Sunday, December 08, 2013

A couple of manly songs

There are a lot of versions of "He Just Needs a Few Good Men" out there, some of them no doubt vocally smoother than this one, but I like the series of Gaither Vocal Band Reunion videos, so I'm picking this one. Larnelle Harris should probably tone it down a bit, but not toning it down is part of Larnelle's charm, so I'm inclined to be tolerant. The words are good. Just think of all the "fight" and "warfare" and "men" hymns that have been cut out of our hymnals, and you'll understand why this was written.




While we're at it, here's "Build an Ark."

2 comments:

William Luse said...

I like those. Wouldn't call them great songs, but fun to listen to. Love the harmonizing. There's probably more work put into it than their ease of delivery lets on.

Lydia McGrew said...

No, definitely not great songs, but I like the version of manhood portrayed therein. It's simultaneously somewhat war-like and sacrificial.

These guys were all part of a particular men's group (the Gaither Vocal Band) at one time or another in the last several decades. The video is a reunion, so it involves putting together scratch quartets, sometimes ahistorical (that is, that particular group never actually toured together) from among the assembled "alumni" of the group, most of whom have moved on to other work.

All of the songs were recorded more smoothly on albums and so forth.

Here is one that shows more of a professional polish. "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go." I really like the arrangement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAH1HuUqLZo