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