Category Archives: Uncategorized

#506: Characters Involved

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #506, on the subject of Characters Involved.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first ten Multiverser novels,

  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
  2. Old Verses New,
  3. For Better or Verse,
  4. Spy Verses,
  5. Garden of Versers,
  6. Versers Versus Versers,
  7. Re Verse All,
  8. In Verse Proportion,
  9. Con Verse Lea, and
  10. In Version, in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley,

in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book).  Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages.  Now as I am posting the eleventh, Con Version,  again written in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights.  This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed.  You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them.  Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.

This is the sixth post for this novel, covering chapters 61 through 72.  Previous mark Joseph “young” behind-the-writings web log posts for this book include:

  1. #498:  Characters Restart covering chapters 1 through 12;
  2. #501:  Characters Orienting, covering chapters 13 through 24;
  3. #502:  Verser Setbacks, chapters 25 through 36;
  4. #503:  Versers Progress, chapters 37 through 48; and
  5. #505:  Versers Advance, chapters 49 through 60.

There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books.  This is also the longest book to date, and has quite a few long chapters in it, so there will be quite a few of these background articles.

History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.

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Quick links to discussions in this page:
Chapter 61, Brown 303
Chapter 62, Cooper 20
Chapter 63, Takano 104
Chapter 64, Brown 304
Chapter 65, Cooper 21
Chapter 66, Takano 105
Chapter 67, Brown 305
Chapter 68, Cooper 22
Chapter 69, Takano 106
Chapter 70, Brown 306
Chapter 71, Cooper 23
Chapter 72, Takano 107

Chapter 61, Brown 303

Eric tackled this, with a surprise twist in the story.

Eric had mentioned here that Derek and Vashti had explained being versers to Maurice before, and I had not remembered that, so I went back to Brown 291 and expanded it to make the reference more credible.

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Chapter 62, Cooper 20

Continuing our agreed script, Eric drafted this.  There were a few edits to deal with our language problems, but it brought us to where we wanted to be.

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Chapter 63, Takano 104

Eric drafted all of this, with the washing and the cold water, the proposal and the gifts, and the reaction of the crowd.  He had intended to include the wedding, but the passage was long enough.

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Chapter 64, Brown 304

Eric had suggested that Derek’s group should lose this fight, but I couldn’t see how Derek, with his history and all his powers, could credibly lose a fight in these circumstances even if the entire neighborhood came down on them.  It wasn’t exactly a bluff, but having Derek demonstrate what he could do enabled him to win without either hurting anyone or being hurt.

I had formed most of this in my head before Eric had written Takano 103, so I jumped ahead and wrote it.

We had been trying to think of a name for the band, and I was toying with the idea of brown and white, and thought of The Brown White and Yellow Band, but realized I was omitting Vashti, so I rethought it as The Living Colors Dixieland Gospel Band, which Eric agreed was good and fit the subtheme of interracial relations.

Drafting what was Brown 306 bumped to 307, Eric said that Emma Malcolm had mentioned the Rougarou, but in the original draft of this chapter she hadn’t.  We agreed to go back and find a way to include it without making her appear prescient.

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Chapter 65, Cooper 21

We had discussed this at length, but Eric went a bit off script with the miracle crossbow shot.

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Chapter 66, Takano 105

I drafted this, wanting to have Tomiko conduct the wedding and put a bit more backstory into the text so it was explained that they had marriages and wedding ceremonies of a sort back in the caves.

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Chapter 67, Brown 305

Both of us recognized that there would be questions after the display at the Malcolm house, so I tackled that here.  I also wanted to bring one of the younger Malcolm brothers over to their side.

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Chapter 68, Cooper 22

We were discussing possible next worlds for several weeks as we recognized the approaching end of Cooper’s William Tell story, and one of Eric’s suggestions was a low-power supers world.  He wrote this to demonstrate how it would work, and when we reached the point at which Cooper versed out we moved it from the notes to the text as the next chapter.

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Chapter 69, Takano 106

Having written several previous fictional weddings, I was hesitant to tackle another; but I wanted to write the next Cooper chapter and preferred not to leap ahead when it’s not necessary, so I pulled together a few thoughts to create this chapter.

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Chapter 70, Brown 306

Eric started this.  I had suggested names for the Malcolm family, and Eric took them in the order I had given and chose the penultimate brother as the one at the door.  I added the last few paragraphs when the subject changes to discussing the band; we had agreed on the name of the band, and that the Malcolm boy would suggest it.

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Chapter 71, Cooper 23

I had been worried about how Cooper would get out of the forcefield trap for several days, but then hit upon a solution and said I wanted to write this chapter.

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Chapter 72, Takano 107

Trying to move the story forward, I decided to cover the construction of the log cabin.  The idea of having Tommy come to dinner was quite honestly filling out the chapter.

The joke about the United States of Amiska was Eric’s idea, although I actually framed it within the text.

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This has been the sixth behind-the-writings look at Con Version.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.

#488: The Songs of “Christmas Quick”

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #488, on the subject of The Songs of “Christmas Quick”.

I suppose I have officially run out of recordings of my own compositions; hopefully I will find a way to record a few more songs for the new year.  However, as I realized I had reached December, I remembered that maybe a decade or so ago I arranged ten Christmas songs as midi recordings–technically nine songs, because I liked the first arrangement so much I redid it in a different instrumentation as the last.  It came to within a few seconds of twenty minutes worth of music, and I gave a CD to our pastor, Don Chroniger.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a way to string them together for you here, so you’ll have to listen to each one individually.

The entire project was inspired when I realized that with the change of just one note, the setting of Away in a Manger that I had learned as a boy could become a three-part round.  Using the midi program I then had, I selected midi human voices (“doo”) and sketched the three parts.  I called it Around a Manger, and it’s under two minutes long.

I remember being introduced to Carol of the Bells in high school chorus, and we sang it every year, and I generally appreciated its arrangement.  At some point years ago I arranged it for two guitars, and my wife managed to play it with me a few times, so I wrote out those two parts and added a bass guitar to flesh it out.  I was very surprised that it came in under one and a half minutes.

