Smack Down!! – “Marriage Supper Of The Lamb”

This week’s Smack Down feature offers a song and a cover that was both recorded by the same artist.  “Marriage Supper Of The Lamb” was originally recorded by the Hoppers on their 1988 He’s Still God Live album.  Written by Jean Canter, whose most notable song is probably “I Know What Lies Ahead”.  The reason I chose this song is because when the Hoppers decided to re-record the song they took a totally different approach with the arrangement of the song.

On the original cut of the song, the Hoppers chose a mid-tempo style arrangement for the song.  The vocalist line up on this version included Dean, Connie, Claude, Greg Bentley and Shannon Childress.  The original version is heard here with the first verse and chorus.

The song cover was recorded twelve years later by the Hoppers on their 2000 recording, Power.  This was a landmark album for the group and contained one of their biggest hit songs, “Yes I Am”.  The newer arrangement was vastly different from that of the original.  Taking an up tempo approach to the original, the Hoppers created a song they used as a concert opener for several years.

The cover also became a top 5 hit for the group in 2001.  The newer version is heard here with the second verse and chorus.  This is the first Smack Down feature that I have presented that has two clearly different takes on the same song and it just so happened to be recorded by the same group.

So is it the original mid-tempo version or the newer up-tempo cut?