SONG COMMENTARY
(Commentary by Chuck Girard unless indicated otherwise)
A LOVE SONG
One day Jesse Johnson came to me with his guitar. He played me this sweet little chord line, anda melody started to come across my mind almost immediately. It reminded me of something from a Disney movie that Tinker Bell would sing. I don’t think we were Christians at this time, so I don’t remember that I actually wrote the lyric then. But later when I did, I thought of it as an introductory song for the album. I based the lyric on Matthew 11:15, “for he who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the church.
It was always intended to be the introductory song of the album. Later we decided to do a reprise of it at the end so the song would close the album as well as open it.
We never thought much about it as a song. But after the album was released, the song became a big hit in the Philippines. It opened the door for us to do five nights of meetings at Rizal Stadium in Manila, where the Beatles had played six years earlier. It was a tremendous time of ministry, and became the template for Christian nights at theme parks in the USA.
Knott Berry Farm had heard about the event in Manila, and decided to try a Christian night at their theme park. It was wildly successful, and was the first of many to come at not only Knotts, but Disneyland, Six Flags, and other theme parks as well.
CHANGES
This song was written pre-Christian. Denny Correll, a member of the pre-Christian version of Love Song, actually started the song, and brought the basic idea to me. Together we finished it. We weren’t Christians yet, but we still had Christian lyrics in there.
The song was actually recorded without permission by then RCA Victor artist Ray Peterson (Tell Laura I Love Her). We would not give him permission to release the song because we didn’t know if he was a strong enough Christian. He followed us all over Southern California to services to try to convince us to let him release the song. We never did give permission. Today I think I would decide differently. I would see it as an evangelistic opportunity to get the song out there and play on non-Christian radio. But we were baby Christians and we were doing what we thought was right.
TWO HANDS
Tommy Coomes brought this song to the band. We all recognized it as a song that would have to go on the album.
I didn’t know the full backstory until recent years.
Tommy co-wrote the song with a friend of ours named Chuck Butler.
Chuck was a part of our little hippie seeking group, but never fully gave his heart to the Lord. A friend of his had a sister with a drug problem. He asked Chuck if he would take his sister down to see his “religious friends“at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa,
Chuck complied, and went into the service as well. God met him in that service and he gave his heart to the Lord. His friend’s sister also received the Lord. She had gone to the counseling after the altar call. Chuck did not go up to the altar, but went back out to the car to wait for his friend’s sister. He did not know how to articulate what just happened to him. He had a yellow notepad, and began to write. “We are all gathered here because we all believe. If there’s a doubter in the crowd, we ask you not to leave”
In his words he says “I was the doubter. God used someone else’s need to bring me into a situation where I could make a decision for the Lord.”
Interesting how God works.
LITTLE COUNTRY CHURCH
This was written early in our ministry. A minister named Bob Mumford had come into our life as an elder figure. He loved our ministry. He told us if we could get up to Northern California, Oakland to be specific, he might be able to get us on a Full Gospel Business Men’s convention, which would give us great exposure in an area of the body of Christ. We did make our way up to Northern California, and we were staying with some friends in the area. Before the service, we were gathered in a little room in the house to pray and prepare for the service. Fred Field had his guitar out. He started playing these chords that became the basis of the song “Little Country Church”. I looked up on the wall and there was a sepia tone photograph of an old country church. I began to sing “little country church on the edge of town “, and then I kind of stalled and sang: “do do do dn do do do.” it actually sounded kind of cool, so when I wrote the rest of the lyrics, I just left it in. this song started being about Calvary Chapel specifically, but I realized it had a much more universal implication. It was really more about what was happening in all churches throughout the nation to a certain degree. God was opening people’s hearts to the hippies, and the hippies were getting saved in large numbers.
It was an incredible season in the history of the church.
FREEDOM
One night after service at Calvary, for some reason I had stayed after, and only Chuck Smith and myself were left in the building. I told him that I felt inspired to write, and asked him if I could stay for a while. He gave me the keys and told me how to lock up.
The song started out more like a ballad of love and appreciation for the Lord. It then kind of morphed into this more aggressive statement about declaring the name of Jesus without compromise. I already had a fragment of the song written to be another song. But these two ideas kind of melded together into the final song called “Freedom”.
WELCOME BACK
As big as this song became, i don’t remember too much about writing it. I know it started with the idea of singing the phrase “welcome back” over a few times.
I think I kind of romanticized the lyric into being a part of my own experience. In several ways it was, but not directly.
