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| IN THE VOLUME OF THE BOOK by 2nd Chapter of Acts (1975) Myrrh - MSA 6542 |
"One, two, three, and..."
The first voice we hear on this brilliant album actually belongs to Michael Omartian, then a session keyboardist and arranger and artist in his own right. Omartian would soon be a highly successful and sought-after producer. Here on ITVOTB, he was counting off the string section on the album's opening track, Start Every Day With a Smile.
Start Every Day... was hardly typical of an album opener. For starters, it's classical music. The track employs an actual string section, conducted by Omartian, and little else in the way of instrumentation. Clocking in at just fifty-four seconds, at first listen it seems like a pleasant little poem that Annie Herring might've married with a lilting melody on a slow Tuesday. Short though it may be, it's a song that sticks in your head and leaves you wanting more. Just as it is finding its way into our hearts and our psyches, it ends and slams into Yaweh, a hard rock song that explores the names of God and serves as the perfect vehicle for young Matthew Ward's already considerable vocal talent.
Start Every Day With a Smile and Yaweh were a powerful and effective one-two punch that got In the Volume of the Book off to an amazing start.
The Wards were a large Catholic family from the upper Midwest. Annie, one of 9 children, left the harsh winters and mundane lifestyle of North Dakota for the bright lights and sunshine of California. There, she met a popular radio DJ named Buck Herring. The two became an on-again-off-again item.
Long story short, Buck found Jesus and then made sure that Annie did as well. The two subsequently experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit and became immersed in what God was doing in California during the early days of what later came to be known as the Jesus Movement.
The rest of the Ward family had relocated to the Golden State as well. Then tragedy struck. When Annie's parents died within a short time of each other, two of her younger siblings - Nelly and Matthew - were taken in by Buck and Annie.
Well, Buck transitioned from DJ to recording engineer and bought Annie an old, upright piano for $50. Annie began to play the piano by ear (or "by heart" as she says) and started writing songs that were prompted by the Holy Spirit. She called herself a "song receiver" instead of a songwriter. So Annie was downloading songs, and Matthew and Nelly started singing with Annie when they would come home from school in the afternoons. One thing led to another...and the 2nd Chapter of Acts was born.
The group's 1974 debut album, With Footnotes, was an instant classic and will be explored later on this list. A year later, In the Volume of the Book was released by Myrrh Records.
CCM author and historian Mark Allan Powell calls the 2nd Chapter of Acts "one of the Jesus movement's greatest treasures" and says In the Volume of the Book is the group's "second masterpiece." The album title comes from a passage of Scripture in the book of Psalms:
These words of Scripture are found both on the album's back cover as well as the inner lyric sleeve (along with a humorous visual depiction of the Amplified Version of the Bible - with headphones plugged into the Word of God).
The harmonies...oh my goodness. After all, they were siblings, and that definitely came into play. But add to that a charismatic focus on the anointing of the Holy Spirit and, well...it's no wonder secular groups just couldn't quite compare. One reviewer for CCM magazine said that listening to the 2nd Chapter was "like hearing the angels themselves."
They were pioneers, but were unaware that they were pioneering anything at the time. They were unconventional, sometimes running afoul of expected norms from concert promoters and magazine publishers. They were just doing whatever God told them to do. Literally.
The aforementioned Start Every Day With a Smile begins the album with simple lyrics that sound almost like something Annie Herring might say to another person during a conversation:
That's it. A lot of Annie's lyrics were like that. Very poetic, veering off in unexpected directions, but expressing spiritual ideas and saying things in a totally different way, with a fresh vision. I recently bought a devotional book that she wrote. She writes books the same way she wrote songs. Full of wonder and mystery, and sometimes you are not always sure exactly what she means, but your spirit understands (if that makes any sense).