Also in high school chorus I encountered Shepherd’s Carol, and although I’ve heard quite a few versions of it since then, this one tracks closely to the arrangement we sang.  I decided it would sound good with recorders; it is under two minutes

Slower and longer than most here, O Come, O Come Emanuel is over two and a half minutes.  It is another guitars and bass arrangement.

I’ve always loved the haunting sound of Michael Praetorius’ Lo, How a Rose Ere Blooming, and although I’ve always done it in four parts, I thought that three parts on recorders would work well.  It did.  I did two verses partly to extend it to just under two minutes, but partly because I wanted to drop the melody an octave and push the bass below for the second verse.  I again used the midi vocals.

I had actually been working on playing Silent Night on a guitar, and had composed both guitar parts.  I knew the song had been originally written for guitar accompaniment, so it seemed approprate.  I had fun creating the bass part, and the three verses run about two and a half minutes.

I don’t know when I first heard O Little Town of Bethlehem, but I love all three verses, and thus I broke one of my rules.  For all the others except Around a Manger I made every verse different; for this one, in order to get a good sound on so complex a song I needed all three guitars all the way through–and I wanted three verses so that when I listened to it I could mentally or vocally go through all the lyrics.  It is thus over two minutes long.

Sometime probably in the late 70s or early 80s my wife and I had a pair of recorders, so I did an arrangement of Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken for us to play together.  That is preserved in the first verse, and in those lines throughout.  Humorously, we played it for our gamer friend Bob Schretzman, who was flattered that we’d learned to play Deutschland Uber Alles for him.  Still, I took the original arrangement, added a tenor recorder to the second verse and a bass recorder to the third, and got a decent arrangement running about two minutes.

I had taught myself to play the guitar part that covers the melody, including the two-part chorus, of Angels We Have Heard On High, so I coded it into the midi program, and then worked on adding a second guitar and a bass guitar.  I was rather pleased with it; it runs just over two minutes.

I was sort of running out of ideas for Christmas songs I could arrange quickly, and I realized that I really liked the opening song but the three parts tended to blend into each other.  So I decided to do a second version of the song, using two guitars and a bass, each in its own octave, and so we have Around a Manger, reprised in a guitar version to close the set.

I offer no lyrics for this set; the songs are all out there somewhere, and the length of the lyrics for nine songs would be daunting.  I hope you know enough of them to enjoy the collection.  Perhaps these will give some of you ideas for your own arrangements.  Or you can burn these to a CD or save them on a thumb drive and play them for pre-service music at an upcoming nativity celebration.

*****

Previous web log song posts:

#301:  The Song “Holocaust” | #307:  The Song “Time Bomb” | #311:  The Song “Passing Through the Portal” | #314:  The Song “Walkin’ In the Woods” | #317:  The Song “That’s When I’ll Believe” | #320:  The Song “Free” | #322:  The Song “Voices” | #326:  The Song “Mountain, Mountain” | #328:  The Song “Still Small Voice” | #334:  The Song “Convinced” | #337:  The Song “Selfish Love” | #340:  The Song “A Man Like Paul” | #341:  The Song “Joined Together” | #346:  The Song “If We Don’t Tell Them” | #349: The Song “I Can’t Resist You’re Love” | #353:  The Song “I Use to Think” | #356:  The Song “God Said It Is Good” | #362:  The Song “My Life to You” | #366:  The Song “Sometimes” | #372:  The Song “Heavenly Kingdom” | #378:  The Song “A Song of Joy” | #382:  The Song “Not Going to Notice” | #387:  The Song “Our God Is Good” | #393:  The Song “Why” | #399:  The Song “Look Around You” | #404:  The Song “Love’s the Only Command” | #408:  The Song “Given You My Name” | #412:  The Song “When I Think” | #414:  The Song “You Should Have Thanked Me” | #428:  The Song “To the Victor” | #433:  The Song “From Job” | #436:  The Song “Trust Him Again” | #438:  The Song “Even You” | #441:  The Song “Fork in the Road” | #442:  The Song “Call to Worship” | #445:  The Song “How Many Times” | #447:  The Song “When I Was Lonely” | #450:  The Song “Rainy Days” | #453:  The Song “Never Alone” | #455:  The Song “King of Glory” | #457:  The Song “Greater Love” | #458:  The Song “All I Need” | #462:  The Song “John Three” | #464:  The Song “The Secret” | #466:  The Song “In a Mirror Dimly” | #468:  The Song “Present Your Bodies” | #471:  The Song “Walkin'” | #473:  The Song “In the Light of His Love” | #477:  The Song “Step by Step” | #479:  The Song “They That Trust” | #481:  The Song “To the Philadelphians” | #483:  The Song “Give Me a Vision” | #485:  The Song “Where Did I Go Wrong?”

481: The Song “To the Philadelphians”

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #481, on the subject of The Song “To the Philadelphians”.

One of the challenges I faced when I was recording songs using the software program was remembering them all, and this is one I did not remember.  However, it is connected to memories.

I was at Gordon College, and I was attending services at The Pigeon Cove Chapel in Rockport, Massachusetts.  That meant I must have had a car, and must have been living in Rockport with my wife, which puts it sometime after November 1976 but before May 1978.  The pastor there, whose name I don’t recall five decades later, began a sermon series on the letters to the churches in Revelation.  I went home and read them all, and was inspired by the third, the one written to the church in Philadelphia (which is of course in modern-day Turkey, not in Pennsylvania).  I made a few changes to the words and then caught up with him to sing it for him.  He did not see the word changes as significant, and I believe I must have sung it for the congregation the week he got to that letter–although oddly I remember singing it for him, and his enthusiastic response, but not for anyone else.

I rarely sang it, partly because it was around this time that I noticed my propensity to write songs in C when I was working on a piano and partly because I tended thereafter to perform with an acoustic guitar so I didn’t do many of the piano songs.  However, I made this live recording a few years ago at the Silverlake church.  It is difficult to hear the lyrics over the piano, but the performance worked and it’s the only recording of this song I’m aware of having.

To the Philadelphians.

So here are the lyrics.

He Who is holy and He Who is true,
Who has the key of David,
He Who opens what no man can close
And shuts what no one opens did say this.

