Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Richard Strauss, Chicago Symphony Orchestra directed by Georg Solti)



 


Welcome to Tuesday and the one and only blog of its kind, Tuesday's Musical Notes! No...really...we've checked and there literally isn't another blog out there that takes your favorite tunes and puts the kind of spin on them that Tuesday's Musical Notes does!  If you are a consistent reader of The Notes, we hope you will help us spread the word about the blog.  Please feel free to share on your favorite social media platform and tell all your friends!!!  Search the archives on the left-hand side of the screen and recommend the blog with your favorite song!  We really do appreciate your support!  Thanks!

2020 will be known for many things.   "Unprecedented" is coming very close to not being able to fully capture what we are experiencing in the year we are currently encountering.  The entire world has changed its ways of doing things.  Some of the change has been for the good and has inspired a new ingenuity in the way we work, interact, and entertain ourselves.  Yes, we can take the opportunity to bemoan that going to the movie theater will never quite be the same again, but let's face it, did we really need to spend $100 as a family to go see the latest multiplex offering?  

In 2020, we have experienced shutdowns, interruptions to distribution supply lines, and distractions from information overload.  We've even been forced to cook for ourselves for Pete's sake!!! Cultural tensions have run rampant as we have seen a discussion about the color of skin escalate into an argument about whose lives matter.  We have a Presidential election in November, that in the opinion of Tuesday's Musical Notes, really doesn't supply us with great options. Now in 2020, we have 2 hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, Marco, and Polo, um I mean Laura. We fully anticipate sometime in the remainder of 2020 being told by one of our computers..."I'm afraid I can't do that Dave..."


or


And the 1976 Grammy for Best Classical Orchestral performance goes to...Georg Solti for "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Richard Strauss, Chicago Symphony Orchestra)". From 1962 until 1997 Georg Solti dominated the Classical category of the Grammys.  In fact, Solti has won more Grammy awards than ANY artist in ANY category.  As of 2016, his 31 Grammy wins and 72 nominations make him the top of the Grammy's most honored artist list.  He is followed closely on this list by Singer/Songwriter/Producer/Quincy Jones at 28 wins and 80 nominations. (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "We are the World" (USA for Africa))  

Just in case you were wondering, here is that list of the top 22 Grammy winners (Some are no brainers, some are WHAT?):  Who Are The Top GRAMMY Awards Winners Of All Time? Who Has The Most GRAMMYs? May 15, 2017, grammy.com

The Grammy is the top honor given for recorded music.  It is awarded by the Recording Academy, an American society that exists to promote, educate, and enlighten the public on excellence in music.  It consists of musicians, recording engineers, producers, and other music professionals.  It is one of the top 4 major American entertainment awards, including the Academy Awards (Oscars, motion pictures), the Emmy Awards (television), and the Tony Awards (theater and Broadway).  

All of these awards are represented by a gold image. 

 
                                   The Grammy                   The Emmy             The Oscar               The Tony 

In recent years, the award shows for each particular honor have been met with some disdain.  Acceptance speeches have given a vibe that award winners seem out of touch with normal folks. (Umm...Joaquin Phoenix anyone?) The awards have also been known to be given for movies, TV shows, theater productions, and music to which we have never heard, many of which will pass into the obscurity of being on a list for any given year as is indicative of the entertainment industry from year to year.

What efforts were expended in the pursuit of such awards?  What sacrifices of family and friends were made to ensure the success of one in their given craft?  What do they have to show for such achievement after the lights go down and the applause fades...a graven image on a shelf waiting for someone to dust it off.  Before we are so quick to judge the famous for their pursuits, we must recognize that we strive for many graven images in our own lives and that pursuit can be a distraction from and interruption to a pursuit of a much better sort.

