The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power

I. Martin & Martin 

The original hymn called “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” was written by the married songwriting team of Civilla D. Martin (1866–1948) and Walter Stillman Martin (1862–1935). Little is known about the circumstances or inspiration behind the song’s composition. In 1910, they had been living with their teenage son Austin G. Martin in Canton Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, near Alba, where Walter filled pulpits as an itinerant preacher. In the fall of 1911, they moved to Schenectady, New York, where Austin entered Union College.[1] This hymn was written in 1912 and sold to J.M. Harris of the The Christian Witness Co. in Chicago. This was a departure from their previous songs, such as “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” (1905), which had been sold to publisher/compiler Charles Alexander, or “God Will Take Care of You” (1905), which had been sold to John A. Davis. They likely sold their copyright in exchange for a flat fee (no royalties), which was common practice at the time. “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” was registered for copyright on 1 May 1912 and first published in Harris’s Glorious Gospel in Song, Number Two (Chicago: Christian Witness, 1912 | Fig. 1).

This original version of the hymn contained four stanzas and a refrain, situated in 6/8, A-major, with a range of an octave and a third (a sixth below the tonic, and a fifth above), utilizing fundamental harmonies on I, IV, and V, and a single secondary dominant (V of V) at the end of the third phrase. This hymn was reprinted frequently into the 1950s.

II. Andraé Crouch

Gospel musician Andraé Crouch was the son of a preacher, raised initially in Los Angeles before moving to Pacoima in the San Fernando valley when his father became pastor of Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ. He got his start in the music ministry there partly out of necessity, because his father desperately needed a music leader, so young Andraé learned the craft at a young age and showed a lot of potential. At some point as a teen, he made the acquaintance of gospel legend James Cleveland.

Andraé and his twin sister, Sandra, spent their childhood singing in their father’s church and in community choirs, including one led by gospel musician James Cleveland. When they were 14 years old, Andraé and Sandra were invited to Cleveland’s home for a barbeque. Andraé recalled looking up to Cleveland and thinking, I wish I could write a song. Watching the adults pour the large vat of barbeque sauce over the ribs, it reminded Andraé of the blood of Jesus and he begin to sing, “The blood that Jesus shed for me way back on Calvary, the blood that gives me strength from day to day, it will never lose its power.” Sandra wrote the words down but Andraé wasn’t happy with it and threw it in the trash. Sandra said, “Andraé, that was a good song!” She dug it out of the trash can and kept it.[2]

In a similar account given several years later, Crouch offered more detail about his experience at that event:

When Andraé was fourteen, he was invited to a friend’s home for the church choir’s Memorial Day party. When he arrived, people were in the backyard barbecuing and generally having a good time. Andraé was so shy that he didn’t want to go out there. Also, he had seen some of the choir members acting in ways that were not Christlike, and he became so disappointed that he began to weep.

Andraé recalls, “I said to the Lord, ‘God, I really love you. How can this be? I would love to write songs for you. If you would give me a song, I will live for you forever.’ There was a large piano in the living room, and I began to play. The group in the backyard couldn’t hear me. I then glanced toward the crowd and saw something that made time, it seemed, go into slow motion. I watched as they slowly poured red sauce onto the meat they were cooking. I couldn’t hear for a few moments.

Suddenly, in my mind’s eye I could see Jesus carrying his cross up to Calvary, and I saw His blood. I saw people following Him up the hill where He was to be crucified. As I saw this scene that had been prompted by the activities in the back yard, I said, ‘Oh, the blood!’ I then turned to my friend Billy Preston, also a pianist, and said ‘Play these chords.’ And I began to sing, ‘The blood that Jesus shed for me . . .’ The people in the backyard heard me singing and came into the house. They began to weep as they came and joined in my song. We sang for about an hour and a half. That was the writing of my first song, ‘The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power.’”[3]

The degree to which “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” is from Crouch’s imagination and how much is from the seasoned guidance of Cleveland and/or his colleague Thurston Frazier is unclear, but certain elements of the outcome are clear enough. First, the song bears an undeniable resemblance to the hymn by Mr. & Mrs. Martin—being in 6/8 with a similar melody to their stanzas and a lot of textual borrowing from their first stanza especially—so Crouch had heard the original hymn at some point. His song is different enough, though, to be considered a new composition, merely inspired by the first. Second, Cleveland copyrighted the song in his own name through the Savoy Music label (simply called “The Blood” when it was registered on 11 Dec. 1962), and he offered it to the Caravans, who recorded it on 13 September 1962 and released it on a 45-rpm single (Gospel 1098), credited solely to Cleveland, and on an LP (Gospel MG-3016, I Won’t Be Back), uncredited. The journey from conception to vinyl took six years.

