Jesus Love Never Failed Me Yet
Gavin Bryars
Let us start this piece by simply quoting one reviewer:-
"I know this will start to sound like an urban legend, but my story is just the same as that of so many other reviewers. I heard this incredible piece on the radio one afternoon while I was working in my kitchen, was trasfixed, even cried a bit, and eagerly waited for the announcer to say what it was.
This music has haunted me ever since. You can like this music or not. I never would say that you are dumb if you don't get it, but believe me, this music has nothing to do with being a Christian, crying at Princess Di's funeral, or watching Bambi.
In fact, I am a more ironical than sentimental person, and I am normally a bit ashamed to show my emotions too much.
So it is an effort for me to listen to this, because it stirrs up emotions you are not always ready to face.
But you will not regret this experience"
Our own experience mirrors this almost exactly and we found ourselves almost driven to go out and buy this CD because for some reason it seemed precious and the idea of not having it seemed to leave us feeling bereft. That had never happened before nor has it since.
CD - Point Music 438-823-2
So, how did all this come about. Well, serendipity of course! Here's the story:
In 1971, when Gavin Bryars lived in London, he was working with a friend, Alan Power, on a film about people living rough in the area around Elephant and Castle, and Waterloo Station. In the course of being filmed, some people broke into drunken song - sometimes bits of opera, sometimes sentimental ballads - and one, who in fact did not drink, sang a religious song "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet". This was not ultimately used in the film but Bryars was given all the unused sections of tape, including this one.
When he played it at home, he found that the singing was in tune with his piano, and he improvised a simple accompaniment. He noticed, too, that the first section of the song - 13 bars in length - formed an effective loop which repeated in a slightly unpredictable way. He took the tape loop to Leicester, where he was working in the Fine Art Department, and copied the loop onto a continuous reel of tape, thinking about perhaps adding an orchestrated accompaniment to it.
The door of the recording room opened on to one of the large painting studios and Bryars left the tape copying, with the door open, while he went to get a coffee.
"When I came back I found the normally lively room unnaturally subdued. People were moving about much more slowly than usual and a few were sitting alone, quietly weeping. I was puzzled until I realised that the tape was still playing and that they had been overcome by the old man's singing. This convinced me of the emotional power of the music and of the possibilities offered by adding a simple, though gradually evolving, orchestral accompaniment that respected the tramp's nobility and simple faith." We no nothing about the singer and can only guess at his life and what had led him to living rough. He died before he could hear what Bryars had done with his beautiful song, but this piece remains forever as an eloquent, but understated testimony to his spirit and optimism.
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
Never failed me yet
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
This one thing I know
That He loves me so
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
Never failed me yet
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
This one thing I know
That He loves me so
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
Never failed me yet
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
This one thing I know
That He loves me so
Jesus' blood won't fail me yet
won't fail me yet
won't fail me yet
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
Never failed me yet
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
This one thing I know
That He loves me so
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
Never failed me yet
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
This one thing I know
That He loves me so
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
Never failed me yet
Jesus' blood never failed me yet
This one thing I know
That He loves me so
Jesus' blood (won't fail me yet)
Blood (won't fail me yet)
His blood (won't fail me yet)
Jesus' blood (won't fail me yet)
Blood (won't fail me yet)
His blood (won't fail me yet)
Jesus' blood (won't fail me yet)
Blood (won't fail me yet)
His blood (won't fail me yet)
This one thing I know
That he loves me so
In the coda, the voice of Tom Waits gradually appears alongside the tramp. Tom Waits' involvement came about after Bryars had been talking to him about another project. " I knew of his feelings about Jesus' Blood as he had contacted me in the 1980's when he was on tour in England. He had lost his copy of the LP which he said was his "favourite record". As it happened there were a couple of copies in my manager's office and I had a copy sent to him.
I faxed him to ask if he would do the Jesus' Blood recording and explained my thinking on the whole shape of the piece (I worked out a 'road-map' of the whole duration so that I could see exactly what was happening in each repetition). He agreed to do it.
The plan was that I would record all the orchestral and choral tracks in New York during November and December 1992 as we were working towards a May 1993 release.
I remember leaving the message on his machine and trying again before leaving my house to go to the university to teach in the morning. To my surprise, although there had been no reply, his outgoing message had been changed and I took this as a clue to encourage me and that I might try again. When I came back from teaching in the afternoon there was a lengthy message from him (which I still have on tape!) apologising and eventually we spoke.
The upshot was that he wanted to do it but under certain conditions. These were that he would not come to New York but that his part in the recording should be done in his studio in Northern California with just me and his engineer and emphatically no-one from New York. Consequently when I arrived in New York I picked up a multi-track of the piece with a preliminary mix and with 3 vacant tracks and flew to San Francisco. I followed the studio's directions and found my way there by lunchtime - it is basically a converted chicken farm, with all the various rooms built inside an unlikely exterior. One of these rooms was a guest house where I was to stay the next night and so I installed myself and Tom arrived mid-afternoon. He came with his wife and two children we set about recording.
As the studio machine's could not handle the large reels which I had brought we had to cut the tape onto three separate reels which gave us, effectively, 15 minutes per tape. For the first take Tom was in a booth next to the control room and simply sang along to the tape in a variety of ways. We listened to this take and then Tom suggested that he sing in a different building, in a room called the "Waiting Room", where he records his own albums. All the rooms are linked to the central control room and there is one for listening called the "Listening Room"....
In this space he has all his own instruments and he sang to headphone playback with just me in the room. It was like being in the company of a great blues singer from the past as he sang, eyes closed, constructing sequences of the phrase until he moved on to a new idea. Each sequence would last maybe 5 or 6 repetitions and then he would immediately be into a new idea. Some were quite tender, some were emotionally very powerful and even angry, occasionally he did some through a battery operated voice gun. At the end we tried a few where he sang through this megaphone and I accompanied him on his harmonium, which only had one working pedal. (Some of these repetitions were used on the �B� version of the single which was issued later).
By the end of a couple of hours we had recorded on all the available tracks which I was to take back to New York.
I would say that spending the afternoon in that studio with Tom was as beautiful a musical experience as I can remember. I have a video with Tom and myself talking about the piece - he is very eloquent about the piece and about his first hearing the music over the radio at the end of a birthday party for his wife. He talks about the place being littered with balloons and confetti and they were just sitting quietly. He describes the music as settling like a dust on the evening and they just listened to the whole piece, holding hands...."