It's kind of ironic that one of the last of John Lennon's songs was this lovely ballad, "Grow Old Along With Me" in which he prays "God bless our love." This is the same guy who wrote the anti-religion "Imagine". One hopes John was able to work it all out with his maker at some point. That said, Grow Old is a very beautiful song. This version is by Mary Chapin Carpenter. The only versions we have of Lennon singing it, are some home recordings which suffer a little from the poorer quality of home recording equipment of the day.
This is a beautiful song. Perfect for weddings. It's sad that Lennon was looking forward to growing old along with his wife and died very soon after he wrote it.
This unusual song by John Mayer flies in the face of the romantic poets. Love to Mayer is something you do, not something you can hold on to or something that just magically pop up in your heart. It's not a feeling that you can capture like you could scoop up a butterfly with a net. CS Lewis captured this idea in his book Mere Christianity. “Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’
your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of
the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you
will presently come to love him.”
About the only iteration of love as a "thang," that I think is accurate, is something the apostle John pointed out in one of his letters. "God," he said, "is love". All love springs from the author of love and is the wellspring of all love in the universe. There are some preachers and romantics who will argue with you that love is a "thang," but I think they miss the point. Love it seems springs from an act. It's not some magical thing that occurs when a pretty girl in a skimpy bathing suit walks by on the beach or a muscled up young man removes his shirt while repairing your porch. I think they're thinking of another "L" word besides love.
This unusual song by John Mayer flies in the face of the romantic poets. Love to Mayer is something you do, not something you can hold on to or something that just magically pop up in your heart. It's not a feeling that you can capture like you could scoop up a butterfly with a net. CS Lewis captured this idea in his book Mere Christianity. “Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’
your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of
the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you
will presently come to love him.”
About the only iteration of love as a "thang," that I think is accurate, is something the apostle John pointed out in one of his letters. "God," he said, "is love". All love springs from the author of love and is the wellspring of all love in the universe. There are some preachers and romantics who will argue with you that love is a "thang," but I think they miss the point. Love it seems springs from an act. It's not some magical thing that occurs when a pretty girl in a skimpy bathing suit walks by on the beach or a muscled up young man removes his shirt while repairing your porch. I think they're thinking of another "L" word besides love.
This beautiful old hymn was a hit back in the 70s for Cat Stevens. Cat
later left the music business and joined Islam for a strange and
troubling journey for those who enjoyed his music. It always seemed odd
that the gentle singer we knew would embrace a religion not known for
it's peaceful ways. Cat changed his name to Yusuf Islam. He was born
Steven Demetre Georgiou. Now he goes by just plain Yusuf. Over the years
reporters used to seek him out to comment on some new official Muslim
outrage like the fatwah against author Salman Rushdie. He made some
comments that got him in trouble over the years. Eventually he returned
to the music business and made some new music and engaged in peace
activism. He has been given several humanitarian awards over the years.
Given
that as an outspoken Muslim pacifist, Yusuf is a fairly rare bird, it's
little wonder he gets a lot of attention from progressives in the
entertainment industry and the political sector. I don't care if the man
is a Muslim. At least he's a peaceful man and that is most important.
And his rendition of Morning Has Broken is one of my favorite versions
of this song. Enjoy:
This song went into my songleader's handbook years ago. Cat Stevens/Yusuf is the reason I found it. I am grateful.
This poignant song foreshadowed the end of John Denver's marriage. The song is one of his better songs lyrically and the tune supports the words perfectly. Denver's tragic death in a plane crash shocked his fans, but as any artist hopes to, John left behind a brilliant body of work.
This song is a nice one to put on your playlist on a cold winter evening. You can almost feel the warm Shanghai breezes wafting through your living room.
Born Henry John Deutchendorf, John was the son of a U.S. Air Force
officer. At age eleven, his grandmother gave him her guitar. He took
guitar lessons and joined a boys’ choir. At age
twenty he changed his name to John Denver and began to pursue a career
in music. Peter, Paul & Mary picked up and made a hit with his song
"Leaving on a Jet Plane". The success of that song led to John catching a
spot in the Chad Mitchell Trio. When they disbanded Denver took off on
his own and he managed to catch the social, charitable and environmental
sentiments of the 70s and 80s.
Here's a live version of Shanghai Breezes from John's later career:
My old friend Steve Borth has restarted his singing career with a new
album or two and some new songs. His latest album is called "Home as Soon as I Can." Steve was a year ahead of me at Valley Grande
Academy and we bumped into each other in our summer youth work for a
couple of years. We used to get mistaken for each other back when I was
thinner than I am now. We both play guitar, but that's pretty much where the musical similarity ends. He has talent. I hide in the back of the song service band and try not to mess up.
Steve left a trail of songs behind him during his days in Texas,
including two, "Faith", "Peace" and "Nothing Soothes the Soul Like Jesus". His early songs went on to became standards for
youth rallies all over the state. He also wrote a folk cantata called "The Great Controversy" that was quite good. A couple or three Adventist singing teams produced some really excellent versions of it. Another notable production was done by the Paul Johnson Singers. I always like the ones Steve did best, but then I liked his folksy sound better than the slicker versions with orchestration.
With his
new music Steve returns to his country-folk roots - his "country side"
as he calls it. This particular song piqued my interest. It's not your
typical gospel song, but Steve doesn't do safe - he says what he has to
say and doesn't worry too much about pleasing the folks down at Hal
Leonard or at Review & Herald even.
Steve's music is very personal and he has that unique deep bass voice of his that makes it special. All I know is that I like it. And Steve's a friend, which makes it even more fun. Some day, if not in this world, maybe the next, I'd like to get together and jam with Steve - just play some mellow old songs around a campfire. "I think I still know most of the words to "Toilet Man" even for the secular portion of the evening. I expect the new Earth will be a great place for making music. I can think of a bunch of old friends I'd like to have around that campfire.
Good luck with the album, Steve and may God bless you in all you do.
I got really attached to Adrian Monk, the lead character in the TV series "Monk". The show was about an ex-cop turned detective when his obsessive compulsive disorder made it dangerous for him to continue as a uniformed officer. The show had a nice run and a lovely ongoing story. It ended really well. USA Network gave the show time to close the storyline. Randy Newman wrote the original theme song and he wrote this song to cap the series off. It played one time during the last episode. I put it on my Mp3 player.
I thought it was nice that unlike so many TV shows these days, they actually gave us some closure. Because of that, I'll come back to Monk again and binge watch it. TV networks need to always give their shows a closing few episodes, especially nowadays when people binge-watch their favorite series'
Here's a little montage from the show with "When I'm Gone" sung by Randy Newman:
I shed serious tears during the final song. And I'm not ashamed.
Ever once in a while you stumble across a weird little song and it just sticks in your head. This little ditty by Louden Wainright III celebrates an experience we've all had driving down a country road late at night. this is one of those songs you sing at the top of you lungs when you're driving along alone and feeling just a bit unhappy with the state of affairs in the world and you just want to express your frustration with the things.
Here's Louden Wainright III with "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road".
This lovely little ballad captures my mood sometimes living out here on the left coast 3000 miles away from Texas, my own, my native land. Dougie Maclean has a habit of writing songs I like. I think I'll post another of his for Sabbath. It wasn't exactly intended to be a Christian song, but Dougie captured another Christian theme quite inadvertently. The Scots have a gift for that, given their long and turbulent Christian history. Whatever the Lairds were up to, the crofters and the workmen of Scotland were drawn to the infinite. I think it may be the hills and the skies.
