Ray Repp

Raymond Robert Repp (September 17, 1942 – April 26, 2020), known professionally as Ray Repp, was an American singer-songwriter credited with introducing folk music into Catholic masses with his 1965 album Mass for Young Americans, an album that formed the earliest stirrings of Contemporary Christian music. (Not all of his music has been squarely religious; "Don't Go In the Street" and "Apple Pie," both from The Time Has Not Come True, featured sometimes humorous, prescient left-leaning social commentary.)

Since that early collection, he recorded 11 collections which have been translated into as many as 28 languages and has won ASCAP's "Award for Special Contributions to the Field of Music" six times. His music collection is now available in CD form. They include: The Best of Ray Repp Vol. 1 & 2 and Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, all songs written from 1965–1985.

He was married to, and lived with, his husband of twenty years, Richard Alther, a writer and painter, in their homes in Southern California and Vermont. Alther wrote "The Decade of Blind Dates," about his past relationships as a homosexual divorcee, and his marriage to Repp.

Repp's music has been recorded by those outside the Catholic Church as well. Christian punk outfit Undercover and Christian rocker Phil Keaggy have seen fit to cover Repp's work on their own discs.

Repp drew a measure of notoriety from the mainstream journalistic media in 1997 when he sued composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, asserting that Lloyd Webber had plagiarized portions of his "Phantom Song" from his own composition "Till You." Lloyd Webber, however, cross-litigated in counter-accusation that Repp had, in turn, plagiarized portions of "Till You" from "Close Every Door," from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Repp ultimately lost the case.

Early Life

Repp was born in St. Louis, MO, to Walter and Rita Kempf Repp, the eldest of their nine children. He was educated in Catholic schools: Seven Holy Founders Elementary School, St. Louis Preparatory Seminary, Cardinal Glennon College, and Kendrick Seminary, with graduate studies at St. Paul's Seminary, Ottawa, Canada. Later he studied music and languages in Vienna, Austria.

Theology

Repp as one of the first artists to employ the idiom of popular 1960's folk music within Roman Catholic worship (liturgical) music. While clearly not neglecting vertical theology, Repp was a major proponent of horizontal theology. In a tribute to Repp by David Haas, another Catholic singer-songwriter, Repp is quoted as having said: "Latin philosophy and theology textbooks could hardly hold my attention from the books of my new heroes: Deikmann, Davis, Jungman. I was writing music at the same time, usually secretly in my small seminary room. But liturgical music? The thought never crossed my mind. If my music hadn't been officially banned in dozens of U.S. dioceses, it probably would never have caught on. My songs were written out of my frustrations then at seeing little concern for the neglected Hispanics and Blacks in Utah, not only by Mormons but my own affluent Catholics." Repp added, "If our music is to praise God, it can only do so by helping to change us and our communities into more sensitive, loving, and just human beings."

Perhaps the best summary of Repp's theology can be found in Song of Micah in his 1985 work, Ever Bless. This song is based on Micah 6:3-8:

This is all I ask of you, this is the only praise I seek: That your love be gentle and your lives be just, and humbly walk along with me.

Should we go before the Lord, bowing low, and giving praise? Will the Lord be pleased with gifts we have to bring, with songs we want to sing?
Should we make some sacrifice? Should we offer up our lives to the Lord on high? How shall we adore the Lord forevermore?
My people hear me, what have I done -- that you distrust so my gift of love? What will the Lord be satisfied by our gifts and songs of praise? Will the Lord be pleased, what honor can we give? Should we change the way we live?

Writing

In 2018, Repp published his first book, TABLE TALES: Do Ahead Dinner Party Menus That Whet Appetites, Loosen Tongues, and Make Memories.

Death

Repp died on April 26, 2020 after battling both lymphoma and metastatic melanoma, the latter the cause of his death.

Selected discography

Data from One Way Jesus Music website:

• 1965, Mass for Young Americans, F.E.L.
• 1966, Allelu!, F.E.L.
• 1967, Come Alive, F.E.L.
• 1968, Sing Praise, F.E.L.
• 1969, The Time Has Not Come True, F.E.L. (recorded 1966)
• 1972, Hear the Cryin' , Myrrh
• 1974, Give Us Peace, K&R (also released in 1975 on Agape label)
• 1978, Benedicamus - The Song of the Earth, K&R
• 1979, Sunrise, in the Dead of Winter, K&R
• 1981, By Love Are We All Bound, K&R
• 1985, Ever Bless, K&R

Data from the OCP Publications website:

• circa 2005, The Best of Ray Repp Vol. I, OCP (a compilation of some of his works 1965-1972)
• circa 2005, The Best of Ray Repp Vol. II, OCP (a compilation of some of his works 1974-1981)

Data from the Amazon website:

• circa 2005, Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, OCP (a re-titled re-release of the 1985 collection, Ever Bless)