Pastor Mary is retiring at the end of June, and I am trying to write a song.
One of the things I am sometimes asked to do at the church I attend, Nashville United Methodist, is to make up songs that pay tribute to and/or honor certain special events. I can’t remember when I first started fiddling with songs, but I’ve been doing at church it for a few years now. It almost seems like it is expected that I will throw together some lyrics and music that celebrates some significant event or change in the course of our church family’s life. I am glad to do it and am honored to be asked. Anyway, not too long after Pastor Mary’s retirement was announced, someone asked me about a song, so that’s what I have been working on this last week.
True, I’ve known about it for quite some time, but that’s not how I operate. Deadlines are hard taskmasters, but they can also be helpful. In a kind of jujitsu, I use them to forcibly direct me to focus, to concentrate on the particular challenge before me. I think the pressure of deadlines stimulates creativity in me, or, at least, causes me to put together useable strings of words that make some sort of sense. Words that acknowledge in lyric and song Pastor Mary’s service after 10 years as a minister to our congregation.
Here’s how I work. The first thing I do is come up with an actual song that I can parody. (Dictionary definition of Parody: an imitation of a style with deliberate exaggeration with comic effect.) It’s not so much comedy that I am going for although a laugh or two is not unwelcome. It is more the summary of a small part of the truth that I aim to sing about. I’ve found choosing a song that most people are familiar with holds their attention.
In the past, I’ve used Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” to say goodbye to our music director when he was leaving. I’ve modified the lyrics to Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” when Pastor Mary and her husband Michael were finally leaving on a delayed-by-COVID Sabbatical and then used John Sebastian’s “Welcome Back” when they returned. The tune to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Looking Out My Backdoor” was a useful vehicle for a song to celebrate the official opening of the new shelter house behind our church. This time I am planning on changing the lyrics of The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Nashville Cats” to “Nashville Church.” Hope it works.
The second step in the process is listing some known qualities, actions and/or behaviors of the subject of the song. In some ways, that list has been easy to make since Pastor Mary has many redeeming qualities. She is a happy and caring person who always focuses on others. She smiles and laughs often. A specific memory that stands out in my mind is one Sunday when the congregation was singing a particularly rousing, rhythmic song in a rather unenthusiastic manner. After the song was over, Pastor Mary, who had been on her feet bouncing and clapping along, turned and faced those in the pews and said something to the effect of, “You people have no rhythm!” She was laughing and smiling, of course.
The final step is to put the ideas into lines that rhyme and fit the rhythm and meter of the song I am using. For me that can be time-consuming which is probably why I am always finishing up at the last minute. Which is what I am doing right now both with her song and with this column. What can I say? It’s a Deadline, don’t you know.
Norman Knight, a retired Clark-Pleasant Middle School teacher, writes this weekly column for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected].
