Jean Redpath – How Can I Keep from Singing
A evening pause: Performed live June 13, 1987. I think of these words whenever I am in a truly glorious place underground:
My life goes on in endless song
Above earth’s lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear it’s music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?
While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though the darkness ’round me close,
Songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that rock I’m clinging.
Since love is lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Mr. Zimmerman,
The song as sung here is a cover from Enya.
It was on her Shepard Moons album and IMHO is better. The Celtic beat serves the song better but
then again I am a huge Enya fan so my opinion might be a little slighted….:)
Here is Enya doing her song. Beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-RHt3ElEvHQ
Jim: This is not really an Enya song. The lyrics as written here are hers, but the song is originally a gospel tune. Enya created her own secular lyrics for it. I like her performance but prefer the Jean Redpath performance here for two reasons. One, we can see her perform the song. I don’t like posting pauses that just show images. Two, this was the performance in which I first heard the song.
Thanks for sharing the sentiment – it is timely indeed.