Yaweh is the only song on the record that is not at least co-written by someone named Herring or Ward. Jesse Cosio wrote this song, a hard-rocking gem that allowed young Matthew Ward's incredible voice and Phil Keaggy's considerable guitar prowess to really shine. The group's debut album also contained a hard rock track that featured Matthew, but reviewer Mark Allan Powell says, "Yaweh does The Devil's Lost Again bit one better."
I suppose I should mention at this point that Matthew Ward (still a teenager at the time of this recording) always possessed not only an amazing vocal range, but also an other-worldly level of vocal control. This was decades before vocal "runs" became ubiquitous in pop music. Matthew's ability to improvise and sing crazy runs with an amazing degree of control was, well, just a joy to listen to - from the earliest days of the 2nd Chapter, through his CCM solo albums, as well as his foray into worship music...and still to this day. [By the way, I'm no Old Testament scholar...but a lot of people spell the name of this song, which is also a name for God, Y-a-h-w-e-h. In fact, I think the Bible itself uses that spelling, as well as the ITVOTB lyric sheet. But the album cover and songbook sheet music spell it Y-a-w-e-h. I just thought that was interesting.]
The next two songs on the album use the imagery of nature, weather and seasons to express a deep longing for God's abiding presence. Something Tells Me is a ballad with a fairly complex arrangement. When the trio sings, "Something tells me it's time to go..." at the end of the song, they hold the note in perfect, unwavering 3-part harmony for what feels like a very long time while the band continues to run through its chord changes. This was long before the days of Pro Tools, digital recording tricks and autotune, folks. In other words, these three could sing. In an interview with Brian Mason, Matthew Ward revealed that The Grey Song was the only song the group ever recorded perfectly, from beginning to end. "We didn't have to fix anything," Matthew said. "All three of us. It almost had a kind of country-ish vibe to it. It's a cool song."
"I always enjoyed that tune because it came so easy, I guess," Ward said with a smile. "I love things that aren't hard!"
A soft Fender Rhodes (don't you miss those?) signals the start of a testimony anthem called Now That I Belong To You. This one goes through different musical movements, with instrumentals that sound for all the world like they have a horn section involved. Come to think of it, Yaweh also seemed to have horns. As does Hey, Whatcha Say. But there are no horns listed in the album's credits! My guess would be that the "horns" I'm hearing were actually supplied by synthesizers. Perhaps?
Next up, it's a Scripture song solo from young Matthew. He and keyboardist Richard Souther co-wrote the music for this one, titled Ps. 63. Souther was the pianist for A Band Called David, a group of spiritually like-minded musicians from the church that Acts attended - Jack Hayford's Church On The Way. Thus began a tradition of sorts - Matthew and Richard teaming up to write a Scripture song from the Psalms. In addition to Psalm 63 on this record, the two also collaborated on Psalm 61 for a live album in 1977 called How the West Was One, and Psalm 93 for the studio album Mansion Builder in 1978. Souther would go on to become a successful instrumentalist and songwriter, under both the names Richard Souther and Douglas Trowbridge.
"Annie the Poet" shines again on Prince Song, a very popular track that borrows language and imagery from classic fairy tales...
[By the way, Annie the Poet is a name that Michael Omartian gave to Annie Herring in a song on his 1976 album, Adam Again.]
And so ends Side One of In the Volume of the Book.
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| Buck Herring |
ITVOTB was of course produced and engineered by Buck Herring (as were, I believe, every 2nd Chapter of Acts album ever recorded). It would seem that Buck's right-hand man on this project was the multi-talented Michael Omartian - or Omar, as Buck calls him. Omartian arranged the songs and played keyboards (Aarpvark synthesizer/organ/piano) and percussion. "Michael gave of himself to us beyond measure," Buck Herring told Brian Mason in a 2022 interview for YouTube. "There wouldn't be enough money in the world for me to pay Michael for his contributions to the 2nd Chapter of Acts and to our music ministry over the years. Our relationship with Michael goes a hundred miles deep, a hundred miles wide, and a hundred miles high."
