Monday, September 21, 2015

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "When Will I Be Loved" (Linda Ronstadt)

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Welcome back to Tuesday, the best day of the week!  This is Tuesday's Musical Notes coming at'cha with some hot platters and hip to the jive elucidation that will cause you to soar as we explore.  (Interpretation:   Welcome to Tuesday and the blog, Tuesday's Musical Notes. We have music and thought provoking conversation that is intellectually stimulating and spiritually engaging.)  This is the place that everybody wants to be...at the corner of Bb Major and The Psalms, where we not only shuffle on down with the slickest tunes in the land, but we do it with our hands in the hands of the Man....Welcome to Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!  Set your time machine back to 1975, when long hair and smooth groves were in and the lines of country and rock were blurred, we take you to the crossover hit of the year by the most popular artist of the 70's, Ms. Linda Ronstadt...sing it girl!
 

In the summer of 1960, 2 brothers recorded a song that would go as high as #8 on the charts.  The Everly Brothers recorded "When Will I Be Loved", written by Phil Everly, on Cadence Records.  It became a hit the summer they signed with a different label, Warner Brothers, from which many of their most popular hits ("Cathy's Clown" (#1), 1960, "That's Old Fashioned" (#9), 1962, among others) came.  But it would be the 1975 hit by Linda Ronstadt that would take "When Will I Be Loved" to #2 and iconic status.

Her voice has been heard on over 120 albums (not all hers...).  She has sold over 100 million records, making her one of the world's best selling recording artists.  Stylistically, her music knows no genre boundaries.   The musicians that would eventually form their own band and become the Eagles were her backup band at one time.  She has collaborated with some of the biggest names in music history.  All of this combines to make Linda Ronstadt, one of the biggest acts in music.  She has won or been nominated for countless awards in music, television and the theater.  With an impressive 38 appearances on Billboard's Hot 100 (21 top 40 singles, 10 top 10singles, three #2 singles and the #1 smash hit "You're No Good"), Linda Ronstadt retired in 2011 and was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in December of 2012.  April 2014 saw her inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

One would think that with throngs of adoring fans of all shapes, sizes and colors that an artist like Linda Ronstadt, would feel loved.  However, in a 1976 interview with Rolling Stone, Ronstadt said: "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road. The world is tearing by you, real fast, and all these people are looking at you. ..."   That loneliness is not just a trait of those who tour in a musical act all the time.  It is something that is felt by every person in their lives.  It comes as a realization that there has to be more than the existence we see during our lifetimes.  In most folks, this awareness of something missing is a cause for pause in their busy life.  The feel cheated, they fell mistreated.   During this pause, one might expect the question...."When will I be loved..."
 
For dedicated readers of Tuesday's Musical Notes, you recognize that this is the portion of the blog that we go to the Scripture to bring in a spiritual application to the feature song of the day.  If you're just tuning it, please understand that the Scripture to which we refer is the foundation for ANY discussion of love, and the greatest book every written on any subject, especially love,...The BIBLE.  Millions of folks around the world are skeptical of the truths found in the Bible.  Tuesday's Musical Notes affirms the inerrancy and authority of the Bible.  It is the context by which we write, and will always be where we turn to explain how there is a cure for the loneliness that so many feel.  It is also the topic of a fantastic book titled, God Breathed, by Josh McDowell.  And so with this in mind, we turn to the Bible to answer the question,


 "When Will I Be Loved?"

In the New King James Version of the Bible, the world "love" is used 500 times.  This treatment would indicate a certain amount of importance to the idea of love.  People all over the world know the passage, John 3:16 from the Bible.  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  Followers of Jesus hold this passage in great regard, for it defines the kind of love that so many are craving to cure the loneliness that only love can provide.  But as precious as John 3:16 is, stopping at the end of verse 16 denies the reader a detailing the "why" behind the love that would cause God to sacrifice His Son.  Take a moment and read this passage in complete context.  John 3:16-20 New King James Version of the Bible/The Message paraphrase parallelThe remainder of the passage goes into detail about the hopelessness that everyone in the world experiences prior to acknowledging what Jesus can do in their lives, if they accept the freedom and love that His sacrifice provides.  

Can we be honest and admit that we've all been cheated, mistreated, put down, pushed 'round, made blue and lied to.  Maybe we have even been on the committing end of these loveless actions.  Regardless, there is a way to be loved.   The Gospel Of John - English Standard Version of the Bible/The Message parallel, as well as The Gospel of Matthew - ESV/The Message, The Gospel of Mark - ESV/The Message and The Gospel of Luke - ESV/The Message  detail the life of the One who came to show us how loved we are.  His name is Jesus.  Since the foundation of the world, you have been loved, because God in His wisdom, provided a Way for our disobedience to be obliterated and our relationship with Him to be restored.  That Way, is Jesus.  

So, "When Will I Be Loved?"...friend there has never been a time when you weren't.... 

13 For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well. - Psalm 139:13-14 ESV



"Made To Love" from the 2007 album Portable Sounds by Toby Mac


"Til Tuesday,


Serving HIM by serving you,
Randy


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