Songs for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany | Steve Bell

IN PRAISE OF DECAY
music by Steve Bell
lyrics by Steve Bell and Malcolm Guite

Wouldn't You Love To Know

Wouldn't You Love to Know

IN PRAISE OF DECAY

PRAISE THE FATHER, PRAISE THE SON

Music and Lyric by Gord Johnson  
(This version appears on Steve Bell's "Devotion" CD)

Who is the one to whom you belong
Who in your weakness has made you strong
Who fills your heart with joyful song
It is the Lord your God

Praise the Father, Praise the Son
Praise the Spirit, Three-In-One
Who was, and is, and is to come
All praise and honour and glory and power
O praise his name forever.

Who is the one whom for you died
Was mocked and spat at and crucified
Who rose from the dead and is glorified
It Is the Lord your God

Praise the Father....

Who is the one whom with you will be
From highest mountain to darkest valley
Who is the one whom in you dwells
It is the Lord your God

Praise the Father...

Praise The Father, Praise the Son

I'LL FLY AWAY  (Traditional)
recorded on Sons And Daughters CD by Steve and Sarah Bell
see: http://stevebell.com/2003/04/sons-daughters/

I'll Fly Away

BIRTH OF A SONG
music and lyric by Steve Bell

God is everything to me
I, myself, can do nothing, spare nothing, bear nothing
Old weathered womb in waiting

Author of the mysteries
Exctasy of blazing suns and swooning moons
And these crooning winds and waters, earth and fire

Yearning spirit, burning flesh
Consummating desire, tossing off the soul's attire
Ever I in you and you in me

Mirroring the ancient cresche
Now absorbed in awed emotion, disturbed and shocked devotion
Child of mine, child of eternity

Agony of love divine
Send me as a lark ascending, befriending skys
attending ever to the vast and to the still

Infant Christ enfleshed in mine
You and I might say something, sing something, kiss something
Ever as you would and as you will

Birth Of A Song

READY MY HEART

(recorded on Steve Bell's "The Feast of Seasons" CD)

Ready My Heart

In The Bleak Midwinter

KINDNESS 
- lyrics adapted from Teresa of Avila Poem "Christ Has No Body"
-music by Brian McLaren
-recording by Steve Bell

KINDNESS

Single Release

The Divine Image

THE DIVINE IMAGE

REFUGEE
Lyric by Malcolm Guite and Steve Bell |Music by Steve Bell

We think of him as safe beneath the steeple
Or cozy in a crib beside the font
But he is with a million displaced people
On the long road of weariness and want
For even as we sing our final carol
The hounded child is up and on that road
Fleeing from the wrath of someone else's quarrel
Glancing behind and shouldering their load

While Herod rages still from his dark tower
Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled
The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power
And death squads spread their curse across the world
How terrible, how just, and how ironic
That every Herod dies and comes alone
Defenseless as the naked embryonic
To stand before the Lamb upon the throne

I can't resist the burning urge for turning
This song into a cautionary tale
The Savior whom this song has been discerning
Once occupied, the belly of a whale
To reach as deep as love could ever fathom
To rescue from the tentacles of hell
The wretched, the beleaguered and forgotten
Surprisingly, their enemies as well

Refugee

(pendant by Dianna Pop Fine Handcrafted Art Jewelry)

This recording is from my first solo album 25 years ago.  It's rather dated sounding... but it still kinda bounces along.

