Sound Of Living Waters - Songs Of Renewal

Sound of Living Waters – Songs of Renewal (1974)
Betty Pulkingham & Jeanne Harper
Hodder and Stoughton
ISBN: 0340188936
Condition: Good, as piously thumbed and hymnbook-worn by Crappy Old Books.

Back in the 1970s, before worship bands had smoke machines, click tracks, and Instagram reels, there were songbooks like Sound of Living Waters – Songs of Renewal.

This is from that golden age when “contemporary worship” meant:

• guitars were slightly suspicious,

• overhead projectors were the height of multimedia,

• and someone with an acoustic twelve-string was about to radically modernise the 8:30 service.

Compiled by Betty Pulkingham and Jeanne Harper, this book is a kind of early charismatic worship starter-pack: scripture, folk-ish melodies, much Holy Spirit, zero lasers.

What’s inside (besides sincere 1970s Christian optimism)

Open this gently aged volume and you’ll find:

• Songs of ‘renewal’ that feel charmingly retro-fresh
  Think scripture choruses, simple refrains, tunes you can actually sing without a five-octave range or in-ear monitors. Perfect for house groups, small congregations, or the sort of gathering where “someone brought a guitar” is both promise and threat.

• Music for the “new move of the Spirit” era
  That moment in church history when people started raising their hands, singing in keys that didn’t come out of Victorian hymnals, and occasionally smiling during worship. These are the songs that helped nudge things along.

• Straightforward arrangements the average mortal can handle
  You do not need a conservatoire education. You need:

  • One keyboard or guitar

  • Three chords (maybe four if you’re really going for it)

  • A willingness to start everyone in a key where the altos don’t mutiny.

• Lyrics that are theologically earnest and blissfully un-ironic
  No cryptic metaphors. No “I’m not sure if this is about God or a breakup.” Just Bible-infused, straight-to-the-point adoration, repentance, and joy—with a faint fragrance of 1970s haircut.

It’s the soundtrack to a time when people said “renewal” and meant fewer robes and more guitars.

About the condition (Good, like a well-loved chorus)

This copy is graded Good, which in the carefully nuanced language of Crappy Old Books means:

• The cover is clean and intact, perhaps with a little edge wear—picture a songbook that’s been in and out of a church music cupboard, not dropped from a choir loft.

• The spine is solid, showing some signs of being opened flat on a music stand next to a cup of instant coffee, but not cracked in a way that suggests liturgical violence.

• The pages are all present, firmly attached, and pleasantly toned with age, like an experienced chorister who knows exactly when to come in.

You may or may not find the faint imprint of old paperclips or a gentle wave in places where someone balanced it on a slightly damp piano. That’s patina, not damage.

Bonus features you might (secretly) hope for

While not guaranteed, any or all of the following may be present:

• Tiny pencil chords added above the staff
  Where some brave youth leader once thought, “Let’s try it on guitar this week.”

• Initials or dates in the margin
  Evidence of planning for festivals, retreats, or “that weekend away where Derek forgot the tambourine.”

• A favourite song naturally falling open
  The one that clearly got used every single week for three years straight and is probably still stuck in someone’s head today.

These are not flaws. These are archaeological traces of worship past.

Why you might actually want this (and not just ironically)

• You run a small church, house fellowship, or retro-leaning community and want simple, singable songs that don’t sound like rejected Eurovision entries.

• You collect liturgical and worship history, and this is firmly in the “charismatic awakening starter pack” category.

• You grew up with these songs and feel a tiny, embarrassing rush of nostalgia at the mere idea of them.

• You’re working on a project about worship, church renewal, or “how we ended up with six repeating choruses and a bridge” and want to see where some of it came from.

Or maybe you just enjoy the sincerity of an era in which no one auto-tuned the congregation.

Why “Good” is the perfect condition for this book

A shiny, untouched copy of Sound of Living Waters would feel… wrong. This is a book that should look like it has:

• Sat on the top of an upright piano.

• Been passed from worship leader to worship leader.

• Travelled to at least one draughty church hall weekend conference.

“Good” means:

Still strong. Still serviceable.
A few miles on the clock.
Absolutely ready for another chorus.

You can happily prop it open, balance it on a music stand, or drop it onto a coffee table mid-rehearsal without fear or reverence-induced paralysis.

The sales pitch disguised as a gentle altar call to nostalgia

Sound of Living Waters – Songs of Renewal is part songbook, part time machine.
It hums with the energy of:

• early guitar masses,

• charismatic prayer meetings in chilly halls,

• and that peculiar joy of a whole room managing to find the same harmony completely by accident.

So here it is:

Sound of Living Waters – Songs of Renewal (1974)
by Betty Pulkingham & Jeanne Harper, Hodder and Stoughton.
Earnest, melodic, spiritually enthusiastic, musically approachable.
Condition: Good – structurally solid, spiritually up for another verse.

Proudly circulated (and only mildly hummed along to) by Crappy Old Books.

Buy it. Open it. And don’t be surprised if you suddenly find yourself starting a chorus with, “Let’s just sing that again, this time really meaning it…”

Keep browsing: See more Music books Other books by Betty Pulkingham and Jeanne Harper