"Sacred Parodies of Secular Folk Songs"

I hope to be in Fife later in the summer, and am planning to visit Dundee to see not only Desperate Dan but also the plaque to the Wedderburn brothers. This 1938 article about them, by Anne Gilchrist in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, provided the title for this post.

Soon after he became unintentionally famous in 1517, Martin Luther's writings travelled across the North Sea into the ports of Edinburgh and St Andrews, smuggled inside barrels as illegal contraband. The Wedderburn brothers became committed Lutherans, and spread the newly-Reformed Gospel through music and street theatre. They took the familiar folk songs of their day and wrote new, Reformed, lyrics. Some of their work has been recorded in recent years.

I also then remembered that earlier this year I heard a man at the People’s Hall in Portavogie sing a gospel song to the tune The Fields of Athenry. His version was much better than the YouTube one below! But you get the idea. 

Orange tunes are great for this, as are Irish tunes such as Galway Bay and The Wearing Of The Green, and Scottish tunes like The Rowan Tree and The Road and the Miles to Dundee.

The Wedderburns were at it in the 1520s, and it’s still being done today. Luther said he had nearly killed himself with religious devotions, confessions:

"I was a good monk, and I kept the rule of my order so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery it was I.  All my brothers in the monastery who knew me will bear me out.  If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading, and other work."

And then he opened the Bible and began to read what it said. The message he found there? No-one can make themselves right with God. Jesus Christ came to do that job, and He has done it all. 'It is Finished’.

It’s an offer that’s open to all who will receive it. Luther didn’t invent it, it had been there all along. It can be traced right back from 1500s Luther to the New Testament churches of the first century. He was just in the right place and the right time, with new technology - the printing press - to take it to the world in a simple and relevant format. Religion as control was replaced by a liberating faith. Read more about Luther’s world-changing discovery and influence with these free PDFs.

(UPDATE: this week only, renowned US Presbyterian R.C. Sproul is giving away a FREE 10-part download about Luther and the Reformation - click here) 

Outside the city wall 
I heard a large crowd calling, 
Mocking, scorning those who suffered there 
As they hoisted up on high 
Three more men condemned to die 
The voice of one man echoed through the air 

“Eli lama sabachthani 
My God why have you turned your back on me”? 
“It is finished,” then he cried 
As he hung his head and died, 
Messiah crucified for you and me 

Outside the city wall 
I watched the darkness falling 
As the power  of sin and death had done their worst 
And the one who made the light 
Hung abandoned in the night 
And he who made the oceans said “I thirst” 

Outside the city wall 
I heard a young man calling 
“Woman, take this man to be your son” 
And he turned his face to see 
One who said “Remember me” 
And said, “ with me to paradise you’ll come” 

Outside the city wall 
I heard a young man calling 
“Forgive them Father, they don’t understand 
For the man was God’s own son 
And His work on earth was done 
And then he placed his spirit in Gods hand