Whiskey Headed Buddies - Needed Time

Topic: Movement - Dance
Methodists’ aversion to social dancing goes back to an article John Wesley wrote for lay readers of his Arminian Magazine in July and August of 1787 about "a more excellent way" of living. [1]

At the time he was eighty-four-years old and concerned with the structure of the church. He had begun as a reformist within the Anglican church, and still considered that to be his role. However, the successful revolution fought by the North American colonies meant the English church had ceased to exist there, and local leaders in the United States had begun ordaining themselves. At the annual meeting held in Manchester in August of that year the primary issue was the desire by English pastors for the same sort of independence. [2]

Despite his conservative loyalty to the church, Wesley remained an innovator. As mentioned in the post for 27 September 2018, he had introduced small weekly classes led by exhorters when the Methodist society in Bristol, England, became too large to be taught by one individual. In 1787, the movement had grown to 4,000 in England and 6,859 in America. [3] He resorted to the newly emerging mass media in 1778 when he began his own magazine for his followers. [4]

In many ways his sermon on "a more excellent way" was a reformulation of his 1729 attempt to create a method of appropriate behavior for the Holy Club at Oxford. [5] He began by suggesting "two orders of Christians" existed within the Anglican church. "One lived an innocent life, conforming in all things, not sinful, to the customs and fashions of the world." The other were more zealous in their intent "to attain the whole mind that was in Christ." [6]

Then, as in 1729, he itemized the ways they differed from how many hours they slept to how they conducted their business and ate their meals. However, the instructions he drew up for his first society in 1744 did not mention dancing. [7]

His reason for including the section on proper diversions in 1787 probably was stimulated by the behavior of the royal family. George III’s brother Henry had taken up residence in a seaside resort that had become popular for its baths. George’s oldest son visited Henry in 1782, and rented his own home in 1783. Both had contracted scandalous marriages, and were considered "dissipated." [8]

Wesley’s list of diversions matched the activities in Brighton: hunting, shooting, fishing, races, masquerades, plays, assemblies, balls, cards, dancing, and music. [9] Samuel Johnson had said in the 1770s: "you hunt in the morning and crowd to the rooms at night and call it diversion when your heart knows it is perishing from poverty of pleasures and your wits get blunted for want of some other mind to sharpen them on." [10]

Wesley’s conceded "balls or assemblies" were "more reputable than masquerades but must be allowed by all impartial persons to have exactly the same tendency. So undoubtedly have all public dancings. And the same tendency they must have, unless the same caution obtained among modern Christians which was observed among the ancient Heathens. With them men and women never danced together, but always in separate rooms. This was always observed in ancient Greece, and for several ages at Rome, where a woman dancing in company with men would have at once been set down for a prostitute." [11]

His instructions were taken up in this country after Phoebe Palmer introduced the concept of living a more holy life. She had never had a genuine conversion experience, and believed this would, as Wesley promised, bring her closer to the mind of Christ. [12] By then waltzes had been introduced [13] and dancing between men and women become more intimate because the man put his arm around his partner’s waist and she touched his shoulder.

Couples dancing like that done in Bristol in 2016 became taboo. At that Christmas party, a man and woman were seen standing several inches apart taking steps that traveled in varying directions. His right arm was around her waist, and hers was lain along that arm. Another man, wearing a Santa hat, had one hand extended to his partner in a pose popularized by jitterbug.

Wesley and Palmer would have been more scandalized if they knew the music was a religious song recorded by a blues musician. It was not clear if the Whiskey Headed Buddies even knew the origins of "Needed Time": they learned it from Eric Bibb. [14] They replaced the reference to "Jesus," with "please, if you don’t stay long."

For the middle-aged gathering, it was simply a pleasant tune. For Wesley and Palmer it would have been an example of an unthinking way of life that followed the conventions of the time. It would not have mattered if the woman was the man’s wife or a friend.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Keith Hodges
Vocal Group: none

Instrumental Accompaniment: Keith Hodges, acoustic guitar; Dave Hares, electric guitar; John Jones, bass guitar

Rhythm Accompaniment: Sean Hanneberry

Credits
"one of our favourite songs by Eric Bibb" [15]

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Verses: needed time, bended knee, stay long

Vocabulary
Pronoun: you
Term for Deity: none
Special Terms: "please" for "Jesus"

Basic Form: three-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: ABCAC
Ending: none
Unique Features: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: Lightnin’ Hopkins
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: sung verses alternated with instrumental sections at the beginning, after the third verse, and at the end

Singing Style: one syllable to one note with no ornamentations

Vocal-Orchestral Dynamics: the band played chords during the vocal parts, and melody during the interludes with no displays of virtuosity to disturb the dancers.