The Lord Has Done Great Things (Psalm 126)

song by Bruce Cockburn
recorded by Steve Bell for the album: My Dinner With Bruce

RED BROTHER RED SISTER
Went to the museum, red brother 
Saw your ancient bloom cut, pressed and dried 
A sign said wasn’t it clever what they used to do 
But it never did say how they died 

Hey hey hey Hey hey hey 

Went to Regina, red sister 
Heard a cab driver say what he’d seen 
“There’s a grand place to eat out on number one.. 
All white ladies if you know what I mean” 

Hey hey hey Hey hey hey 
Went to a pow wow, red brother 
Felt the people’s love/joy flow around 
It left me crying just thinking about it 
How they used my saviour’s name to keep you down 

Hey hey hey Hey hey hey - 

See more at: http://blog.stevebell.com/2010/01/avatar-parsnips-and-aboriginal-agony/#sthash.CNUUjz2H.dpuf

Red Brother Red Sister

PSALM 90  
Music and Lyric by Steve Bell 

Satisfy us in the morning with Your love 
Satisfy us in the morning with Your love 
That we may sing for joy 
And be glad in all our days 
Satisfy us in the morning with Your love 

Match the days Lord of our sorrow with Your joy 
Match the days Lord of our sorrow with Your joy 
May Your deeds be always known 
To the ones you call your own Match the days Lord of our sorrow with Your joy 

May the favour of the Lord 
Rest upon us and our land 
And establish for us all 
The work of our hands 
Yes the work of our hands 

Lord for us You have been a refuge from age to age 
Lord for us You have been a refuge from age to age 
Before the mountains were formed 
And the earth and the world brought forth 
You are the everlasting Lord 
May the favour of the Lord 
Rest upon us and our land 
And establish for us all 
The work of our hands 
Yes the work of our hands 

Psalm 90

HEAR OUR PRAYER
music Steve Bell / lyric Steve Bell and Jamie Howison

Hear Our Prayer

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

from  the album PILGRIMAGE by Steve Bell, Signpost Music 2014

http://stevebell.com/product/pilgrimage/

Wayfaring Stranger

MERCY NOW
song by Mary Gautier
adapted and performed by Steve Bell
(used with permission)

Mercy Now

Come To My Help Oh God  
Steve Bell / Signpost Music

Come To My Help O God (Psalm 70:1)

song recorded by Steve Bell
music written by Gord Johnson
lyrics from Collect of Purity / Anglican Tradition
used with permission

from the album Devotion: http://stevebell.com/product/devotion/

Almighty God

Where the Good Way Lies

Wait Alone in Stillness

Where The Good Way Lies

Let Beauty Awake

I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN (Psalm 16)
music and lyrics by Steve Bell

from the album Burning Ember

Burning Ember

I Will Not Be Shaken

WOULDN'T YOU LOVE TO KNOW
Music and Lyrics by Steve Bell

If you have to love the truth
Just to know if it is true
Wouldn't you love to know?

If the essence of a thing
Begs to hear your tender wooing
Wouldn't you love to know?

If you can't know a part
Without delighting in the whole
Wouldn't you love to know?

If you'd never know a kiss 
Without first cherishing the soul
Wouldn't you love to know?

To know as you are known
Merely love as you are loved
Gently turn this fertile loam
To unearth the fragrance of
the lover’s drug

From the far cloud-hidden star
To the solitary bug
Wouldn't you love to know

Frankenstein and Faust are yet the rage
Unspeakable the severing damage done
Yet on the wind the distant sound of drum
And the sweetness of the sage
Still might come a kinder age

See the wonder-stricken child
Hear the elder's wizened song
Wouldn't you love to know?
Wouldn't you love to know?
Wouldn't you love to know?

                              

demo

IN MEMORIAM
by Steve Bell
—in memory of my father Alfred C. Bell (1936-2019)

Fresh tendernesses burgeoned
With the dying of my dad
I love him all the more for it
He lived his life for other’s gain
His death, he gave away the same
I love him all the more for it

This son was fiercely fashioned
By his father’s dappled life
The way he loved his children
The way he loved his wife
My dad was hardly perfect
But I hardly give a rip 
I loved him all the more for it

Not scandalized by brokenness
Not scandalized by pain
But Dad could not abide the curse
And hellishness of shame
He’d absorb another’s failures
And return them as a gift
I loved him all the more for it

My father was a trumpeter
Those days have long since passed
He passed along his passion to me
Eager as I was
We’d sit for hours and listen
To the Tijuana brass
I loved him all the more for it

