Faith

When The Winter Comes

/ larryallenmusic / Leave a comment

Winter-Love

Children are the heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. – Psalms 127:3

When your summer days come tumbling down
And you find yourself alone
Then you can come back and be with me
Just close your eyes and I’ll be there

I’ve always believed that the greatest blessings that God gives us in this world are the human relationships we share. Family, neighbors, freinds, colleagues and yes, our social media families, too. But among these, our children have to be the absolute greatest of all.

Listen to the sound
Of this old heart beating for you
Yes I’d miss you
But I never want to hold you down
You might say I’m here for you

And it’s funny how these blessings and the feelings we have for our children can be so distinctively different depending upon gender. Mother/daughter, Father/son and vice versa, they’re all filled with love, yet somehow unique.

Not to downplay any others, but it seems as if the relationship between a dad and his baby girl (and yes, she’ll always be his baby girl, even when she’s 40) will always be special. Mama Bear will always be protective of all their cubs, but not in the same way fathers can be for their daughters.

When the winter comes to your new home
And snowflakes are falling down
Then you can come back and be with me
Just close your eyes and I’ll be there

A father knows that his relationship with and the way he treats his wife will serve as the standard for how his daughter will set expectations for the men in her life. The Bible says husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the Church and that’s probably a good guideline to follow. And, rest assured that Dad will be keeping a keen eye on any young man in her life and will expect no lesser standard from him.

In the spring, protective arms surrounding you
In the fall, we let you go your way
Happiness I know will always find you
And when it does, I hope that it will stay

In all seasons fathers seek to protect their daughters, while still taking pride in their growth and independence as young women and watching them develop in the pathways provided by their mothers. We hope only for their safety and happiness in their lives beyond us, while still secretly wishing they could stay with us forever.

Yes I miss you
But I never want to hold you down
You might say I’m here for you
Yes I miss you
But I never want to hold you down
You might say I’m here for you
I’ll always be here for you

“Here For You” was released on Neil Young’s 27th studio LP Prairie Wind in 2005. It was written for his daughter, Amber Jean, who was 21 years old and in her final year at college.  Prairie Wind  marked yet another distinctive twist in Neil’s constantly shifting musical stylings, following the 60’s soul-infused Are You Passionate? in 2002 and the rock opera-esq Greendale in 2003.

And just like a father’s reminiscence, Prairie Wind appeared to harken back to his writings on the Harvest and Harvest Moon albums. It came at a time in Neil’s life when he was feeling a bit of his own mortality, coming closely on the heels of the death of his father and an operation for a minor brain aneurysm in the spring of 2005.

The whole album has a lustrous and bittersweet country rock tone, and “Here For You” is surely no exception.

So, to all the Dads out there with daughters, you’ll definitely relate – either now or down the road. And just let them know, no matter what, we’ll always be here…just for them.

This post is dedicated to my daughter, Amanda (who is quite a gifted and creative writer herself).

Listen to the original here:

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Thank you for your response. ✨

My sources for this post included:

Songfacts: http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=5994

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Wind

A Problem You’ll Understand

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leaningbuilding

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:  If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! – Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain, we all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there’s always tomorrow

Yes, we all have our problems. But the good news of Jesus is that there will always be at least one “someone to lean on”. And though true friends can be hard to find, sometimes help can come from people and places you would not normally expect.

Lean on me when you’re not strong
And I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on
For it won’t be long
‘Til I’m gonna need somebody to lean on

John Lennon once said Instant Karma was gonna get you, but it can just as easily help you. It’s a two-way street. Maybe I’ve lived a charmed life, but I honestly can’t recall a single time in my life when I really needed help and couldn’t find it.

The “snow-jam” last winter in Atlanta was a testimony to folks reaching out to help others in any way they could. I-75 was a literal parking lot, with cars stranded and stuck in all lanes, rapidly running out of gas (and heat) in sub-zero temps for hours and hours. I was at home watching the news and saw where people that lived nearby were hiking out from their homes, sometimes walking miles, bringing blankets, water and food to those stuck in their cars.

Please, swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you won’t let show

But it doesn’t take a natural disaster to bring the best out in our fellow man. I’ve found that if you’ll just be humble enough to ask, more times than not you’ll find people willing and even eager to lend a helping hand. And that can be tough for some of us – especially men – to do.

In this month of Thanksgiving, we all should take time out to be thankful for those we lean on for support. The greatest blessings God has bestowed on us are the human relationships in our lives.

You just call on me, brother, when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you’ll understand
We all need somebody to lean on

Bill Withers knows firsthand what it is like to be in need. Bill was born in the rural coal mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, the youngest of 13 children. Bill’s father died when he was only 13 years old and at age 18, he enlisted in the Navy. It was during his nine year Navy service that Bill truly began to develop his singing and songwriting style.

