The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan;

Author:Bob Dylan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2022-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 38 MY PRAYER

THE PLATTERS

Originally released as a single

(Mercury, 1956)

Written by Georges Boulanger, Carlos Gomez Barrera, and Jimmy Kennedy

“MY PRAYER” HAS BEEN A HIT IN FIVE different decades and has been recorded in fourteen different languages. Originally, it was an instrumental crafted in 1926 by a French salon violinist with the title “Avant de mourir,” which translates to “before dying.” Thirteen years later an American, Jimmy Kennedy, added lyrics, giving the song a new title, “My Prayer.” It was a quick hit for both Glenn Miller and the Ink Spots.

This is another one of those songs that comes from a European melody. The twilight part is an intro to the song. A lot of songs written at this time had introductions built into them. If you have two songs and don’t know what to do with either one, you slap them together and the results can either be catastrophic or illuminating.

As far as the lyrics go, they seem to have great meaning because the lead singer in the Platters is such an emotional singer. “My Prayer” is a rapture in blue. In most cases a prayer would be for someone to get well, or all the standard things people pray for; maybe a loved one recovering, a family situation which needs to be straightened out. There are 1,001 things to pray for, but a rapture in blue and the world far away, and your lips close to mine, doesn’t actually, in the real world, add up to much. Garth Brooks had a song called “Unanswered Prayers,” which seems to have more to do with praying than this one does.

Bon Jovi had a song called “Livin’ on a Prayer.” Also there’s “I Say a Little Prayer,” sung by Dionne Warwick, but those are merely pop songs. The greatest of the prayer songs is “The Lord’s Prayer.” None of these songs even come close.

The guy in the Platters, Tony Williams, is one of the greatest singers ever. Everybody talks about how Sam Cooke came out of gospel to go into the pop field. But there’s nobody that beats this guy. He took his spirituality with him into the pop world. You couldn’t picture this guy getting shot, bare-naked in a motel room.

The Platters don’t need back-alley blues full of flatted notes and double entendres, they carry their soul with a cooler-than-thou looseness, offhand and urbane, exuding hipness the way James Dean exhaled cigarette smoke, and they broadcast from a station out among the stars where it is always twilight time.

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