I tenderly remember
When a beauty left me rent
I was too young to consider then
That love is never spent
He told me pain would linger
And would probably leave a dent
I loved him all the more for it

My dad was a believer
He believed that God was good
He was certain Jesus lived
To show how everybody could
And that all our earthy sorrows
Couldn’t be the final writ
I loved him all the more for it

My father was a fortress
For my two sisters and I
And more-so for our mom
Who suffered so much of her life
He taught us how to live
And then he taught us how to die
And we loved him all the more for it

Fresh tendernesses burgeoned
With the dying of my dad
And I love him all the more for it

In Memoriam (demo)

photo: Daniel Twiss embracing his father, the late Richard Twiss, having just risen from the waters of baptism in the Jordan river.  

see Faye Hall's painting of this picture: http://fayehall.com/2013/02/more-about-epiphany-on-the-jordan-shekinah/

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EPIPHANY ON THE JORDAN
music by Steve Bell / Lyric by Malcolm Guite and Steve Bell


The heavens split and the water spilled
And streamed around that man like a quickening rain
A quickening rain
The word behind all worlds revealed
That God in man makes everything new again
New again
This word of God to his beloved
Has settled on me like a dove

He calls us too, to step into that river
To die and rise to life and love forever
So graciously extends to me a sinner
To tread the sacred waters of, the mystery of love

What can be said about a mystery
Except to say that the last word can never be said
Never said
Best leave that to poetry
Kindling words for quickening the dead
The living dead
Pure single heart behind all things
Each, to the other, by the spirit sings

He calls us too...
_______________________________________________________________________
Lyrics  adapted from Malcolm Guite's poem "Epiphany on the Jordan" which can be found here: http://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/the-first-sunday-of-epiphany/

The song itself is found on Steve Bell's CD, Keening for the Dawn, which can be found at: http://keening.stevebell.com/

Epiphany on the Jordan

Posted in memory of Richard Leo Twiss, Taoyate Obnajin “He Stands with his People” Saturday, February 9/2013

The song is a Bruce Cockburn song I recorded on an album a few years back.  I understand Bruce wrote it at the passing of singer/songwriter Mark Heard. It seems very appropriate now on the occasion of  the staggering loss of another great man.
__________________________________________________________________________________

CLOSER TO THE LIGHT / words and music by Bruce Cockburn

There you go
Swimming deeper into mystery
Here I remain
Only seeing where you used to be
Stared at the ceiling
Till my ears filled up with tears
Barely got to know you
Suddenly you're outta here

Gone from mystery into mystery
Gone from daylight into night
Another step deeper
Into darkness
Closer to the light

Walked outside
Summer moon was nearly down
Mist on the fields
Holy stillness all around
Death's no stranger
No stranger than the life I've seen
Still I cry
Still I beg to get you back again

Gone...


- song available on My Dinner With Bruce/ Steve Bell  http://stevebell.com/music-video/discography/my-dinner-with-bruce-album/

Closer to the Light

See related blog "From Lent to Love..."  : http://blog.stevebell.com/2015/02/a-lenten-message-and-song-from-your-friendly-neighborhood-troubadour/
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HOSEA (Come Back to Me) – Gregory Norbet OSB
sung by Sarah Giardino (nee Bell) on Steve Bell's CD "Sons and Daughters"

Come back to me with all your heart
Don’t let fear keep us apart
Trees do bend though straight and tall
So must we to others call

Long have I waited for
Your coming home to me
And living deeply our new life

The wilderness will lead you
To the place where I will speak
Integrity and justice
With tenderness
You shall know

Long have I waited for
Your coming home to me
And living deeply our new life

You shall sleep secure with peace
Faithfulness will be your joy

Long have I waited...