Notes on Performance
Occasion: Christmas party, 11 December 2015

Location: stage, Whitchurch Community Centre, Bristol, England. The stage backdrop was a mural of rural life with Holstein cows in a fenced field.

Microphones: the vocalist had a floor mike; the electric instruments had amplifiers

Clothing: casual dark shirts and slacks; the drummer wore a tee-shirt featuring someone’s head. The male dancers wore white shirts and ties; the woman wore a sweater.

Notes on Movement
The band remained stationary. The electric bass player sometimes shifted his weight from foot to foot. The electric guitar player moved a little to the music.

Audience Perceptions
The party-goers applauded at the end.

Notes on Performers
Whiskey Headed Buddies was formed in 2009. [16] They performed together, and in combinations with others. [17]

The lead singer, Keith Hodges, was "a regular solo performer around the folk clubs of Bristol and Dorset" and played bass guitar with a Ceilidh band. [18] He inherited his father’s nursery business, where his own son, Phil, took over in 1997. [19]

David Hares had his own recording studio, [20] and worked with Christ Scott in 1990 as an acoustic blues duet. [21] In addition to electric guitar, he played mandolin and keyboard. He retired from the same volunteer fireman’s company where his father had worked, in 2011. Hares earned his steady income as an undertaker. [22]

John Jones played flute and bohdran for "theatrical productions," as well as electric bass for the Buddies. [23] Drummer Sean Henneberry was associated with the University of the West of England, Bristol, [24] and produced solo recordings in his home studio. [25]

Availability
YouTube: uploaded by David Hares on 3 January 2016

End Notes
1. John Wesley. "Sermon XL." The Arminian Magazine 10:341-346:July 1787 and 10:398-406:August 1787. Thomas Jackson called it "The More Excellent Way" and labeled it sermon 89 in The Sermons of John Wesley. Nampa, Idaho: Northwest Nazarene University, 1872. Copies are available from many sources on-line.

2. L. Tyerman. The Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A. New York: Harper and Brothers, volume 3, 1872. 496-498.

3. Tyerman. 498.

4. Samuel J. Rogal. "John Wesley’s Arminian Magaine." Andrews University Seminary Studies 22:231-247:1984. 232.

5. Wikipedia. "Charles Wesley."
6. Wesley, July. 343.

7. William Henry Meredith. The Real John Wesley. Cincinnati: Jennings and Pye, 1903. 236-237.

8. Ronald Sutherland Gower described Henry, Duke of Cumberland this way in a journal published by Lady Randolph Spencer Churchill. ("Anne Lutterell, Duchess of Cumberland." The Anglo-Saxon Review 10:63-66:1901. 64.)

9. Wesley, August. 401-402.

10. Samuel Johnson. Quoted by Adam Trimingham. "Eighteenth Century Celebs Making Brighton Their Home." The [Brighton, England] Argus. 24 October 2014. Pat Rogers mentioned he was in Brighton in 1773 and 1776. ("Johnson, Samuel." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography on-line. 23 September 2004; last updated 21 May 2009.

11. Wesley, August. 402-403.
12. Phoebe Palmer was mentioned in the post for 7 December 2017.

13. The waltz was introduced in European classical music around 1800, according to Willi Apel. "Waltz." 922 in Harvard Dictionary of Music. Edited by Willi Apel. Cambridge: Belnap Press, 1969 edition.

14. Bibb’s version of "Needed Time" was discussed in the post for 18 February 2018.
15. YouTube notes.
16. "About Whiskey Headed Buddies." Facebook.
17. "Whiskey Headed Buddies. Weebly website.
18. Weebly.
19. "Almondsbury Garden Centre." Corby Fellas website.
20. Weebly.
21. Facebook, Buddies.

22. "Farewell for Vacuuming Fireman." The Weston [Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England] Mercury. 25 July 2011.

23. Weebly.
24. "About Sean Henneberry." Facebook.
25. Weebly.