I know your deeds; behold, I set before you
An open door which no man shall ever close,
Because you’re weak, but you try to keep my message,
And when you speak, you have not denied my name.

Behold, I’ll cause the people of Satan,
Who say they are of Me, but they lie,
I’ll cause them all to bow down before you,
And know that I have loved you.

Because you keep the word of my endurance
I’ll keep you from the hour of testing.
The hour which is coming to the earth.

I’m coming soon–don’t you know I’m coming quickly
To take you home, so hold fast to what you have.
You have a place in the temple of My Father,
So don’t let anybody rob you of your crown.

*****

Previous web log song posts:

#301:  The Song “Holocaust” | #307:  The Song “Time Bomb” | #311:  The Song “Passing Through the Portal” | #314:  The Song “Walkin’ In the Woods” | #317:  The Song “That’s When I’ll Believe” | #320:  The Song “Free” | #322:  The Song “Voices” | #326:  The Song “Mountain, Mountain” | #328:  The Song “Still Small Voice” | #334:  The Song “Convinced” | #337:  The Song “Selfish Love” | #340:  The Song “A Man Like Paul” | #341:  The Song “Joined Together” | #346:  The Song “If We Don’t Tell Them” | #349: The Song “I Can’t Resist You’re Love” | #353:  The Song “I Use to Think” | #356:  The Song “God Said It Is Good” | #362:  The Song “My Life to You” | #366:  The Song “Sometimes” | #372:  The Song “Heavenly Kingdom” | #378:  The Song “A Song of Joy” | #382:  The Song “Not Going to Notice” | #387:  The Song “Our God Is Good” | #393:  The Song “Why” | #399:  The Song “Look Around You” | #404:  The Song “Love’s the Only Command” | #408:  The Song “Given You My Name” | #412:  The Song “When I Think” | #414:  The Song “You Should Have Thanked Me” | #428:  The Song “To the Victor” | #433:  The Song “From Job” | #436:  The Song “Trust Him Again” | #438:  The Song “Even You” | #441:  The Song “Fork in the Road” | #442:  The Song “Call to Worship” | #445:  The Song “How Many Times” | #447:  The Song “When I Was Lonely” | #450:  The Song “Rainy Days” | #453:  The Song “Never Alone” | #455:  The Song “King of Glory” | #457:  The Song “Greater Love” | #458:  The Song “All I Need” | #462:  The Song “John Three” | #464:  The Song “The Secret” | #466:  The Song “In a Mirror Dimly” | #468:  The Song “Present Your Bodies” | #471:  The Song “Walkin'” | #473:  The Song “In the Light of His Love” | #477:  The Song “Step by Step” | #479:  The Song “They That Trust”

Next Song: Give Me a Vision

478: Character Conflicts

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #478, on the subject of Character Conflicts.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first nine Multiverser novels,

  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
  2. Old Verses New,
  3. For Better or Verse,
  4. Spy Verses,
  5. Garden of Versers,
  6. Versers Versus Versers,
  7. Re Verse All,
  8. In Verse Proportion, and
  9. Con Verse Lea,

in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book).  Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages.  Now as I am posting the tenth, In Version,  written in collaboration with Eric R. Ashley, I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights.  This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed.  You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them.  Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.

This is the second post for this novel, covering chapters 13 through 24.  The first post, #476:  Versers Deduce, covered chapters 1 through 12.  There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books.

These were originally written entirely third-person, that is, both Eric and I were “he”.  Since the viewpoint characters were also always “he” in this book, that became very confusing, so I attempted to shift it back to “I/me/mine” for my contributions and “he/him/his” for Eric’s.  This was a rather late decision in the process, and hopefully I got them all.

History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.

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Quick links to discussions in this page:
Chapter 13, Kondor 225
Chapter 14, Beam 163
Chapter 15, Brown 248
Chapter 16, Slade 217
Chapter 17, Beam 164
Chapter 18, Brown 249
Chapter 19, Slade 218
Chapter 20, Kondor 226
Chapter 21, Beam 165
Chapter 22, Slade 219
Chapter 23, Brown 250
Chapter 24, Beam 166

Chapter 13, K225

At this point I converted the novel file itself and this supplement to *.docx format and uploaded the revised copies to Google Drive.  These words were a test to see whether I was able to work with the documents in Google Docs, before sharing them with Eric.  It appears that the answer is yes.

I had been contemplating what I could do with this, and it struck me that it was possible that the aliens weren’t interested in either contact or conquest, but were simply xenobiologists or the equivalent of anthropologists studying alien civilizations.  That gave somewhere to go here, and the rest I came up with while trying to get there.

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Chapter 14, Beam 163

Eric joined in a bit here.  I wanted some more flavor to the zombie world so Eric came up with a foodie-obsessed culture with some advanced bioengineering skills–at least enough to make crude chimera.  He’s trying to fit in with my style, to a large degree, but bring his own as well, which is a good exercise as a writer.

We had a bit of a dead end, as Eric created a very dramatic scene in which Turbirb’durpa ate one of the parasites and became infected and attacked Bron.  We agreed that that was a bad direction, and deleted it.

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Chapter 15, Brown 248

Eric wrote the first draft of this chapter, and the Slade chapter which followed.  It took the book in a direction I had not anticipated, and there was a lot of discussion on it.

When I was going over it to edit it, I felt strongly that there should be a chapter break when Derek leaves the house to go to the hangar; originally the next part was a continuation of the same chapter.  That created the problem that in the next chapter Slade reacts to events that were being moved–but this was resolved by also splitting that into two chapters, and placing a Beam chapter between the end of it and the return of Derek.

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Chapter 16, Slade 217

Comments on the decision to split what Eric originally drafted into two chapters were just made in connection with Brown 248.

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Chapter 17, Beam 164

One of the issues in the Beam story was how he was going to juggle his two jealous wives.  Thus the sleeping arrangements were a significant problem, and I thought about them for quite a while.  I also thought Beam was sharp enough to placate Sophia before dallying with Ashleigh.

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Chapter 18, Brown 249

Again, this was the second half of what was originally drafted as Brown 248, split off to create better story flow.  The combat is all Eric’s work.

