Last year I did a paper for a course on "Jesus in Literature", and since my professor had a fairly wide definition of "literature", I convinced her to allow me to look at the lyrics of Reverend Gary Davis songs. The paper rapidly spun out of my control, and I ended up transcribing sixteen songs and trying to analyze the portrayal of Jesus in them all (and since my prof had never heard of RGD, it became a ten page paper with a 35 page appendix of song transcriptions).
One of the problems I had with the paper was defining what a RGD song was... I wanted to concentrate on songs that he had either written or substantially changed, but because RGD used so many different sources (hymns, blues, pop music, etc.), as well as adapting what he used (and combining different sources), it's sometimes difficult to tell what parts were original to him.
I'm thinking of reworking the paper and narrowing down my focus, and one of the songs that I found fascinating was "Crucifixion" (RGD recorded versions of the song on "A Little More Faith", "Demons and Angels, v. 1", "Pure Religion", and "Sun of our Life"). I was wondering if anyone knew any sources behind Crucifixion ? I couldn't find any other songs that Davis was basing his lyrics on... but I figured if it wasn't an "original", someone here would know.
Thanks!
One of the problems I had with the paper was defining what a RGD song was... I wanted to concentrate on songs that he had either written or substantially changed, but because RGD used so many different sources (hymns, blues, pop music, etc.), as well as adapting what he used (and combining different sources), it's sometimes difficult to tell what parts were original to him.
I'm thinking of reworking the paper and narrowing down my focus, and one of the songs that I found fascinating was "Crucifixion" (RGD recorded versions of the song on "A Little More Faith", "Demons and Angels, v. 1", "Pure Religion", and "Sun of our Life"). I was wondering if anyone knew any sources behind Crucifixion ? I couldn't find any other songs that Davis was basing his lyrics on... but I figured if it wasn't an "original", someone here would know.
Thanks!