SONGWRITING
ANATOMY OF A GREAT SONG : SANCTIFY | Kevin MacDougall
In my previous songwriting column , “ The Cutting Edge … 25 Years Later ,” we examined the early work of Delirious ? and how formative and influential it was to worship music worldwide . On the heels of that article , I found myself wanting to remain in that space , and to explore some aspect of that songwriting more specifically . I quickly realized there ’ s no better way to do that than by analyzing and dissecting a specific Delirious ? song from that era .
What might we learn from it ? What makes it great ?
Rather than go with one of the band ’ s most popular songs of that period (“ Deeper ,” “ I Could Sing of Your Love Forever ,” “ Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble ”), I thought it would be nice to focus in on an underrated gem . A track that was ahead of the curve back then , and could easily be reimagined and released now . Nearly twenty-five years later , it could still find a resonant place in many services today .
That song is “ Sanctify ,” from the 1997 release King of Fools .
VERSE 1 & PRE-CHORUS Here I am in that old place again Down on my face again Crying out , I want You to hear my plea Come down and rescue me How long will it take How long will I have to wait
ANCIENT LANGUAGE , FRESH USAGE There aren ’ t too many worship songwriters who are willing to echo the earnest “ How long , oh Lord ” language of the Psalms and prophets . But Delirious ? had no such qualms , and no need to posture anything other than unflinching honesty before God . And so we hear in “ Sanctify ” a plea from the present moment that is not trying to tame itself by being anything else .
Worship songs so often fall into the pattern of not letting that NOW moment happen -always appealing to past victories or future hopes and promises instead , as though to soften the blow of our current grief and struggles . But songs like this are valuable in congregational singing . When a worship writer or leader offers language like this to a church , the people know they ’ re safe . Safe to be real . Safe to be whole . Safe to let go of pretense within sacred community .
The rhyme choices here are of interest as well . The more the song develops , the more we see that Martin Smith and Stu G are not married to a broader rhyme scheme or compulsion to rhyme in general . They lean into repetition and internal rhyme where it serves momentum of the verses , but otherwise , the lyric is less about rhyming than it is simply saying what it means to say . And they make it work .
WHERE WE ’ RE GOING , WE DON ’ T NEED PADS One noteworthy thing musically is that you hear a lot of droning G in this song , which is the 5th of the tonic C . In the key of C , G is the “ dominant ” note most likely to propel your ear back to the key , so we find that propulsion present in many of the chord choices of this arrangement . This is one reason why the chorus feels like a release of built-up energy . It ’ s not just the dynamic increase in intensity the chorus brings ; it ’ s the fact that the writers have held off on utilizing the tonic chord at the start of a phrase until the moment the chorus begins .
They ’ ve been leading your ear to it the whole time , but they ’ ve made you wait .
This also plays in to how the chords are bridged and made to hold the same space in general . Stu G utilizes that G drone in a lot of what he does with the guitar track , and it fills much more space than the most basic chords would . Listen for every time he hits the F chord ( the third chord ) in the verses , for instance . An added open G ( where the G string would normally be fretted to an A note ) makes the chord an Fsus2 . That G note sticks out and glues a lot of things together as it hovers over many of the voicings .
Clever use of droning notes and creative chord voicings means the arrangement of “ Sanctify ” carries a remarkably full sound . The sonic landscape is dense without relying on pad samples to fill space … which is something modern songs would do well to remember .
I promise it ’ s true : It is possible to have a huge sound without pads .
CHORUS And all I want is all You have Come to me , rescue me Fall on me with Your love And all You want is all I have Come to me , rescue me Fall on me with Your love
Within the lyrics of the chorus , Martin Smith ’ s heartfelt vocal offers surrender , along with a prayer to receive from the manifest presence of God . This is the main point of the song . It ’ s the idea each verse is dancing around and pointing to . Good songwriters understand that this is what a chorus is for - to hold everything else together .
LINKING ISLANDS So many lead sheets you ’ ll find online standardize every chord they can , which results in songs losing what makes them special . Incidentally , it ’ s rare to find a chord chart online that represents what ’ s actually being played here in “ Sanctify .”
Take the chorus , for instance . Most will render the chord sequence as :
C , Bb , Am , G , F