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Chapter 19, Slade 218

This was the second half of what was Slade 217, written by Eric.  I changed one of the prayers.

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Chapter 20, Kondor 226

At this point I proposed the subjects of this plus two more chapters, to go from Joe taking care of Derek (who, it occurred to me, was currently Morach) to something happening with Beam, possibly the appearance of a herd of cattle, to Slade’s confrontation with the “Big Guy”.

I made more of bringing them together than I had expected, so cut it short and decided to pick up the next chapter, maybe Kondor or maybe Brown, with treatment of the wound.

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Chapter 21, Beam 165

I wrote the opening of this chapter, but left it hanging without resolving what Beam would cook; Eric took over and added the descent into the basement.  However, he had Beam take only Ashleigh, and I could not imagine Beam not taking his sorceress with the light spell.  I personally don’t like candlelight–I feel like I can’t see beyond the candle, and it does more to make me visible than to illuminate anything–so I nixed that.

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Chapter 22, Slade 219

Eric specifically suggested I write this fight scene, but it had a few complications.  There was no reason to imagine that the “Big Guy” had a sword, so Eric suggested a gunfight; but the only gun Slade carries is his kinetic blaster, damaging +2DC makes it lethal, one hit could kill most ordinary people.  It doesn’t have a recorded repeat factor, but it fires twenty shots fully charged.  That made it challenging.

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Chapter 23, Brown 250

I wanted the medical treatment to be realistic despite the use of the futuristic medical kit.  I almost forgot the leg, which is why it’s last, but to excuse it once he turned into Morach he didn’t use it all that much.

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Chapter 24, Beam 166

I wrote the opening paragraphs trying to capture Beam’s thoughts and feelings, but then passed it to Eric to continue from his door-opening cliffhanger.

This was Eric’s story, but it was largely his second story, as I had a lot of trouble with the first one.  Both of us edited it several times before we were really satisfied, and we left it as an open problem for a future chapter.

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This has been the second behind-the-writings look at In Version.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.

471: The Song “Walkin'”

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #471, on the subject of The Song “Walkin'”.

Last month I mentioned that that song, Present Your Bodies (linked below), was structurally modeled on this one, specifically mentioning the repetition of the bridge and the way it changes the feel of the music.  I suppose the similarities end there–key, tempo, mood, even the nature of the lyrics are all different.  Yet because of those structural similarities the two songs are connected in my own mind.

As I mentioned then, The Last Psalm had just played its final concert.  I am not at all certain what inspired this song, but I liked it immediately.  Then Jeffrey Robert Zurheide called and invited me to play bass in a band that he was forming mostly to be backup for a Luther alumni classmate named Bruce Henne, and I immediately thought we should include this song.

Jeff and I had met at summer camp, a one-week “sleep-away” music camp sponsored by the United Presbyterian Church and at that time held on the Camp Lebanon campground belonging to the American Baptist Convention, in Lebanon, New Jersey.  Late in 1972 he was driving, and joined my band BLT Down as our lead guitarist and vocalist.  He stayed with the band in 1973 when it transitioned to being The Last Psalm, and for the next eighteen months his “velvet voice” was one of the band’s main attractions.  However, he did not particularly like the spotlight, and in the summer of 1974 he left the band.  Our drummer, John Mastick, persuaded him to play with us at our final reunion concert at Maranatha Church of the Nazarene in New Milford, New Jersey, at the beginning of summer 1975.

Our relationship had a strange quality.  I considered him my best friend, and he was best man at my wedding late in 1976.  On the other hand, as early as February, 1974, he had decided that my musical ambitions had to be reined in, that I shouldn’t sing as much as I did and shouldn’t be seeming to be in the spotlight.  There were several moments after that where Jeff took actions which seemed to be about stifling those ambitions, and in retrospect I often wondered whether this was one of them.  He was seeking someone to play bass guitar and help with the backup vocals in the new band, Jacob’s Well.  I played this song for him, and he immediately said no, he did not want the band to do this one, choosing instead one song from my repertory, When I Think (also linked below, web log post #412).  As I mentioned in discussing that song, I was never enthused about it, and it was all wrong for that band–the piano part was not easily reproduced on a guitar, and it wanted a soaring soprano that was not going to be found in an all-male band.  However, that was the one song from my repertoire that the band included.  This song was shelved.

I have vague recollections of a time a few years later when I met with a few musicians in Delaware through a friend (known as Big Brother Archie Bradley) who were exploring the possibility of including me in their band.  I played this song for them; I don’t remember what others I might have played.  Nothing came of that.

I’ve shied away from performing it solo, because in my mind the vocals are integral to the music–it was written for three vocalists.  However, when I was recording those vocals-over-midi-instruments recordings I included it because I still thought it was well written.  On the other hand, I did not include it on the list of songs to be considered for the Extreme Tour submission.

The piano in this recording is probably irreproducible.  When I was recording it, I felt the background was a bit hollow, but thought that another guitar wouldn’t solve the problem, so I began sketching a racing piano part.  I was working with a software interface that let me in essence put the part on paper and have the computer play it back to me, so I was making it up as I went along.  I’ve never even attempted to play it.  I think I have performed the piece live once or twice, because I like it, but feel like it needs a band.

Walkin’.

So here are the lyrics.

Walkin’ through this world of ours I see so much is wrong.
We’ve got to find a better way, ’cause this just can’t go on!
Brother hates his brother–there must be something else.
The world must surely grieve the Lord, but I’m no good myself.

Some will never understand the things I’m tryin’ to say;
They think that Christ was just a man who lived a special way.
They will never realize ’til the coming of the judgment day,
‘Cause the devil’s had them close their eyes, and they’ve turned their heads away.

We can’t seem to make it–something seems to hold us back.
In trying to be perfect, there is something that we lack.
God has got the answer–He knows that we can’t win:
The blood of Christ poured out for us forgives us for our sin.

Some will never understand the things I’m tryin’ to say;
They think that Christ was just a man who lived a special way.
They will never realize ’til the coming of the judgment day,
‘Cause the devil’s had them close their eyes, and they’ve turned their heads away.

