Hey hey say Ladeo
Time for taking words away
The melody will tell the story
As we go along
Riding a wave of a thousand stories
Starlit journeys of morning glories
Where your long lost dreams
Are suddenly awake
Summoning a prayer, didn’t even know was there
Say Ladeo
A song becomes a thousand songs
Hey hey say Ladeo
Time we took the words away
We’re getting to somewhere closer
That’s hidden inside
Words only take you so far and leave you
Wondering just what it was you meant to
Say what you would say if your heart led the way
Take away the words
Letting all the sounds just play
Say Ladeo
A song becomes a thousand songs
And each and every heart
Brings life and times and rhymes along
All the dreams you never knew were there
Sound and feeling
Melody and prayer
Say Ladeo
Words only take you so far and leave you
Wondering what it was you meant to
Say what you would
Say what you would
Say if you could let your heart just lead the way
Say Ladeo
A song becomes a thousand songs
A prayer becomes a song
So sing out loud or whisper low
Still on break. But just bought me another McFerrin album.
Oh — you know I can’t resist a little commentary. We have this hyper-rational strain of thought in our Church of Christ tradition that we should judge a song solely by the lyrics. And this has led to the leading of some really bad music. Great words. Terrible tunes.
But the command is not to “recite” but to “sing.” “Sing” implies melody — the melody matters. The melody matters because truly beautiful tunes touch the heart in ways that mere words cannot.
God inspired much of the Bible — maybe half? — to be written as poetry, not prose. Why? Because the imagery and metaphors communicate at a level beyond mere prose.
Much of that poetry was written to be sung — adding an even deeper level of communication. Indeed, if God inspires a song, he intends us to hear it at levels far beyond grammar and syntax. It’s supposed to reach into our hearts and grab our souls.
But we’ve lost that part of the Christian experience — by and large. You won’t hear many sermons preached or songs sung where the sheer beauty of the experience is a part of the intended result. It may be a happy accident, but it won’t be the goal.
And yet how do we communicate the beauty of Jesus Christ if not through beauty?
(Rom 8:26 ESV) 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
(Psa 102:1-7 ESV) Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you! 2 Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! 3 For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. 4 My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. 5 Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. 6 I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; 7 I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.
