dual personalities

Category: Music

March 16, 2017

It is well with my soul

by chuckofish

Here is a very popular song playing on Christian radio these days:

I admit it always makes me tear up. Every time.

Christian songwriters these days frequently lift lines right from older hymns or, as in this song, reference other songs: “Give me the strength/To be able to sing/It is well with my soul”.

You will recall that “It Is Well With My Soul” is a well known hymn penned by Horatio Spafford and composed by Philip Bass which was first published in Gospel Songs No. 2 by Sankey and Bliss (1876). Everyone from Tennessee Ernie Ford and Mahalia Jackson to Dwight Yoakam and Jars of Clay have recorded it. The Georgia Southern University marching band Southern Pride even plays the song at the end of each win.

I think that’s interesting, but, then, that’s how my mind works.

Nicely done, Dwight. Have a good day. Here’s hoping it is well with your soul.

4 Comments
December 1, 2016

Lighten up

by chuckofish

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“I hear that in many places something has happened to Christmas; that it is changing from a time of merriment and carefree gaiety to a holiday which is filled with tedium; that many people dread the day and the obligation to give Christmas presents is a nightmare to weary, bored souls; that the children of enlightened parents no longer believe in Santa Claus; that all in all, the effort to be happy and have pleasure makes many honest hearts grow dark with despair instead of beaming with good will and cheerfulness.”

–Julia Peterkin, “A Plantation Christmas,” 1934

Today is the first day of  December. Let’s try not to get all stressed out.

Remember that Jesus is the reason for the season–not some unattainable perfection of decorating or entertaining. Relax. Pay attention. Have fun.

And listen to this:

I feel better. Don’t you?

2 Comments
November 22, 2016

“Do you believe in rock ‘n roll? Can music save your mortal soul?”*

by chuckofish

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Over the weekend the OM and I watched the Oscar-winning 1970 documentary Woodstock, the film chronicle of the legendary 1969 music festival, which neither of us had seen. It is four hours long! We fast-forwarded through some of it, but we invested three hours in watching it.

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I think our older brother (who graduated from high school in 1969) always wished he’d been there.

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Our bro a few years after Woodstock. See–he even had a picture of Dave Van Ronk on the wall!

He would probably have enjoyed it–all the music, the drugs, the free love, man.

But not me. I wasn’t nearly cool enough for Woodstock. I really didn’t even enjoy watching it from the historical perspective of almost 50 years.

And, hey, Bob Dylan wasn’t even there. According to IMDB, the festival organizers offered him the chance to headline the festival. The fact that he had taken up residency in Woodstock, NY was a principle reason for choosing the location. But Dylan refused to appear. Years later, he derided the organizers for “exploiting the hell out of that town” and declared that the festival-goers were just a bunch of “kids on acid with flowers in their hair,” adding that the festival was not his “scene.”

Not my scene either.

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Hey look, there’s a historical marker there now. Well, follow your bliss.

*Don McLean

4 Comments
October 11, 2016

Drawing the line

by chuckofish

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Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon completed surveying for the “Mason-Dixon line” separating Maryland and Pennsylvania on this day in 1767.  The work was done between 1763 and 1767 in order to resolve a border dispute involving Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

In popular usage, the Mason–Dixon line still symbolizes a cultural boundary between the North and the South.

Reading about this, it suddenly occurred to me that the name “Dixie” (used as a historical nickname for the southern states) must derive from Jeremiah Dixon’s name!

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Mind-blowing that I just thought of that. Did you know that?

Anyway, here’s a great song by Mark Knopfler (with James Taylor) about Mason and Dixon, which was itself inspired by the book Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon.

P.S. I read that book back in the 1990s and liked it.

4 Comments
September 27, 2016

Within our inward temple

by chuckofish

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What powerful Spirit lives within!
What active Angel doth inhabit here!
What heavenly light inspires my skin,
Which doth so like a Deity appear!
A living Temple of all ages, I
Within me see
A Temple of Eternity!
All Kingdoms I descry
In me.

An inward Omnipresence here
Mysteriously like His within me stands,
Whose knowledge is a Sacred Sphere
That in itself at once includes all lands.
There is some Angel that within me can
Both talk and move,
And walk and fly and see and love,
A man on earth, a man
Above.

Dull walls of clay my Spirit leaves,
And in a foreign Kingdom doth appear,
This great Apostle it receives,
Admires His works and sees them, standing here,
Within myself from East to West I move
As if I were
At once a Cherubim and Sphere,
Or was at once above
And here.

The Soul’s a messenger whereby
Within our inward Temple we may be
Even like the very Deity
In all the parts of His Eternity.
O live within and leave unwieldy dross!
Flesh is but clay!
O fly my Soul and haste away
To Jesus’ Throne or Cross!
Obey!