It was the song that we sang when we met with Chuck Smith, the first time in the little chapel to discuss the idea of playing at Calvary. He told me he was a bit hesitant about having us play on the platform, since we are only a few weeks old in the Lord, long hair, electric guitars, etc. but at the end of the “interview“ he asked to hear a song. We played him this one, and the next thing we heard was “can you guys play tonight it’s youth night.”
We said “what time is the service”. Chuck said 7 PM. We said “our guitar player Fred Field is doing weekends in Orange County jail, but he gets out at six, so I think we can make it.” We did, and as they say the rest is history. The chapel grew from about 200 to 2000 in the next four months. And the Jesus movement became a national phenomenon.
FRONT SEAT, BACK SEAT
Tommy Coomes would often quote his grandfather, who apparently said “if it ain’t country, it ain’t music”. I have always held the opinion that “country “and “music “are a contradiction in terms. Partially kidding here, but I really don’t care much for today’s country. I prefer the classics, which are more like folk music. That aside, I would likely never come up with a country flavored song on my own.
The general process on these kinds of songs was to have Tommy or Fred come up and play some kind of country oriented idea on the guitar. I would then do the melody and the lyrics.
Lyrically, this was a simple little parable about giving the Lord the control of your life. It is interesting that it predated Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus at the Wheel“ by many years.
A fun song, and a real audience pleaser.
LET US BE ONE
AND THE WIND WAS LOW
I am often asked which of the songs I’ve written is my favorite. Difficult to answer. It’s kind of like asking someone which of his four children is his favorite. Every song seems equally important when written, or I wouldn’t record it. But, just like as what happens with our children sometimes, some distinguish themselves in certain areas more than others.
If I was to narrow it down to one or two songs, this would certainly be top of the list. It checks all the boxes. I love it musically, and it’s very personal statement that comes from my own life experience. It’s been recorded three different times, and I love each treatment equally.
I started writing it before I was a Christian. The original concept was “and a child was born“. I didn’t want it to be a Christmas song, but used these words as a working title.
I thought about John Lennon‘s lyric in one of the Beatles’ songs called “Because”. It reads: “Because the wind is high, it blows my mind”
Not really clear of his meaning here but I thought to myself, “what about the idea of the wind coming low instead of high?”, symbolic of the Holy Spirit reaching down to connect directly with us as children of God.
The rest of the lyric deals with water baptism and spirit baptism, both of which I experienced in my Christian walk.
BRAND NEW SONG
Another Fred Field collaboration. Fred came up with these beautiful chords. It was also his idea to change the time signature at the end.
When the group was just getting started, we did a little promotion. We created a bumper sticker and a button, which said “lend an ear to a Love Song“ and referenced Psalm 96:1.
I loved this idea of the fact that our music was something so fresh and new on the horizon. I wrote the lyric kind of as an apologetic for the idea of using music of the culture to reach the culture. Nothing new really, but maybe especially controversial, because it involved rock ‘n’ roll music. Rock ‘n’ roll was by many considered to be the music of rebellion and rebellious youth. The idea of harnessing it for the use of the Lord was a heavy lift for some people.
The lyric explained our side of things, and what we hoped to accomplish through our music.
Musically, I especially loved the change of time signature at the end, and the harmonies that we worked out.
FEEL THE LOVE
This was the very first song I ever wrote with a spiritual theme.
It was way pre-Christian. I had taken over my mother‘s mortgage on the house she owned in Pasadena California.
I was living there with a couple of hippie friends. I believe Jay Truax and Ernie Earnshaw were living there with me at this time. All we did all day was smoke dope and play music. My house was getting quite run down, as no one was cleaning up after themselves, and certainly no one was concerned about the condition of the house.
One day, in despair over the condition of the house, I went to clean up the kitchen. Jay came in and reprimanded me. It was kind of the Mary and Martha thing from the Bible. “brother, are you putting your possessions above serving the Lord? We are all having a time of worship in the living room, and you’re here cleaning up the kitchen.” It was the last straw. I took my guitar and went out on the back steps of the house. I began to write the words “save the sadness for another time.” It wasn’t the first time I felt a little bit out of step with some of the ideas of my hippie companions, and I let my thoughts drift onto the page of the lyric.
This song is many people‘s favorite by Love Song.
There is an evolution in one line of the lyric. I originally wrote, “feel the love that only God can bring“. I knew the answer was God, but wasn’t sure that I really knew Him. I changed the line later, to “feel the love that knowing God can bring“. At this point, I had felt that I had connected personally with God, and wanted to reflect that in the lyric.
After I became a Christian, I changed it one last time to: “Feel the love the Son of God can bring”.
This was the final and fulfilling realization of that line.
A LOVE SONG(reprise)
A musical postscript to the whole album. A shorter version of the opening song, done at half volume to close the album.
