A new score on my Scores page is an a cappella SATB + solo arrangement of ‘All Of Heaven’ as sung by the Cafe of the Gate of Salvation and the Honeybees – a song written by the late Arthur Baysting and yours truly. Arthur was a great friend and a continuing source of inspiration with whom I wrote several songs that ended up recorded by Crocodiles, the Vulgar Beatmen and the Cafe of the Gate of Salvation. ‘All Of Heaven’ was written sometime in the 70s, during a period when I was fixated on 12/8 feels; the Crocodiles never recorded it, but a demo recording of ‘All Of Heaven’ – just me singing and playing piano – just turned up on the recently-released compilation The Complete Crocodiles…plus.
Initially a love song, it easily translated into an ‘inspirational’ song when I left rock & soul bands behind and focussed on a cappella gospel repertoire. (‘Inspirational’ meaning ‘Christian-adjunct’ – cf .Aretha ‘You’ve Got A Friend’.) It later turned out to be an appropriate choice whenever the choir got asked to sing at weddings, and it was a pleasure to have Michelle Campbell-Irving and COTGOS sing ‘All Of Heaven’ at my own wedding in September last year.
When Arthur died in December 2019, Peter Dasent, Callie Blood, Jeannie McAllister and I had the honour of performing the song at his memorial service.
