Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (John Denver)

Welcome to the best day of the week!!!  Why?  Because it is not Monday, it's the day before humpday, and it is the 3rd day of the week.  (3 is a very special number in Biblical numerology...think about it).  Welcome to Tuesday's Musical Notes where for the next few minutes you will read about a classic song and wonder just how in the world we may work it into some sort of uplifting, spirit filled, encouraging exposition that makes you ponder...remember pondering is a lost art.  So with out any adieu what so ever (to avoid plagiarism...yep, that's from the movie A Knight's Tale) here is the Tuesday, July 28th edition of Tuesday's Musical Notes...the last in our summer road series...take us home, Mr. Denver

"Take Me Home, Country Roads" - John Denver

If you are the resident of the states of West Virginia or Colorado, chances are that there is some familiarity with folk artist/musician Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr, better known by his stage name of John Denver.  Both of these states have adopted songs by John Denver as a part of their "state song" package. ("Rocky Mountain High" - Colorado, and "Take Me Home, Country Roads" - West Virginia)  Each song celebrates the beauty and majestic splendor of its respective state.  Colorado and West Virginia are popular vacation locations with their mountains and eclectic communities.  The resonance of each of these states with its John Denver song is obvious. Usually from the initial strains of an acoustic guitar, one has the song in their head and images of the visually stunning regions in which they may have visited or seen photographically.  Lyrically, both songs speak to an inner desire to be around the familiar...to be home.  

When returning from a vacation, there is a sense of anticipation as you get closer and closer to home.  This anticipation almost equals that of when you were preparing for your travels in the first place.  It seems that there truly is "no place like home".  Whether it is the comfort of our favorite easy chair, or the sense of safety and the normal routine, the impression of stability eases us back into the normal.  The newness of vacation experiences fade into the priority making of the "catch up" from being on vacation.  We have returned to our place. 

Recently, while on vacation, we attended a Sunday morning service at a church where a friend of mine leads worship.  We knew absolutely no one, other than my friend and a couple of friends in which my daughter had interacted with at a recent camp.  The pastor was in the midst of a series on Heaven, the eventual and eternal home for those who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ.   Throughout his message, I was more and more drawn to this place in which he spoke.  It seemed like...well, home.  (You can find the podcasts here:  First Baptist Church Russellville, Arkansas - Sermon Podcasts) 

As one who has been redeemed by Jesus, it seems fitting that I would want to be where He is.  He promises us

John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

Ultimately, Heaven is going to be my home.  The world has many places in which we may find ourselves traveling.  While these places are attractive for a time, they can never replace the comfort and solitude of home.  Whether we are Colorado, Rocky Mountain High or Almost Heaven, West Virginia, the road for believers will eventually lead to a place called home...it's where I belong....where do you belong?  

"Home Where I Belong" - Mark Lowry w/ The Gaither Vocal Band written by BJ Thomas

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving you,

Randy

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Seven Bridges Road" (Ricochet/The Eagles)

Welcome to the place where the days are warm (well, usually warm) and the hits are hot!  It's Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!  After a week away from The Notes,(worship arts camp with high school students...incredible!!!), we have much catching up to do on our salute to summer and vacations and travel and Tuesday and...well you get the idea....here we go!!!

"Seven Bridges Road" - Ricochet

Written and recorded in 1969 by Steve Young, "Seven Bridges Road" is about an actual place. The song mentions a road, supposedly Woodley Road outside of Montgomery, Alabama, that you must cross seven bridges to get to a popular "parking" spot for teenagers.  Since its release on Young's Rock Salt & Nails album, it has been covered by many artists.  The most notable of these covers is an arrangement by English songwriter Lain Matthews.  It was written as a warm up song for the band The Eagles, who released it on Eagles: Live in 1980.  This live album was recorded 3 days before the break up of the band.  "Seven Bridges Road" would be on the A side (B side was the live version of "The Long Run") of a single that would go to #21 on Billboard's Hot 100.  It would be the last top 30 single for the Eagles.  Their best performance on the charts after reforming in 1994 would be the #31 single "Get Over It".  As The Eagles continue to tour and make music together today, "Seven Bridges Road" remains one of their most popular concert songs.  Here from 1980's Eagles: Live with an assist from some creative video are:

The Eagles - "Seven Bridges Road"