HOSEA (Come Back to Me)

One of my favorite songs - fitting for this day:

THE LORICA (St. Patrick's Breastplate)
music and lyric by Gayle Salmond
recorded by Steve Bell on the Devotion album (see below)

I bind unto myself today
The gift to call on the Trinity
The saving faith where I can say
Come three-in-one, oh one-in-three

Be above me as high as the noonday sun
Be below me - the rock I set my feet upon
Be beside me -  the wind on my left and right
Be beside me, o circle me with your truth and light

I bind unto myself today
The love of angels and seraphim
The prayers and prophecies of saints
The words and deeds of righteous men

Be above me...

God's ear to hear me
God's hand to guide me
God's strength to uphold me
God's shield to hide me
Against all powers deceiving
Against my own unbelieving
Whether near or far

I bind unto myself today
The hope to rise from the dust of earth
The songs of nature giving praise
To Father, Spirit, Living Word

Be above me...
__________________________________________________
See link for a live video version: http://youtu.be/KucM2F80_uA

The Lorica is from my album Devotion which can be sampled and purchased here: http://stevebell.com/music-video/discography/devotion-album/

The prayer attributed to St. Patrick that inspires this song can be read in it's entirety here: http://prayerfoundation.org/st_patricks_breastplate_prayer.htm

The Lorica: St Patrick's Breastplate

MAY IT BE DONE
music by Steve Bell  lyric by Steve Bell and Jamie Howison
song appears on Steve Bell’s CD, The Feast

From the dawning of the age
And the house that bears the name
Of the great I Am
Comes the promised righteous reign
To the ones who wait
but how much longer can we bear the delay?

May it be done as you have said
Plant your seed in me oh God
Not the seed of human life
But your everlasting Word
For we are all just like the grass
And our glory’s like the flower
But the grasses wither
And flower fades
Yet your Word, oh Lord, it stands
Forever

How unsettling are these days
How completely floods the ache
Of an empty womb
But there’s a promise to receive
And I expect to see
That you’d defend me if I dared to believe…

That it be done as You have said
Plant your seed in me oh God
Not the seed of human life
But your everlasting Word
For we are all just like the grass
And our glory’s like the flower
But the grasses wither
And flowers fade
Yet your Word, oh Lord, it stands
Forever

May It Be Done

a collaboration of English poet Malcolm Guite and Canadian singer/sonwriter Steve Bell
 _________________________________________________________

DESCENT
lyric Malcolm Guite  music Steve Bell

They sought to soar into the skies
Those classic gods of high renown
For lofty pride aspires to rise
But you came down.

You dropped down from the mountains sheer
Forsook the eagle for the dove
The other Gods demanded fear
But you gave love


Where chiseled marble seemed to freeze
Their abstract and perfected form
Compassion brought you to your knees
Your blood was warm

They called for blood in sacrifice
Their victims on an altar bled
When no one else could pay the price
You died instead


They towered above our mortal plain,
Dismissed this restless flesh with scorn,
Aloof from birth and death and pain,
But you were born.

Born to these burdens, borne by all
Born with us all ‘astride the grave’
Weak, to be with us when we fall,
And strong to save.



Descent

Title track of Steve Bell's 2012 release.

See related bloghttp: //blog.stevebell.com/2012/10/story-of-keening-for-the-dawn/

Album available for preview and purchase here: http://stevebell.com/2012/11/keening-for-the-dawn/
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KEENING FOR THE DAWN
music Steve Bell  lyric  Steve Bell, Malcolm Guite

On and on the night goes on
Brooding dark before the dawn
We are waiting
Worried lips rehearse our creeds
Bellies swollen with your seed 
We are waiting
Hardened shards of broken bread
Small consolations in your stead
Soured wine a tonic for the pain
Dutifully we take our fill
Still we long to see your face again
Keening for the dawn as such
Stirs the memory of your touch 
We are waiting
We are waiting

Hungry work, these endless feasts
Shriveling as we all increase
We are waiting
Weary eyes take in the sights
Smarting under tinseled lights
We are waiting
Break the too-familiar word
Hearing strains we've never heard
A double-edge that pierces through the pain
All that we shall see fulfilled
The dawning day we see your face again
Keening for the dawn as such
Stirs the memory of your touch
We are waiting
We are waiting

Keening for the Dawn

MOON OVER BIRKENAU (instrumental)
music by Steve Bell
_____________________________________________

available on CD here: http://stevebell.com/1997/04/romantics-mystics/
_____________________________________________

STORY

In 1992 I was touring through Poland and at one point found myself in the vicinity of Auschwitz, which was a network of concentration camps in south-central Poland developed by the Nazis to carry out their "final solution."

