SONG COMMENTARY
SPIRIT WIND
This song has no overt message, it is really more of a "sound" song, where the words just give melody to the musical ideas. A great part of my spiritual search took place when I was a hippie living in the Hawaiian Islands, and I am always looking for places where I can inject some of those memories. The line "warmer than the breezes in Hawaii wind" was one of these opportunities.
Of course, the wind is a type of the Holy Spirit, and the intent of the song is to draw the listener into the rest of the album. But again, there are a few lyrics I've written which really more serve the musical ideas, and this is one of them.
I really like the unusual third chord change in the verses of this song which is really the departure which makes the music so haunting.
Inerestingly, this song is one of the most requested songs in my current concerts.
MARY'S SONG
Being a former Catholic, I have always been interested by the Catholic fascination and perhaps even reverence of Mary, the mother of Jesus. As a "born-again", my views on Mary have changed considerably from what I understand to be the Catholic position regarding Mary, and although rejecting any idea today that she is divine, I still see her as an important figure in the history of Christianity. I really desired to write a song which reflected my own perspective on her, which basically consisted of the idea that she knew prophetically that she was going to bear God's Son, but still was confused to a certain degree on how this would play out in her life. My personal conviction is that she knew that Jesus was God in human form, but she still had to adjust to the inevitable facts of His crucifixion and death on the cross at Calvary, because it was clearly prophesied in scripture. . This was her kid, and even though she knew what was coming, she must have agonized over the inevitable outcome.
I still feel today that limited by the form of my art, the pop song, I really didn't come close to conveying the fullness of what I imagine she must have gone through as the mother of Jesus. Would to be a writer of books at this particular time.
THANK YOU LORD
Writing this song was such a personal expression. The most special times we have with God is when we put time aside to just meditate on Him and talk to Him. This song was a reflection of the not often times when I had "down time: in which I could just pour out my heart in appreciation for God's love and mercy in my life.
I find it very difficult to find the time for such quiet moments with God. It seems like everything else squeezes me for time and attention, and I have little time left for intimacy with God. This song speaks of those special moments when everything else finally quiets down in our life and we truly have that special connection with Him
There is really no commentary on this song...it speaks for itself.
PLAIN OL' JOE
This song has inspired curiosity over the years that is paralleled only by the songs "Tinagera" and "Old Dan Cotton". Did I know a person like "Plain Ol' Joe" ? ....the answer is no. Like the two songs above, these are "story" songs that follow events in the lives of fictitious characters who represent real people on our lives. I have always received it as a special compliment when people come and ask me if these songs were based on real people. It says to me that I succeeded in creating characters who were vividly enough drawn to actually connect with listeners as people I or they may have known in our own lives.
Actually, this song and "Old Dan" came out of my appreciation for the late great storyteller in song, Harry Chapin. I have always admired his work, and these songs were written as I would imagine he may have written them.
"Plain Ol Joe" presented quite a dilemma for me. As with many of these wordy, longer songs, the story begins to emerge, and the challenge is to tell the story in a format which does not really allow for a lengthy narrative. As the arc of the story began to emerge, I was soon groping for an ending. It seemed to most naturally flow into the sad events of this lonely life ending in suicide, but obviously, this ending seemed risky at best. But, to me the Bible is not all sweet and lovely, but reflects the failure and pain of life as well. I actually brought this song to several pastors for counsel on whether or not the ending was appropriate for a "gospel" song. I suggested alternate endings, like having Joe get saved and the events of his life ending up more positively. But all counsel reinforced the idea that the power of the ending was in it's tragedy, and the general consensus was that I should leave it alone, which I did.
I believe that the message of my work is clarified in it's overall context. In other words, an individual song may have a more subtle lyric or more negative subject matter, but when seen as a whole album or as a complete body of work, the message is clear. So...I purposely followed this song on the album with the song "Harvest Time", which speaks of the fields being white to harvest but the workers are few. The combined impact of the two songs was to say that there are unlovely and unloved people out there that desperately need for us to share the gospel message with them. I have received much feedback over the years that this song has ministered to people in many diverse ways.
