11: Follow the Man with the Music
As with other Imperials albums, the title track is the final track, which starts with a piano and bass intro, laying on the other instruments, especially the horns as the track gathers speed. Andrus returns to sing lead.
All of us start upon this life
With many ways to choose.
You better sure which way you go—
You can win, you can lose! (You can lose!)
Men with empty words will smile at you—
They're losers one and all!
Well, they're lifting you up so high—
Only to let you fall, let you fall.
Follow the Man with the music!
Follow the Man with the song!
Follow the Man with the music—
How far can you go wrong?
Just let Him take you along…
Picking up this album as an 80s’ teen, I was fascinated by this characterization of Christ. Sure, I knew Him as Lord and God, but “the Man with the Music?” Music shapes sound from noises into harmony, and upon reflection, isn’t that what Christ does with our lives? Recognizing that harmony which emanates from Him brings us life when we follow Him. “This God, His way is perfect!” David sang in the Scriptures.
Note how there is a frank opposition to the world in this piece: the choice is between life and death, and there is no doubt about what the wrong choice gives you in the song lyrics: confusion, deafness, blindness, and a perilous fall.
But again, the invitation is given with a light sweet touch, very 70s, breezy and almost careless. The song’s ending trails off into the distance like a receding band in a car, leaving us with the invitation: follow Him.
I realize that not everyone who agrees with my arguments about CCM is going to enjoy this album, and certainly there’s a lot more to gospel than this vintage offering. Paid subscribers, feel free to post your thoughts in the comments, including posting links to the kind of Christian music you and your family enjoy.
Next “Music Monday,” I’ll look at another Imperials 70’s album, one of the last to feature Andrus as lead: No Shortage. On Wednesday, I’ll post something different, and for paid subscribers, I’ll be posting something fun on Friday!