There is a passage on page 49 of the book A Time Before Deception by Thomas W. Cooper that reads: “It seemed far more important to the elder that the song be sung by one who would faithfully remember each part of it, who would actually provide an accurate conduit for the gods to enter the earth, than that the singer had a talented or trained voice.” I read this quote and thought about how important it was for many indigenous tribes to obtain complete control of their cosmos, and how the idea of one singing for our human pleasures was completely ludicrous to them. I then on a related tangent began to think about how modern pop music would be if the songs had such spiritual meaning and if it was the message that exceeded the importance of the messenger’s ability to pleasantly convey it for humans. Further thought on this brought me to the conclusion that as much as I love a good singer maybe sometimes we should sometimes focus on the song itself. At my temple on the high holy days we bring in a cantor to sing the whole service, she’s obviously a great singer whose technical ability is unrivaled, however I honestly just can’t stand her, I long for the parts of the service where the congregation chimes in just so I don’t have to focus on her voice. Yet an example of maybe a less talented singer but who has songs with an important message is Bob Dylan who I could listen to all day just because no one could ever convey his messages any other way with the same effectiveness.
Aaron Stein
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