Now I live for Jesus–Jesus lives in me,
And I’m here to heal the eyes of those who cannot see.
Jesus died to save you; He died to save all men,
And although they buried Him, God raised Him up,
God raised Him up again.

Some will never understand the things I’m tryin’ to say;
They think that Christ was just a man who lived a special way.
They will never realize ’til the coming of the judgment day,
‘Cause the devil’s had them close their eyes, and they’ve turned their heads away.

When we choose to follow Him, He leads us day by day.
Because He has forgiven us He hears us when we pray.
Christ was raised to victory when He was crucified.
The key to life abundant is that we have also died.

Now I live for Jesus–Jesus lives in me,
And I’m here to heal the eyes of those who cannot see.
Jesus died to save you; He died to save all men,
And although they buried Him, God raised Him up,
God raised Him up–

Some will never understand the things I’m tryin’ to say;
They think that Christ was just another man, though He lived a special way.
They will never realize ’til the coming of the judgment day,
‘Cause the devil’s had them close their eyes, and they’ve turned their heads away.

Now I live for Jesus–Jesus lives in me,
And I’m here to heal the eyes of those who cannot see.
Jesus died to save you; He died to save all men,
And although they buried Him, God raised Him up,
God raised Him up, God raised Him up again!

*****

Previous web log song posts:

#301:  The Song “Holocaust” | #307:  The Song “Time Bomb” | #311:  The Song “Passing Through the Portal” | #314:  The Song “Walkin’ In the Woods” | #317:  The Song “That’s When I’ll Believe” | #320:  The Song “Free” | #322:  The Song “Voices” | #326:  The Song “Mountain, Mountain” | #328:  The Song “Still Small Voice” | #334:  The Song “Convinced” | #337:  The Song “Selfish Love” | #340:  The Song “A Man Like Paul” | #341:  The Song “Joined Together” | #346:  The Song “If We Don’t Tell Them” | #349: The Song “I Can’t Resist You’re Love” | #353:  The Song “I Use to Think” | #356:  The Song “God Said It Is Good” | #362:  The Song “My Life to You” | #366:  The Song “Sometimes” | #372:  The Song “Heavenly Kingdom” | #378:  The Song “A Song of Joy” | #382:  The Song “Not Going to Notice” | #387:  The Song “Our God Is Good” | #393:  The Song “Why” | #399:  The Song “Look Around You” | #404:  The Song “Love’s the Only Command” | #408:  The Song “Given You My Name” | #412:  The Song “When I Think” | #414:  The Song “You Should Have Thanked Me” | #428:  The Song “To the Victor” | #433:  The Song “From Job” | #436:  The Song “Trust Him Again” | #438:  The Song “Even You” | #441:  The Song “Fork in the Road” | #442:  The Song “Call to Worship” | #445:  The Song “How Many Times” | #447:  The Song “When I Was Lonely” | #450:  The Song “Rainy Days” | #453:  The Song “Never Alone” | #455:  The Song “King of Glory” | #457:  The Song “Greater Love” | #458:  The Song “All I Need” | #462:  The Song “John Three” | #464:  The Song “The Secret” | #466:  The Song “In a Mirror Dimly” | #468:  The Song “Present Your Bodies”

Next Song: In the Light of His Love

468: The Song “Present Your Bodies”

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #468, on the subject of The Song “Present Your Bodies”.

Identifying when I wrote this song is a bit tricky, but I have a few clues.

In May or June of 1975, shortly after The Last Psalm played its last concert and just before I was invited to join Jacob’s Well, I wrote a song called Walkin’; that song is slated for next month, simply by a sort of random roll, but it is relevant here, because this song is like that one in structural ways of which I was always aware–indeed, I think they were intentional–but which might not be obvious to the casual listener.  Unfortunately, you won’t be able to hear the other song until next month, unless of course you’ve arrived late, in which case the link to it should be at the bottom of this page.

The similarities are related to the fact that the “bridge” is marked by a significant key change which changes the feel of the music, and it is repeated such that it launches out of both the chorus and the verse.  Both songs have three verses, multiple repetitions of a chorus, and as mentioned a repeated bridge.  It was a formula that worked perhaps better for the other song than it did for this one, and I rarely sang it for that reason; it was lengthy and repetitious, and I was never certain it held the attention of the audience.  I rarely sang the other, either, but that was for different reasons to be addressed next month.

I suppose the similarities end there.  This song is considerably slower and more somber than the other, and its power comes from a slow drive and potent words.  The lyrics are entirely quoted or paraphrased from scripture in this song, while that one is more a narration of a poetic salvation message.

My other major clue is that in the summer of 1977 I was using a small studio at Gordon College to record a few songs (those tapes, alas, long lost), and this was one of them.  That gives me a window during which this was created.

This is another vocals-over-midi-instruments recording.  Again its simplicity helps support a decent recording, although there is a technical hiccough in the midi at one point.

Present Your Bodies.

So here are the lyrics.

Brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God,
Present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Set aside the sin that oh, so easily besets you.
Forget the past, and press on toward the prize.

Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord
With all humility, with gentleness,
With patience.
Always be diligent in striving to preseve your unity
In peace.

Brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God,
Present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Set aside the sin that oh, so easily besets you.
Forget the past, and press on toward the prize.

Count it joy when you suffer for the Lord,
And thank Him that He finds you worthy
To serve Him.
He will reward those who continue praising through their suffering
For Him.

When He comes back again
He will repay
Each one according to his deeds.
When you are serving Him
Day after day,
He will provide for all your needs.

Brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God,
Present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Set aside the sin that oh, so easily besets you.
Forget the past, and press on toward the prize.

Place your whole life solely in His hands.
He’s working all things for His glory
And our good.
He’ll finish ev’ryone in whom He has begun salvation.
Amen.

Brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God,
Present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Set aside the sin that oh, so easily besets you.
Forget the past, and press on toward the prize.

When He comes back again
He will repay
Each one according to his deeds.
When you are serving Him
Day after day,
He will provide for all your needs.

He’ll finish ev’ryone in whom He has begun salvation.
Amen.