“This is gold, Mr. Bond. All my life I've been in love with its color... its brilliance, its divine heaviness.”  - Auric Goldfinger from the 1964 Oscar winner for Best Sound Effects Editing (What does that even mean?)  - Goldfinger

If we were to be very honest, we are much like Mr. Goldfinger and the recipients of the above awards.  We expend much energy to be seen as the best in our field, gain as much wealth as possible, and achieve a status by which we can proffer just about anything we want.  Is this for what humankind was created?  I suspect our perspective might be a bit different if we were standing at the base of a mountain where a powerful audible voice was shrouded by fire and clouds.  


As we saw last week, God's expectation of the new nation of Israel was very high.  They had been in Egypt for 450 years (For perspective, that's 206 years longer than the United States has been a nation).  At the very least, they had picked up some poor worship habits from the Egyptians who served gods of wood, stone, and gold.  Cats and calves were very dominant as gods and goddesses in the Egyptian culture and there is the possibility that the Israelites had taken up some of the worship routines and incorporated them in with their worship of the one true God.  

In this second commandment, God is saying (audibly at this point) for them to put away ANY kind of manmade item that could possibly be seen as an interruption or distraction to their worship of Him.   

This passage of Scripture comes to mind every time I hear that it is awards season.  It also comes to mind every time I look at a quarter or anything else made by mankind that I think are must-haves for my life to be fulfilled.  Yes, God said don't make anything that would get in the way of our ability to worship Him with everything we are and no, I fail at this one seems like every day.  (Yup, vinyl can be seen as a graven image and it is plastic for the most part...sigh)  

Seems even believers as a group have a hard time remembering this when it comes to budgeting for the next building project.  Have we really done all that we can to love our neighbor with the resources which we have received?  Just askin'...

What if we could keep this commandment from the perspective of what Paul wrote to the church in Rome...

perhaps we should remember the words of John, one of Jesus' best friends...


or the ultimate advice as given to us by Jesus...


For believers, the pursuit to be the best in your profession is not a bad thing until it becomes the ONLY thing.  When our desires to get more and be more are an interruption and distraction to our desire to become more like Jesus, then we have violated the first and second commandments at the same time.  If we truly pursue being like Jesus by being loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and in control of ourselves it will be much easier for us to be like Jesus.  All the other stuff will be there but will fade in comparison to being like Him.  Matthew also records Jesus making this promise...

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."  Matthew 6:25-34 NASB/The Message/KJV 

Pursuing Jesus instead of the accolades of men makes life much less complicated.  Pursuing Jesus eliminates stress and worry.  Pursuing Jesus doesn't allow the time for pursuing graven images made from the imperfect hand of man.  Pursuing Jesus ensures that there is a future where only God is worshiped.  Pursuing Jesus ensures that one day we will hear "And the reward for faithful service and a home in heaven belongs to..."  

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "I Write the Songs" (Barry Manilow)


 


It's another Tuesday and it's time for The Notes!!!  Welcome!  We're glad you're here!!!

With each passing Tuesday, we find ourselves closing in on the end of the year.  For many, getting to the end of this particular year will be a really, really good thing as their vantage point and opinion of  2020 has a negative slant.  I'll confess, 2020 has had its share of challenges, but out of its unique possibilities, we have seen created cause for a different way of doing things.  Ingenuity has been on display from the restaurant drive-through to the way manufacturing creates and ships items.  Words like "essential" and "distance" have had an unusual emphasis and increase of use.  

In the face of the challenges that I have encountered personally and as a resident of this world during 2020 I find myself asking a question with a positive slant..."What can I learn from 2020 that will change me for the better?"  The responses to that question range from sometimes light and frothy as the top of your favorite coffee drink to thought-provoking and life-altering like a death in the family.   Both replies deserve to be observed and cataloged in the recesses of the mind, soul, and spirit for what they are.  Both replies guide and direct next steps in the process of life.  And most importantly, both replies serve as a reminder of Who writes the songs of our lives in the first place...


Written by a Beach Boy, originally recorded by a Captain and then released as a single by a Partridge, "I Write the Songs" made the popular music rounds until it landed on the piano of Barry Manilow who was originally reluctant to record the song at all.  But once he was convinced, "I Write the Songs" took off, landing Manilow at #1 on the Hot 100 in January of 1976.  It was listed in the year-end countdown at #13 in 1976 and it won the 1977 Grammy for Song of the Year. 

