A Ten For Today REVISIT: All Saints' Day

Lord Kitchener, The Dominoes, Mary Lou Williams, The Monkees, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Mickey Newbury, Flash and The Pan, Game Theory, Tom Waits, The Shins

A shorter, more naive version of this post appeared here on November 1, 2023. However, saints are timeless and I had forgotten all of this, so even if you have been a loyal reader for more than a year, I’m guessing you forgot as well. In fact, I could have not TOLD you it’s old, and you would likely not have known. But the saints would have known.

It’s All Saints’ Day, a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church, celebrating all saints whether known or unknown (meaning any of us could be one). This is one of my favorite holidays. As I may have explained before, I am a secular Catholic, meaning while I don’t engage in the activities of a church (that doesn’t think I should be able to be a priest, among other things), I carry ALL of the baggage. Therefore, I am a little bit obsessed with saints. They’re like superheroes, with magical powers of forgiveness who overcome tragedies and obstacles and don’t entertain bitterness. Human but not human. A little bit crazy. My kind of people.

Anyway, here are Ten For Today: All Saints’ Day.

In 1954, calypso legend Lord Kitchener prayed to St. Agnes, the virgin martyr. She is the patron saint of girls, chastity, virgins, victims of sex abuse, and gardners. I do not know how to unpack this one, so just enjoy.

This is a 1956 recording of a prayer to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux from a groom asking her to bless his impending marriage. Popularly known as Little Flower, Saint Thérèse is one of the most popular saints in the band. She never married, but her parents are the ONLY canonized husband-and-wife team. Apparently, they married, planning to live as brother and sister, but changed their minds at some point and had nine children! All five of their offspring who survived childhood became nuns. Given all of this, it seems a little odd we’d be asking her to bless marriages, but it’s a beautiful song, and if they played it at Catholic weddings, I would certainly listen, especially if The Dominoes were performing it.

This was first performed in 1962 and recorded in 1963, and it’s by Mary Lou Williams, called by some the greatest jazz pianist, composer, and arranger of all time. I wonder why she wasn’t super famous. Oh, hold on. She was a woman. And Black. That’s why! Ms. Williams went through a pretty dramatic conversion to Catholicism in 1954, and this is the first piece she wrote after that. It’s about St. Martin de Porres, the first Black saint, a mixed-race, Peruvian-born son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed slave of African and Native descent. You may also remember him as a character in Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” video. That did NOT go over well. He is the patron saint of race relations, which means that even in the saints, we look to people of color to solve the problems they did not create.  

This was recorded in 1968, but not released until ten years later. It’s not really ABOUT St. Matthew, but it’s a damn good song!

I can’t imagine St. Anthony approves of this one, from 1976, but it’s pretty irresistible.

Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians, but I can’t figure out if she actually WAS a musician. She shows up in paintings playing an organ. She is said to have “sang in her heart to God” as the musicians played at her wedding. So it kind of seems like she neither played anything nor sang aloud. Anyway, now she has all kinds of festivals and compositions in her name, so good for her. Here’s one from Mickey Newbury which I THINK was released in 1978.

Flash and The Pan released this in 1979, and it was a nice big hit, giving St. Peter even MORE exposure, even though he’s already one of the biggest saints, and the ultimate gatekeeper. He is really the one who decides whether you go to heaven or New York.

Mary Magdalene is of course one of my favorites. She is said to have witnessed the crucifixion and the resurrection, and for this Pope Pious pronounced her a “sinful woman” in the year 591. Though the Church walked that back in the late 1960’s, many still believe she was a repentant sex worker. What woman hasn’t been there? She’s also the patron saint of perfumers, so I find myself invoking her frequently when I’m at an event and have to hug someone wearing too much perfume or aftershave. I say “Mary, Mary make it better/don’t let this stench stick to my sweater/all day.” Anyway, this is from 1982, and I agree. Sometimes, I feel just like Mary Magdalene.

This one is from 1987. There is some confusion about whether St. Christopher is still a saint (He is.). He got removed from the liturgical calendar during a re-org, but he’s still on the board. I guess that’s kind of like Pluto going from planet to dwarf planet. There was a time when I bought St. Christopher medals in bulk on the regular and hid them in vehicles and suitcases. I don’t believe in that nonsense, but I also don’t not believe in that nonsense. There was at least one significant crash from which the driver, who was in a band, walked away from a mangled vehicle in which I hid one. I’m sure he wrote a song about it too. This is a different song.

I have no earthly idea what this one is about with its clever and obtuse lyrics, but it mentions Mercy (the virtue, not the dog, but still), and the music is good, so we’re going with it.

That’s it! That’s some saints set to music! Thank you for reading. You’re like saints of devotion. Thanks especially to the paid subscribers. I am investing the money wisely, mostly in high-quality socks for the winter and good coffee. Have a great day. Be kind to everyone you meet. You never know who will turn out to be a saint, and those can be transactional relationships.