Jesus

A Bag Of Beans

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bagofbeans

Let us tear off their shackles from us, and cast off their chains. -Psalm 2:3

You’ve got me sewed up like a pillow case
But you let my love go to waste so
Unchain my heart, oh please, please set me free

Why do we hold on to things that are not good for us? Why do we languish in prisons of our own making. Why can’t we simply “walk away, Renee”?

Our strongest attractions are often riddled with contradictions. Like sweet and sour pork.

I was watching “American Hustle” the other night and it struck me that the whole movie was built around not only the “hustle” itself, but a scene where Irving Rosenfeld’s wife Rosalyn says something to Carmine’s wife about her favorite nail polish: “There’s something, the topcoat. It’s like, perfum-ey, but there’s also something…rotten. And I know that sounds crazy, but I can’t get enough of it.”

That just about sums it up.

Every time I call you on the phone
Some fella tells me that you’re not at home

We’ll even go so far sometimes as to suffer humiliation. We just take it and go back for more. We can’t help ourselves. I can’t even begin to count the number of songs written from that book.

I’m under your spell like a man in a trance
But I know darn well, that I don’t stand a chance

Sometimes those closest to us, hurt us the most.

Jesus knew before the cock crowed about Peter’s denials. And surely He knew what Judas was going to do. He stuck with them, though. And we all know where that led. Of course, in this case, it was all just a part of the plan.

Unchain my heart, let me go my way
Unchain my heart, you worry me night and day

Do we secretly savor the pain and the love mixed together? Does the occasional bad grape make the wine even better? Does the combination of heart-break and heart-race make the love even sweeter? Does the bad feeling make the good feeling that much stronger?

Why lead me through a life of misery
When you don’t care a bag of beans for me
So unchain my heart, oh please, please set me free

Though it was much later in life that Frank Sinatra gave him the label, the “genius” of Ray Charles actually began when he first started playing the piano at the age of three. It’s a good thing he got a jump on it, as Ray was totally blind from glaucoma by age seven.

The “genius” label stuck (and certainly well deserved if you ask me) but Ray himself deflected such acclaim, saying: “Art Tatum, now he’s a genius…and Einstein, not me.”

The genius of Ray Charles spanned over 6 decades of recording over 60 albums and 127 singles and bridging every musical genre available.

And certainly Ray was no stranger to holding on to things that were not good for him.

His drug addiction problems were well known. And his rehab stint in 1965 was followed by the release of the songs “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and “Let’s Go Get Stoned” on his very next LP (Crying Time) in 1966.

He was twice married and divorced, and fathered 12 children with 10 different women.

Musicologist, Henry Pleasants, once summed Ray up this way: “Sinatra and Crosby before him, had been masters of words. Ray Charles is a master of sounds. His records disclose an extraordinary assortment of slurs, glides, turns, shrieks, wails, breaks, shouts, screams and hollers, all wonderfully controlled, disciplined by inspired musicianship, and harnessed to ingenious subtleties of harmony, dynamics and rhythm… It is either the singing of a man whose vocabulary is inadequate to express what is in his heart and mind or of one whose feelings are too intense for satisfactory verbal or conventionally melodic articulation. He can’t tell it to you. He can’t even sing it to you. He has to cry out to you, or shout to you, in tones eloquent of despair — or exaltation. The voice alone, with little assistance from the text or the notated music, conveys the message.”

Once during an interview, Ray was asked if there was any particular element in his musical style that had been most essential to his long running popularity. “Yeah”, he replied, “Me.”

So let yourself off the hook and take comfort in the fact that it happens to all of us. Sometimes, even when a thing is really, really bad, it’s very, very good.

Listen to a little of the genius here:

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Paradise And The Great Divide

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dry-cracked-earth

The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. – Leviticus 25:23

And they came from everywhere
to the Great Divide
Seeking a place to stand
or a place to hide

Too much stuff…when it comes down to it. Most of us just have too much stuff. And we want more. Why? Ever thought about it?

