BANQUET OF THE LORD: BOB HURD AND ME

Bob Hurd and I have known each other since 1971 when we were seminarians at St. John’s College in Camarillo, California. He was a Junior and I was a Freshman. I wish I had a photo of us in our regulation cassocks that we wore for liturgy. Laugher, for sure! We both had long hair – hey, the Seventies! – and Bob was also clean-shaven. No beard! 

Bob noticed I was a piano player at talent shows and from bumping into each other jamming on Beatle songs at the music rehearsal room. I noticed at Mass that Bob was a great guitar player who was blessed with a golden singing voice. In fact, he was our leader for contemporary music at college liturgies. He eventually invited me to play piano in our liturgy ensemble and to join a rock band he started. 

In the early 1970s, we were in the midst of transition with contemporary music for Catholic liturgy. The earnest and enthusiastic songs of the Folk Mass era were, frankly, worn out by 1971. Nobody wanted to sing “Allelu!” or “They’ll Know We Are Christians” anymore. So we were experimenting with new ideas. One of Bob’s innovations was to bring a piano into chapel. This was a radical idea, especially in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, but the piano was certainly making headway into popular music by Paul McCartney, Elton John, Carole King, Leon Russell, and so many other rock pianists of the day. But what really got us excited were Bob’s newly composed songs. 

Here's an excerpt from my first book, Keep the Fire Burning  (chapter 13, page 124): 

Bob Hurd was a seminarian from St. John’s College in Camarillo, California.  Together with the theologate school, St. John’s Seminary, this dual campus was the hub of priestly formation for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  In 1971, Hurd was charged with coordinating the college folk liturgies, bringing to the position a passion for good music.  He did not find much in the 1960s folk repertoire that his discerning community would want to sing, so Bob began composing original songs that reflected his considerable folk-rock musicianship and his generation’s search for spiritual fulfillment.   

Hurd’s liturgical music rocked and became very popular with the seminarians.  Their Sunday morning liturgy was open to the public and people in the surrounding Ventura County area would come from miles around to participate. Word got out that St. John's was the hot spot for outstanding contemporary worship, and the college chapel was filled every weekend with a standing-room-only congregation that sang with unabashed enthusiasm. Dennis Fitzpatrick, President of FEL Publications, visited St. John’s one Sunday to see what all the fuss was about. Clearly impressed, he offered Hurd an exclusive contract to publish and record his songs. This resulted in two LP albums: O Let Him In  and Bless the Lord.
 © 2009, Pastoral Press, Portland, OR

Bob is the first to admit that his early songs for liturgy emerged from his own personal experience as a folk singer in the mode of the singer-songwriter movement of the early Seventies. His melodies were catchy, his chords and guitar technique wildly original, and his harmonies gorgeous. Although he did base some of his songs on passages from Scripture, they were not direct quotes but more of an exegetical reflection that was meaningful to us college-age seekers. But we're not singing those songs at liturgy anymore, so entrenched are they with their times. 

Here’s an example of one of Bob’s first songs. It’s lovely and a time capsule of where he was at in 1971. 

THE BANQUET OF THE LORD  

How the wind runs through the trees;  

sets my troubled mind at ease,  

for the things you say on a windy day  

take my breath away.  

And we’ve all come together  

to the banquet of the Lord.  

To the banquet of the Lord  

we’ve come.   

© 1973, FEL Publications. Assigned to the Lorenz Corporation. 

We loved Bob’s songs and sang along immediately. They were so fresh! But he was just learning about liturgy and Scripture. He did not master the craft of liturgical songwriting until several years later, but a composer has to begin somewhere. It was a good start; the best was yet to come. 

Next: Making Music with Bob Hurd