–Thomas Traherne, An Hymn Upon St. Bartholomew’s Day

In commemoration of his poems and spiritual writings, Thomas Traherne is included in the anglican calendar of saints. Today is his feast day (in the Episcopal Church) and this is the collect for the day:

“Creator of wonder and majesty, who didst inspire thy poet Thomas Traherne with mystical insight to see thy glory in the natural world and in the faces of men and women around us: Help us to know thee in thy creation and in our neighbors, and to understand our obligations to both, that we may ever grow into the people thou hast created us to be; through our Savior Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, in everlasting light. Amen.”

The stained glass window is one of the four Traherne Windows in Audley Chapel, Hereford Cathedral, created by stained-glass artist Tom Denny in 2007.

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And I just thought this was really nice:

2 Comments
August 4, 2016

Scots Wha Hae*

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of Harry Lauder (August 4, 1870 – February 26, 1950)–famous Scottish music hall performer.

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Lauder was, at one time, the highest-paid performer in the world, making the equivalent of £12,700 a night plus expenses. During the First World War Lauder promoted recruitment into the services and starred in many concerts for troops at home and on the western front. His entertainment activities were made ever the more poignant by the death in action of his only son at the end of 1916.

Our pater was a big fan of Harry Lauder and I recall him listening attentively to his scratchy 78 records, losing himself in a sentimental and, no doubt, alcohol-inspired fog. Frequently we would run from the room.

Anyway, here is Harry with Danny Kaye!

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And here he is with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

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And here’s Robin Williams dressed like the good Scotsman he was. (He bears a certain resemblance to Sir Harry, don’t you think?)

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Since we’re on a roll, here are some other great Scots in suitable attire.

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Cheers to Sean Connery, Ewan McGregor, Gerard Butler, and the boy (in a kilt at his 8th grade graduation)! and to…

Roamin’ in the gloamin’ on the bonnie banks o’ Clyde.

Roamin’ in the gloamin’ wae my lassie by my side.

When the sun has gone to rest, That’s the time we love the best.

O, it’s lovely roamin’ in the gloamin!

*The title of a poem by Robert Burns

7 Comments
June 7, 2016

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!*

by chuckofish

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Some lovely lyrics for Tuesday:

Skylark
Have you anything to say to me
Won’t you tell me where my love can be
Is there a meadow in the mist
Where someone’s waiting to be kissed

Skylark
Have you seen a valley green with spring
Where my heart can go a-journeying
Over the shadows and the rain
To a blossom covered lane

And in your lonely flight
Haven’t you heard the music in the night
Wonderful music, faint as a will o’ the wisp
Crazy as a loon
Sad as a gypsy serenading the moon

Skylark
I don’t know if you can find these things
But my heart is riding on your wings
So if you see them anywhere
Won’t you lead me there

Skylark
I don’t know if you can find these things
But my heart is riding on your wings
So if you see them anywhere
Won’t you lead me there

“Skylark” –words by Johnny Mercer, music by Hoagy Carmichael, 1941

Skylark 08 (Shay Connolly)

Who knew skylarks are so cute!

*Percy Bysshe Shelley, “To a Skylark”

2 Comments
May 26, 2016

Happy belated birthday, Mr. Zimmerman

by chuckofish

As you probably already know, Tuesday was Bob Dylan’s 75th birthday.

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Thank goodness, he is still going strong and has just released Fallen Angels, his 37th LP and second straight album of American Songbook classics.

So in honor of his big day let’s listen to one of my favorites from 1981:

Dylan described “Every Grain of Sand” as “an inspired song that just came to me … I felt like I was just putting words down that were coming from somewhere else.”

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed
There’s a dyin’ voice within me reaching out somewhere
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair

Don’t have the inclination to look back on any mistake
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master’s hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer
The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay

I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer’s dream, in the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand

Copyright © 1981 by Special Rider Music

Because we’re just pilgrims passing through after all.

3 Comments
April 7, 2016

“The first thing I remember knowing Was a lonesome whistle blowing”*

by chuckofish

Well, now Merle Haggard has died–yesterday, on his 79th birthday. His life was the stuff country songs are made of, including a stretch in San Quentin. He was pardoned by then-California Governor Ronald Reagan after a lengthy appeal process. He’d later say he was shocked by the pardon, as he had no idea it was coming. “They found that I was improperly convicted and had no representation because I was poor and things of that nature.” Thankfully, he went on to great things.

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I saw him in concert ten years ago when he was opening for Bob Dylan at the Fox. He was pretty great.

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So here’s a Thursday throwback for you–in honor of Merle, my favorite Haggard tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxQbvSjQy9A

I’ll be toasting Merle tonight. How about you?

*Mama Tried by Merle Haggard

2 Comments
February 4, 2016

Throwback Thursday

by chuckofish

Chris and Tom

Here is a photo of our handsome older brother (on the right) with his dreamy best bud Tom at our parent’s home back in 1980. Written on the back of the snapshot is Oct. 18, 1980 which means it was taken on the evening following the wedding of the OM and yours truly. Everyone was relaxing and the bride and groom had left the scene.

Good times. I wonder what they were playing?

P.S. The BB (big brother) is the same age here as the boy is today.

3 Comments