Or so George Michael told me when I was eleven.

Yes, another miscue.  Just another good title for this week’s theme over at Jen’s Kehl’s Twisted Mixed Tape Blog Hop.  If you are feeling misled and need your fix click here.  Please come back.

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So today’s assignment: Songs that are spiritual. In any way. To you, about something spiritual, you decide.

Okay.  Here goes.

So I’m a born and raised – but currently non-practicing – Roman Catholic who has baptised both her children and who is committed to sending her kids to French Catholic school (my husband is French).  My eldest recently started.  Courtesy of that, she is now leading us all in French grace before each meal.  She sings it.  Picture the French equivalent to Johnny Appleseed.

It’s totally lovely.  And I’m totally on board.

I’m also thinking we might return to church in a couple years once she’s old enough to join the kiddie choir and Sunday School.  That said, I have a few … unresolved issues … with my faith that I struggle with.

We’ll just let that smattering of contradictions sit for a moment.

Yeah, Faith and Religion are still a work in progress for me.  And I’m never quite sure where we … sit.

That said, I’m gonna refrain from streaming Madonna’s Like a Prayer and calling it a night.

Instead I’d like to start back in the 1960s.  Because, I think that is certainly a decade that started questioning religion, while being strongly spiritual and still truly having faith in a better world.

They are the generation who wanted to Give Peace a Chance and I can’t see how any god would have any words with that.

To begin this mix, I give you the Byrds: Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything there is a Season).

With words almost straight from the Book of Ecclesiastes, it’s one of the few popular songs to ever quote that heavily from scripture.  Regardless of your thoughts on that point, I think it’s straight up beautiful.

I hinted two weeks ago about my love for Leonard Cohen, so my next choice shouldn’t be a total shock.  Next up is Over the Rhine‘s cover of his classic Hallelujah.  I’ve loved this song for years.  It’s also one of those rare songs that, for some reason, I think is more beautiful when sung by a woman.  I had one specific cover in mind when I thought of this song, but I couldn’t remember who sang it, and so I couldn’t find it.  But this one is (almost) equally beautiful.  Which I think kinda goes to my point that women ROCK this song:

My third choice is from Sister Act II.  I know the premise of the movie is silly, but this song always moved me.

I give you Joyful Joyful from Sister Act II.  I encourage you to practice your Spanish with me before the song begins, as I couldn’t find a clip with an English intro.

Also, rah rah Lauryn Hill!  In addition to the fact that it’s fun to see her in this, there are also many beautiful moments – and harmonies – in this song.

Fourth, given the fabulously warm welcome I got for French Canadian music last week, I give you another one from Jean LeLoup.  I hadn’t been thinking about this one originally for this post, but came across it again while prepping last week’s post. And, really, the idea of all the gods getting together and getting sh*tfaced while lamenting how things ain’t going so well here on planet earth just appeals to me.  I give you “Le Monde est à pleurer” from his 1996 album Le Dôme (complete with translation below, just like last week, courtesy of Lyrics Translate with a few edits from yours truly):

The World is Crying

Today are assembled:
God the Father, and Buddha, and Krishna, and Allah;
In the same gymnasium.
All have a lot weighing on their hearts.
That’s the reason for the meeting;
That’s the reason for the meeting.

In fact, on this day;
Two thousand years after Christ;
They are forced to admit their failure.
Humans are mean and Earth is cruel;
Humans are mean and Earth is cruel.

“I wish to speak first” said Buddha, the fat slob;
Launching into it, without glory.
For my part, it is neither the wars nor the famines that bother me.

No, rather for me;
It is the whole failed concept of human natural selection.
For example: the martyr.
The worst we could endure:
Is not after all, before anything else, the chronic ugliness of life?
The chronic ugliness?

When I think about this girl, that I saw in Macao;
So repugnant and without talent.
Every time she loved;
Her love would choke her;
Like a stomach ulcer that gnawed from her insides.
Her love would choke her;
Like a stomach ulcer that gnawed from her insides.
Her insides.

Let’s go, Hop!
A little sincerity!
The world is crying.

“It’s nothing” said Allah, always contradictory.
I know fat people unable to see;
A refrigerator without quivering with anxiety.
Without quivering with anxiety.

Shameful and defeatist;
They linger in the night in dining rooms.
And in the day they hug the walls.
Enemy of mirrors;
Enemy of mirrors.

“Your view is cursory!” replied God the Father;
Do you know about the existence of these suburban families?
Who spend their youth earning a salary
Barely sufficient to pay for some horrible house with some horrible lawn?

And after twenty years of crazy labour;
The children leave and never love them anymore.
And never love them anymore.

Let’s go, Hop!
A little sincerity!
The world is crying.

But I’ll do you one worse!
Here’s Manitu!
Always late, and exhausted to death.
I see the procession of failed artists;
That search the subway all day long;
Racking their brains; trying to find this one poor girl;
Who sung ballads.
Ah! This one poor, not too pretty, girl;
Who sung ballads.

The meeting is going well.
It unfolds, all goes well.
The Gods cry out all their drunkness over juvenile acne;
Unstuck ears;
Lafontaine park;
Retirement at 60;
Deceitful love;
Public washrooms;
And raging toothaches.
Public washrooms;
And raging toothaches.

Finally God and Buddha and Krishna and Allah;
Exhausted from their efforts;
Fall tranquil and pessimistic.
And look at their toes and look at their feet;
And look at their feet.

But God the Father always so merry;
Gets back up!
“I have here, gentlemen, in my bag, a little cordial!
Tell me what you think!
And here he goes distributing the glasses!

Buddha lights one up;
He also brought some sake, which flows;
Manitu has some pot;
And Shiva, some hashish;
Allah retires.

And we see in the sky;
God the Father, the Buddha, Manitu and Krishna;
Arm in arm;
Piss drunk and joyful;
Singing at the top of their lungs;
Over the clouds.

Let’s go, Hop!
A little sincerity!
The world is crying.

Lastly, I leave you with something current, because everytime I hear it on the radio, I think how much I like it.  It’s a beautiful song and I love the message.  And I like that it lets me both start and end my post with a song that quotes scripture.  Love is Patient.  Love is Kind.  – Corinthians.  We used it at our wedding too.  And my belief, if not my religion, tells me that love is love.  I think it’s a simple, spiritual message.

That’s it from me this week.  Hope you enjoyed it.