78 thoughts on “GOH: Send The Light”

  2. I remember Therron Babcock and Hall Webb coming to my church several times when I was growing up. He would write a new song during most of (each?) service–same style playing you hear here.

    What does GOH stand for?

  4. Every time we visited a church where the organist played like that, my Mom (who was a teen in the ’50’s) said she wanted to don on her roller skates and skate around the church.

    1. My grandparents used to like to go to a cafeteria that had an organist who played this way. (Do cafeterias still have organists?) Her name was Miss Inez. Miss Inez also played at the Texas Rangers baseball games. When I was a kid, she was already about 923 years old (at least, I thought so), and had been playing organ in the Dallas area since at least the 1930s. I’m sure she’s still playing somewhere today.

  5. Good lord, what a god-awful arrangement! It definitely has a Calliopic sound to it.

  6. And the bonus? Its by Charles Gabriel – Keswick Revivalist songwriter extraordinaire – pretty much every song that the old folks refer to as one of the “Good Ol Hymns” is not a hymn with great historical or theological chops, but one of these hack jobs from the early 1900s. 8 out of 10 times it will be by C. Gabriel. He wrote like 100 of these.

  8. sounds like a high-pitched, nasal voice should be talking about the 1937 world series while showing black & white, grainy films of very fat men in baseball uniforms running around in circles.

    did that make any sense? i’m trying to say it sounds like an old newsreel, but i may be trying too hard… or not hard enough.

      1. that’s true… fundies have a real knack for taking things that could be awesome and making them not awesome. For example: everything.

        2. Like skiing – not so fun when you have to wear culottes over your snow pants.

          Or singing – I love singing, but songs from the 1920s get a bit old after a while.

          New Year’s Eve Watchnight Services – SO not fun!

          Fundies can even take the fun out of family get-togethers. If your fundy relative has decided to be the arbiter of all that’s holy, he can’t just sit back and let everyone enjoy a holiday together but has to harrangue everyone who isn’t behaving in lock-step with him.

  10. Fundies like to accuse those of us who like praise and worship of bringing the dance hall into the church, but anyone who plays or likes this is bringing a carnival atmosphere into church. I’d be pretending to ride a carousel the whole time I listened to this.

  11. Carnival it is! That could be merry-go-round music, except for the slower bits in the middle.

    Old newsreel works, too. Or 1930’s cartoons.

  12. As a child, the song “Coming Again” always reminded me of a carousel, or ice skating. Very oom-pah-pah…”may be morning, may be noon, may be evening or may be soon…”

    1. My husband HATES that song! I always used to chortle to myself when he was leading a singspiration and some older person requested that song. He’d have to lead it happily while I oom-pah-pahed away on the piano, and I knew inside he was yelling, “Nooooooooooooo!!!” 😆

      3. My fundie-lite church always has their “favorites” night on the night I’m slotted to accompany, and I have NIGHTMARES that someone will choose either this, or Wonderful Grace of Jesus. I’m not confident in my merry-go-round skillz. Our organist however……she can waltz that toaster a la’ Lawrence Welk like you wouldn’t believe.

        I shudder. 😳

        1. Ooh! I can play ‘Wonderful Grace of Jesus’ by heart! I actually liked the cool left-hand melody. As a teenager, I was the pianist, despite begging not to because I hated being in front of people.

        2. Wonderful Grace has uber weird chords, and every time I have to play it, I wonder if the writer was on drugs when he composed the harmonies. Another one you could play with that waltz bit is Saved Saved. Same feeling, although the bass player and I dress it up a little different, much to the shagrin of our straight-laced song leader. The preacher likes it though, and that’s what matters, so we keep on.

        3. Yes, nothing delights me more than adding offbeat rhythms to all our GOH’s and gospel songs when it’s my turn to play – our pastor and songleader really dig it, but the organist just glares at me….

      1. Mark, hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right! Somebody probably should be sued for intellectual infringement.
        Rach, that probably means you need a new organist, or a bass player instead.

    4. Without looking it up, my guess is that “Coming Again” was written c. 1924. You know: In that purely sacred, not-at-all like that secular “Bicycle Built for Two”! 🙄 Take any of these “hymns” from the 1920s and compare the structure to the pop songs from that era. If there’s a difference I haven’t found it.

    5. Curse you, Katie! I HATE that song! The rhythm made it feel like you should be swaying gleefully from side to side while joyfully swinging your beer-stein clinching fist left and right. However, I would LOVE to see the reactions on the faces of the congregation if someone did actually clinch said beer stein during the said singing of said song. 😈

  13. The second generation came to our church. Barry Webb did chalk drawings to music playing (kind of wierd). The Babcock son died of a brain aneurism (sp?) at a very young age.

    Is Barry Webb still out there?

    2. Hal Webb and Theron Babcock were the evangelists one year at the junior camp my former church used to send the kids to. Theron did his rapid songwriting thing and also played a theremin. Hal used magic tricks and “chARts” to illustrate the lessons. That man loved charts, and there was something about the way he pronounced the “ar” sound that stuck in my head.

      A few years later, Barry was the evangelist. He seemed a bit humorless and a tad scary.

      Wow! Memories…

  15. When I was young we used to snicker about “Coming Again”, picturing Jesus and the angels coming back to Earth on roller skates.

    Here’s an irony: You have to look through an Episcopal or Lutheran hymnal to find really good hymns on the Second Coming.

