‘Jesus’ blood never failed me yet’

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In 1971 a film was made about people sleeping rough in the Waterloo and Elephant and Castle area in London.  One piece of footage not used in the film was of an unknown homeless man singing these words:

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet

Never failed me yet

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet

This one thing I know, for He loves me so.

Intrigued

Gavin Bryars, an alternative musician who was friends with the film-maker, ended up with reels of the unused footage. He listened to the man’s singing and found himself intrigued.

In the art college where he worked, he used the recording room to copy the singing into a continuous loop. The recording room was next door to a large art studio and he left the tape playing while he went for a coffee. When he returned, he found those in the studio profoundly affected by it:

“When I came back I found the normally lively room unnaturally subdued. People were moving about much more slowly than usual and a few were sitting alone, quietly weeping. I was puzzled until I realised that the tape was still playing and that they had been overcome by the old man’s singing.”

Moving

Bryars realised he had something powerful on his hands. So he created a musical accompaniment which gradually evolves and builds around the man’s singing. The resulting piece is a deeply unusual piece of music – relentlessly repetitious but extremely moving. It has an almost hypnotic power (click here to listen).

BBC Radio 3 recently broadcasted a fascinating programme Never Failed Me Yet all about this song.  What adds to the mystery is that no source can be found to this song and it appears that the man improvised it.

Deep faith

The radio programme features my great friend Pam Orchard who runs the charity The Connection at St Martins, one of the key homeless services in central London. As she says:

‘I like the simplicity and authenticity of the man’s singing…I get a sense from him of deep faith, it’s almost like he was singing something with a very clear and explicit religious reference without actually needing the framework of a hymn because it was in him already. Somewhere inside him, he has this sense that he’s going to be alright and that he’ll be looked after.’

Solidarity

Also on the programme is the Rev. Richard Carter, a priest at St Martins, who organises the annual service to remember homeless people who have died. He expresses his initial concerns about the ‘traditional, redemptive theology’ of the words but how his theological nervousness was overcome when he heard it sung:

‘This old man is in many ways doing a service to everybody because he is singing on behalf of all us who long to find that sense of a God who does not fail us, a solidarity which does not fail us, a hope in the future which does not fail us.’

Similarly to Pam and Richard, this song has really got under my skin. Since I first heard it at the St Martin’s service back in 2018 (see the article I wrote then), I have found myself singing it over and over.

Faith, hope and love

Its worth reflecting on why the song has such power.

A key reason is because someone so obviously vulnerable is singing with a moving simplicity. Faith, hope and love is expressed in a context of fragility, pain and hardship. 

More than ever, we value the authenticity of ‘lived experience’ and the subjective power of someone sharing their truth.

Deeper truth

But the song represents something deeper than just a subjective, personal experience.  It would not have the same power if the man was singing Yellow Submarine or even All You Need is Love.

The power of this song lies in the fact that this man’s song proclaims a deeper truth about where redemption can be found: an objective truth about what Jesus’ self-sacrifice achieved. 

The song is a beautiful expression of the deep heart of the Christian hope. That amidst the chipped, fractured and tragic realities of life, redemption can be found.

Higher power

And this redemption cannot be generated through humanitarianism or self-help alone. We need a higher power.

Christian hope lies in the objective truth of what God has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus. As this unknown singer illustrates, this hope is freely available to all; it needs no human mediation or religious ceremony. 

Jesus blood never failed me yet. This is our hope. This is our song.

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Listen to contemporary stories about how people affected by homelessness have transformed their lives from this panel of Hope into Action tenants speaking at our recent conference.