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HUNGRY AND THIRSTY

Sydney Carter was born in Camden, London in May 1915, so we are

looking at someone far removed from the hymn writers I have
considered previously. Sydney was also very controversial and his
songs/hymns were not accepted by many Christians. He was in many
ways a modern day psalmist questioning God, revealing his doubts,
struggling with his faith, and trying to shock.

In the mid-1930s Sydney read History at Balliol College where he
obtained his degree, and then worked as a teacher until the war took
hold of him. But he registered as a Conscientious Objector, joined the
Friends Ambulance Unit, made friends with a group of people who
thought the same as he did about war and together they saw service in
Egypt, Palestine and Greece.

After the war he dedicated himself to all kinds of folk music. He’d been
especially influenced by the music of Greece but he studied many other
forms, and in 1952 he found he could earn a living working as a lyricist
for Donald Swann (he of the famous hippopotamus song…’Mud, mud,
glorious mud…’) and it was during this time he produced some of his
well known songs/hymns:

One More Step Along The World I Go
The Lord Of The Dance
When I Needed a Neighbour
Friday Morning
Every Star Shall Sing a Carol

Friday Morning is different. It is an amazing piece of drama of what took
place when Jesus was crucified. Undoubtedly Sydney intended it to
shock. And it certainly did that! It starts like this:

It was on a Friday morning
That they took me from the cell,
And I saw they had a carpenter
To crucify as well.
You can blame it onto Pilate,
You can blame it on the Jews,
You can blame it on the Devil,
t’s God I accuse.
It’s God they ought to crucify
Instead of you and me,
I said to the carpenter
A-hanging on the tree.

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