There are several churches in the vicinity of my house. Occasionally one or another of them grace me with a syncopated rendition of a hymn of one sort or another.

This afternoon, while puttering outside, I caught myself mentally performing "We are the Champions" by Queen. On reflection, I realized I'd had the subliminal bug put in my ear by the ringing of the closest bell tower.

Had they, in fact, been playing Queen? There's no way for me to be sure, but if they weren't they could be. The days of Quasimodo are long gone - the bells are computerized, digitized, climatized and sychronized. They can play anything they want.

Why couldn't a church, for a suitable donation say, play requests? Down-tempo, narrow-range songs are naturals, but with a little fiddling just about any song could be properly arranged, a bit like Muzak.

"Highway to Hell" anyone?
-- phoenix, Jun 14 2010

Phoenix Target of Church Bell Lawsuit http://www.onenewsn...ault.aspx?id=668718
This headline was too funny a coincidence not to link. [jurist, Jun 14 2010]

"Opium for the People" by Gong http://www.youtube....watch?v=EK3inIB_nsI
A song about religious freedom for people, in the face of rampant Marxism, honest! [Aristotle, Jun 14 2010]

Loughborough Carillon http://www.loughbor...lon-play-the-bells/
[DenholmRicshaw, Jun 14 2010]

Creche of Belles http://picasaweb.go...5482566420018745954
from one of my earlier submissions [xenzag, Jun 14 2010]

Proper bell ringing http://www.inspirew...mpaw/soundindex.asp
none of this “tune” nonsense [pocmloc, Jun 14 2010]

Last summer, one local church did "Stars & Stripes Forever" but I'm still hoping for "You Can't Always Get What You Want." That was a real carillon, though, with ropes & everything. Several others around here have electronic bells. Since those are just speakers, no reason to stick to instrumentals: you could request songs with *lyrics*
-- mouseposture, Jun 14 2010


Batty.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 14 2010


Despite the attached link below, I would favor more local church bells provided that the decibel level continues to be regulated. It would be nice, too, if neighboring churches co-ordinated their playing schedules and play lists so that they seemed to answer one another, rather than compete for attention and message.
-- jurist, Jun 14 2010


I agree with [jurist] - we want multiple, synchronised places of worship, for stereo, or even quadrophonic, sound.

Or perhaps a better solution would be to persuade Christianity and Islam to adopt the same holy day - say, Wednesday - so that the muezzin at your local mosque could give the call to prayer with a bell-ringing accompaniment from your local church.
-- hippo, Jun 14 2010


I recommend playing the following on church bells:

* "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zepplin
* "Loosing my Religion" by R.E.M.
* "Golden Void" by Hawkwind
* "Opium for the People" by Gong
-- Aristotle, Jun 14 2010


Loughborough's Carillon sometimes does requests.
-- DenholmRicshaw, Jun 14 2010


Psst - use HTML line breaks to make bullet points.
-- Aristotle, Jun 14 2010


//"Highway to Hell" anyone?//
"Hell's Bells", shirley?
-- gnomethang, Jun 14 2010


[Aristotle] sounds like your record collection is similar to mine.

Could I request that the bells play over the hills and far away.
-- Twizz, Jun 14 2010


+ oh sure, this would be fun.
where I work there is a bell tower that chimes off every half hour and one of the tunes is a little piece I had to learn when I took piano lessons as a child!! boy, does that get stuck in my head...
-- xandram, Jun 14 2010


"Phoenix Target of Church Bell Lawsuit"
My lawyers advise me not to comment at this time.
-- phoenix, Jun 14 2010


I suspect the church near my home has an early prototype. Each Sunday morning at the same time a peal of bells suddenly leaps into life mid clang, and continues with some unrecognisable cacophony until it ends just as abruptly, also mid clang, as the service is about to start. Refinements needed are some way to fade up/in and down/out or possibly arrange for the recording/tape/wax cyclinder to begin and end at a more appropriate time - say between notes or at the start or end of a recognisable piece.
-- Tulaine, Jun 14 2010


Thanks for the link, [DenholmRicshaw]
-- pocmloc, Jun 14 2010



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