After leaving the Navy, Bill took a job on the assembly line at Douglas Aircraft and was so unsure of his future in music that he refused to quit his job even as his first hit single “Ain’t No Sunshine” was hitting the charts.

If there is a load
You have to bear that you can’t carry
I’m right up the road, I’ll share your load
If you just call me

“Lean On Me” was Bill’s biggest hit, going to #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Soul Singles charts in 1972. It was the first single off his breakthrough LP Still Bill and was ranked #205 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time. It is one of only nine songs in rock history to reach #1 on the charts for two different artists; Club Nouveau also hit the top spot with their funky hip hop dance version in 1987.

Bill’s inspiration for “Lean On Me” came after he had moved to Los Angeles to further pursue his music career. He was living in a seedy, West LA apartment and thinking of how different it was and how the different the people were, too.

In a 2004 interview with Carl Wiser of Songfacts, Bill said, “(I know) it sounds idealized if you are from an environment where it’s (helping others out) not ordinarily practical to do that. But I’m from an environment where it was practical to do that.”

As an example, Bill recalled an incident from earlier days: “When I was in the Navy, I must have been about 18, 19 years old, and I was stationed in Pensacola, Florida. It was some holiday, I had this car that I was able to buy and I was driving from Pensacola, Florida up to West Virginia. As is the case with young people with cheap cars, the tires weren’t that great, so one of my tire blew out on this rural Alabama road. This guy comes walking over the hill that looked like he was right out of the movie Deliverance. Did you see that movie?”

“He says to me, ‘Oh, you had a blowout.’ Well, I didn’t have a spare tire. This guy goes walking back across the hill, and I’m not too comfortable here because I know where I am. He comes back walking with a tire, and he actually helps me put the tire on the car. My circumstance, this was not an idealized concept, this was real to me.”

“Still Bill” is still around, doing some writing and producing; mostly working with new artists to help them get a start. So, let’s all take a few minutes while we’re giving thanks this week to reflect on the simple human kindnesses that abound out there. And know that there’s always somebody out there that needs somebody to lean on.

Listen to the sweet sounds of “Still Bill” here:

Club Nouveau cover here:

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Thank you for your response. ✨

My sources for this post included:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_on_Me_%28song%29

Songfacts: http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/bill_withers/

The Eyes Of The Blind

/ larryallenmusic / Leave a comment

negative_blind_eye

It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed  ~Romans 13:11

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
From the mountains of faith
To a river so deep
I must be looking for something
Something sacred I lost
But the river is wide
And it’s too hard to cross

What are you searching for? Someone to love? A soul mate? A new career? A new place to live?

Or is your search much deeper than that? I know it is for me. It has taken me a long. long time to near the end of my search, but I’ve begun to at least see it now. Funny thing is that it has been right in front of me all along. My search is for meaning.

And even though I know the river is wide
I walk down every evening and I stand on the shore
And try to cross to the opposite side
So I can finally find out what I’ve been looking for

For us “baby boomers” maybe it’s just in the way we are wired. So self absorbed, so critically oblivious and materially motivated. I can remember clearly, when I was in my early 30’s, my mother saying to me when I was home for a visit, “Son, you know we’re proud for you and all you have accomplished, but you really need to stop and smell the roses.”

I heard her, but I didn’t really hear her. It’s taken me a long time to take her advice. And when I look, I can see the same thing all around me, in almost everyone I know.

And I’ve been searching for something
Taken out of my soul
Something I would never lose
Something somebody stole

And what was stolen can never be replaced. It can’t be repurchased. It can’t be replenished. And even if he wanted to, the thief who robbed me can’t give it back. That which was stolen is time. And like Jim Croce once sang, we can’t bottle it.

I don’t know why I go walking at night
But now I’m tired and I don’t want to walk anymore
I hope it doesn’t take the rest of my life
Until I find what it is that I’ve been looking for

One of my favorite quotes is from Sister Mary Corita Kent: “Life is a succession of moments; to live each one is to succeed.”

Yes, the things we search for are right here in front of us, in each and every one of those moments.

I believe the greatest meaning and fulfillment we can find in life, is found within the human relationships we have and living fully in those moments we share with others.

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the jungle of doubt
To a river so deep
I know I’m searching for something
Something so undefined
That it can only be seen
By the eyes of the blind
In the middle of the night

It’s ironic that Billy Joel, son of a Holocaust survivor and an avowed atheist would write a song so deeply infused with Biblical references. He said as much himself: he got the idea for the song in one of his dreams – in the dream he was sleepwalking – and when he awoke he said to himself “Hey, who am I to try to pull off a gospel song?”. But he just couldn’t shake the feeling and found himself singing it over and over in the shower that morning.

I do think his lyric about something that could “only be seen by the eyes of the blind” is a bit of a atheistic stab at religious belief, but I would challenge him to say that he had no religious inspiration in the song. And might that mean that he was being a little spiritually guided, as well?