I met a man recently, a very wealthy man. Until his house burned down. Along with everything in it. Including his six car garage, with all the vehicles still inside. He told me he’d never felt so blessed, so free, or so at peace (once he got over the initial shock). He’d never realized how badly all of that stuff was weighing him down.

And, if you’ve never watched Annie Leonard’s “Story Of Stuff”…well, you need to. It may just change your life. Not gonna tag it here, but it’s on YouTube.  🙂

And they called it paradise
I don’t know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
while the town got high

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. And we turn inward to our own pursuits while the world burns. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s getting older. I’m not sure, but I do know this: it is our endless quest for more possessions that leads to this destruction of the very thing which God has charged us all with safekeeping.

Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught ’em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
people bought ’em

Now I’m no “tree-hugger” for sure, but doesn’t it kind of turn your stomach when you pull into these new housing developments where they just bulldoze the land flat and then build a bunch of “McMansions” 12′ apart? Then there’s the ultimate insult added to injury. Yup, they plant a single small tree in the yard, positioned just so. And a few cute bushes. Ain’t that grand?

Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
‘Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here

It’s no secret that The Eagles are one of my favorite bands of all time. To me (other than the lineup changes) they were the second Beatles. The songwriting skills of Lennon/McCartney vs. Frey/Henley. Sgt. Pepper vs, Hotel California. The guitar chops of Joe Walsh vs. George Harrison. The Long Run vs. Let It Be. Breaking up (seemingly overnight) at the peak of their fame. McCartney vs. Henley as a solo artist. Let It Be was released in May 1970 and the buzz from the Beatle’s breakup had barely died down when “Take It Easy” came rolling smoothly off the airwaves in May of 1972.

We satisfy our endless needs and
justify our bloody deeds,
in the name of destiny and the name of God

How much stuff do we really need, anyway? How many TV’s are in your house? There’s seven in mine. For four people. Most of the time only three, as my daughter is away at college. And, as the Boss sang: “There’s 57 channels and nothing on…”. Actually closer to 400 at my house. And can you conceive of the carbon footprint needed to supply them?

And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it’s like up there
They call it paradise
I don’t know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye

 

No wonder so many people have a dim view of organized religion. Henley has painted the picture perfectly here. As we stand in church and sing, the majority of us have no real concept of applying what the Bible says to our everyday lives. People looking in from the outside shake their heads and we don’t understand why. If Christians behave the same way (or worse) than the general public, then how valid can the argument for Jesus be? If only they knew; the Church is simply a hospital for sinners. We go to try to get well.

In a 1978 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Don Henley said, “The gist of the song was that when we find something good, we destroy it by our presence — by the very fact that man is the only animal on earth that is capable of destroying his environment.”

“The Last Resort” was the last song on side two of the album, Hotel California, but was later re-released as the “B” side to the single “Life In The Fast Lane”. Seems perfect: I guess that’s where the fast lane ultimately leads…the last resort.

Yup, we’re singing about Heaven on Sunday and living in Hell all week.

And thus endeth my rant. 🙂

Note: Due to copyright laws I couldn’t find an Eagles original version to share. Sorry!

 

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It Won’t Be Too Long

/ larryallenmusic / 21 Comments

man-on-cliff

Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, – Joel 2:1

 People keep on learnin’
Soldiers keep on warrin’
World keep on turnin’
Cause it won’t be too long 

No matter what, this old world just keeps on spinning…one more “trip around the sun” as Jimmy Buffett sang. And there’s nothing new under that sun, especially through the eyes of God. Wars continue to rage, weather continues to change and we all just continue to turn the page in the book of Life.

Powers keep on lyin’
While your people keep on dyin’
World keep on turnin’
Cause it won’t be too long

Yes, the road goes on forever and the party never ends, as Robert Earl Keen said. Or does it?