Auschwitz II (or Auschwitz-Birkenau) was one of the most notorious of the camps. I spent the better part of a day there against the advice of local friends who warned me that the experience could be traumatic, even harmful.

Indeed.

Over half a year later, I sat down to the piano one day, and this melody came flowing out of me accompanied by  a deluge of what felt like devastating emotion.  I didn't initally understand the source, but as I played, suddenly, images from Birkenau started coming back in an alarmingly violent rush, and battered at me until I was on the floor clutching at my stomach.  

That night, as I lay in bed, a blue moon flooded into our room and bathed my serene, sleeping wife in the most beautiful of light. I looked back at the moon, and couldn't help but think that less than 12 hours before, it had been looking down on Birkenau. 

The moon, for me, can never again be, simply, a sentimental or a lovely thing. And thus the song was titled "Moon Over Birkenau."
_______________________________________________________

The song has since been re-recorded with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra on an album of mine called "The Symphony Sessions." I'll post that as well for those interested  in hearing that version.

Note: the attached photo of Auschwitz-Birkenau was sent to me several years ago by someone who had also been there. I've long since lost the name of the photographer :(

Moon Over Birkenau (Auschwitz II) - Original Version

MOON OVER BIRKENAU - Symphony version  (instrumental)
music: Steve Bell     / orchestration: Mike Janzen
_____________________________________________

see blog for story behind the song, and to listen to the origional version recorded in 1997: 

available on CD here: http://stevebell.com/2007/04/symphony-sessions/
____________________________________________________________

STORY

In 1992 I was touring through Poland and at one point found myself in the vicinity of Auschwitz, which was a network of concentration camps in south-central Poland developed by the Nazis to carry out their "final solution."

Auschwitz II (or Auschwitz-Birkenau) was one of the most notorious of the camps. I spent the better part of a day there against the advice of local friends who warned me that the experience could be traumatic, even harmful.

Indeed.

Over half a year later, I sat down to the piano one day, and this melody came flowing out of me accompanied by a deluge of what felt like devastating emotion. I didn't initally understand the source, but as I played, suddenly, images from Birkenau started coming back in an alarmingly violent rush, and battered at me until I was on the floor clutching at my stomach.

That night, as I lay in bed, a blue moon flooded into our room and bathed my serene, sleeping wife in the most beautiful of light. I looked back at the moon, and couldn't help but think that less than 12 hours before, it had been looking down on Birkenau.

The moon, for me, can never again be, simply, a sentimental or a lovely thing. And thus the song was titled "Moon Over Birkenau."
_______________________________________________________



Photo: courtesy of Myrna Blake


Moon Over Birkenau (Auschwitz II) - Symphony Version

ORACLES
music and lyric by Steve Bell
lyrics adapted from the four advent oracles of Isaiah: 
2:1-5, 7:10-16, 11:1-10, 35:1-10

O ancient seer your vision told
Of desert highways streaming home
To the mountain of the Lord
Where nations sound a righteous song forever more

And on that mountain men will forge
From cuel implements of war
The tools to till and garden soil
The rose will bloom and faces shine with gladening oil

And it will surely come to pass
Justice will reign on earth at last
The wolf will lie down with the lamb
No beast destroy, no serpant strike the child's hand

An God himself will choose the sign
A frightened woman in her time
Will bear a son and name him well
God with us! Oh come, oh come Emmanuel

Oracles

PEACE BE UNTO YOU
Traditional Hebrew

Peace be unto you
From the watching angles
Ye watching angels from on high
Peace from the king, the ruler over all things
The holy one, blessed be He

And may your comings ever be in peace
And watched by angels from on hight
From the king, the ruler over all things
The holy one, blessed be He

Bless us with peace
Ye watching  angels who bring peace
Ye watching angels from on high
Peace from the King, the ruler over all things
The holy one, blessed be He

And may your goings...

