Bullfrogs and Butterflies Both Been Born Again Lyrics

As a parent of young children, I often gripe well-nigh the abysmal quality of products made for kids – peculiarly that dismal cacophony of books and music that is marketed each year to young children. Brilliant sparkly sticker-infested books, bursting at the seams with bad grammar, colourless characters, incoherent plots, hackneyed illustrations, and all those endlessly repeated psycho-spiritual-gender banalities which take come to constitute The Disney Worldview (a worldview that is infinitely more cancerous and more subversive than annihilation Lars von Trier could always dream up).

Similarly, where children's music is concerned (I won't even mention tv shows), the ruling principle seems to be: Whatsoever quondam crap will do; after all, they're only kids. No need for lyrical imagination; no demand for inventiveness; no need for musical talent or versatility. Just rhyme a few words, grunt out a few lines, bang out a couple of chords on your cheap electric keyboard – it'southward good plenty for the kids.

If you have immature children in your home, you lot'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Which is why it'due south and so refreshing when occasionally you meet a piece of real music for children. That was how nosotros felt when Roger Flyer (a regular friend here at F&T) sent me a re-create of 1 of his wonderful CDs for children: a CD that I know very well indeed, since my kids have been listening to it well-nigh every night for the by xviii months!

Anyway, while I was in Princeton last month, i of the highlights was getting to know the bright young Harvard theologian, Matthew Myer Boulton. Non only is he the writer of a superb book on Barth and worship, but he's besides the singer-songwriter for a sweet and groovy children's band, Butterflyfish. He gave me a copy of their brand new debut CD, Ladybug – and after listening to it dozens (hundreds?) of times at present, I'm pleased to report that this is the real deal: an album that kids admire, and that grownup folks volition besides proceed to savor after countless hours of repeat listening.

The anthology is musically vibrant, surprising and exciting: it blends styles equally various as bluegrass, country, jazz and gospel, in a way that brings out that characteristic joy and lilt and humor of American folk music. And the lyrics (all written by Matt Boulton) are quite wonderful: linguistically inventive, poetically playful, and at times also theologically serious and reflective. Where so many kids' CDs are characterised by attitudes of patronising boiler, information technology's a tremendous pleasure to hear music like this: music that takes children seriously, music that respects its audience, music premised on the supposition that young children are capable of lively joy, honest reflection, and exuberant aesthetic delight.

The songs range from the low-cal-hearted jollity of "Ladybug" to the fast-paced rollicking bluegrass gamble of "What Jonah Learned Within the Whale" ("He learned that whales take no teeth, merely they do have groovy big tongues; / God is underneath everything and everyone"), to the fragile and imaginative "Noah's Lullaby", the jubilant a cappella celebration "Deep Downward in My Middle", and the rich smoky-jazz-bar groove of "At that place Is a Love".

But the real highlight is the extraordinary track, "All Lamentable Songs." I've never heard a children's vocal quite like this – and without getting likewise carried away in autobiographical pathos, I might also admit that it'south probably the merely song from a children'south CD that has ever fabricated me weep. Here are the lyrics:

It's been all sad songs since you've left
I've cried and I've kept my sorrow then deep inside
And I've swept up all of my pride
Deplorable songs since you died

Information technology'due south been all sad songs since you went abroad
I've been lost, and sleeping right through the day
This has price me all that I had
Now the songs are all lamentable

Something deep inside of me
So wanted to believe
Only that cost me all that I had
At present the songs are all sad

(Male person phonation: La la la…)

But so Mary came to our house of shame
To proclaim that you were alive once more
And the grave was equally empty and nighttime
Equally my broken heart

Something deep within of me
And then wanted to believe
That the grave is every bit empty and dark
As my broken centre

(Female voice: La la la…)

I know all deplorable songs have another verse
Information technology's the ane the heavenly choirs rehearse
For that day when the cleaved will mend
And the sad songs will end

Not that nosotros'll forget, we'll sing those songs yet
In a different key, nosotros'll sing differently
In the music God has bundled
All the sorry songs will change

(Both voices: La la la…)

God will wipe away all our tears
Banish the fears we've collected for all these years
On that twenty-four hour period when the broken will mend
The deplorable songs will stop

Something deep inside of me
Can't assistance information technology but believe
In that day when the cleaved will mend
The sorry songs will terminate
In the music God has bundled
All the sad songs will alter

A remarkably poignant and sensitive meditation on death, grief, and the triumph of resurrection. The song reflects on music itself as an eschatological metaphor: God is writing another verse for our lamentable songs, and arranging the score in a different fundamental. In the 24-hour interval of redemption, nosotros will however sing our sad songs – nothing will be lost or forgotten – but these same songs will be translated into something new, utterly sublated so that they become songs of grace and redemption.

This metaphor is evoked very vividly in the song's ain arrangement. Later describing his grief in the first poetry and chorus, the pb voice sings a melancholy wordless tune, singing simply the syllable "la la la…" But and then after Mary'south proclamation of the empty grave, a female person phonation enters the song. Once again, she sings a wordless tune to the same music, just the melody has subtly inverse then that those syllables now convey hope and light and sweetness. Then finally, afterwards the verse describing the eschatological sublation of grief, the male person and female voice join their wordless tunes together. Now the 2 distinct voices and melodies combine to produce a single harmony of redemption: the pitiful grieving voice is overlaid with a voice of hope and healing; or rather, the sad vocalism is lifted up into a harmony which fully includes the sad tune, yet utterly transforms it.

The female phonation slips into the vocal so gently, so unobtrusively. The phonation alights similar a dove, then rises over again, leading the male vocalisation upwards. I'm reminded of George Herbert's poem, "Easter Wings", where God is depicted as a bird in flight, helping us to fly when our own wings are cleaved, and then that nosotros are raised upward together and "combined" in 1 harmonious song. (Equally you tin see in the picture below, the poem is itself shaped similar two birds together in flying.) "With thee / Oh permit me rising / Every bit larks, harmoniously… With thee / Permit me combine / And feel this day thy victorie: / For, if I imp my fly on thine / Affliction shall advance the flying in me."

The harmony of the 2 voices in "All Sad Songs" is like the movement of ii birds in flight. The vocal'due south whole theology of resurrection and promise is conveyed almost powerfully here, in this unproblematic monosyllabic harmony. My sadness has not fled, simply another vocalism now sings with me, bearing me upward, supporting my cleaved fly, lifting my mournful tune and translating it into a hymn of redemption. The same song – merely how different at present!

Not that we'll forget, we'll sing those songs yet
In a different key, nosotros'll sing differently
In the music God has arranged
All the sad songs will change.

My wife and I love this album just as much as our kids practice. If you're looking for some good music for your children, then why not grab a copy of Ladybug. And while you're in that location, be sure to download the Butterflyfish colouring pages: considering everything'due south better in crayon.

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Source: https://www.faith-theology.com/2009/07/butterflyfish-songs-for-children.html

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