Back in 1973, Stevie (no longer “little Stevie”) Wonder certainly didn’t think so. He thought our time was short and the day’s end was nigh…the Judgement Day, that is. So short, in fact, that he wrote “Higher Ground” in about 3 hours. According to a later interview in Q magazine, Wonder said: “It was almost as if I had to get it done. I felt something was going to happen. I didn’t know what or when, but I felt something.”

I’m so darn glad He let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I’m so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin’
Till I reach my highest ground

Interestingly enough, “Higher Ground” and the album that contained it, Innervisons, was released just 3 days before Stevie was almost killed in a car accident on his way to a  benefit concert in Durham, North Carolina. A logging truck ahead of his car stopped suddenly in front of them, throwing a log through the windshield and striking Stevie in the head. He was in a coma for 4 days!

After recovering, Stevie said “I was definitely in a much better spiritual place that made me aware of a lot of things that concern my life and my future and what I have to do to reach another higher ground. This is like my second chance for life, to do something or to do more and to face the fact that I am alive.”

Yes…we definitely have the God of second chances. He loved us so, and realizing we could never come close to “earning” our way into Heaven, he offered us his Son. Yes…Jesus is the ultimate “do-over” for us all, Stevie included.

Don’t let nobody bring you down (they’ll sho ’nuff try)
God is gonna show you higher ground
He’s the only friend you have around

Innervisions was almost at the midway point (the 16th of some 30 odd LP’s he released) and the follow up to 1972’s Talking Book which featured a touch of the young Stevie (‘You Are The Sunshine Of My Life”) and a glimpse of the new, more sophisticated Stevie (“Superstition”). It was on the strength of Talking Book (and opening for the Rolling Stones tour) that really catapulted him from Motown teen idol to the R&B legend he became.

Till I reach my highest ground
No one’s gonna bring me down
Oh no
Till I reach my highest ground

Stevie’s message is definitely one to heed. As the Bible says, no one knows the time or the day, but it’s coming. Until then all we can do is to try our best to reach our own “higher ground”.

And don’t let nobody bring you down.

Listen to the original here:

Fantastic version from Playing For Change (musicians around the world)

 

 

 

 

 

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

For The Want Of A Nail

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rusty nail pic

He has taken it out of the way; having nailed it to the cross. – Colossians 2:14

He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. – See more at: http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Nails#sthash.ftCZXfY4.dpufI’ve been wronI had plans so big

But the devil’s in the details
I left out one thing
No one to love me
No one to love

One of my old friends from the music biz recently shared a post on Facebook about Todd Rundgren’s album, Nearly Human, and that prompted me to look at some of Todd’s considerable work for a good UTRS post. It didn’t take a lot of looking to find something good!

I first picked up on Todd in 1972 with the release of his ambitious double album, Something/Anything (a massive 25 song collection that included: “Hello, It’s Me”, “I Saw The Light”, and the closet hit, “Wolfman Jack”). If you listened to Top 40 radio at all in the early 70’s, you could not have missed “Hello, It’s Me” or “I Saw The Light”. Todd was such a prolific hit writer during this period, he had to shake off the nickname “the male Carole King”.

Todd’s virtuoso performance on this LP (he not only produced the recordings but played all the instruments and sang vocals on all 18 of the songs on he first three sides of the album) was fueled by a strange combination of Ritalin and marijuana. He said the songs just “poured out of me at a frantic pace…”I Saw The Light” took only about 20 minutes”. I guess this may be a testament to the creative and concentrative (is that a word?) qualities inherent in those two drugs!

The fourth side of the album was recorded in a separate session with an eclectic mix of available studio musicians at the Record Plant in NYC. Basically, Todd just put the word out at the studio that he was going to need help recording, and waited to see who would show up!

But, I digress…

For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost
For the want of a shoe, the horse was lost
For the want of a horse, the rider was lost
For the want of a rider, the message was lost

You know, the little things in life can have a huge impact. You can look at it in terms of negligence, but I prefer to view them as sins of omission. How many times have you said later “I should have….”. And most of the time it was something really simple, so easy for us to have done. The things left unsaid, the things we leave undone; can bring the biggest regrets.