Bruce Johnston is the writer of "I Write the Songs".  He stepped in for Brian Wilson in the Beach Boys concerts when Wilson wanted to devote more time in the recording studio.  The Captain and Tenille recorded "I Write the Songs" for inclusion on their chart-topping, #2 album Love Will Keep Us Together but never released it as a single.  The Partridge Family lead singer David Cassidy did release "I Write the Songs" as a single for his solo project, The Higher They Climb, also produced by Johnston but it failed to chart in the US.

The president of Arista Records at the time was Clive Davis. Davis was the one who suggested the song was right for Barry Manilow.  Manilow's hesitation in recording the song was that he didn't want listeners to think him conceited by the lyrical proclamation of "I Write the Songs".  But after some persuasion from Davis (and I imagine the right contractual agreement), Manilow decided to include it on his 3rd album Tryin' to Get the Feeling. The rest is Pop music history...

Johnston has said that the "I" in the song is a reference to God.  He suggests the song celebrates creativity in all of humankind. If you read the lyrics or listen closely, it is very easy to discern how the song could have been written by God.  Songs have ignited every emotion and inspired generations.  God granting the creativity to men to write melody and lyric is a great reason to have no other gods before Him.


We mentioned last week that as the newly formed nation of Israel surrounded the base of Mt. Sinai they were given the 10 Commandments 3 times.  Remember the number "3" in Biblical numerology represents holiness and completion.  In this first giving, God audibly speaks to the entire nation.  Moses is on the mountain and the mountain is swallowed up in God's presence.  The Israelites begin to hear God speak.  Their reaction?  They tremble in fear and reverence.  

It is significant to note that the first words the Israelites hear from God are the establishment of who He is in the relationship with the Israelites.  God had limited His interaction with the Hebrews to Moses only during the 3 (There's that number again!) months after they left the slavery of Egypt.   After the 10 (numerology - law, and judgment) plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, one would think that the Israelites would have enough evidence of who God was, but just to reassure them, solidify who they were in relationship to who He is, and possibly to drive home the first commandment, God spoke audibly..."I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  You shall have no other gods before Me."

Why would God start out this way?  It was important to remind the Israelites who the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob was.  They had been in the polytheistic environs of the Egyptians for over 400 years and one would imagine, even though they hated their captors, that some of the Egyptian habits of worship had seeped into the lives and worship of the Israelites.  

Also, remember that a few of the Egyptians that were sympathetic to the Israelites had come along for the journey in the Exodus.  These folks would have needed education on who the God of the Hebrews was and what their relationship with Him would be.

2020 has certainly been a year of pondering on priorities for me? What is the most important thing in your life in the perspective of the year we have had? Perhaps you have set a priority on health and safety.  Is seeing racial and cultural equality a benchmark of how you spend your time?  Maybe this year, being an election year, you have made it a priority to campaign for a specific candidate or platform. Is financial success or just financial stability in uncertain times the main thing that holds your concentration?  What do you find yourself spending the most time and treasure? Whatever that is, friends, money, music, writing blogs, health, and sometimes even doing good things, that my friend has the potential to be your god.  

Many folks who say they believe and worship God have adopted the mindset of the Egyptians, the Greeks, and Romans. At best we have divided loyalties between what God says and what motivates us the most. We attempt to serve more than 1 master and in that attempt are polytheistic if we were to be truthful to ourselves.  The apostle Paul encountered folks just like this at a place called Mars Hill:  Acts of the Apostles, chapter 17. verses 22-34 NASB/The Message/KJV

But what does God say?  (Randy paraphrase) "I am God.  I created everything, including you.  I want a relationship with you.  I am willing to put everything into this relationship and expect that you will do the same.  No one or no thing should come in between the relationship you and I have.  Do you know what else?  I let my holy, blessed, Son come to where you are and die a cruel death for our relationship.  That is how tight I want us to be. So don't put anything in between us, because if you do, that will become your god and I can't have that.  Your end of the relationship can not last having the distraction of something else being in My place.  No other gods."

