Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

I have had this tune going around my head! haha, it has been going round and round and round, and I always end up singing the songs that I have rattling around in my head and I REALLY can't sing plus I have a cold, so if I couldn't sing before I sure as hell can't now!! As an aside, I have a Ray Charles version of this song, which I love (see his version here on youtube.com) and you should check out! I love Ray Charles...

Anyways, why this song is in my head is interesting, or at least as interesting as things go in my life at the moment (that is a self-pitying moment there!! Forgive me!)

I had a day off on Monday and I sat down on the sofa with breakfast (my usual bran flakes and cuppa), put on the TV and scanned through the channels. (By the way, this is not the interesting bit!!) Now I tend to try and avoid getting to the film channel section because I know I will find something I will want to watch and then will indeed proceed to watch for the next two hours prompting me to do nothing but sit back and not move. However, there was a film on I wanted to see when it was on at the cinema when it was out and had failed to get around to see... as with so many things at the cinema!!

I ended up watching AMAZING GRACE with Ioan Gruffudd as William Wilberforce. Now I love Ioan from his days as Hornblower (AMAZING!- what can I say? I like naval history!- also, i am very sorry for the half pun thing there... amazing... amazing grace.... get it? nah, never mind...) but I also am quite interested in the history of Civil Rights and I did kinda study this chappy (William Wilberforce, not Hornblower or Ioan Gruffudd!) in my history AS-Level. It was a great film needless to say and it was this song that made me shed a little tear twice during the film. The first time was when he got married and his bride was the one bolstering him to keep going despite so many rebuffs in Parliament for abolishing slavery! It made me cry that his bride had chosen this song without him knowing to begin the wedding ceremony with. It was sweet. They clasped hands and looked directly at the altar/camera and sung with all their might and their 'damn anyone standing in our way' faces on. It was heart lifting!

The second time I did part with a tear or two was the closing scenes when bagpipes were heartily pumping out the tune of Amazing Grace again, this time for his funeral and the rolling credits reveal how much William Wilberforce did. My dad walked in at this point, clucked his tongue and shook his head with amusement at my tears. (He finds it funny that I have an attraction to anything on TV with fashion over a hundred years old!! I am still trying to get him to appreciate Hornblower- I half succeeded and got him to watch Master and Commander with Russell Crowe in. Half way I guess...)

Now apart from this being rather historically accurate, something I value in historical dramas (and believe me, despite the label 'historical dramas' there is often very little historical basis, facts or details), it was just a good watch and didn't batter you over the head with how bad slavery is... well it did, obviously, but not in a "It is all your fault" kind of way. It made you angry at the government and rich fat cats profiting from it. I did actually feel anger at them, and the frustration which Wilberforce must have felt at being completely ignored, ridiculed and never getting very far for his pains. This is a mark of a good film. If you can empathise with the characters and feel what they feel without you knowing you had felt it, then still have a lasting memory of it four/five days later, stands up for itself hailing it as a great film.

I think it was rather undervalued when it was in the cinema, and I suppose it is little well-known. I wouldn't know. But I do know it is immense and of epic proportions in the emotional sense. Summary: 'Tis great!!

As another aside, after researching what the lyrics are because I shamefully don't know them all I found out a bit about the guy behind the lyrics.

The author of the lyrics to “Amazing Grace” was John Newton, who was a slave trade after a stint in the Royal Navy. He wrote this hymn around Christmas time in 1772. Now , Newton was not initially a very religious man and according to Wikipedia, “the turning point in Newton's spiritual life was a violent storm that occurred one night while at sea. Moments after he left the deck, the crewman who had taken his place was swept overboard. Although he manned the vessel for the remainder of the tempest, he later commented that, throughout the tumult, he realized his helplessness and concluded that only the grace of God could save him.” Newton encouraged his sailors to pray and ensured that every member of his crew treated their human cargo with kindness, but it was 40 years later when Newton openly challenged the trafficking of slaves.

“Amazing Grace” summarises the doctrine of divine grace and the lyrics are based on reflections Newton had on his slave ship, the Greyhound, in 1748. His reflections were centred around 1 Chronicles 17:16-17, a prayer of King David in which he marvels at God's choosing him and his house.

The song is a known favourite with human rights supporters, partly because many believe it to be a testimony about the slave trading past of Newton. What I like about this song most is how it has become representative for me of the history of slavery and human rights. "Amazing Grace" chosen for the namesake of the film I watched on Monday about the English trying to abolish slavery was poignant and well chosen. I am not sure how relevant the song was to Wilberforce's life, but it was contemporaneous with him and it was popular at the time, so it is possible, and I like to think he perhaps hummed it under his breath in times of trouble!

But what a great tune to have stuck in your head all week!!