HARVEST TIME
This song is based on the scripture which says "the fields are white to harvest, but the workers are few". I felt this to be a very important message, and desired to convey this idea as an admonishment to Christians that this is the day to be bold.
I had a Bob Dylan feel in mind when I wrote this on guitar, and wanted to get a kind of feeling in the music that would bring to mind the image of people dancing formally in baroque times, you know, Jolly Old England, women in bustles, that type of thing. What really brought this image home was the unplanned genius of Sid Sharp and William Kurasch who did the violin duet in the instrumental. I asked Sid to do it as a solo, and he suggested the duet. These guys nailed it in like two takes, echoing the melody that I sang to them spontaneously to the track. This instrumental section is one of my favorite moments on any of my records.
FOOL FOR JESUS
Something we all feel at times, that we are out of synch with the rest of the world and they hold us up to ridicule. That's because we are and they do. But, what a badge of distinction to be persecuted for righteousness sake. This song simply speaks of this truth.
HEAR THE ANGELS SING
One night after a concert, a little old man came up to me and handed me a piece of paper, telling me to look at it later when things were less hectic. I forgot about it until I got back to the hotel. I opened it up, and on it were scribbled the lines "I can almost see that city standing there beyond that hill, the city made for living in the Father's will." He had not indicated his name, phone number or anything else by which I could reach him, nor whether he had written the lines or copied them down from some old hymn or such. To this day I don't know.
Frankly, material given to me like this is rarely inspiring or usable, but one day when I was playing piano at home, I remembered the paper and got it out. It became the basis for this song, and opened up the gate for the many images in the song. I took many of the images directly from scripture, combining those images with some of my own, and came up with what I hoped would be a lyric that would have the feel of describing an actual vision.
On a separate note, a couple of years after recording the song, someone sent me a recording they did of the song with their church musicians, and in the chorus part, where my voices sing "la-la-la-la-la, etc,. they had inserted some scripture that fit perfectly in the meter of the song. It was a fabulous effect, and I regret that I didn't do something like that on my recording.
PEACE IN THE VALLEY
I love "spacey" music, and love it when I can create something spacey. I based this song on what I thought was a kind of kid's melody I had heard or at least a variation thereof. The "sing-song" melody reminded me of something a kid would sing, perhaps subconsciously reminding listeners of more innocent and primal times in their life. The images once again borrowed from Revelations, with some embellishment on my part. Peace is the obvious theme of this song, but just as powerful to me is the theme of freedom, youthful abandon, kids running around in green meadows, that type of thing. This song conjures up very definite images in my mind, and even though it is a very soft song, it has a holy sense of joy, a different kind of joy than merriment kind of joy, perhaps closer to the real Biblical meaning of the word joy.
THE WARRIOR
What a project. Terry Clark had a song which contained this very classical, heavy instrumental thing in the middle. I don't think he ever recorded his song, but I asked him if I could insert the instrumental in this song, as it seemed perfect for it.
The song is intended to be a dramatic almost symphonic look at the Crucifixion and Resurrection. It is not a simple thing to do in a 5 minute pop song, but I think I succeeded as well as I could.
The drama of the story is reflected in the movements of the music, and the addition of sound effects made this one of my more ambitious projects. The decrescendo, almost to a whisper in one spot , contrasts with the almost "primal scream" which concluded the instrumental, hopefully creating a very intense experience for the listener. The scream by the way, really was a scream executed in musical harmonies. It was intended to represent the fury of heaven at the death of Jesus on the cross.
PRODUCTION NOTE:
We actually went out and bought a little toy piano for this song. It appears in the instrumental build up and can be recognized in the almost Eastern riffs of that section.
The huge section of voices in the front of the song are all me, overdubbed many, many times to create the effect of a huge amount of people singing.