Peace Be Unto You

THE STRANGE BLESSING OF BEARING
music and lyrics by Steve Bell

The peace of God is with the patient ones
Bearing up under affliction
For the joy that Love has promised us
Though waves of agony wash over us
May we know
What mothers know
The strange blessing of bearing

Quietude becomes the lover
Oriented towards the other
Sufferings gladly enduring
For the sake of another’s flourishing
May we know
What martyrs know
The beautiful blessing of bearing

God, we pray that in the days to come
Ever keep before our longing
The mystery of your bleeding son
Through the night into the dawning

Love enwombed in God’s creation
Fortifies the soul’s elation
Hearts on fire to love attending
Tribulations not withstanding
May we know
What Jesus knows
The glorious blessing of bearing

The Strange Blessing of Bearing

IN MEMORIAM
In memory of Alfred Clement Bell 1936-2019
Music and Lyrics by Steve Bell
 
Fresh tendernesses burgeoned
with the dying of my dad
I love him all the more for it
He lived his life for others’ gain
His death, he gave away the same
And I love him all the more for it
 
This son was fiercely fashioned
By his father’s dappled life
The way he loved his children
The way he loved his wife
My dad was hardly perfect
But I hardly give a rip
I loved him all the more for it
 
Not scandalized by brokenness
Not scandalized by pain
But Dad could not abide the curse
And hellishness of shame
He’d absorb another’s failures
And return them as a gift
We loved him all the more for it
 
My father was a trumpeter
Those days have long since passed
He passed along his passion to me
Eager as I was
We’d sit for hours and listen
To the Tijuana Brass
I loved him all the more for it
 
I tenderly remember
When a beauty left me rent
I was too young to consider then
That love is never spent
He told me pain would linger
And would likely leave a dent
I loved him all the more for it

My dad was a believer
He believed that God is good
He was certain Jesus lived
To show how everybody could
And that all our earthly sorrows
Couldn’t be the final writ
I loved him all the more for it
 
My father was a fortress 
For my two sisters and I
And more-so for our mom
Who suffered so much of her life
He taught us how to live 
And then he taught us how to die
We loved him all the more for it
 
Fresh tendernesses burgeoned 
With the dying of my dad
I love him all the more for it

In Memoriam (album version)

LONG SHADOWS
Music and lyrics by Steve Bell

One can tell
That the sun is setting on our fair-thee-well
When our civilization’s betting on its small men casting long shadows
We aspire
With a half a billion animals on fire
To surmount the consequences of desire behind the earth’s sorrows
Those who fall into the pit
Are, finally, the ones who dig it

It’s insane
That the nations rage, and peoples plot in vain
Against the Lord’s anointed saying let’s cast off these shackles
All the while
The one enthroned in heaven casts a smile
And terrifies the ones who know their ways are like the jackal
Those who fall into the pit
Are, finally, the ones who dig it

Long Shadows

The Angel Gabriel

I have not seen the angel Gabriel
Standing at the right side of the altar
Saying that important line of angels
Do not be afraid

I have not heard the angel Gabriel
Telling me my prayer has been answered
That my heart’s desire has been granted
An my wife will bear a son

But I have been answered
And I have been promised
In words that cannot be spoken
And the tender mercies of our God
Has caused the rising son to shine upon us
To guide our feet into the path of peace

I was not there when the angel Gabriel
Visited the village of Nazareth
Home of a young maiden he addressed
As the highly favoured one

I did not hear the angel Gabriel
Promise what could not be imagined
Answered by a faith without fathom
let what you have said be done

Steve_Bell

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