  16. On the forth line of the music, there are instructions to play the music “lively”. Beware! One minute your a playing lively music, the next minute your holding hands, “And the talkin’ leads to touchin’ and the touchin’ leads to sex
    and then there is no mystery left”

  17. I just listened to the recording. Has anybody here ever heard Perry Rockwood’s “People’s Gospel Hour”? All the music is like this.

    Rockwood was a Canadian Presbyterian who was given the boot by his denomination back in the ’40s for making so much trouble. He started his own church. They couldn’t put up with him either, so finally he wound up in Halifax, having gathered a tiny congregation, but having started a radio program that inexplicably gained a big following. I think it’s still on the air, broadcasting his old messages.

      1. “Our United States address: The People’s GOSPEL Hour, Box 500, Boston, MASSachusetts, Oh-two-one-oh-two.”

    2. Yup!! I remember lidtening to him as a youngster growing up on our old Silvertone Radio. My mom would listen to all the (now) old religious programs. Brings me back to my childhood. And thats a long ways ago..

  18. I the hands of a skilled musician like Booker T or
    Benmont Tench the Hammond organ is a wonderful instrument. On the other hand it should be illegal for people who play in this style to even touch one. Its guys like him that give electric organs a bad name! 🙁

    1. Definitely agree. I recently heard a special music with organ and cello, and the organist did an entire secion on pedal that actually sounded good! I was extremely surprised to see myself appreciating organ 🙂 🙂

      1. I don’t think that was a Hammond though. It sounded more like a Vox, or something similar with transistors. Either way, he should not be allowed to touch any organ.

  19. My old roommate at BJU used to refer to this organ-grinder type stuff as “monkey music”.

  22. I was talking with someone recently whose church had replaced its old Hammond organ with a pipe organ. They had had the Hammond for something like sixty years. His remark was, “The best thing about a Hammond is that they last forever. The worst thing about a Hammond is . . . that they last forever.”

    Great for rock groups, and for funeral homes (where sentimental music is expected). Not so great for churches. There are thousands of them in Baptist churches, naturally.

    1. My uncle went to Julliard and is a concert pianist but his passion is playing the pipe organ at church. My grandparents go to a century old Presybyterian church w Tifanny Stained Glass windows and a gorgeous Pipe Organ. Oh it was heavenly.

  23. We had a great piano player in the fundy church I grew up in. I may not have thought that much of the sermons or the programs, but one thing for sure when you walked into the sanctuary at Rivermont Baptist Church, you were about to hear some fine piano playing playing, I mean that lady rocked that thing, thinking back I’m sorta surprised that the preacher allowed her to play like that, she was also a fine vocalist, she passed away a few years ago.

    God bless you Patsy Nicholson for the memories and see you soon.

    1. Here again, in the midst of Funnymentalist Wachyism, you find some Real Saints. God bless ’em.

    1. Too lazy to look it up, but wasn’t the organ forbidden in “the church” at first? Seems to me they referred to it as “The Devil’s Voicebox” or something like that…

      1. The first pipe organ in Boston was given by someone in England to one of those local Puritan churches. When it was unboxed and assembled, the congregation objected to the sound of it so strenuously that they took it apart and sent it back.

  25. i can’t remember his exact words at the moment, but didn’t C.S. Lewis once say that most hymns were 5th rate poems set to 4th rate music? 🙂 and those were church of england hymns! imagine what he would think of stuff like this.

    1. Yes, he did. I can’t imagine what he’d think of songs like “Get God’s sunshine into your heart. Get God’s sunshine into heart. It will cheer you night and day, drive the gloom of night away, if you get God’s sunshine into your heart!”

  26. On Behalf of Conservatory-Trained Organists and Traditional, Professional Church Musicians Everywhere:

    UGH!!! Blech.

    Don’t blame us.

  27. I never heard this kind of music played at my fundalmentalist Pentecostal Church growing up but we did have a piano player that really got a beat on. Then she would go downtown and play at some bar-room. Really!! Did not know this until mI got older.

  28. I accompanied Theronn Babcock one time when they were at my old fundy church. I played the organ. I was never quite sure what the old guy was going to do next.

  29. We had an organist in the church where I grew up who had a piano sitting at a right angle to the organ. Sometimes we were treated to a special where she played both…at the same time! 😯

    I still get twitchy when I hear an organ arrangement such as this lovely number….

  30. I remember well my dad listening to their radio broadcast every Sat. afternoon. Those songs are still stuck in my head, like, “If you sing and smile and pray all the while, you will have a happy time in your heeeaaaarrrrt” and my personal fav.
    “First Corinthians 11 is still in the book, I know that it is cause I just took a look. It says that long hair on a man is a shame, so why bring disgrace to our dear savior’s name?”

  31. Did anyone notice that the piano and organ came out of different speakers? The organ came out of the left and the piano came out of the right on my computer. Obviously this is an old recording. It made me want to switch the speakers, play church and take up the offering. It really put me in a time wrap of about 30 years ago. Every church I went to the piano was on the left and the organ was on the right.

  33. Aaahhh… Hal and Theron! Those lilting tones do carry me back. Of course they also carry me away and almost make me feel like roller skating. But that would be dancing on wheels and I know Hal would have a pulpit hissy over THAT idea… 😆

  34. Do you have any idea how many times I would have killed for something this mildly entertaining. I recently did the numbers: I sat through more than 10,400 church services before I turned 20. And of them do you know how many had something even this interesting? Maybe 500…and that is a very big maybe.

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