Ouch! God's expectations are pretty high, aren't they?  I confess, there are times every day where I allow distractions to interrupt my relationship with God. Those things become my god for that moment. Those times make me sad. They also make God sad.  But later on in His Word, He says, "I am faithful to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness."  1 John 1:5-10 NASB/The Message/KJV   This provides hope that even though we fail, God doesn't.  His part of the relationship never changes and He is waiting to restore us every time we place something other than Him as the priority in our lives.

So how do we maintain God as our priority relationship?  Read the Bible.  Pray.  Seek other believers who can encourage you in your God relationship.  Go to church.  Go to a Bible Study.  Read the Bible and Pray again.  Never allow your love of anything, including music or writing a blog, come in the way of working on your relationship with God.  No other gods.  Besides, God is really the only One who can say..."I've been alive forever, and I wrote the very first song.  I put the words and the melody together, I am music and I write the songs..."

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving You,
randy 
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Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Hill Where the Lord Hides" (Chuck Mangione)


 

Hello cats and kitties and welcome to the smoothest blog on the planet.  It features some sweet axe-men and some dudes who will blow your top!!!  This is the place where you can catch some hot plates and air-checks that will ring your bell all the way back to your crib.  We don't feature any cornballs or clinkers in this scene.  All we got 'round here is out of this world chops and blowers that will bring you to your feet.  So get ready for the smoothness to commence as we got us a hit from the early 70s up in here that features all kinds of tubs, licorice sticks, jazz boxes, and horns that are supermurgitroid!  So ease on back in your pad and get ready as we lay some sides on your plate that you gonna enjoy.  And it all starts right now...


"Hill Where the Lord Hides" is the first of 7 top 40 hits on the Billboard Charts for Chuck Mangione and his cadre of musicians.  It peaked at #32 on the Hot 100 and substantiated Mangione as a musician that could produce jazz sounds that would satisfy the musical tastes of folks across the spectrum of genre.  It started a trek that would take him all the way to #1 on 2 different occasions.  (May 12, 1978, with "Feels So Good" (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Feels So Good" (Chuck Mangione)) and February 22, 1980, with "Give it all You Got") 

"Hill Where the Lord Hides" is the first track from the live, Grammy-nominated double album, Friends and Love.  This groundbreaking album was written and orchestrated by Mangione, who singlehandedly brought flugelhorn playing into prominence and the public eye.  Mangione also serves as the conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic orchestra who accompanied him on the recording.  This was quite a feat for a 29-year-old jazz instrumentalist.  That's right!  Not only is Friends and Love turning 50 this year, but Chuck Mangione will turn 80 in November of this year.   

If there were a hill where the Lord hides, it would probably be Mount Sinai.  It is a mountain that is considered holy by Jews, Muslims, and Christians.  Its location has been debated, but based on the Biblical text of the Exodus, it would be somewhere towards the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. (Highlighted by the dotted line circle towards the bottom of this map.



Again, based on the Biblical description of where the new nation of Israel was traveling, this location makes the best sense.  Let's pick up the story...


While there weren't any flugelhorns, many trumpets were heard in our passage as God revealed Himself to the Israelites.  Other than the leading of the cloud by day and fire by night, the Israelites had not experienced such a moment in the three months they had been traveling.  Once they got settled at the base, Moses heads up the mountain.  There God reiterates the covenant that He had made with Abraham asserting the Israelites as the chosen people.  Moses treks back to the Israeli leadership and relays the message.  The leaders then verify their side of the covenant and Moses takes their commitment back to Him.  God then tells Moses to get the Children of Israel prepared as He intends to allow them to listen in on the next conversation that He has with Moses.  God says he wants to authenticate Moses in the people's eyes and wants them to have a Holy encounter in the process.  For three days, the people of Israel prepare themselves to meet with God. They cleaned their clothing and committed to not having intimate relationships during this time.   Physical boundaries were set around the base of the mountain so that no one (including the livestock) would touch it in any way while God was there.  The punishment for this disobedience was death by arrows or stoning.  While this may seem severe, it goes to show the attitude they were to have and the import of what was about to happen between them and God.  

