Small Voice Calling > The Call > I’m Not Really Religious
“..but it never leaves you.”
Ralph McTell’s liner notes for his song ‘Jesus Wept’ on the 1995 CD ‘Sand in Your Shoes’, open:
“I’m not really religious, but it never leaves you. I loved the stories of Jesus when I was a little boy, and I decided quite early on that he was a good egg and someone to look up to because he basically said we should be nice to each other, which would make everyone get on that much better. It still appeals to me now, as a socialist and on other levels, as much as when I was young.”
l loved those stories too, and still do. Ralph knows that “Jesus Wept” is the shortest verse in the Bible, and he explores its meaning in a very creative song. But what is the actual context in the Gospel story, and does the song do it justice?
In this strand of Small Voice Calling we will look at the biblical sources of Ralph’s Sunday School memories, and how he uses them in his narrative songs. For each story there is a link to an on-line Bible, so you can read what Ralph is likely to have heard at Sunday School; and a retelling of the story for a grown-up audience.
Our starting point is the song from which this website takes its name: Small Voice Calling.
Small Voice Calling 