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| Michael Omartian & wife Stormie |
Buck Herring's music industry connections paid off as he brought in top-notch studio "cats" and session players who had already played with - or went on to play with - some of the biggest names in mainstream entertainment. In addition to the aforementioned Phil Keaggy on lead guitar, Herring brought in drummer David Kemper (Glen Campbell, Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton-John and more); bassist Emory Gordon, Jr. (Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, John Denver and more); bassist David Hungate (Boz Skaggs, Dolly Parton, member of Toto); guitarist Jay Graydon (Joe Cocker, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer and more); guitarist Larry Rolando (Seals and Crofts, Vicki Lawrence, Art Garfunkel); organist Danny Timms (Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians, Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos and more); and bassist Michael Been (who went on to form The Call). Annie Herring also played some piano and percussion on ITVOTB.
On the group's debut album, cover photos were used sparingly. Not so on In the Volume of the Book. There were lots of pics - two photos blended one over the other on the front, and seven pictures on the back cover. The photography credit went to Joel Strasser.
Side two begins with a beautiful worship song that has stood the test of time. Morning Comes When You Call is a reverent plea for God's presence...a tender yet powerful acknowledgement of our need for Him:
I need You here beside me
Here again, we see the theme of days, seasons and nature...
Borrowed Time is a quirky little tune, a little different from the rest of the album. To me, it's sort of a companion piece to Good News from the first album, With Footnotes. Good News was a heavier rock song, but it was highly evangelistic and aimed to share Jesus with people "out there" who were distracted by TV, war and killing. Well, Borrowed Time is also an evangelistic song that aims to share Jesus with a dark and despairing world of people who are worried about what tomorrow may bring and concerned with what they're going to eat, how much money to borrow and all the bills they have to pay. Annie says they're not living on Eastern or Pacific, but on borrowed time.
If I could only share one song with a person who'd never heard the 2nd Chapter, you know, as a good representation of the group's work...I could do a lot worse than Last Day of My Life. It checks a lot of boxes. The close, smooth, sibling harmony...Matthew's rock and roll pipes...incredible dynamics and passionate lyrical poetry. By the way, Last Day... is also a highly evangelistic song, making it and Borrowed Time a powerful one-two punch for the listener who's on the fence about this Jesus guy.
The rhythmic, uptempo Hey, Whatcha Say is a simple song, lyrically. It's all about seeing, hearing and feeling God. Here in the YouTube age, there's no shortage of videos from reformed cessationists who are apparently very upset that people actually believe that they a) literally hear God speak to them and b) feel His presence during worship or just as they go through their daily lives. Well, the members of the 2nd Chapter of Acts have never shied away for an instant from their belief in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They attended an Assembly of God church for a while during the early days of their Christian walk in California, then transitioned to Pastor Jack Hayford's Church on the Way, a well-known Pentecostal/Charismatic fellowship. They have recounted miracles and supernatural acts of God in books and numerous interviews, without apology. They really meant it when they sang to the Lord:
Hey, Whatcha Say gives Phil Keaggy a chance to deliver a couple of blistering electric lead solos. And he does not disappoint.
Phil shines again (for lack of a better word) in Keep On Shinin'. In a 2022 interview with Brian Mason, Buck Herring tells a pretty amazing story regarding Keaggy's recording experience during the making of In the Volume of the Book.
"The first day, Omar was doing the arrangements," Herring recalled. "I had set everything up, the music stands and mics, all that stuff. They started running down the first song and Phil was just kind of sitting there, just looking at his music stand. And I thought, 'Oh, no. I've embarrassed him because he doesn't read music.' He got up, put his guitar down and came into the control room. He plopped himself down on the couch in front of the console and he said, 'I'll do my parts later.' So we recorded all of the tracks, and Phil hadn't played yet on any of them."