*****

Previous web log song posts:

#301:  The Song “Holocaust” | #307:  The Song “Time Bomb” | #311:  The Song “Passing Through the Portal” | #314:  The Song “Walkin’ In the Woods” | #317:  The Song “That’s When I’ll Believe” | #320:  The Song “Free” | #322:  The Song “Voices” | #326:  The Song “Mountain, Mountain” | #328:  The Song “Still Small Voice” | #334:  The Song “Convinced” | #337:  The Song “Selfish Love” | #340:  The Song “A Man Like Paul” | #341:  The Song “Joined Together” | #346:  The Song “If We Don’t Tell Them” | #349: The Song “I Can’t Resist You’re Love” | #353:  The Song “I Use to Think” | #356:  The Song “God Said It Is Good” | #362:  The Song “My Life to You” | #366:  The Song “Sometimes” | #372:  The Song “Heavenly Kingdom” | #378:  The Song “A Song of Joy” | #382:  The Song “Not Going to Notice” | #387:  The Song “Our God Is Good” | #393:  The Song “Why” | #399:  The Song “Look Around You” | #404:  The Song “Love’s the Only Command” | #408:  The Song “Given You My Name” | #412:  The Song “When I Think” | #414:  The Song “You Should Have Thanked Me” | #428:  The Song “To the Victor” | #433:  The Song “From Job” | #436:  The Song “Trust Him Again” | #438:  The Song “Even You” | #441:  The Song “Fork in the Road” | #442:  The Song “Call to Worship” | #445:  The Song “How Many Times” | #447:  The Song “When I Was Lonely” | #450:  The Song “Rainy Days” | #453:  The Song “Never Alone” | #455:  The Song “King of Glory” | #457:  The Song “Greater Love” | #458:  The Song “All I Need” | #462:  The Song “John Three” | #464:  The Song “The Secret” | #466:  The Song “In a Mirror Dimly”

Next song: Walkin’

465: Characters Wander

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #465, on the subject of Characters Wander.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first eight Multiverser novels,

  1. Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel,
  2. Old Verses New,
  3. For Better or Verse,
  4. Spy Verses,
  5. Garden of Versers,
  6. Versers Versus Versers,
  7. Re Verse All, and
  8. In Verse Proportion,

in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book).  Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages.  Now as I am posting the ninth, Con Verse Lea,  I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights.  This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed.  You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them.  Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.

This is the third post for this novel, covering chapters 35 through 51.  The first, covering chapters 1 through 17, appeared as web log post #460:  Versers Reorganize, and the second, covering chapters 18 through 34, #463:  Characters Unsettled.

There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books.

History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.

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Quick links to discussions in this page:
Chapter 35, Takano 68
Chapter 36, Beam 135
Chapter 37, Hastings 242
Chapter 38, Takano 69
Chapter 39, Beam 136
Chapter 40, Hastings 243
Chapter 41, Beam 137
Chapter 42, Takano 70
Chapter 43, Beam 138
Chapter 44, Hastings 244
Chapter 45, Beam 139
Chapter 46, Takano 71
Chapter 47, Beam 140
Chapter 48, Hastings 245
Chapter 49, Beam 141
Chapter 50, Takano 72
Chapter 51, Beam 142

Chapter 35, Takano 68

I needed to begin organizing the camp, and there was a lot to cover, but I didn’t want to overburden the chapter.

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Chapter 36, Beam 135

I had thought about how Beam would be able to settle into a place for a while, and so the strategy he followed developed.  Again I am uncertain what to do with him, but I have to connect him back to the outlaws, I think.

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Chapter 37, Hastings 242

I got to the middle of this and thought Lauren again needed to borrow a knife, and I knew that one of the team leaders had one, and knew which one, but couldn’t at that moment remember the names of the leaders.  But I had pressing errands, so I dropped the effort and saved everything.  It was over a week before I managed to return, during which time I wrote or prepped quite a few other projects but did not resolve all my issues here.  After I had written it, I realized that Lauren had a knife–it just wasn’t listed as such on her character sheet, instead being one of her “cooking utensils”, so I went back and changed the text to reflect that.

I knew that I would be bringing in the lake and the bathrooms, but wasn’t sure quite how, so this was that.

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Chapter 38, Takano 69

I originally marked this as a Beam chapter, but wasn’t sure where he was going next.  Meanwhile, I had a lot to cover for Lauren and Tommy, so although I had to this point avoided two in a row in the same world, I decided this was a good place for that.

The bathrooms were loosely modelled on those at Camp Lebanon, but that I removed the showers and didn’t give them hot water.  The shower is very like one I saw at Philmont Scout Ranch, although I didn’t actually use it so I’m working mostly from descriptions.

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Chapter 39, Beam 136

The rifles were a late decision, but I decided Beam would think it wise to use weapons for which he could replace the ammo.

The realization that Beam’s revolvers were .45 caliber came as I was writing.  I realized that it was possible that the .45 caliber bullets used in that world might be too long for his gun, but since they were used by the outlaw semiautomatic pistols, I concluded they would be short enough.

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Chapter 40, Hastings 243

The lake was always in view here, and was in fact the first thing I had decided she would find.  She had lived by a lake when she learned all her camping abilities, and she was applying them in the new world.

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Chapter 41, Beam 137

I had labeled this chapter for Tommy, but then in the time between writing chapters I had been considering what I was going to do next with Beam, and so this changed to cover him.

I had to have Beam pick up some equipment here, but it seemed reasonable for it to be here and for him to recognize the needs.

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Chapter 42, Takano 70

I pondered the problem of what Tommy should paint on the bathroom and shower entrances to mark them, thinking of several of the ideas I include in the text, and then asked Kyler.  He suggested the Mars and Venus emblems, which of course would be completely unfamiliar to the people but recognizably different and something they could learn.

The question about the shelter was essentially filler, because I needed to extend the chapter meaningfully.

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Chapter 43, Beam 138

I debated whether Ashleigh would take a vest, but decided against it.  She’s probably unhappy with the rifle, but pleased with the bullets, which fit her pistols.

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Chapter 44, Hastings 244

I was getting bogged down in the details, and didn’t get as far as the spear fishing lesson, but I was not unhappy with it.

I realized early that the Mars and Venus symbols would have an astrological connection, and that this might be discomforting for Lauren, but not terribly particularly given that no none else would recognize it.

