From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #94 Reply-To: jangle-poets@smoe.org Sender: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jangle-poets-digest Monday, September 3 2007 Volume 09 : Number 094 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] Ain't That Good News - Part 3 - Keys to the Kingdom [Nieldsforever@a] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 00:41:31 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] Ain't That Good News - Part 3 - Keys to the Kingdom Part 3 sees the loose ends tied up, and I get to put the series under wraps! Jay Votel reminds me of the foremost essential forerunner of N&K's "Ain't That Good News," namely "Keys to the Kingdom" from the album If You Lived Here You'd Be Home Now. My first notion was to pick up my map and my compass, to find some sort of progression from the earlier song to the latter. Further reflection, though, urged a more holistic approach, not wanting to overshoot the mark like Icarus, and so crash and burn whilst "connecting the dots in the sky." There is an older Nields song "I'll Meet You in the Sky" which is a spiritual forerunner of this whole series of "kingdom-oriented" songs. But it escapes the orbit of the gospel music attraction. "I'll Meet You in the Sky," from the 1998 album Mousse, is sad, even desperate-sounding -- as is "Forever," another Nields song with transcendental, "Wings of Desire"-like angelic sadness. But "Keys to the Kingdom" and "Ain't That Good News" are at quite a remove from the sad desperation of those other 2 songs. They're in a whole 'nother place altogether. One could say, I suppose, that they're in a better place. "Keys to the Kingdom" is very much like "When I'm Here," too -- a joyous, foot-stomping rolic, almost an outburst of joy, hope, and love. I've seen many, many performances of "Keys to the Kingdom" where TN brought musicians and friends onstage with them to perform the song, especially at the Iron Horse and at FRFF, such as Erin McKeown, Ben Demerath, and the Kennedys. Rather than seeing a progression from the one song to the other, I've decided to see "Keys to the Kingdom" and "Ain't That Good News" as two sides of the same coin, two complementary aspects of the one thing needful. "Ain't That Good News" focuses more on the future, on the "last things" beyond this world -- which in technical language could be referred to as "eschatology," "concerning the last things." "Keys to the Kingdom" OTOH finds the kingdom already active and present in our lives today -- if we could only open up our eyes and understand! This emphasis on the present nature of the "last things" could be construed in the phrase, "realized eschatology," "the last things are already here." So the kingdom of hope, love, and joy, being an eternal kingdom, transcends time, being future in one sense, but also present, in another sense. Neither sense overrides the other -- the two are one. "As above, so below." The anticipation of "good news" brings the "good news" home, today! And isn't that what so many of the songs are ardently wishing and hoping for? The desire to "come on home"? ET phone home? "Keys to the Kingdom" sees the gospel "good news" in the past as well -- since, after all, "Love Is All Around" -- past, present, and future. "I had the keys to the kingdom all the time! So take me back, take me back, Take me way-ay-ay-ay back!" Bruce Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/ Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy merchandise...what more could you ask for? ------------------------------ End of jangle-poets-digest V9 #94 *********************************