Anything from Faith +1 Featuring Eric Cartman: “I want to egt down on my knees and start pleasing Jesus.”
George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” has already been mentioned, but I like his “Awaiting On You All,” “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth),” and “Life Itself”
Stevie Wonder - “Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away”
The Call - “You Run”
Sam Phillips - “I Need Love”
U2 - “40”
And that’s just limiting myself, as the OP and the majority of respondents did, to songs by modern mainstream popular artists.
I could include a lot more if I broadened it to Classical/Baroque compositions by the like of Bach and Handel; hymns; and songs by specifically Christian artists (e.g. Daniel Amos’s “Half Light, Epoch and Phase,” “Hole in the World,” “Jesus Wept,” “Father’s Arms,” “Sanctuary,” etc. etc.)
John Lennon - Imagine
Gandalf Murphy & The Slambovian Circus Of Dreams -
The song is called "Flapjacks From The Sky" and refers to eerie experiences that the singer interprets as religiously based. "Heavenly Mother put love in the batter for you..." The song is psychedelic, spiritual, involves aliens, angels, the Bible, and is generally a struggle to emerge from the haze into enlightenment.“Without their light, we’ve been junkies for mock apple pie.” All I can say about that is… Wowsers…
Your ears will love you for the rest of your life.
The OP said nothing about being positively inclined toward God or spirituality, merely asking about songs we enjoy. Besides, the OP liked my choice (see post #10)
I was a little surprised by the OP’s response there, as I read the intent the same way as WM.
Jethro Tull - Wind Up
(actually a lot of Tull gets sort of spiritual)
Electric Amish - Girl on Theology
(And a lot of their other stuff too
)
Another one by Mr. Townshend: Pavardigar
One of the best!
Great choices.
For what it’s worth, I was looking for anything dealing with spirituality or god. Not just positive messages.
I agree that ‘American Pie’ doesn’t really fit the tittle. It’s not “about” god or spirituality, however it does have a few things in it that deal with the subject, which is how I should have phrased it.
I always liked hearing “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow”. The choir always sang it at the end of church services when I was a kid.
Surprised to see the ineffable original Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen had not yet been mentioned:
“We Gather Together” will always mean Thanksgiving to me:
The Chuck Wagon Gang – Church in the Wildwood
Patsy Cline – Just a Closer Walk with Thee
(Unknown prisoner recorded by Alan Lomax) – No More, My Lord
Elvis Presley – How Great Thou Art
Tom Waits – God’s Away on Business
Sufjan Stevens – In the Devil’s Territory
16 Horsepower – Splinters
Massive Attack – What Your Soul Sings
Timber Timbre – Demon Host
Lotta Nick Cave songs…here are three:
God Is in the House
Mercy
Oh My Lord
This isn’t intended to be a spiritual song, but back when I was a practicing Catholic, I always listened to it in the car on the way to and from Confession – Bjork’s Unravel
Down to the River to Pray. Allison Kraus has several gorgeous versions of it.
Blind Faith’s Presence of the Lord is a beautiful song; this YouTube video has Clapton and Winwood (and Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall) performing it live about eight years ago.
It is only quite recently that I realised this was about God.
Van Morrison, Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
Have to admit that I listen to the music and the voice and largely ignore the words.
Van Morrison & Cliff Richard, “WHENEVER GOD SHINES HIS LIGHT”.
Jackie Evancho, Ave Maria
Jackie Evancho, Ave Maria
(Not the same)
Jackie Evancho, The Prayer
Jackie Evancho, The Lord’s Prayer
And no, I am not religious.
I’m still very fond of the Catholic church songs I grew up with, e.g. “Abba, Father,” “Be Not Afraid,” “On Eagle’s Wings,” “I am the Bread of Life,” “Here I Am, Lord,” etc. I find that I can’t view them objectively because they’re so embedded in my musical consciousness, so I have no idea if they would be musically or lyrically interesting to anyone hearing them for the first time.
That said, at least give a listen to this a cappella version of “I am the Bread of Life.” I always find it simultaneously weird, haunting, and moving.
Yes, this. And also I’ll Fly Away, from Kraus and Gillian Welch.
One of my very favorites is I Don’t Know How To Love Him, by Yvonne Elliman. It can be sung as a secular love song - and was, by Helen Reddy - but it is from Jesus Christ, Superstar, and is sung by Mary Magdalene about Jesus. Another one that I often find myself humming is Simon Zealotes’s song from the same work.
I’m not a Christian any more. But the story, as a story, is still powerful and beautiful, and this rock opera was one of the first works to really inspire me to think about the Jesus story.
Of course, for pure transcendent joy and beauty, it’s hard to beat the fourth movement of Beethoven’s 9th, the famous Ode To Joy (this flash mob video is actually a commercial for a Catalan bank, but it’s one of my favorite versions of the work, and I probably watch this two or three times a month).