The recording by the Caravans, led by Albertina Walker, features two iterations of a single stanza, and one chorus with a bit of back-and-forth between the soloist and the rest of the group (Cassietta George, Shirley Caesar, Delores Washington, Johneron Davis, accompanied by James Herndon on piano and an unknown organist).

In spite of the initial lack of credit, when the song was arranged and scored by Thurston Frazier—dated 1962 on the page but registered for copyright on 11 November 1966—the song was called “It Will Never Lose It’s Power,” credited to “André Crouch,” and the copyright notice was given as “Andre Crouch & Frazier-Cleveland Co.” (Fig. 3). The sheet music generally represents what had been recorded by the Caravans, but with an added stanza (“It soothes my doubts,” etc.).

In just a few years, Crouch would come into his own as a songwriter and choir director and eventually gain control of his own material. This process started with his first gospel group, called the COGICS:

While going to San Fernando High, I was singing with the COGICS, directing the choir at Christ Memorial and playing for a lot of different things. . . . The COGICS were a bunch of Spirit-filled kids. The seven were Billy Preston, Edna Wright, Gloria Jones, Blinky [Sondra] Williams, Frankie Spring, Sandra, and I. While we were singin’ together, we made one album and received several awards. I often think of the meetings and services where we sang and what an impact we had on the people. God really used us. We split up after Billy, who has several gold records now, went on to be with Ray Charles. Edna starting singing lead with the Honeycombs. Gloria is a writer for Motown. Blinky still sings around churches and has sung with Sammy Davis Jr. They all had so much talent; each one was a child prodigy and dedicated to the Lord’s service. I’d give anything to see them give all their talent to God’s glory again.[4]

With the COGICS (or COGIC Singers), the first single they recorded (probably in 1964) was “It Will Never Lose Its Power” (with “I don’t need nobody else”) on Simpson Records (231 A, 45-rpm), a small company run by producer Richard Simpson, with distribution assistance by Vee Jay. By that point, they were missing Frankie Spring, who by one account had entered the Air Force. They produced one other single (RS-273, “It’s a Blessing” / “Since I Found Him”), then were transferred to Exodus Records (a short-lived subsidiary of Vee Jay) for the completion of an LP, It’s a Blessing (EX 54), which is often dated 1966, but by that point the group had ceased to operate. Announcements of their performances can be traced as late as 24 April 1965, and by August of that year, Crouch had taken on a new venture with Teen Challenge, directing music for a ministry to addicts.

This recording of the song by the COGICS is essentially a re-recording of the arrangement by Thurston Frazier, the way the Caravans had performed it, this time led by Gloria Jones, and now with a proper second stanza rather than two cycles of the first.

During his time with Teen Challenge, Crouch became acquainted with Audrey Mieir, who would often invite the Addicts Choir to perform at local events. Through her, he was introduced to Tim Spencer of Manna Music, who then took over publishing rights to “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” (Fig. 5) and Crouch’s other songs. The Manna score was produced with a single melody line and a keyboard accompaniment. The score was also included in Crouch’s first songbook with Manna, This Is Andrae Crouch (1969).

In the meantime, after the dissolution of the COGICS, Crouch gathered another group of local singers and called them the Disciples. Tim Spencer of Manna brought them to the attention of producer Ralph Carmichael, founder of Light Records and Lexicon Music. Carmichael financed the studio time for the group to record their album Take the Message Everywhere (1968, Light LS-5504-LP), which included “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power.” At the time, the group included Sherman Andrus, Billy Thedford, Perry Morgan, and Ruben Fernandez. This recording is different from the previous two in the way it begins with a soloist singing the stanzas, then the group enters for two cycles of the refrain.