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| Phil Keaggy |
Buck continues: "In my producing career, I always abhorred electric guitar overdubs because I'm not a musician, I could not tell them what to play; it was always a process of elimination. What do you hear? I hear this. I don't like that. And you would just keep going until you eventually landed on something you both liked. But I had to depend on them to really contribute because I couldn't guide them all that much. So now we had finished all of the tracks for In the Volume of the Book, and we had scratch vocals on everything. So it came time to do the electric guitar overdubs. I had no idea what was going to happen. I had never worked with Phil before. And a few days prior I had embarrassed him but putting him out there with all of these studio guys and exposing the fact that he couldn't read music. But sitting on the couch, listening while we laid down all the tracks, he had memorized all of them. There are thirteen songs on In the Volume of the Book. One take. One take on every single song on the album for guitar. There was only one internal punch on the whole album and that was in the middle of the guitar solo for Keep On Shining. Everything else was one take on the whole album. That was it."
Buck described it as, "The most amazing one take of my entire recording career."
Fittingly, Keep On Shinin' carries on the nature theme as Annie writes about morning, night, daybreak, and light, relating all of it, of course, to the closeness she desires with the Lord.
ITVOTB wraps with I Can't Get Near You, a passionate song sung from the Lord to us. This one seems to be a solo by Annie. Ascribing words and thoughts to God in a song is sometimes a tricky thing...but here, it just works...
After the group's 1974 debut With Footnotes took Christendom by storm, if ever there was a time for a so-called sophomore jinx, this was it. But it didn't happen. True, there was no Easter Song on this album. But there's only been one of those ever. And there wasn't a Which Way the Wind Blows on this record (although Morning Comes When You Call comes close). But taken collectively, as a project, this record is a beautifully recorded statement of continuing faith in 1975 by the 2nd Chapter of Acts. Oh - and it rocks. There was no drop-off. If anything, the relatively small group of folks known as Jesus freaks who were aware of this album in 1975 were not only thrilled with this record, but extremely excited about what the future held, based on this record. And they should have been. The group's output across the rest of the 1970s was prolific.
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| 2nd Chapter of Acts with Barry McGuire |
That same year, the 2nd Chapter hit the road with Barry McGuire, and a multi-disc, landmark live album was the result. The next year they took a C.S. Lewis book and turned it into a musical (though it was held up for a time due to copyright claims). In 1977, they hit the road with Phil Keaggy and another classic live set was released. After a move to Sparrow Records, the classic Mansion Builder LP was released in '78. And don't forget their involvement in musicals like Firewind and The Witness.
The music styles and clothing styles changed somewhat in the eighties. But the 2nd Chapter rolled on, seeing lives changed and set free by the power of God - which was indeed their primary goal in all of this. They relocated to Texas along with their friend Keith Green and some other ministries, and later to Colorado. But as the business side of the music business began to take center stage, the 2nd Chapter grew less and less enchanted with what had come to be known as Contemporary Christian Music. They were sometimes viewed as being difficult by magazine publishers and festival promoters, because they wouldn't just go along and play the game. They always had a higher calling.
By 1988 the group members felt God telling them that this chapter was drawing to a close. Time to come off the road and focus on family. Annie and Matthew also pursued solo ministries. We (I'll just go ahead and speak for everybody) were sad to see the group go, but oh so thankful for the rich legacy of music and ministry that they had left for us - music that continues to minister to this very day. They were originals. There's never been a group like them before or since.
The focus of the 2nd Chapter of Acts was always...What do You want, Lord? What do You want from us? What would You have us say and share and do? Looking back, you might say that the foundational verse for this album remained front and center for the members of the 2nd Chapter throughout their time of ministry together...
Great write up Scott. Look forward to the finish
ReplyDeleteI wish everyone could experience being at one of their concerts live. No drop off in vocal quality from the studio, and the Holy Spirit filled the place. Great job capturing the essence of this album and their ministry.
ReplyDeleteThank you for another great write-up, Scott. This album was so powerful musically and spiritually and, for me at least, it still holds up 49 years later.