"Seven Bridges Road" is a song about remembering good times in our lives and the environments where these good times occurred. Each of us have memories that we cherish and then other memories we would rather not have in our minds at all. Whether our memories are filled with fondness or fear, they can be useful as learning tools.  God constantly remembered promises He made throughout the Bible.  In the New International Version of the Bible, the word "remember" happens 162 times.  While the context of remembering are different, sometimes significantly, the over arching theme remains the same.  The Creator of the universe NEVER forgets.  I must confess that with each passing day, I become more reliant on family, friends, calendars and to do lists to remember the commitments that I have.  These items provide the information that I need to achieve my commitments.  In a similar fashion, the remembrances of the Bible are there to remind God's people of not only their commitment to Him, but His commitment to them.  It is ridiculous to think that God might forget a promise that He has made, so those passages of the Bible are there to allow the writer to remind the reader of the promise that God had made throughout the generations as well as how God has fulfilled that promise to the forefathers.  The remembrances of God's promises begin in Genesis: Genesis 9:14-16 NIV  and expand through the Biblical text to Revelation:  Revelation 3:3 NIV.  With each there is the reminder that God is sovereign and He keeps His promises to each generation as they travel down the pathways that He has planned...these pathways may even include a few bridges along the way....

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving you,
Randy

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "On The Road Again" (Willie Nelson)

Good Tuesday to ya!!!  Welcome to Tuesday's Musical Notes - the Road editions.  It's the 2nd week of our salute to summertime, vacations and the best "Road" songs from our generation.  So here we go....

"On The Road Again" - Willie Nelson from the 1980 soundtrack to Honeysuckle Rose

It is very difficult to travel anywhere in the United States without someone knowing this great song from the Honeysuckle Rose soundtrack.  "On The Road Again" was written by Willie Nelson specifically for this movie.  It would be the first time Willie Nelson had the leading role in a movie.  The song proved so popular that it soared up the charts.  It not only scored a #1 on the country charts but went as high as #20 as a crossover on Billboards Hot 100.  Released in 1980 the song would be nominated by the 53rd Academy Awards for "Best Original Song" and would receive the Grammy the following year.  It is #471 on Rolling Stone's 2004 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.

It is easy to imagine that most Americans, if not most people in the world, have heard the name Willie Nelson.  He has been going "On The Road Again" for over 50 years.  Constant touring has taken Nelson down many roads.  Some really good and others...not so much.  His Shotgun Willie (1973) and Red Headed Stranger (1975)albums were received with commercial as well as critical acclaim.  He was a Highwayman from 1985-1995 with Country music legends Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash.  While traveling down the road of fame in the music industry, he has also been on a very different trail.  He has been arrested on several occasions for marijuana possession and most famously in 1990 had all of his assets seized by the IRS for unpaid taxes.  Both of these roads held outcomes for the country music star, which have defined him or at least allowed the media to define the persona of who Willie Nelson is.

This past weekend our country celebrated it's freedom.  Like Willie, we have seen our country go down some very successful roads and then find ourselves on some lanes that were quite treacherous.  We hear of the suppression of human rights in other countries and find it a little difficult to comprehend as we have never experienced that in our own country.  We truly have much to be thankful for as we celebrate with fireworks, food, and fun.

There is a much more intrinsic freedom however, that Christians can celebrate.  It is freedom from the wrath of God.  We attain this freedom by belief.  This is a belief in Jesus as the Son of God, the sacrifice for man, and the savior of all time.  The Notes have made the specifics of such belief primary topics in the past and we ask that you explore the Tuesday's Musical Notes  archives for those specifics.

Every person on this planet is traveling on a life path, a road if you will, that will eventually lead to a destination.  This past weekend I witnessed on television the great differences between these 2 roads.  In the biographical special, The Great Pretender, there is an interview with the topic of the biopic, Freddie Mercury. Freddie was the lead singer for the band Queen.   The interview was regarding Queen's release, Made in Heaven.  The Queen front man was asked about his eternal destination.  He replied that he would prefer to go to hell as the people there would be much more interesting...ponder that for just a moment.  It is difficult for me to wrap my mind around that type of attitude.  Contrast this with a replay of a Johnny Carson interview featuring  Jimmy Stewart the star of It's A Wonderful Life and so many other great movies.  He was being interviewed around the release time of the movie The Shootist, starring himself and John Wayne (The only other pictures they made together was How the West Was Won and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance).  Carson explained that he and Stewart had been at a dinner party together and that Stewart had failed to finish a joke that he was telling.  Jimmy Stewart replied, as he began telling the story,  that he couldn't take credit for the joke.  He had heard it from his preacher in church...ponder this as well.

The Notes confesses to being a fan of Queen's music.  We are also are fans of the movie work of Jimmy Stewart.  Being such, we find it interesting to wonder which of the 2 life roads these legends of music and screen might have been on.  The truth of my tv watching experience this weekend is that I have those very kinds of ideologies prevalent around us.  All I have to do is get up in the morning and begin interacting with people.  They are all headed for a destination.  We are all headed for a destination.  