III. Crouch: Publication in Hymnals

Crouch’s version of the gospel hymn entered congregational songbooks via two collections in 1973: One Hundred Sacred Favorites (Singspiration | Fig. 7), and Here Comes Jesus: A Youth Hymnal (Manna | Fig. 8). Other early appearances include Hymns for the Family of God (1976 | Fig. 9), produced in part by Bill and Gloria Gaither, where the tune name THE BLOOD seems to have been assigned for the first time, The New Church Hymnal (1976), produced by Ralph Carmichael’s Lexicon Music, and the New National Baptist Hymnal (1977).

IV. Analysis

In both hymns by the Martins and by Crouch, the focal message of the hymn is on the blood of Christ and the power behind it. The Bible never speaks directly about the blood having power, but as Reformed scholar Bert Polman has noted, “this text presents the blood of Jesus as a [metonym] for Christ’s atonement for our sin.”[5] In other words, the simple phrase represents a wide array of concepts, because the blood of Christ brings justification and salvation (Rom. 5:9), redemption and forgiveness of sin (Eph. 1:7, Col. 1:14), payment/propitiation for sin (Rom. 3:25, Acts 20:28), reconciliation and peace with God (Eph. 2:13, Col. 1:20), purification and cleansing (Ps. 51:7, Heb. 9:14,22, 1 Jn. 1:17, Rev. 7:14), sanctification (Heb. 13:12), freedom from sin (Rev. 1:5), and victory over Satan (Rev. 12:11).

The hymn by the Martins lists many of these same concepts. In the second stanza, the phrase “far-off places” refers to God gathering his people (Is. 41:9). The third stanza speaks of the blood being a shelter and the doorway to heaven. The “sinner’s merit” could refer either to justification or sanctification. The fourth stanza is a picture of the future, especially as in Revelation 7:14, speaking of those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.

Methodist scholar C. Michael Hawn aptly summarized the message of Crouch’s version:

In stanza 1, the sustaining nature of Christ’s blood shed “way back on Calvary” indicates that the initial experience of salvation continues to “give strength from day to day.” In stanza 2, this sustaining strength is evident in how Christ’s blood “soothes my doubts and calms my fears, / and . . . dries all my tears.” Crouch connects the historical sacrifice of Christ explicitly to the existential realities of the singer today. In the refrain, the phrases “It reaches to the highest mountain, / it flows to the lowest valley” have numerous biblical antecedents. The vision of redemption is expansive. Psalm 103:12 notes similarly, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (KJV). The power of Christ’s blood is with us in the pinnacle of our lives and well in the midst of life’s deepest distress.[6]

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
23 August 2022

Footnotes:

1. “Baptist Church,” Canton Independent-Sentinal (Canton, PA: 27 May 1915), p. 1.

2. Ruthie Edgerly Oberg, “This Week in AG History—May 22, 1977,” Assemblies of God (24 May 2018): AG

3. Lindsay Terry, “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power,” The Sacrifice of Praise (Nashville: Integrity, 2002), pp. 163–164.

4. Andraé Crouch (with Nina Ball), Through It All (Waco, TX: Word, 1974), 46.

5. Bert Polman, “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power,” Psalter Hymnal Handbook (Grand Rapids: CRC, 1998), p. 726.

6. C. Michael Hawn, “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power,” History of Hymns, Discipleship Ministries, United Methodist Church (10 March 2021): UMC

Additional Resources:

Catalog of Copyright Entries: Music (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1962–1967): Entry 1 | Entry 2 | Entry 3

Cedric Hayes & Robert Laughton, Gospel Discography 1943–2000, 3rd ed., 2 vols. (Canada: Eyeball, 2014): Eyeball

Cogic Singers, “It Will Never Lose Its Power,” 45Cat (2017): https://www.45cat.com/record/nc679289us#comments

David Mainse, The Andraé Crouch Story (Springfield, MO: Turning Point, 1976).

“The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power,” Hymnary.org: https://hymnary.org/text/the_blood_that_jesus_shed_for_me_way_bac

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/