For the want of a nail, the world was lost

Speaking of a lost world. And of things that could have been left undone. Certainly, Jesus could have chosen another path. But he didn’t.

No lack of a nail there.  And the world is eternally grateful.

Multiply it a billion times
Spread it all ’round the world

And now this is our mission. To spread the Word until all the world’s people groups are reached. It’s been a long time coming.

Everything seems to fail
And it was all for the want of a nail

Nearly Human was Todd’s 12th release (not counting the Nazz stuff) coming almost 20 years later. It featured an ex-model turned background singer named Michele Gray, whom Todd later married.  “For The Want Of A Nail” featured the ever-soulful Bobby Womack (“Across 110th St.”) on backing vocals. Brother Bobby passed away just last week. And the Big Man himself, Clarence Clemons, jumped in on “I Love My Life”.

“For The Want Of A Nail” was Todd’s last charted hit. Seems appropriate enough to me. But, if Todd wanted to tear himself away from the production side, I’m sure he could spin out another smooth Top 40 hit in a half hour.

Another interesting tidbit: the Japanese release of the album featured an alternative cover (the main cover art showed a hand print with six fingers). The Japanese version showed a “normal” five fingered (actually four plus thumb) hand print, due to some secret religious significance in Japan.

So my friends, have no regrets. Go ahead, say the word, make the gesture. Just reach out with your human hand. Don’t let the little things trip you up.

Listen here:

Todd Live at Daryl’s House:

More Todd w/Daryl:

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The Fruit Of Another

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apple_heart

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are. – Hebrews 4:15

Squeeze, not nearly as big here in the states as in the U.K., was headed by the latest songwriting duo of the late 70’s/early 80’s to wear the “next Lennon & McCartney” moniker. The driving forces behind the band were Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook; in this case with an album (East Side Story) produced by Elvis Costello (EC also sings background vocals on the track) and powered by the ever-soulful Paul Carrack (Ace-“How Long”, Mike & The Mechanics-“The Living Years” and his own “Don’t Shed A Tear”) standing in on lead vocals.

“Tempted” was their breakthrough hit in the U.S. and, according to Difford, was written during a cab ride on the way to the Heathrow Airport to go on tour. As Chris explains “I was obviously envisioning a good time on the tour, as the (song’s) chorus suggests.”

And they just kept on squeezing out super sweet, superbly crafted, hook-laden grooves for a decade. This one, in particular just has that low, funky groove you just can’t help but sing along to. It’s the bass line, the punctuated percussion, and then Paul’s vocal melody inserted in perfect time. Just like a sweet temptation always seems to come along at just the perfect time.

And why not, certainly we’ve all had our temptations in life. No one can resist them all. Except one…and we all know who that was.

I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste

A flannel for my face
Pajamas, a hairbrush
New shoes and a case
I said to my reflection
Let’s get out of this place

And oftentimes when we’ve succumbed to that temptation, that’s what we all want to do: run. Put on our best Forrest Gump imitation and boogie. But we really can’t…its always there, no matter where we go; haunting us.

Passed the church and the steeple

The laundry on the hill
Billboards and the buildings
Memories of it still
Keep calling and calling
But forget it all, I know I will

The mind will try to convince itself that we’re going to put this all behind us. Sure we will.  Just put a little space and time between us, and you’ll see.

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on, now that you have gone

Nothing new here. The truth will out. And then the game is lost.

Alarmed by the seduction, I wish that it would stop

It’s like we’re traveling down this long road and we can see it stretching out ahead of us for miles and miles. And we know that it’s going to happen again. We can see it looming there on the horizon. And we wish that it would stop, but at the same time we eagerly await the next time. We are helpless. The car doors are locked and we can’t get out.