In the 7th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew these roads are very clearly defined.  Chapter 7 begins with an admonishment against judging other people (which was not our  intent in the above illustrations). It then segues into conversations about seeking, the two gates (or roads), prophets, disciples, and finally builders.  Please take a moment and read the entire chapter here:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7&version=NIV

Our final destination is determined by the gate or road in which we choose to travel.  Consider that as you spend your summer...."On The Road Again".

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving you,

Randy

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "The Road To Morocco" (Bob Hope and Bing Crosby)

Are you ready for the summer....Vacation all I ever wanted...holiday!...celebrate!...Hot time summer in the city...

Welcome to summer and Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!  We realize that last week was the beginning of the summer season, but it really seems that summer doesn't really get cranking until the 4th of July weekend. Then the celebration of everything fun in the sun has begun...who says we couldn't write song lyrics...As you go on the road again this summer we make it easy for you take The Notes with you.  You can bookmark tuesdaysmusicalnotes.blogspot.com in your favorite browser or receive the email version straight to your inbox each week.  Read it from your mobile device...yep, beam us up Scotty... or luxuriate in front of your favorite computer monitor and enjoy the memories and the melodies as your mind is expanded and your heart encouraged.  Send your self addressed non stamped email address to r.cross@sbcglobal.net if you want Tuesday's Musical Notes each week and we will add you to the list.  Otherwise, come back and come often, visit the archives, in short take a musical vacation with The Notes anytime you want at the above web address.  Now we bid a fond adieu to our home base as we venture out onto roads unexplored...you can't tell who we might run in to...

"The Road To Morocco" - Bing Crosby and Bob Hope

Some of our most memorable vacations have been to familiar locations.  Those favorite spots that we frequent when we want to get away from it all.  While we enjoy the new experience occasionally, we fast find ourselves returning to that favorite campsite at the lake, or perhaps a vacation city which we adopt as a home away from home.  

For years, film makers all over the world have taken this recipe of the recognizable and turned it into enjoyable and money making franchises.  In fact, Star Wars Episode VII is currently in production, the 13th Star Trek movie has just been announced and who knows how far Marvel will carry its X-Men and Avengers universes.  We expect to see another Jason Bourne as well as Mission Impossible movie and the last (at least for now) of the movies based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, will be released December of this year.  Batman vs. Superman will be the 6th Superman movie and the 8th movie (unless you count 1966's Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward...Holy Sequels Batman!!!) in the Batman franchise. There has even been the reports of another Rocky movie...and in the fall of 2015, the 24th movie in the James Bond series will debut making it the longest running of all of the franchise movies.

 

The 30's and 40's would see movie sequels gain in popularity. One of the most popular was the Road to... series featuring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour.  There are 7 movies in this comedic series that parodied the popular movie themes of the day.  There was an 8th movie planned, but Bing died the year production was to have started.  These movies were by no means considered to be vacation movies, yet they featured some of the most exotic destinations and adventures for the intrepid trio.  The movies stood on their commonplace themes of "who gets the girl" and the gags that get the viewer to the next serious plot point.  Some of the highlights are when the protagonist (usually Bob Hope) of the scene breaks the "fourth wall", the boundary between the actors and the audience, by having conversations or asides to "assist" the viewer in comprehending the scene...or for a basic laugh. 

Today's feature song comes from one of the most popular of the series, The Road To Morocco.  The 2000 AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs edition lists this movie at #78 and the 2004 AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs ranks the title theme at #95.  While each of the films were box office successes, none have received such high critical acclaim as The Road To Morocco.

We don't know of may folks who decide to take their vacation in the dead of winter.  Perhaps some time off to be with friends and family during the holidays, but summer usually gets the nod when it comes to traveling away from home and letting our hair down.  We must realize that everywhere we go, we are given opportunities to demonstrate the life change that has occurred because of our relationship with Jesus.  As we discussed recently, the only bounds to our abilities to promote the gospel is our own imaginations.  We can be overt by preaching on a street corner, or silently demonstrate our faith by praying over our meal in a crowded theme park restaurant.  Regardless of where we may be, we have the promise that God will go with us.  The 121st chapter of Psalms is dedicated to us as we experience our "going out and our coming in".  Let's give that chapter a look:

Psalm 121 New American Standard Bible and The Message parallel

As we rise up in the morning, whether on vacation or preparing for work, we have the calming assurance that as God's children, we have a companion that is stronger than any adversary or difficulty we may face.  The sin that so easily besets us has no hold on us as we boldly depart knowing that God has our back now, knows our future, has plans of good things for us, and eternity with Him prepared for us, IF we accept Jesus gift of freedom from condemnation.  That freedom knows no geographical boundaries. We might even be known to break into song.... We certainly do get around...like the promises of Psalm 121 that you can find in the Bible at your local bookstore...We're Morocco....you get the idea...

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving you,

Randy