I have talked before about how musicians are influenced by C.S. Lewis (here, here, here, and here). Another one of these is New Zealand superstar Brooke Fraser.
Church folk might know Fraser from her role in the Hillsong United music ministry. “Desert Song” became a standard in our local church for a couple of years, and Brooke Fraser’s voice is on that track. Most, however, will have encountered Fraser in her pop music. One of her songs caught my ear by its first two lines:
If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy,
I can only conclude that I was not made for here
I had to look up the song title, and readers may not be surprised that it is simply called “C.S. Lewis.” The rest of the song is not Lewisian in imagery, using sexual, creational, resurrection, and second coming images that would not have come from Lewis’ pen in exactly this way–though he talked about each of these things. But the influence of C.S. Lewis on Brooke Fraser is clear.
I first heard of Fraser’s music not in this C.S. Lewis tribute, but in her hit single, “Something in the Water.” Staff at my son’s camp were playing the song to gather kids around for mealtime and it caught me. The video is particularly well done, integrating beautiful art and fashion elements and drawing us into Homer’s Odyssey. I wouldn’t dig too deeply into the meaning of the song: it is just a fun LA-style love song. But I like the video.
While Brooke Fraser’s style of music is not one that I am immediately drawn to, I appreciate her ability to tell stories in her songs, as in her character piece “Betty” and in mission inspired, “Albertine.”
Fraser also has the ability to capture atmosphere, a key storytelling device according to C.S. Lewis–though it is often forgotten (see here). Perhaps the best example of this among her singles is “Coachella.” Plus, that’s one of the coolest drummers I have ever seen.
Brooke Fraser’s work is an interesting study to challenge the contrasts we make in our mind. This is a local church worship leader with an international pop career, a Christian with inlfuence in the red carpet scene of her home land, and a pop artist who is smart. It is also another testimony of Lewis’ influence in the pages of other people’s work.
I hope you enjoy this Friday Feature!
Thanks for introducing me to Brooke’s music. (I usually listen to groups like Switchfoot, Thousand Foot Krutch, Fireflight, and Flyleaf… among others… not so much to “worship” style music.)
I enjoyed her C.S. Lewis song so much I bought the Albertine album and am listening to it now.
I am glad you enjoyed. The list you give is much more like my school. I’ve been enjoying 21 Pilot and We Came as Romans too–both a bit on the aggressive side.
I actually have stopped updating Windows 10 because it wants to cut me off from my old music, mostly scanned in from CDs, including Christian music from the 90s and early 00s.
Great post! Brooke Fraser is one of my favorite artists and C. S. Lewis is one of my favorite writers, so I was excited to find the connection between them. She also has a song called “Shadowfeet” which she says was inspired by Lewis’s book The Great Divorce. In case you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4XELEJi2Hw
Hi Hanna, I’m glad you made that connection. I knew that song–I think of it as the camera song–but had not connected it back to an inspiration point.
Hoping you’ll excuse a tangent, but looking for info about Lewis’s radio talk version of his Cambridge Inaugural address, which instead of the Latin title was called ‘The Great Divide’, I just ran into some other Great Divorce related music I’d never heard of – by Stephen L. Winteregg:
http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/music_and_worship_compositions/18/
And, thank you for this nice overview-anthology post: I first encountered Brooke Fraser when searching for Lewis-related music on YouTube, but had learned nothing about her!
Oops: misspelled his ‘Steven’ by memory…
Totally new to me.
I had t heard of her before, but I like her music and knowing a little bit more about the background of if. Thanks!
Hidey ho! I am glad you enjoyed. She did a tour in Europe 3 or 4 years ago and did well. I am looking forward to reading a winter post of yours when I have a breath of air.
Catch that breath and use it for something more pleasant than reading a blog post 😉
Well, we do have winter here in Canada too. Today I had to wake up at 6:00 to dig out the air vent for the furnace. It is 4 feet off the ground. So I’d like to hear about winter in Berlin!
Oh, I know you have winter! In fact, I thought winter was defined by the Canadians (and the Swedes, and maybe some parts of Russia).
Stay warm!
I enjoyed reading your thoughts about having to dig out the furnace… hope you won’t have to do it again this season.
And winter in Berlin is less snow, but we have a lot of -2 to -10 degrees Celsius days. There’s no lack of things to do though!
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