The original was written and performed by British New Wave rock band Ultravox and was released as a single in 1982. As you can see here, it was covered quite a bit. What I particularly enjoy about this song is the rather cynical attitude towards the Bible, referring to that particular work as a "storybook." The lyrics are great:
Give us this day all that you showed me
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come
Give us this day all that you showed me,
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come
Give me all the story book told me,
The faith and the glory 'til thy kingdom comes
And they said that in our time,
All that's good will fall from grace
Even saints would turn their face,
In our time
And they told us that in our days,
Different words said in different ways,
Have other meaning from he who says,
In our time.
Give us this day all that you showed me,
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come
Give me all the story book told me,
The faith and the glory 'til thy kingdom comes
And they said that in our time,
We would reap from their legacy,
We would learn from what they had seen,
In our time.
And they told us that in our days,
We would know what was high on high,
We would follow and not defy,
In our time.
Give us this day all that you showed me,
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come
Give me all the story book told me,
The faith and the glory 'til thy kingdom comes
Faithless in faith
We must behold the things we see
Give us this day all that you showed me,
The power and the glory 'til thy kingdom come
Give me all the story book told me,
The faith and the glory 'til thy kingdom comes
Here is Ultravox with the original:
Edguy did a cover in 1999. It's...OK.
And here is Lunatica's version.
2 comments:
I love the Lunatica cover! The Edguy one is excellent as well and fits their style like a glove.
What I find particularly striking is how the verses, honestly quite bland in the original, are so much more powerful and engaging in the Edguy version, and even more intriguing in Lunatica's. This song was totally made for this kind of music! It just needs the punch!
One thing that has struck me in Lunatica's version, however, that the lines in the bridge are omitted. But instead we get a nice instrumental section, so it's all good!
I've got a funny story to tell with respect to "Hymn" and these covers. Last summer or so I heard the Ultravox original on the car radio and it turned out I didn't know it, or at least had no idea about the name of the song or artist. But I was awestruck by the melody and what I could make out of the lyrics, thinking: "This would make an AWESOME power metal song!" So when I was back home, I immediately rushed to the PC, searching the web for "the power and the glory" in an attempt to find out the name of the artist and song. That it is named "Hymn", which doesn't occur at all in the lyrics, doesn't make things easier for the poor searcher - and potential buyer of the single. :P But eventually (not sure if I had help) I did manage to find out the title and the band. Then the realisation hit me: No wonder that I thought that it would make an awesome power metal cover, as I was already familiar with the cover from Edguy's "Vain Glory Opera". But I had never realised it was a cover as it fits so perfectly on the album, giving no indication that it is not an original Edguy song! I also found out about the Lunatica cover, which I hadn't heard yet, even though I'd already scrobbled a few of their songs on last.fm and was pretty much floored.
I meant, I was floored by the cover :) Although I did like their original material as well ...
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