ReplyDeleteI bought “With Footnotes” in a Christian bookshop {CLC} for 99 pence, less than than £1, on a rainy Saturday after a “March for Jesus” that achieved very little in London in 1987. I bought “In The Volume of the Book” for £40 from some rare records site a few years later {’91 or ‘92}, but I’d taped it from a friend’s sister’s tape a day after I’d bought “With Footnotes” so I was familiar with it by the time I actually bought the record. I wanted to have the record because in those days, having an album only on tape was perilous; if, perchance, the tape got snaggled in your cassette player, or if the sun or heat got to it or if simple wear and tear destroyed it, then you were stuffed, especially if you were no longer in contact with the person you’d originally taped it from !
ReplyDeleteLess than £1 vs £40…...You see, right from the start, I had both albums and I adored both albums. They are so magnificent in pretty much every way. I cannot put monetary value on either, indeed, I don’t put monetary value on albums in general. The value for me is in the enjoyment of them and the money paid out is merely a means to an end. I don’t love money – I merely use it.
2/7
ReplyDeleteAnyway….I love this album. It is as great a follow-up to to the debut as it was possible to deliver. In some ways I think of them as a double album. From the moment I noticed Anne Herring wrote the majority of the songs, I thought that here was a brilliant writer, the poet laureate of the early Jesus movement. It would be easy to cast her in the role of that person that cheapened Christian artistic writing, the one that opened the door to that “Jesus is my sweet boyfriend” kind of song that seemed to flood Christian songwriting once we were into the 21st century, but I wouldn’t. For all the seemingly chirpy love lyrics, Anne Herring was actually a sensitive and serious writer who just happened to have the knack of being cleverly accessible in what she was trying to communicate. She had her finger on the pulse of what her peers were feeling and going through and questioning and she wrote songs in the language of the day and of her generation. I don’t find her corny and interestingly, even now, I find her earnest, sincere and serious. I understand why she referred to herself as a song receiver, although I disagree with her wholeheartedly. She was a songwriter, one of the highest order, and there’s no arrogance or shame in being able to state that. The Lord’s interaction with us is such that he doesn’t have to be credited with that which he does not do that is good. I’ve long had a problem with people that intone that “Jesus gave me this song.”
What if the song is rubbish ? 🤯 😩 🥶
Some 35 or so years ago, my Mum got involved with a church that, from the moment I first heard about them, I thought were dodgy. I told my sister as such when she explained about them and the sort of things they did. Anyway, my Mum was full of the joys of spring as to how wonderful they were and how the leader was a prophet and his wife always heard from the Lord and how the Lord had given her these songs and she was going to record them etc. I was sceptical, but I kept my mouth closed, just in case ! I had heard the woman sing and without being nasty, let’s just say God has the ability to appreciate it more than I. Eventually, I heard the record she made and had been hearing about with such great fanfare and…….
The Head Teacher of my old school used to have this saying, “Speech is like silver, silence is like gold….” Suffice it to say, the silence after hearing that record, was golden. I actually had to say to the Lord, “If you really did write these songs, I really don’t think much of your songwriting !”
Not too surprisingly and without going into detail, that church and it’s leaders didn’t end well {not because of the music, I hasten to add}.
Some people write great songs. Some people in Christ write great songs. I don’t see the big deal. And put those people into a milieu where there is a certain freedom to experiment and push boundaries, then they’re going to come up with some fascinating stuff. Anne Herring did.
3/7
ReplyDeleteIf there was ever an album that was saturated in beautiful melodies, it’s this one.
