Why should the devil have all the best tunes?

                            

The theatre in Worcester was crowded for the visit of William Booth on January 22, 1882. Even the General himself 'had great difficulty in getting in'. The door was smashed by the crowd still trying to gain admission after the place was full.

George ' Sailor' Fielder, the Commanding Officer, had been put up to sing. He had been a sea captain with a voice that had often been heard above the roar of the waves. (Forty years later he still had ' a voice like thunder and gloried in open-air fighting'.) He sang his testimony in the words, ' Bless His name, He set me free.'

'That was a fine song. What tune was that? ' inquired the Army's Founder later.

'Oh,' came the reply in a rather disapproving tone, General, that's a dreadful tune. Don't you know what it is? That's "Champagne Charlie is my name".' That's settled it,' William Booth decided as he turned to Bramwell.  

' Why should the devil have all the best tunes?'

The adoption of such music was soon put to full use. On Saturday afternoon, May 13, 1882, the congregation at the opening of the Clapton Congress Hall joined heartily in the chorus of Gipsy Smith's solo, ' O the Blood of Jesus cleanses white as snow' to the music of 'I traced her little footsteps in the snow '. There were no qualms of conscience. Many people gathered there knew none of the hymn tunes or gospel melodies used in the churches; the music hall had been their melody school.

An early pamphlet made the Army's position clear by saying that it 'considers all music sacred when used with holy purpose'. For his Christmas message to War Cry readers of 1880 William Booth had already written: 

          ' Secular music, do you say, belongs to the devil? Does it? Well, if it did I would plunder him for it, for he has no right to a single note of the whole seven. . . .  

Every note, and every strain, and every harmony is divine, and belongs to us. . . . 

So consecrate your voice and your instruments. Bring out your comets and harps and organs and flutes and violins and pianos and drums, and everything else that can make melody. Offer them to God, and use them to make all the hearts about you merry before the Lord.'