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Chapter 45, Beam 139

I wasn’t sure how to get Beam onto a track I wanted.  I needed to get him on a ninja mission, but he was on the move such that it would be difficult for them to connect.  For the moment, I just needed to figure out what was logical for him to do.

I had learned from a Viet Nam veteran that soldiers in the field in Southeast Asia quit smoking because the locals don’t smoke and can smell soldiers who do.  That seemed a reasonable point to include here.

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Chapter 46, Takano 71

I wasn’t sure that this wouldn’t bore my readers.  After all, Lauren was spearfishing in the beginning of Old Verses New, and I was repeating detail covered there.  But she has to teach people, and that includes Tommy.

It occurred to me when I finished that I didn’t include teaching people to clean the fish, but I figured that could come later.

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Chapter 47, Beam 140

I had come up with a reason for the outlaws to contact Beam, and a reasonably credible way for them to find him, but it required that I keep him moving for a bit to establish some time passing.

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Chapter 48, Hastings 245

It was probably not a good time for me to write–there were multiple distractions, and I was just a bit tired and unfocused–but I wanted to push forward a bit, and knew a bit of what had to be done.

The notion that six people were going to have to carry enough fish to feed a hundred had been bothering me, but I figured I didn’t have to show how they did it.

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Chapter 49, Beam 141

I had written between a third and a quarter of this chapter when the power flashed and the computer crashed.  The autosave managed to restore about half of what I’d written, and I tried to recreate it, but it was after midnight and I wasn’t really focusing well–complicated by the fact that I wanted the chapter to be longer than I had thought through, and to end with something that I was going to reach too soon.

I was concerned that I not make my setting too North American, but had no idea whether there were any large game animals in Japan.  A search for “japan game animals” gave me a lot of links to video games, but I managed to refine the search (adding “hunting”) and get a short list that included brown and black bears, several game birds, something called a shika deer, and wild boar.  This isn’t actually Japan–for one thing, the territory is too big, as the entire known civilized world is part of the empire–but I had avoided deer precisely because I needed to distinguish Lauren and Tommy’s woods from Beam’s.

I was going to end this with the ninja arriving, and have the problem open the next chapter, but I decided there weren’t a lot of ways to bring him into the picture and I needed to do more to make this chapter long enough.

This was my solution to the problem of getting Beam back into action, given that he was a bit over the top for the ninjas.

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Chapter 50, Takano 72

At this point I was trying to figure out how to cover the skills quickly without either the feeling that I was glossing over them or the sense that the story was bogging down in the details.  Thus I’m trying to cover things briefly but with enough detail to make them real.

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Chapter 51, Beam 142

As I was reaching for a name for Ashleigh’s father it struck me that making him a gunsmith would make sense.  I had to go back to Beam 125 and change a bit of text so that Ashleigh wouldn’t seem to be denying that, but decided I didn’t need to include that there because she probably didn’t need to tell the blacksmith that her father was the gunsmith, and secrecy is part of their lifestyle.

Looking for that name, the first I came upon was Warren Buffet, and I decided I needed to drop the Buffet and come up with a more appropriate surname.  Then I decided peasants did not have surnames but were identified by other details, such as parentage or trade.  I didn’t want another Smith, and didn’t see him as a blacksmith, but it occurred to me that if he were a gunsmith he would secretly make the pistols for the outlaws, and would have a high status in the group; it made sense for the outlaw leader to be a gunsmith.

I ended this chapter somewhat abruptly because I had half decided there should be some kind of impediment at the exit.  A portcullis was what came to mind, as primitive as it is, but I wasn’t certain, so I decided that would be the point of the next chapter.

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This has been the third behind-the-writings look at Con Verse Lea.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with more behind-the-writings posts and another novel.

#462: The Song “John Three”

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #462, on the subject of The Song “John Three”.

Sometime around 1969-70 I wrote a song entitled I Die At the Dawn–I wrote a lot of songs about death and dying back then.  It had rather vapid but sad lyrics and long instrumental stretches.  Then in 1973 when BLT Down morphed into The Last Psalm, I rewrote the words, created melodies over the instrumental sections, and created Saturday’s Song, about the despair the disciples must have felt between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  It was one of the rockier songs in the repertoire, and a crowd pleaser.

This is not that song.

However, that song was the impetus for something.  My lead guitarist Jeffrey Robert Zurheide subsequently wrote a duet, a conversation in which a soldier orders a cross from a carpenter, and we were off and running on a rock opera about Passion Week, every song told with Jesus off stage by people who had been there.  We eventually had about a dozen songs in the series, and this was one of them.

I have not recorded many of these, partly because there are several on which I would not be able to sing the soprano part, partly because I never finished writing the massive finale.  There will be another that I recorded mostly because when I wrote it I had no one to perform it and wanted to preserve the intricate music.  This one I wrote because it was co-written with David D. Oldham (and his friend Stephen Fredette), who insisted I make these recordings, so I included it on the first disk I made for him.

It follows the crucifixion, and sees Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus sitting outside the tomb in which they have just sealed the body of Jesus, talking about their own despair and lack of direction.  The “three angry men” section is a musical variant of the original theme from Saturday’s Song (it’s in 3/4 in the original, developing into a fugue, while here it is in a syncopated 4 with harmony).  The two characters sing it as a duet, and we performed it with The Last Psalm, another of the rockier songs in the repertoire.  The vocals-over-midi-instruments recording of it is one of the better ones.

John Three.

So here are the lyrics.

Oh, Nicodemus, I’m asking you,
Where do we go from here?  What do we do?
Joseph, I’m horrified–my hopes are crucified.
He died on a cross for three angry men,
None of whom will be blamed.
He died all alone, the cross was His throne–
The world must have gone insane.
Where do we go when we know that our hopes have been crucified?

Now that we’ve buried Him, where do we go?
I’d like to tell you, but I just don’t know.
If He had made it clear,
Then we would not be here.
He died on a cross for three angry men,
None of whom will be blamed.
He died like a man, with nails in his hand.
How could he stand the pain?
Where do we go when we know that our hopes have been crucified?