Moses goes back up and God begins to speak directly to Israel.  This is the first of 3 times the Israelites will be given the Ten Commandments.  (More on that to come...)  They heard the commands directly from God's mouth.  These directives would become the moral code by which they would live and serve as much of the basis for our own modern law.

I wonder what would happen if we took three days to prepare for an encounter with God.  Honestly, do we take any time at all to prepare to be in His presence?  Since, Jesus ascension and the sending of Holy Spirit, we have a very different relationship than the Israelites as we have a continual encounter with God through Holy Spirit living in us.  But do we act like we are having an encounter with God?  Are we clean?  Are our hearts stirred, do we stand at attention, and do we shudder with fear as we encounter God through Holy Spirit and allow Him to change us every day to be more like Jesus?  What is our attitude as we wake each morning...are we like Fred the baker? "Time to Make the Donuts" - Dunkin Donuts commercial eagerly looking forward to our day with God or are we more likely to resist anything other than the snooze button...5-Hour Energy Commercial 2011 "I don't wanna get up..." 

There was preparation put into place before the Children of Israel could encounter God and accept His direction in the form of the Ten Commandments.  Even with Holy Spirit's guidance, one would think we would also need to be prepared.  What does that look like?  Do we wash our clothes?  Do we clean our closets?  Do we rid our lives of the clutter we so easily amass?  Sure, figuratively speaking, why not?

Let's face it.  We are surrounded by external noise from the moment we get up to make the donuts until we lay our head on the pillow at night.  Our communication with God can be interrupted and distanced to the point that it becomes difficult to hear from Him.  To adequately be prepared for our day with God, we must communicate with Him in the best way we can, through His Word.  This takes the same dedication that the Israelites displayed when they went to get three months of desert off of them.  Here are a great article and an incredible website with some insight into how to have a more meaningful day with Jesus.



If you have never had a time in your life where you have experienced God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit take a moment and ponder what that encounter might look like, and what your response would be.  Please don't take too long, as just like the Pharaoh, God could allow you to remain in your current state.  Romans 1:28-32 NASB/The Message/KJV

Everyone at one time or another will have a God encounter.  Yours may not be in the form of trumpets and clouds on a mountain, but an occurrence of God's presence in your life will happen.  Will you be prepared for that occurrence?  Your reaction to God during that time is very important, in fact it has the potential to be life-changing!  

As we continue to face the uncertainty of 2020, we must have a focus in our life that is founded on the presence of God in our lives.  That presence comes in the form of Holy Spirit who leads our paths and breaks through the clutter that can so easily drag us down.  To have the best day with Jesus we must be clean, fearful, and have our hearts stirred. This will prepare us to encounter God as we approach the hill where the Lord hides...

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "With a Little Help From My Friends" (The Beatles/Joe Cocker)





Good Tuesday to ya friend!  How are you getting by?  We are certainly living in an out of tune time wouldn't you say?  Well, we are on perfect pitch here at Tuesday's Musical Notes and we have another offering of musical fun with a twist!  It's Tuesday...please don't stand up and walk out on me!...


Or perhaps you prefer a little slower, bluesy beat...


Regardless of the translation, "With A Little Help From My Friends" has been an anthem for generations of people who have overcome adversity with aid from the folks around them.  

The original Beatles' track was written by McCartney and Lennon the day before the band posed for the iconic cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was the 2nd track from Sgt. Pepper's and comes as a segue out of the title track.  The 1978 reissue single (featuring Sgt. Pepper's as the lead in) peaked at #71 in the Billboard Hot 100. The song also serves as the finale of any of Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band concerts.  Written with a purposefully limited range, it serves as Ringo's guaranteed vocal on Sgt. Pepper's.   