This song has no overt message, it is really more of a "sound" song, where the words just give melody to the musical ideas. A great part of my spiritual search took place when I was a hippie living in the Hawaiian Islands, and I am always looking for places where I can inject some of those memories. The line "warmer than the breezes in Hawaii wind" was one of these opportunities.
Of course, the wind is a type of the Holy Spirit, and the intent of the song is to draw the listener into the rest of the album. But again, there are a few lyrics I've written which really more serve the musical ideas, and this is one of them.
I really like the unusual third chord change in the verses of this song which is really the departure which makes the music so haunting.
Inerestingly, this song is one of the most requested songs in my current concerts.
MARY'S SONG
Being a former Catholic, I have always been interested by the Catholic fascination and perhaps even reverence of Mary, the mother of Jesus. As a "born-again", my views on Mary have changed considerably from what I understand to be the Catholic position regarding Mary, and although rejecting any idea today that she is divine, I still see her as an important figure in the history of Christianity. I really desired to write a song which reflected my own perspective on her, which basically consisted of the idea that she knew prophetically that she was going to bear God's Son, but still was confused to a certain degree on how this would play out in her life. My personal conviction is that she knew that Jesus was God in human form, but she still had to adjust to the inevitable facts of His crucifixion and death on the cross at Calvary, because it was clearly prophesied in scripture. . This was her kid, and even though she knew what was coming, she must have agonized over the inevitable outcome.
I still feel today that limited by the form of my art, the pop song, I really didn't come close to conveying the fullness of what I imagine she must have gone through as the mother of Jesus. Would to be a writer of books at this particular time.
THANK YOU LORD
Writing this song was such a personal expression. The most special times we have with God is when we put time aside to just meditate on Him and talk to Him. This song was a reflection of the not often times when I had "down time: in which I could just pour out my heart in appreciation for God's love and mercy in my life.
I find it very difficult to find the time for such quiet moments with God. It seems like everything else squeezes me for time and attention, and I have little time left for intimacy with God. This song speaks of those special moments when everything else finally quiets down in our life and we truly have that special connection with Him
There is really no commentary on this song...it speaks for itself.
PLAIN OL' JOE
This song has inspired curiosity over the years that is paralleled only by the songs "Tinagera" and "Old Dan Cotton". Did I know a person like "Plain Ol' Joe" ? ....the answer is no. Like the two songs above, these are "story" songs that follow events in the lives of fictitious characters who represent real people on our lives. I have always received it as a special compliment when people come and ask me if these songs were based on real people. It says to me that I succeeded in creating characters who were vividly enough drawn to actually connect with listeners as people I or they may have known in our own lives.
Actually, this song and "Old Dan" came out of my appreciation for the late great storyteller in song, Harry Chapin. I have always admired his work, and these songs were written as I would imagine he may have written them.
"Plain Ol Joe" presented quite a dilemma for me. As with many of these wordy, longer songs, the story begins to emerge, and the challenge is to tell the story in a format which does not really allow for a lengthy narrative. As the arc of the story began to emerge, I was soon groping for an ending. It seemed to most naturally flow into the sad events of this lonely life ending in suicide, but obviously, this ending seemed risky at best. But, to me the Bible is not all sweet and lovely, but reflects the failure and pain of life as well. I actually brought this song to several pastors for counsel on whether or not the ending was appropriate for a "gospel" song. I suggested alternate endings, like having Joe get saved and the events of his life ending up more positively. But all counsel reinforced the idea that the power of the ending was in it's tragedy, and the general consensus was that I should leave it alone, which I did.
I believe that the message of my work is clarified in it's overall context. In other words, an individual song may have a more subtle lyric or more negative subject matter, but when seen as a whole album or as a complete body of work, the message is clear. So...I purposely followed this song on the album with the song "Harvest Time", which speaks of the fields being white to harvest but the workers are few. The combined impact of the two songs was to say that there are unlovely and unloved people out there that desperately need for us to share the gospel message with them. I have received much feedback over the years that this song has ministered to people in many diverse ways.
