Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet

Gavin Byrars brings the hymn of a homeless man to new life.

I worked with a producer called Rich Costey on my sophomore album The Golden Echo released in 2014. I’ll never forget the first time Rich played this song to me. It’s called “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet” and it was brought to life by Gavin Bryars, a leader in British experimental music from the late 1960s to the 1980s. Here is a Youtube link if you don’t have Spotify.

This recording features a 26-second tape loop of a homeless man singing a hymn to himself on the street. Bryars came across this shaky recording while working on a documentary film about people living on the streets of London.

As the man’s voice quakes and wavers, he makes his way to the last two lines, “this one thing I know, cause he loves me so.” The loop of his voice plays over and over. Bryars had the idea to slowly weave an orchestral arrangement around the loop so that each time the man sings, a body of swelling chords adorn him in a loving musical embrace — as though they were embodying the very grace he speaks of.

The homeless man singing was never identified. No one ever found him, he remains completely anonymous.

Gavin recalls a profound moment int the studio when playing the piece for the first time :

“Although the homeless man was not a professional singer, he sang with a quiet strength and dignity. I left the tape loop playing while I went to get a coffee one day... When I came back I found my assistant sobbing. That was when I realized the emotional power of the piece.”

I invite you on this day to listen to this whole recording and let yourself be totally transported into this humble world of a man on the street, with a song in his heart and the response of the sound world that sings back to him. The recording opens with complete silence as though the man were taking a moment before beginning then the orchestra emerges from the distance slowly coming into focus. It takes patience to acclimate but once you drop in, you begin to be transported.

I think it’s one of the most moving pieces of music I’ve ever heard and on this Sunday I am retuning to it as my own prayer. The prayer of the broken hearted. The faith of the downtrodden. The reclamation of what we each know to be true. That we are loved immeasurably, even in the moments when we feel so cut off from it. The power in this brave mans voice reminds me that the human spirit cannot be broken as long as it hangs on to even just a fragment of hope in a world that can feel so hopeless.

Go Deeper

There are other versions that were released alongside this one . They include different orchestrations, and even two versions where Tom Waits sings along with the homeless man adding a whole other layer of emotion and progression to the original recording.

The 27-minute version is considered to be the “classic” as it acts like a long form raga and creates a contemplative, trance like experience.

Gavin Bryars has occasionally staged live or installation versions that run for 12 hours or more. Here is a live performance of the piece (don’t worry, it’s not 12 hours) which is a whole other way to experience the piece. I’d actually never seen it till now. The emotion each player puts into this performance is so moving.

Returning to this recording reminds me that at any single moment we encounter the opportunity to create. If we truly listen to the world around us. We have the power to tell the story of another when we take time to listen. We can take something soft and vulnerable and imbue it with power and universal connection.

The devotion of one man can become the devotion of many.