An Anniversary missed etc, etc - the second part.

I continue to reflect on my best known song, not because I want to blow my own trumpet (though no one can blow your trumpet quite the way you do), but because there maybe genuine interest out there and I want to set some stuff straight. Goodness knows though, I may not have it all so straight, history being the thing it is.

The copyright for "Brother, Sister let Me Serve You' was never held by The St Paul's Outreach Trust. The Trust (as we most associated with it would call it) held the copyrights on everything else written by the members of the St Paul's Singers, and may have wished they had the copyright on this song too.

Shortly after it was completed some of us in the Singers (yes we abbreviated that name too) were visiting David and Dale Garrett of Scripture in Song, at their home. We had points of similarity with the Garretts. They too led worship at home, made albums, toured other churches, led worship at Christian conventions and published song books. They had been doing it longer than we had and so had knowledge and advise we novices needed. And they were nice people - and still are!

As our evening together wore on I sang them my new song. David said something like, "that song fits the theme of an album we are about to record," to which I responded, "You can have it, then!" It was a spontaneous gesture on my part. There was no forethought given by me maybe offering it first to St Paul's Outreach Trust, or any thought about the future implications of my offer, god, bad or otherwise. They obviously said "Thank you very much!" and the rest, as they say is history.

It soon appeared as "The Servant Song" on the Scripture in Song album "Father Make Us One" the theme of which was Christian unity and the principles under-girding relationships in the Christian family. John Olding, Graham Kelly and Brent Chambers sang on this, the first ever recording of the song. And so it was presented to a wider audience, and an international one.

Since then there have been other recordings. The Fisherfolk who were the primary inspiration and influence for the St Paul's Singers did a lovely version and eventually a later incarnation of the St Paul's Singers recorded a version too on I got to sing.

It also found it's way into many hymnals and garnered much popularity in so many places. In 2002, in a poll conducted by the BBC's "Songs of Praise" television programme I was voted in as the 33rd most popular hymn in Great Britain. A book was published in conjuction with the programme called "The Nations Favorite Hymns"where the accompanying text recalled that it had been sung in York Minster on Rememberance Day.

I had, independantly of the BBC been sent a video copy of this service as it had gone to air. The cathedral was full of service men and woman from the Army, the Navy and the Airforce - many of them young active members, but a lot of retired men and women who would have served during the Second World War. I found it all a bit surreal. I had been brought up by my Dad to see war as a great futility, a strident symbol of man's estrangement from a Loving God and from Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Dad would take me and my brother to war movies here in Whangarei so we could see how awful and futile and wasteful war was.

For me it was always a song intended to point all who heard it toward a way of living peacably with other human beings. I am quoted in the BBC's book as saying I prefered "the down to earth groundedness of a guitar accompaniment and a simple folk treatment" to the version I heard on "York Minster's grand organ" It was my down to earth performance that sold it to David and Dale, and their recorded version was as down to earth as they sold it to a much wider audience than we at St Paul's could then lay claim to.

Tune this way for Part Three, when I will talk about the changes, both lyrical and melodic, to this song over the years. In the meantime jump over to YouTube and see and hear my video version of the song. While you are there check out some of the other versions too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL3vStmoMDw

Richard