Since ‘91 or ‘92, I’ve always kicked the album off with “I can’t get near you.” I don’t know how I managed it, but when I initially recorded the album off my friend Cathy’s tape, I forgot to record “I can’t get near you” so I didn’t know it was part of the album for about 5 years ! When I eventually bought the vinyl, I thought “What’s this ?” and when I got the chance, checked Cathy’s copy and realised I’d left it off all those years. Maybe it was because there was such a long gap before it played that I thought the album ended with “Keep on shinin’”, which seemed like a natural place to end the album. So it has taken a very long time for me to get to grips with the song as part of the album. The vocal reminds me of Sue Gaines {who released an obscure Jesus music album the same year, “Wake Up, Children"} and I like the song, I really do, and I think there can be value in writing from the perspective of God {although obviously that can be a risky venture} but I think of it as the weakest song on the album, even though I’ve been listening to it for 33 or so years and it always feels like an adjunct to me. I do wonder from time to time if I always would have thought of it in that vein had I heard it when I heard the others or if it’s because the other 12 had a 4 or 5 year head start in my listening consciousness. Because the word ‘weak’ does not enter the lexicon when I think of the other songs.
“Start every day with a smile” was just about the craziest way to kick off the album proper. In the space of less than a minute and in just 4 lines, the band convey the most encouraging message possible with beautifully organized sounds to match, then barely having taken a breath, get heavier in message and way more doomy and negative than Black Sabbath ever managed, all the while identifying completely with those that Anne is addressing in the song. And if that wasn’t enough, instrumentally, as was pointed out, this was more or less classical music. Classical instrumentation by 1975 was no stranger to rock and pop, indeed, most existing genres had utilized it in some shape or form. Even heavy metal acts like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and the afore mentioned Black Sabbath had been known to dabble into the classics {well, Zeppelin did that year}. 1975 was in fact 10 years since the Beatles started to “get mature” with a sideways shift to “Yesterday” followed by “You’ve got to hide your love away” and “Eleanor Rigby.” And the likes of the Stones, the Pretty Things, Blossom Toes and many others followed suit. That the 2nd Chapter included such a move in their ouvre demonstrated just how solidly they had absorbed the musical language and invention of popular music as it had become expressed over the previous decade, even though Anne had departed from the California Hippie, drug and music scene some years previous to the recording of this album. And it wasn’t a move for the sake of it. I honestly couldn’t imagine this song any other way. And though it sounds sweet, it’s not syrupy. You could actually be forgiven for missing the fact that they’re telling you the world is going to end !
It is an excellent song and the quality of this album does not go downhill from here, I’m glad to report.
4/7
ReplyDelete“Yahweh” was simply some great slamming power pop with neat lead guitar fizzing all over the song. Yeah, heavy rockers used to Nazareth, Mountain and Status Quo might possibly scoff at that, but it’s an important contextual song. Not only were the band singing directly about God and what they felt about him, Christians in general were barely used to the idea in 1975, of Christians utilizing anything remotely rocking or “worldly” to sing about their life and he who was inspiring it. And with the 2nd Chapter being such cute looking “kids” {sometimes, if one wasn’t looking clearly or at first glance, Matt Ward looked, well, like a girl. Or is that just me ?} “Yahweh” was like running into an ice cold shower on a hot day. I’m so glad that they had the foresight to include songs like this because it showed their great diversity and possibly helped bands like Petra get their feet a little further into doors {hearts, ears} that they might not otherwise have. There had been JC Power Outlet and Resurrection Band had put out the cassette only debut “Music To raise the Dead” but there wasn’t really much in the heavier stakes at this time in Jesus music/Christian rock. Interestingly, Barry McGuire had his own piece of heft on his “Lighten Up” album the same year so the volume was starting to turn up, somewhat ! Matthew always did want to rock hard.
The first two songs are so shocking in their context of time allied to musical style that it’s easy to overlook what neat melodies they possess. But “Something Tells Me” doesn’t allow one to get away with such a notion ! Melodically, it is sumptuous and the male/female parts are inventive to the max. And it’s follow up, “The Grey song”, although short, is anything but grey. This is one of a number of songs that is so melodically beautiful and I’ve long been ever so impressed with the way Anne was able to pack so much beauty into such a short time frame on this album.
“Now That I Belong to You” is yet another slab of utter beauty, a cleverly arranged two-parter. I’ve always loved the chorus and the way it flows into what I’ve always thought of as a fruity flute segment, although I don’t see any flute credited, a bit like the brass. If it is a synth, it’s pretty ahead of its time.
