Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "All I Wanna Do" (Sheryl Crow)

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Good Tuesday to ya friend?  Need more fun in your life?  I suspect everyone does! Well, you've come to the right place to discover how music, ministry and The Message can all combine to make your life more fun!!!  It's Tuesday's Musical Notes coming to you live, or email delayed, from the palatial second story offices of The Notes headquarters. Where we boldly proclaim..."This "ain't no disco, and it ain't no country club either", it's Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!

There is a misconception in our world that we should all be happy most of the time.  This is a confusing message in the fact that it is totally not impossible to ever achieve.  There are days that will be littered with challenges.  You say you've experienced them?  So have I.  The challenge lies in what we do, how we act, and the way we handle ourselves when our lives seem to be in "that" moment, facing yet another "brace for impact" time in our lives.  In these instances we find it very difficult to be happy.  In reality, at those junctures in our lives we may want to step on down to the Tuesday Night Music Club and join the sing along with Sheryl and William or Bill, maybe Billy or Mac or Buddy...'cause all we wanna do is have some fun...

Since the mid 80's the music industry has known of the singer/songwriter/actess Sheryl Crow. She was a backup singer for music icons Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, and Don Henley.    But it wasn't until 1994 as a part of consortia of artists called the Tuesday Night Music Club, that she became known by the world outside of the music universe.  She skyrocketed to fame with the #2 cut, "All I Wanna Do", from her 1993 solo album named for the aforementioned creative collective that got together on the ABSOLUTE best day of the week, Tuesday.  The song was taken from American poet Wyn Cooper's "Fun" (The Country of Here Below) and stayed at its #2 position for 6 weeks.  


Based on the strength of "All I Wanna Do", Tuesday Night Music Club would catapult to #3 on the Billboard 200 chart.  At the 1995 Grammys "All I Wanna Do" was nominated for 3 awards (winning for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance) and it garnered Sheryl Crow a Best New Artist win.  Her music would continue to resonate with fans around the world as she would see an additional 6 Grammy wins added to her accolades over the years.  



While mostly known as a pop artist, Crow's most recent album was 2013's country flavored Feels Like Home, her 9th top 10 album. It debuted at #7 on the Billboard 200In 2014, she was one of the opening acts for George Strait's The Cowboy Rides Away tour, expanding her fan base to Country/Western listeners. 

The sentiment expressed in "All I Wanna Do" is one that most of us experience.  We get so frustrated or bored with the tedium that can be our formulaic lives, that we want something to come along and shake us up a bit. The difficulty comes when that shaking it up isn't good for us, even though at the time it may seem fun.  


Christianity has gotten an unfair reputation of being a religion that doesn't promote fun.  God is often seen as some cosmic killjoy that wants to keep his thumb on us and keep us from having any "fun". Christianity is viewed by many as being a religion of "dont's".  This is far from being the case.  Christian musician Keith Green put this ideology of "dont's" into perspective once by saying, "If your busy doing all the do's in the Bible, you won't have time to do any of the dont's."   

Dictionary.com defines fun as "something that provides mirth or amusement".  That seems like it would encompass many things that we can experience in our lives.  It also seems to be a definition without boundaries.  "Fun" can be good things or bad things, much is left up to the person who is attempting to have fun.  On one extreme it may seem fun to sit on a mountainside and contemplate the extremities of the universe (let's be clear...this is an extreme case, not one suggested by Tuesday's Musical Notes).  On the other hand, to a serial killer, taking another person's life in the most cruel way possible can be construed to that person as fun (ditto the previous disclaimer). Your definition of fun will be defined by the view you have of the world.  

We have discussed world views here at The Notes on several occasions.  What we have concluded is that there really are only 2.  A Biblical world view and a worldly world view. Everyone chooses one of the other.  Let's be very plain, not choosing one is to choose the other.  There is NO in between.  The historical figure who is equated with being the most wise person ever, said this about fun...

He also said this regarding a "beer buzz"...

as well as this regarding having fun all of the time...

The difficulty lies in the fact that our world perceives fun and happiness in the wrong way.  The filter of their world view won't allow them to see what Solomon was attempting to say.  We don't need to strive to have fun.  We don't need to struggle to become happy.  What we need is joy.

The apostle Paul wrote to a church who needed to hear about joy...

According to Paul, your life will be perceived by others as joyful as your heart and mind continue to transform more into the likeness of Jesus.  That is our struggle as followers of Jesus.  How do we continually put off the things of this world that might make us happy in the moment and embrace the things in Him that bring about an eternal joy.  The fun that comes from being joyful is much more rewarding than any other activity in which we may find ourselves engaged. The activity of building relationships with others, Christian and pre-Christian, and serving them as Jesus would have served them is sure a fun place to start. It is the kind of fun that I want in my life..."I've got a feelin, I'm not the only one..."

Speaking of fun, here's a little with Toby...
Serving HIM by serving you,
Rand

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