{"id":3410,"date":"2025-02-13T17:35:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T17:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=3410"},"modified":"2025-02-13T17:35:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T17:35:02","slug":"blog-february-13th-the-first-time-ever-i-saw-your-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=3410","title":{"rendered":"Blog February 13th The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is not Heaven featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Uplifted recorded and produced by Bob Ross<\/p>\n

One of my oldest friends, Kathy recently died and at her Service I had the privilege to read the following words from Chapter 14 of John\u2019s Gospel:
\nDo not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in me,
\nIn my Father\u2019s house are many rooms, if it were not so I would have told you.
\nI am going there to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you,
\nI will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am,
\nDo not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
\nI had read those words before so felt fairly composed as I waited for my turn to read.
\nJust before that, however, some photos of Kathy\u2019s life came up which were very moving but when they became accompanied by Roberta Flack\u2019s \u201cThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Face\u201d it really got to me. I managed the reading, but with much more emotion in my voice that I intended or expected.
\nIt dawned on me that this song must be up there with my all -time favourites with lyrics like this that are timeless:
\nAnd the first time, ever I kissed your mouth
\nI felt the earth move in my hands
\nLike the trembling heart of a captive bird<\/p>\n

So, I did a little research and found that the song was written by Ewan McColl (yes the father of Kirsty of \u201cThe Pogues\u201d and \u201cThe Fairytale of New York\u201d fame) He wrote it for folk singer Peggy Seeger who he later married.
\nHere is the original, sang by Peggy which is so very, very different from the Roberta Flack version<\/p>\n

Peggy Seeger – The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (1957)<\/a> – YouTube
\nHere is the Roberta Flack version that was played at Kathy\u2019s service<\/p>\n

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face <\/a>(2006 Remaster)<\/p>\n

It is audio only and so here is this one with visuals which is sang slightly faster and which, for me is not so haunting and poignant,<\/p>\n

Roberta Flack – First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 1972<\/a> – YouTube<\/p>\n

And lastly 66 years on Peggy Seeger again but this time with more of a Roberta Flack feel\u2013 if you listen to no other listen to this one- Peggy was 87 years old when she sang this!<\/p>\n

Peggy Seeger – The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (2023)<\/a> – YouTube<\/p>\n

Quote of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is not Heaven featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Uplifted recorded and produced by Bob Ross One of my oldest friends, Kathy recently died and at her Service I had the privilege to read the following words from Chapter 14 of John\u2019s Gospel: Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3414,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3410\/revisions\/3414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}