Mine is the sunlight/
Mine is the mornings.

“Morning Has Broken” might be Cat Stevens most famous song, but did you know it is actually a Christian song that he added different words to?

In college I was speaking to a religion professor about Cat Stevens (I don’t know how the topic came up)…I think he was talking about how “Peace Train” had evangelical overtones…it was a long time ago. I told him that “Morning Has Broken” was one of my favorite Cat Stevens songs and he told me that he sings that at church. I was incredulous. “You sing Cat Stevens at church?” “Nope, it was a Christian song first.”

Well, I refused to believe it. The next lecture he brings me a folded-up piece of paper and delivers it to me in front of the whole class. It was a xerox copy of the original song with the copyright. I was stunned. Everyone in class was looking at me as neither of us said a word.

While that discovery was a bit disappointing, you can’t argue that Stevens re-worked “Morning has Broken” made the song into a beautiful, inspired, universal song with corresponding arrangement. The piano part is one of the best, and most recognizable in rock/pop history. Coupled with Steven’s smooth voice and you have an all-time great song. The background singers are used perfectly. Compare their use here compared to a song like Sympathy for the Devil. Sometimes, with background singers, less is more.

Lyrics Morning Has Broken
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing
Praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word

Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dew fall on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass

Mine is the sunlight
Mine is the morning
Born of the One Light Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day

Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing
Praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word
by Cat Stevens & Eleanor Farjeon

Shimmering memory, come and hold me/
While you show me how to fly.

Judee Sill’s “The Kiss” is similar to Morning Has Broken or Bridge Over Troubled Water in that it sounds like a hymn rather than a rock song. The theme of the song is how a kiss can be like a religious experience. It almost sounds too cheesy to express it like that. Sill says it is like “communion”—when we become one with God. Still describes a kiss: it is like a “Holy Breath”, a “Wind Song” that can teach one to fly.

Take a minute and think about the last time you heard an artist use such unique descriptions for a common, everyday experience? But a kiss is not common at all—that’s her point.

The production on “The Kiss” highlights Sill’s voice perfectly. The piano coupled with the symphony in the background create a secular hymn. And again…her voice! Wow. Perhaps this song brings a kiss the proper reverence it deserves.

“The Kiss” is Sill’s masterpiece. She sings like an angel and writes all her own songs. She has several great songs. Not famous songs, but great songs. Somehow fame slipped past her. She died young and in obscurity.

You may also like this cover by the Fleet Foxes:

The Kiss Lyrics

Over rising from the mists,
Promise me this and only this:
Holy breath touching me, like a wind song.
Sweet communion of a kiss.

Sun sifting through the grey,
Enter in, reach me with a ray.
Silently swooping down, just to show me
How to give my heart away.

Once a crystal choir
Appeared while I was sleeping
And called my name.
And when they came down nearer
Saying, dying is done.
Then a new song was sung,
Until somewhere we breathed as one,
And still I hear their whisper.

Stars bursting in the sky,
Hear the sad nova’s dying cry.
Shimmering memory, come and hold me
While you show me how to fly.

Sun sifting through the grey,
Enter in, reach me with a ray.
Silently swooping down, just to show me
How to give my heart away.

Lately sparkling hosts
Come fill my dreams, descending
On fiery beams.
I’ve seen ’em come clear down
Where our poor bodies lay.
Soothe us gently and say,
Gonna wipe all your tears away.
And still I hear their whisper.

Love, rising from the mists,
Promise me this and only this:
Holy breath touching me, like a wind song
Sweet communion of a kiss.

Like a bridge over troubled water/
I will lay me down.

“Bridge Over Troubled Water” is Simon and Garfunkel’s Tour de Force sung by Garfunkel and played by Larry Knechtel. He’s a famous piano session man for bands like Bread, The Beach Boys, Joan Baez, The Byrds, The Mamas and the Papas, etc. If you are a fan of music, you’ve heard his work before.

This is a great Paul Simon song that Garfunkel gets to sing because Paul wrote it in a key too high for him to sing it himself. There are ways around that (musically he could have dropped it a step), but there is nothing wrong with having Garfunkel sing lead too. Supposedly, there were times when Simon regretted that decision.

The meaning of “Bridge over Troubled Water” is about sacrificing your own needs to benefit others. That is one type of love: philos. The song is so universal that  my Aunt even told me she heard this sung in a Catholic church.

The piano work is original and compliments the melody perfectly. It is difficult to play. Since Knechtel doesn’t sing at the same time, it becomes a lot easier. Notice how he varies the volume significantly throughout the song to approximate emotion. That is harder to do on a piano than a guitar. When the full band and strings come in one instrument that jumps out at me is the drums. Simon and Garfunkel use a similar effect that they used in The Boxer where they have sole large echoing smashes of the tom.

Garfunkel sounds in his element. He delivers the song beautifully and articulately and unashamedly. It turns out he and Simon make a pretty good team.

Bridge Over Troubled Water Lyrics

When you’re weary,
Feeling small.
When tears are in your eyes,
I will dry them all, all.

I’m on your side,
Oh, when times get rough.
And friends just can’t be found.

Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will lay me down.

When you’re down and out,
When you’re on the street.
When evening falls so hard,
I will comfort you.

I’ll take your part,
Oh, when darkness comes.
And pain is all around.

Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will lay me down.

Sail on silver girl,
Sail on by.
Your time has come to shine-
All your dreams are on their way.

See how they shine,
Oh, if you need a friend.
I’m sailing right behind.

Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will ease your mind.
Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will ease your mind.