Lyrically, I find bits of it a little confusing. As the first verse is winding to a close, it’s clear that Anne is speaking as God but it is not at all clear who is supposed to be saying the lines “'Cause I want to live through You”. It seems to be a continuation of the line “Then You said, ‘Oh, My child
Take this life I give to you...’” If that is the case, I think it’s a dodgy line. As the second verse demonstrates, we certainly live through the Lord. Whether the opposite is true is at best, debatable and at worst, not at all true. There’s a huge difference between him living in us and living through us. Nevertheless, this is still a great song and in my opinion, the 2nd Chapter showed such a thrilling command of, and original take on, pop music. With its ebullient run-out, it was refreshing to see that pop could be taken in new and slightly unusual directions. While Jesus rock got a generally bad press {if it was spoken about at all in mainstream circles}, there was some pretty inventive stuff going on within its ranks.
5/7
ReplyDeleteThere are very few songs on the first two LPs that are not vocally harmonically rich. It’s what they do/did so well and one of the first things one will ever remember about them. There not being some arresting harmonies on a 2nd Chapter of Acts song is a bit like there being no guitar on a Hendrix song. But “Ps 63” has none, it’s just Matt “Thee-ing” and “Thy-ing” his way in KJV style through an absolutely delightful song. A bit like Barry McGuire and “Love is” the 17th century language doesn’t detract from the song and for those of us today, it gives an insight into where many young people in Christ were at in the 70s and the influence of the King James bible. I think it’s been more than beneficial that there has been a move away from the KJV to other translations that have enriched our understanding of scripture and the times those passages of scripture were written in and the importance of Greek and Hebrew in understanding what was meant and what we cannot really get at now. But there is a certain innocence in the way elements of the KJV were put into song in that decade {as Ed Raetzlov put it in ‘76, on the song Big Wheels Turning, “Cut my teeth on a King James version…”} and in the strangest way, songs like “Ps 63” don’t come across as dated, or at least not to me. Interestingly, it wasn’t the KJV that Anne had found inspirational on the path to her own conversion, it was the “Good News For Modern man” {ie the Good News Bible}.
Have you ever come across pieces of art that just bring you to the edge of tears ? Whether it be a song, a scene in a film, a section of a book, an episode of a TV show, whatever ? Well, there are a few of those for me and in song, one is definitely “Prince Song.” Even to this day it is guaranteed to get me feeling emotional, even if only for 3 minutes. It’s just the entire feel and sound of it. It could be about potatoes or a split in a shoe or trying to grow a carnivorous plant in a city apartment….the lyric is almost irrelevant. The way the melody and the instruments dovetail together is glorious. No one overplays and mercifully, no one underplays either. The “La la la…” section is one of the most beautiful segments on the entire album and the ending morphing into the “Oh Come Let us adore Him” refrain from “O Come all Ye Faithful” was sheer breathtaking artistry. Back in the 80s and 90s and even sometimes in the early 2000s, in many a church meeting during a song, we’d just break into “O Come Let us Adore Him” and I wonder if it had anything to do with this song. I can’t say “I doubt it” or “It may well have” because I just don’t know. Contemporary Christian music just wasn’t something that was discussed in those days, mores the pity.
I say the lyrics were almost irrelevant…..I was being a bit tongue in cheek in order to describe the feeling a song can bring, but the lyrics are actually lovely. And the way the two sisters sing it is key to how the song comes across. There’s so much relief from what feels like so much pain that had gone down in the song and I felt that a couple of decades before I was ever aware of their story. “Prince Song” is always lumpy throat time for me !
6/7
ReplyDeleteAnd what do they go and follow that up with ? “Morning Comes When You Call” !!