I’m not sure about a life after this
God knows I’ve never been a spiritual man
Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river
That runs to the promised land

I guess we all have our doubts and struggles with our faith and beliefs, no matter what they are, and I’m sure it’s the same for Billy. “The River Of Dreams” was the title song and first hit single off his last recorded studio album to date, 1993’s River Of Dreams. The album leaned strongly towards themes around love, trust, betrayal  and loss. Sure sounds like a man searching for meaning to me.

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the desert of truth
To the river so deep
We all end in the ocean
We all start in the streams
We’re all carried along
By the river of dreams
In the middle of the night

A few interesting notes about Billy and the album include:

  • The album cover art was painted by his then wife, Christie Brinkley
  • Each of the subsequent singles from the album featured cover art that was a small section of the album cover painting.
  • Rolling Stone magazine gave it a “Top Pick” in their Best Album Cover of the Year awards in 1993
  • Joel said “river of dreams” was a play on the phrase “stream of consciousness”
  • Billy often toured with fellow pianist, Elton John, another strongly non-religious musical artist

While I may not agree with Billy’s lack of religious belief,  I do have to admire the God given talent behind it. “The River of Dreams” may have been one of his finest recordings in a career that includes over 150 million records sold worldwide, making him the #3 solo recoding artist all-time in the Unites States.

So, let’s roll up our pants legs and wander down to the river where we can hear a non-sermon from “an innocent man”. And while we’re at it, we can say a prayer for Billy, too.

Listen to the original studio version and video here:

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Thank you for your response. ✨

Sources for this post include:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Joel

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_River_of_Dreams

Songfacts.com: http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4600

Battle Lines Being Drawn

/ larryallenmusic / 2 Comments

kentstateflowerpic

The noise of battle is in the land, and great destruction. – Jeremiah 50:22

There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

Ahh yes, the 60’s. The British may have been invading the music scene, but it was boots on the ground for the US of A. Both in the paddies and hills of Vietnam and in the streets and college campuses here at home.

TV channels were limited then, so there was no hiding it. A whole generation had gone to war with it’s predecessors.

And each side had chosen it’s own form of weapons.

Buffalo Springfield’s message to us was a clarion call to stop, look and listen, just like Elvis Presley before.

I was a shade too young to be shipped off to war in 1967, but all of us in the neighborhood had or knew someone’s older brother who had gone. And some did not return.

I think it’s time we stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down?

It certainly was time to look at what was going down and, as Marvin sang, what was going on. It seemed like the earth was spinning off it’s axis in a thousand different directions and we were truly on the road to Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction”. It was college kids battling the police, protesters damning the war, parents battling teens on drugs, soldiers fighting the war and blacks and whites trying to come to terms with the ending of “separate but equal”.

There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking’ their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

In the middle of it all, there were peace symbol necklaces, soldiers flashing peace signs and rockers with protest songs. There was “flower power”, “make love not war” and Dr. Tim telling us all to “turn on, tune in and drop out”. Very groovy, baby!

It certainly was hard to tell what was right from wrong. But you could sense something in the air; a change was gonna come.

What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly saying, “hooray for our side”

All we really had to do was listen. For Jesus had established the righteous truth long, long ago. The peacemakers,  the pure of heart, the merciful and the persecuted…they were all blessed. And they were the light unto the world. It took all of these events unfolding to fulfill Jesus’ words on the Mount. And goodness prevailed.

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of line, the men come and take you away

Buffalo Springfield, in it’s original 1966 lineup, included the likes of Stephen Stills and Neil Young (CSN&Y), Richie Furay (Poco), Dewey Martin (The Monkees session player) and Bruce Palmer. In retrospect, they were probably the first (or second if Cream got in there ahead of them) “supergroup”.

They recorded only 3 albums and their biggest hit “For What It’s Worth” was not on their debut, but after it took off on the charts reaching #7, was later added to the re-issue. The title never appears in the song’s lyrics and legend holds that it came from a conversation that Stephen Stills had with Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records (who was the first guy to recognize the genius of Ray Charles btw) when they were about to be signed to a record deal. It’s been said that Stills said to Ertegun, “I have this song here, for what it’s worth, if you want it.”

While “For What It’s Worth” came to symbolize the Vietnam war protest movement and the tragedy at Kent State University, the truth is the song was written about a 10:00 curfew law in the LA/Sunset Strip club district. When one of LA’s most powerful radio stations announced a protest, over 1,000 young demonstrators (including young celebs like Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson) turned out for one of the first of what were later referred to as the “Sunset Strip Riots”.

The 60’s are like a bookend to me with the 2000’s. My politics have reverted (liberally) over time. My religious beliefs have been strengthened.

I look at everything through the lens of WWJD.

And that’s what rules…for what it’s worth.

 

 

 

The noise of battle is in the land, And great destruction. – See more at: http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Sound#sthash.vS5Fnyni.dpuf