Sent from my iPhone
A LOVE SONG
One day Jesse Johnson came to me with his guitar. He played me this sweet little chord line, anda melody started to come across my mind almost immediately. It reminded me of something from a Disney movie that Tinker Bell would sing. I don’t think we were Christians at this time, so I don’t remember that I actually wrote the lyric then. But later when I did, I thought of it as an introductory song for the album. I based the lyric on Matthew 11:15, “for he who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the church.
It was always intended to be the introductory song of the album. Later we decided to do a reprise of it at the end so the song would close the album as well as open it.
We never thought much about it as a song. But after the album was released, the song became a big hit in the Philippines. It opened the door for us to do five nights of meetings at Rizal Stadium in Manila, where the Beatles had played six years earlier. It was a tremendous time of ministry, and became the template for Christian nights at theme parks in the USA.
Knott Berry Farm had heard about the event in Manila, and decided to try a Christian night at their theme park. It was wildly successful, and was the first of many to come at not only Knotts, but Disneyland, Six Flags, and other theme parks as well.
CHANGES
This song was written pre-Christian. Denny Correll, a member of the pre-Christian version of Love Song, actually started the song, and brought the basic idea to me. Together we finished it. We weren’t Christians yet, but we still had Christian lyrics in there.
The song was actually recorded without permission by then RCA Victor artist Ray Peterson (Tell Laura I Love Her). We would not give him permission to release the song because we didn’t know if he was a strong enough Christian. He followed us all over Southern California to services to try to convince us to let him release the song. We never did give permission. Today I think I would decide differently. I would see it as an evangelistic opportunity to get the song out there and play on non-Christian radio. But we were baby Christians and we were doing what we thought was right.
TWO HANDS
Tommy Coomes brought this song to the band. We all recognized it as a song that would have to go on the album.
I didn’t know the full backstory until recent years.
Tommy co-wrote the song with a friend of ours named Chuck Butler.
Chuck was a part of our little hippie seeking group, but never fully gave his heart to the Lord. A friend of his had a sister with a drug problem. He asked Chuck if he would take his sister down to see his “religious friends“at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa,
Chuck complied, and went into the service as well. God met him in that service and he gave his heart to the Lord. His friend’s sister also received the Lord. She had gone to the counseling after the altar call. Chuck did not go up to the altar, but went back out to the car to wait for his friend’s sister. He did not know how to articulate what just happened to him. He had a yellow notepad, and began to write. “We are all gathered here because we all believe. If there’s a doubter in the crowd, we ask you not to leave”
In his words he says “I was the doubter. God used someone else’s need to bring me into a situation where I could make a decision for the Lord.”
Interesting how God works.
LITTLE COUNTRY CHURCH
This was written early in our ministry. A minister named Bob Mumford had come into our life as an elder figure. He loved our ministry. He told us if we could get up to Northern California, Oakland to be specific, he might be able to get us on a Full Gospel Business Men’s convention, which would give us great exposure in an area of the body of Christ. We did make our way up to Northern California, and we were staying with some friends in the area. Before the service, we were gathered in a little room in the house to pray and prepare for the service. Fred Field had his guitar out. He started playing these chords that became the basis of the song “Little Country Church”. I looked up on the wall and there was a sepia tone photograph of an old country church. I began to sing “little country church on the edge of town “, and then I kind of stalled and sang: “do do do dn do do do.” it actually sounded kind of cool, so when I wrote the rest of the lyrics, I just left it in. this song started being about Calvary Chapel specifically, but I realized it had a much more universal implication. It was really more about what was happening in all churches throughout the nation to a certain degree. God was opening people’s hearts to the hippies, and the hippies were getting saved in large numbers.
It was an incredible season in the history of the church.
FREEDOM
One night after service at Calvary, for some reason I had stayed after, and only Chuck Smith and myself were left in the building. I told him that I felt inspired to write, and asked him if I could stay for a while. He gave me the keys and told me how to lock up.
The song started out more like a ballad of love and appreciation for the Lord. It then kind of morphed into this more aggressive statement about declaring the name of Jesus without compromise. I already had a fragment of the song written to be another song. But these two ideas kind of melded together into the final song called “Freedom”.
WELCOME BACK
As big as this song became, i don’t remember too much about writing it. I know it started with the idea of singing the phrase “welcome back” over a few times.
I think I kind of romanticized the lyric into being a part of my own experience. In several ways it was, but not directly.
It was the song that we sang when we met with Chuck Smith, the first time in the little chapel to discuss the idea of playing at Calvary. He told me he was a bit hesitant about having us play on the platform, since we are only a few weeks old in the Lord, long hair, electric guitars, etc. but at the end of the “interview“ he asked to hear a song. We played him this one, and the next thing we heard was “can you guys play tonight it’s youth night.”