Oh my days ! 🙀
How a song like this wasn’t sung by congregations all over the world for years and years is almost beyond me. Maybe it’s because none of us were confident we’d get the harmonies dead on perfect !! 🫣 Music isn’t a competition, even with charts {which, let’s face it have always been about sales} and it’s not really possible to say that this song is better than that one. It really comes down to personal taste, always has, always will. I tend to reflect that in the way I comment on songs and albums. There will always be people that dig a song I don’t or don’t think much of a song I adore. I love the fact that we’re all different and have something different to bring to the table. Well, for me, this is one of the premier songs of the early Jesus music era. Easily a top 10 and that’s saying something given the high quality of the material that the Larrys, the Phils, the Parchments, the Randys, the Barrys and the Andres and others were knocking out in those years. It cleverly incorporates scripture without banging one over the head, the lyric is superb, the vocals are melodically and harmonically gorgeous and the piano playing, fantastic throughout the album, is in another league here. The bass guitar really shines here without shining at all. Its counterpoint harmonies to the piano notes and those of the vocalists are overwhelmingly inventive, yet so understated. As a bassist myself, I’m impressed. I wouldn’t have minded writing this song or coming up with the bass part. I don’t know which of the three bassists on the album played on this but whoever it was, a major nod in your direction from me {whether you’re still with us or not}. It’s a surprisingly sparse song considering there’s so much going on. I like writers that are a bit unconventional yet accessible. That was Anne Herring but here, young rocking Matthew is co-credited as a writer. I’d love to know what his role was. It seems to me this was a precious meeting of minds.
Even if I couldn’t talk about this song all day, I could certainly listen to it.
7/7
ReplyDelete“Borrowed Time” is yet another masterpiece with the usual 2nd Chapter ingredients of great songwriting, inventive arrangement, lovely vocals and creative harmonies and supportive instrumentation that never crowds out the main thrust of the song, yet is interesting in itself and part of the melodic structure. The lyric initially sounds like a criticism of its subject, then it gets heavy, rather the way “Start every day with a smile” does. Few writers were as nice and reasonable as Anne Herring in telling people how rubbish the world is and that it was about to end ! 😄 It appeals to my odd sense of humour.
“Last Day of My Life” is lyrically challenging and great to sing, but not easy to mean. If this really was the last day of my life, I can’t say I’d jump for joy...I quite like living ! But that was 2nd Chapter, in those early days they issued challenges and kept the believing listener sharp and thinking. And they couched these moments in such beautiful songs. Songs that I still really enjoy now. This song is beautiful. I notice that they’re all quite short. I love them that way but wouldn’t have complained if they were twice the length.
“Hey Whatcha say” ups the tempo and is one of those songs that is seemingly so simple….yet so effective. There’s not much that I can say about it other than it’s brilliant and gives Phil Keaggy the chance to stretch out some more, rarely a bad thing ! This one is credited to the whole band and as such is Nelly Ward’s only writing credit on the album. I hope she was pleased and proud, it’s a true foot-stomper and head shaker.
“Keep on Shinin’” winds things down nicely after a splurge of great songs, yet is no less gorgeous. Keaggy’s guitar solo on this one is actually one of my favourites of his. The way I’ve ordered the album, it’s an excellent way to end what is, in my opinion, a tour de force of an album. Personally, I’ve never been able to choose between this and “With Footnotes” definitively. I’ll think one is the better….until I listen to the other !
I’ve listened to the album so many times over the last 37 years but I only have one very specific memory of doing so. That was sometime in May or June of ‘87, not long after I first heard the album. It was a day before my car was due to have its MOT and I had to get it ready, which meant a lot of driving around north and north-west London looking for welders and tyre places. I listened to this album all of that day – it was the possibly the day it hit me in a big way. It’s funny what sticks in the mind. I can still see the places I went to that day and sometimes, when I go through or past those places, I think of the 2nd Chapter of Acts and In the Volume of the Book.
A couple of decades ago, Matthew Ward said “My prayer is that the Lord will continue to use music’s mysterious ability to reach into hearts like nothing else can.”
He was right about that on both counts.