Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Auld Lang Syne" (Kenny G)

Welcome to Tuesday!!      I hope you had a great Christmas season and are in anticipation of what the Lord has planned for you in 2016!  You have found the place where music and ministry merge.  It's Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!  The Notes is a weekly blog that started in 2011.  For nearly a year, it was an email sent to friends and family as way to keep in touch and to share some insights on passions that exist in my life.  Scripture, Staffs, and syllables all combine to make some of the most beautiful music ever created whether it is classical, pop, country, christian, or any of the other multitude of musical genre.  The Notes firmly believes that God created music...all the various and defined genre's (including rap) as a means of allowing His creation to celebrate and honor Him. Many of the original emails have not made it to the blogosphere as yet, so we take the first Tuesday of each month to flashback a few years.  Today's Notes is a perfect example of the flashback!  We look back to an email written in 2011 about a song written in the late 1700s about looking back...Today's blog is a reprint from a newsletter article I wrote in 2008.  If you are NOT currently getting Tuesday's Musical Notes, and WOULD LIKE TO, email me at rawacr@gmail.com. Thank you for all that you allowing our visits together with "Tuesday's Musical Notes" this year.  I count each of you as a blessing. “Times Gone By”  Flashback to 1929.  Popeye appears for the first time in comic strips.  Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st President of the United States.  The stock market crashes in October.  But before all of these things can occur, Guy Lombardo performs a song with his Royal Canadians that will stand the test of time all over the world. Translated into English as, “Times Gone By”, “Auld Lang Syne” became a favorite in the United States as a theme for the New Year.  It eventually became the Royal Canadians theme song and has played as the first song of each year in Times Square since most people alive can remember.  It charted on Billboard's hot singles for the first time in 2000 as we watched the Millennium come in and listened to Kenny G's soft soprano sax play the familiar tune. Enjoy this trip down memory lane:  "Auld Lang Syne - The Millenium Mix" from the 1999 album Faith by Kenny G             Psalm 77:11 I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old Psalm 143:5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands In the King James Version of the Bible, the word “remember”, or its derivative, is used 210 times.  Many of those times, the negative connotation of “remember” is used when the writer is asking God to “remember not the iniquities of the people”.  But most of the time it is a word used to reinforce a principle of times past, or as a way of asking for prayer support.   The Psalmist used the word remember more than any other writer.  Whether it was the shepherd David writing about remembering God's mercy overflowing, or  King David writing about remembering God's provision and discipline, the Bible is replete with examples of using our memories to teach us about God and the life he has planned for us. Yet there is some difficulty with remembering.  The act in and of itself is more problematic with age and the passage of time.  And sometimes as we remember, the story changes even to the point of occasionally being inaccurate.  Reality may become diluted in nostalgia. We must guard against the desire to embrace the nostalgia of our past rather than learn from the reality of our past.   Auld Lang Syne evokes memories.  The Bible teaches that we are to remember the ways that God has worked in our lives and give thanks.  Make sure you take some time at the beginning of this New Year to  remember, learn ......and give thanks.    You are probably very familiar with the melody, but perhaps the lyric, other than the title and first verse, are something you've never heard.  Here is the complete lyric, translated into English: Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and old lang syne? For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. And surely you’ll buy your pint cup! and surely I’ll buy mine! And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne. For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. We two have run about the slopes, and picked the daisies fine; But we’ve wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne. For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. We two have paddled in the stream, from morning sun till dine†; But seas between us broad have roared since auld lang syne. For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. And there’s a hand my trusty friend! And give me a hand o’ thine! And we’ll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne.            For auld lang syne, my dear,            for auld lang syne,            we'll take a cup of kindness yet,            for auld lang syne. Happy New Year!!! "When All Is Said And Done" by Geoff Moore and the Distance from the 1993 album Evolution 'Til Tuesday, Serving HIM by serving you, Randy