We said “what time is the service”. Chuck said 7 PM. We said “our guitar player Fred Field is doing weekends in Orange County jail, but he gets out at six, so I think we can make it.” We did, and as they say the rest is history. The chapel grew from about 200 to 2000 in the next four months. And the Jesus movement became a national phenomenon.
FRONT SEAT, BACK SEAT
Tommy Coomes would often quote his grandfather, who apparently said “if it ain’t country, it ain’t music”. I have always held the opinion that “country “and “music “are a contradiction in terms. Partially kidding here, but I really don’t care much for today’s country. I prefer the classics, which are more like folk music. That aside, I would likely never come up with a country flavored song on my own.
The general process on these kinds of songs was to have Tommy or Fred come up and play some kind of country oriented idea on the guitar. I would then do the melody and the lyrics.
Lyrically, this was a simple little parable about giving the Lord the control of your life. It is interesting that it predated Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus at the Wheel“ by many years.
A fun song, and a real audience pleaser.
LET US BE ONE
AND THE WIND WAS LOW
I am often asked which of the songs I’ve written is my favorite. Difficult to answer. It’s kind of like asking someone which of his four children is his favorite. Every song seems equally important when written, or I wouldn’t record it. But, just like as what happens with our children sometimes, some distinguish themselves in certain areas more than others.
If I was to narrow it down to one or two songs, this would certainly be top of the list. It checks all the boxes. I love it musically, and it’s very personal statement that comes from my own life experience. It’s been recorded three different times, and I love each treatment equally.
I started writing it before I was a Christian. The original concept was “and a child was born“. I didn’t want it to be a Christmas song, but used these words as a working title.
I thought about John Lennon‘s lyric in one of the Beatles’ songs called “Because”. It reads: “Because the wind is high, it blows my mind”
Not really clear of his meaning here but I thought to myself, “what about the idea of the wind coming low instead of high?”, symbolic of the Holy Spirit reaching down to connect directly with us as children of God.
The rest of the lyric deals with water baptism and spirit baptism, both of which I experienced in my Christian walk.
BRAND NEW SONG
Another Fred Field collaboration. Fred came up with these beautiful chords. It was also his idea to change the time signature at the end.
When the group was just getting started, we did a little promotion. We created a bumper sticker and a button, which said “lend an ear to a Love Song“ and referenced Psalm 96:1.
I loved this idea of the fact that our music was something so fresh and new on the horizon. I wrote the lyric kind of as an apologetic for the idea of using music of the culture to reach the culture. Nothing new really, but maybe especially controversial, because it involved rock ‘n’ roll music. Rock ‘n’ roll was by many considered to be the music of rebellion and rebellious youth. The idea of harnessing it for the use of the Lord was a heavy lift for some people.
The lyric explained our side of things, and what we hoped to accomplish through our music.
Musically, I especially loved the change of time signature at the end, and the harmonies that we worked out.
FEEL THE LOVE
This was the very first song I ever wrote with a spiritual theme.
It was way pre-Christian. I had taken over my mother‘s mortgage on the house she owned in Pasadena California.
I was living there with a couple of hippie friends. I believe Jay Truax and Ernie Earnshaw were living there with me at this time. All we did all day was smoke dope and play music. My house was getting quite run down, as no one was cleaning up after themselves, and certainly no one was concerned about the condition of the house.
One day, in despair over the condition of the house, I went to clean up the kitchen. Jay came in and reprimanded me. It was kind of the Mary and Martha thing from the Bible. “brother, are you putting your possessions above serving the Lord? We are all having a time of worship in the living room, and you’re here cleaning up the kitchen.” It was the last straw. I took my guitar and went out on the back steps of the house. I began to write the words “save the sadness for another time.” It wasn’t the first time I felt a little bit out of step with some of the ideas of my hippie companions, and I let my thoughts drift onto the page of the lyric.
This song is many people‘s favorite by Love Song.
There is an evolution in one line of the lyric. I originally wrote, “feel the love that only God can bring“. I knew the answer was God, but wasn’t sure that I really knew Him. I changed the line later, to “feel the love that knowing God can bring“. At this point, I had felt that I had connected personally with God, and wanted to reflect that in the lyric.
After I became a Christian, I changed it one last time to: “Feel the love the Son of God can bring”.
This was the final and fulfilling realization of that line.
A LOVE SONG(reprise)
A musical postscript to the whole album. A shorter version of the opening song, done at half volume to close the album.
Sent from my iPhone