I bought a novel, some perfume

A fortune all for you
But it’s not my conscience
That hates to be untrue
I asked of my reflection
Tell me what is there to do

No matter what the mind commands, the body fails to obey. And, you can’t cover it up or make good with gifts or sweets. What’s done is done.

Yes, it’s tragic. But there is hope. Even though Jesus never gave in to earthly temptations, He understands the human condition, all our frailties and failings, and holds out His hand anyway. His is a love many times scorned, but offered unconditionally.

As The Boss once sang:

They say Eve tempted Adam with an apple, but man I ain’t going for that. I know it was a pink Cadillac…

So, jump on in and climb in the back. Because the road to temptation…well, it goes on forever.

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A Pauper To A Pawn

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pawn

I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. – Philippians 4:12

If there was ever a song and artist that was tailor made for these posts, it has to be the one and only, Sir Elton John and “Levon”.

So many of Elton’s songs have Biblical or religious references even as Elton has openly decried organized religion as “hateful”, declared that Jesus was just a “compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems” and stated that he would “ban religion completely”.

Why then do so many of Elton’s songs have these religious overtones? Is it Bernie Taupin’s fault? Was he simply trying to be ironic? Or is it just a glimpse into Elton’s own conflicted soul?

Levon wears his war wound like a crown
He calls his child Jesus
‘Cause he likes the name
And he sends him to the finest school in town

Some say that Levon was chosen as the father’s name because it is NOVEL spelled backwards and that Elton believed the Bible to be simply another “good book”.

Levon likes his money
He makes a lot they say
Spend his days counting
In a garage by the motorway

One could even say that Levon (and Elton) were preoccupied with storing up treasures here on earth…as so many of us are.  At this point in his career in 1972, “Madman Across The Water” was peaking on the American charts and certainly with this third album release, Elton was beginning to see considerable commercial success.

He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day
When the New York Times said God is dead and the war’s begun
Alvin Tostig has a son today

And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
In tradition with the family plan

Ah yes, Levon shall be a good man. Unlike his father. Just as Elton wanted to rebel against his own father’s Royal Air Force regimentation. Elton’s dad wanted him to go into banking. Imagine that!

Levon sells cartoon balloons in town
His family business thrives
Jesus blows up balloons all day
Sits on the porch swing watching them fly

It’s funny though, it’s been said that when Bernie Taupin was asked about the deeper meaning to “Levon”, he claimed to have had no idea at all when writing it. He said it was “just lines that came out that were interesting”.

And doesn’t this all speak to the ironies and inconsistencies in our own lives. I love Elton’s work immensely, though I disagree with many of the things he says and does. And the very religious beliefs I hold dear, clearly spell out a dim view of the gay lifestyle.

Elton disparages religion yet many of his songs are clearly influenced by religious beliefs and teachings. Could it be just another internal conflict? Elton’s life and sexuality certainly seem to be riddled with conflicts. In the 1960’s he was engaged to his record company secretary, Linda Woodrow. In 1976, he declared himself bisexual. In 1984, he married German recording engineer Renate Blauel and finally would up in civil union with his current partner, David Furnish.

Elton and David became the proud parents to a son (by surrogate) on Christmas day in 2010. And you guessed it…they named him Levon. (Actually his full name is Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John).

And Jesus, he wants to go to Venus
Leaving Levon far behind
Take a balloon and go sailing
While Levon, Levon slowly dies  

No matter what Elton thinks about God, he has certainly been blessed with a talent beyond compare. His five decade long recording career has seen him sell over 300 million records, making him one of the best selling recording artists of all time. Such great abundance and yet suffering need are all tied up together in his life.

Ultimately, I think Elton is perfect proof of God’s perfect love. And Jesus may have died, but he died for all our sins and all mankind, including Elton. Even if he is a non-believer.

Well, it’s no big deal…Jesus is no stranger to a little “religious rejection”.

Watch the classic here:

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