HARVEST TIME
This song is based on the scripture which says "the fields are white to harvest, but the workers are few". I felt this to be a very important message, and desired to convey this idea as an admonishment to Christians that this is the day to be bold.
I had a Bob Dylan feel in mind when I wrote this on guitar, and wanted to get a kind of feeling in the music that would bring to mind the image of people dancing formally in baroque times, you know, Jolly Old England, women in bustles, that type of thing. What really brought this image home was the unplanned genius of Sid Sharp and William Kurasch who did the violin duet in the instrumental. I asked Sid to do it as a solo, and he suggested the duet. These guys nailed it in like two takes, echoing the melody that I sang to them spontaneously to the track. This instrumental section is one of my favorite moments on any of my records.
FOOL FOR JESUS
Something we all feel at times, that we are out of synch with the rest of the world and they hold us up to ridicule. That's because we are and they do. But, what a badge of distinction to be persecuted for righteousness sake. This song simply speaks of this truth.
HEAR THE ANGELS SING
One night after a concert, a little old man came up to me and handed me a piece of paper, telling me to look at it later when things were less hectic. I forgot about it until I got back to the hotel. I opened it up, and on it were scribbled the lines "I can almost see that city standing there beyond that hill, the city made for living in the Father's will." He had not indicated his name, phone number or anything else by which I could reach him, nor whether he had written the lines or copied them down from some old hymn or such. To this day I don't know.
Frankly, material given to me like this is rarely inspiring or usable, but one day when I was playing piano at home, I remembered the paper and got it out. It became the basis for this song, and opened up the gate for the many images in the song. I took many of the images directly from scripture, combining those images with some of my own, and came up with what I hoped would be a lyric that would have the feel of describing an actual vision.
On a separate note, a couple of years after recording the song, someone sent me a recording they did of the song with their church musicians, and in the chorus part, where my voices sing "la-la-la-la-la, etc,. they had inserted some scripture that fit perfectly in the meter of the song. It was a fabulous effect, and I regret that I didn't do something like that on my recording.
PEACE IN THE VALLEY
I love "spacey" music, and love it when I can create something spacey. I based this song on what I thought was a kind of kid's melody I had heard or at least a variation thereof. The "sing-song" melody reminded me of something a kid would sing, perhaps subconsciously reminding listeners of more innocent and primal times in their life. The images once again borrowed from Revelations, with some embellishment on my part. Peace is the obvious theme of this song, but just as powerful to me is the theme of freedom, youthful abandon, kids running around in green meadows, that type of thing. This song conjures up very definite images in my mind, and even though it is a very soft song, it has a holy sense of joy, a different kind of joy than merriment kind of joy, perhaps closer to the real Biblical meaning of the word joy.
THE WARRIOR
What a project. Terry Clark had a song which contained this very classical, heavy instrumental thing in the middle. I don't think he ever recorded his song, but I asked him if I could insert the instrumental in this song, as it seemed perfect for it.
The song is intended to be a dramatic almost symphonic look at the Crucifixion and Resurrection. It is not a simple thing to do in a 5 minute pop song, but I think I succeeded as well as I could.
The drama of the story is reflected in the movements of the music, and the addition of sound effects made this one of my more ambitious projects. The decrescendo, almost to a whisper in one spot , contrasts with the almost "primal scream" which concluded the instrumental, hopefully creating a very intense experience for the listener. The scream by the way, really was a scream executed in musical harmonies. It was intended to represent the fury of heaven at the death of Jesus on the cross.
PRODUCTION NOTE:
We actually went out and bought a little toy piano for this song. It appears in the instrumental build up and can be recognized in the almost Eastern riffs of that section.
The huge section of voices in the front of the song are all me, overdubbed many, many times to create the effect of a huge amount of people singing.