The song did have its detractors as then Maryland Governor and future Vice President Spiro Agnew, moved to have the song banned because of his belief that it was about drug use.  

Joe Cocker covered the song as the title track from his 1969 album. This remake features Procol Harum's drummer, B.J. Wilson, as well as some of the guitar lines being provided by Jimmy Page.  (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "The Song Remains the Same" (Led Zeppelin), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Immigrant Song" (Led Zeppelin), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Stairway to Heaven" (Led Zeppelin), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Thank You" (Led Zeppelin))  Cocker's version was a slower chart and was highlighted in the movie and soundtrack taken from the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival. What may be even better remembered than it being a cover of a Beatles' song is Cocker's contortions during his performance at Woodstock most famously parodied by John Belushi on Saturday Night Live "With A Little Help From My Friends" - John Belushi

Let's face it, on occasion we all need to have assistance from friends, especially if we sing out of key.  Many times, however, we are afraid to ask for that help.  It seems, in our pride, we think we can handle anything that comes our way.  This reluctance to ask for aid can result in some bad things: burn-out, unmet deadlines, distrust, and disunity to name a few.  

Moses found himself in a situation much like the bad things to which we just eluded.  He had allowed himself to be used by God to perform incredible miracles.  He had seen God move in mighty and mysterious ways.  Although he begged God for Aaron's help when confronting Pharoah, we don't see Moses' leaning on his brother very much afterward.  Moses probably didn't want to let God down so he did not ask for help in leading the children of Israel's nearly 2 1/2 million people to the promised land.  (For perspective, that is a number of folks in between the current total populations of the states of New Mexico and Kansas) So what do you do when you're worried about being alone?


Moses, with 2.5 million of his closest friends in tow, encounters his father-in-law, Jethro, on the way to Mt. Sinai.  Jethro has been shielding Moses' wife and sons from the events in Egypt and has brought them out to join the merry band of travelers.  What Jethro finds is a worn-out Moses who is playing judge and jury to every contrary conversation that the Israelites are having between themselves.  Remember this is a bedouin group of people that is becoming a nation.  Aside from natural human morality, there are no laws. They also still have some of the Egyptians who were favorable to them in Egypt among their ranks as well. All of these folks...no rules. 

Jethro, as all loving fathers-in-law would do, asks Moses what in the world is going on?  Moses explains and Jethro lays out, again as all good fathers-in-law should do, a plan that will ease the burden on Moses' leadership and give him the time to focus on what God is calling him to do.

A close examination of Jethro's advice soon seems familiar.  Imagine an arbiter that judges cases on local levels, a more responsible judge decides among a larger group, and so on.  Seems like a model the United States adopted when creating the judicial branch of our government.  Federal Judiciary of the United States of America - wikipedia.org  

Moses is immediately down with this idea as it will lighten his load and give him more time to focus on being the mediator between man and God...for that time.

We all need help every once in a while.  Either we aren't physically strong enough to face the challenge or we may not be spiritually, mentally prepped to endure.  Whatever the reason, the Bible is filled with examples and advice of those who received a little help from their friends with some really good results in the process.  Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NASB/The Message/KJV  Jesus was rarely alone and the apostle Paul usually had someone with him on his missionary journeys. Their way was made less difficult with a little help from some friends. 

Do you need anybody? 

I confess this is one of the biggest issues in which I struggle.  In my independence and pride, I don't succeed as often as I would if I would just ask for help.  Perhaps this is an area of concern for you as well.  The best place to start is by realizing that we have a Help that is waiting for us to call out to Him.  His name is Jesus and our ability to accomplish good, purposeful things in this life is greatly enhanced when we ask for His leadership over our lives.  He is waiting to act as an intermediary between us and God and can provide the strength and clarity that we need to accomplish any task He asks us to do.  You need only ask for a little help from this Friend, you'll get by with a little help from this Friend, you can try with a little help from this Friend...

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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