It never occurred to me to ask why people aren’t singing more songs about infection—but Slate’s William Weir is all over this, with an interesting piece that includes audio clips from songs about influenza, meningitis, plague and TB. For example, here are the lyrics from “Influenza”, recorded by Ace Johnson in 1939:Influenza is a disease, makes you weak all in your knees
’Tis a fever everybody sure does dread
Puts a pain in every bone, a few days and you are gone
To a place in the ground called the grave
And definitely check out the clip from “Jesus is Coming Soon”, by Blind Willie Johnson. Play that at your staff meetings and just watch them all roll up their sleeves!
Photo: Blind Willie Johnson, public domain image from Wikipedia