Oh, how could one day, so brief and grim,
Bring such distress to us, and death to Him?
So now we stand for Him against our fears,
But since we rose too late, we’re standing here.

We’ve gone too far my friend to turn back now.
We should go on ahead, but don’t know how.
We can’t forget Him friend.
Have we been born again?
He died on a cross for three angry men,
He died on a cross for three angry men,
He died on a cross for three angry men–
Where do we go when we know that our hopes have been crucified?

*****

Previous web log song posts:

#301:  The Song “Holocaust” | #307:  The Song “Time Bomb” | #311:  The Song “Passing Through the Portal” | #314:  The Song “Walkin’ In the Woods” | #317:  The Song “That’s When I’ll Believe” | #320:  The Song “Free” | #322:  The Song “Voices” | #326:  The Song “Mountain, Mountain” | #328:  The Song “Still Small Voice” | #334:  The Song “Convinced” | #337:  The Song “Selfish Love” | #340:  The Song “A Man Like Paul” | #341:  The Song “Joined Together” | #346:  The Song “If We Don’t Tell Them” | #349: The Song “I Can’t Resist You’re Love” | #353:  The Song “I Use to Think” | #356:  The Song “God Said It Is Good” | #362:  The Song “My Life to You” | #366:  The Song “Sometimes” | #372:  The Song “Heavenly Kingdom” | #378:  The Song “A Song of Joy” | #382:  The Song “Not Going to Notice” | #387:  The Song “Our God Is Good” | #393:  The Song “Why” | #399:  The Song “Look Around You” | #404:  The Song “Love’s the Only Command” | #408:  The Song “Given You My Name” | #412:  The Song “When I Think” | #414:  The Song “You Should Have Thanked Me” | #428:  The Song “To the Victor” | #433:  The Song “From Job” | #436:  The Song “Trust Him Again” | #438:  The Song “Even You” | #441:  The Song “Fork in the Road” | #442:  The Song “Call to Worship” | #445:  The Song “How Many Times” | #447:  The Song “When I Was Lonely” | #450:  The Song “Rainy Days” | #453:  The Song “Never Alone” | #455:  The Song “King of Glory” | #457:  The Song “Greater Love” | #458:  The Song “All I Need”

Next song: The Secret

#457: The Song “Greater Love”

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #457, on the subject of The Song “Greater Love”.

I included this in the nostalgic collection of Last Psalm songs recorded for Jes Oldham, although I’m not certain it was ever performed at a Last Psalm concert.  It was, however, written during that period.

In the summer of 1974, after my first year at Luther College, I landed a job working security at nearby Fairleigh Dickenson University (Teaneck/Hackensack Campus).  I was on the evening shift, and often given an area on the less congested Hackensack side of the river where there were, as I recall, five buildings, the College of Dentistry as one assignment and four others as the other, including what I think was called Barrington College.  One guard watched the Dentistry college and the other toured the other four buildings–at least two of which had pianos in them and no people after suppertime, so since my obligations were essentially to tour the four buildings once an hour I often practiced, if you can use that word for my tinkering, at one of the pianos.  I kept the job well into my sophomore year, and one night pulled these words from I Peter and used them to launch a song by including some thoughts from John as well.  I think I might have written a few songs in that setting, but this is the only one I can place there that I recorded.

It’s another vocals-over-midi-instruments recording, and I’m not sure why I wrote the vocals quite that low, but I managed it.

Greater Love.

So here are the lyrics.

If you address as Father the one impartial judge,
Conduct yourself in fear,
For He redeemed your life with his holy precious blood,
So live a life of love while you are here.

Love is more than friendly smiles.
Love always walks an extra mile.
Love isn’t feeling giddy inside:
Greater love hath no man than he who died.

If you address as Father the one impartial judge,
Conduct yourself in fear,
For He redeemed your life with his holy precious blood,
So live a life of love while you are here.

And if we call on Jesus’ name,
He doesn’t listen if we’re playing games.

Love will want to spread the word,
Tell ev’ryone who hasn’t heard.
Don’t keep the joy of God inside:
Greater love hath no man than He who died
Greater love hath no man than He who died

*****

Previous web log song posts:

#301:  The Song “Holocaust” | #307:  The Song “Time Bomb” | #311:  The Song “Passing Through the Portal” | #314:  The Song “Walkin’ In the Woods” | #317:  The Song “That’s When I’ll Believe” | #320:  The Song “Free” | #322:  The Song “Voices” | #326:  The Song “Mountain, Mountain” | #328:  The Song “Still Small Voice” | #334:  The Song “Convinced” | #337:  The Song “Selfish Love” | #340:  The Song “A Man Like Paul” | #341:  The Song “Joined Together” | #346:  The Song “If We Don’t Tell Them” | #349: The Song “I Can’t Resist You’re Love” | #353:  The Song “I Use to Think” | #356:  The Song “God Said It Is Good” | #362:  The Song “My Life to You” | #366:  The Song “Sometimes” | #372:  The Song “Heavenly Kingdom” | #378:  The Song “A Song of Joy” | #382:  The Song “Not Going to Notice” | #387:  The Song “Our God Is Good” | #393:  The Song “Why” | #399:  The Song “Look Around You” | #404:  The Song “Love’s the Only Command” | #408:  The Song “Given You My Name” | #412:  The Song “When I Think” | #414:  The Song “You Should Have Thanked Me” | #428:  The Song “To the Victor” | #433:  The Song “From Job” | #436:  The Song “Trust Him Again” | #438:  The Song “Even You” | #441:  The Song “Fork in the Road” | #442:  The Song “Call to Worship” | #445:  The Song “How Many Times” | #447:  The Song “When I Was Lonely” | #450:  The Song “Rainy Days” | #453:  The Song “Never Alone” | #455:  The Song “King of Glory”

Next song:  All I Need.

#453: The Song “Never Alone”

This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #453, on the subject of The Song “Never Alone”.

My recollection is that I wrote this while touring Romania in the early summer of 1972 with a select group from the Ramsey (New Jersey) High School chorus.  I believe I played the first verse for Geoffrey Haberer, and he didn’t like it.  That didn’t stop me from making it a staple of the repertoire of The Last Psalm early in 1973, until we lost enough people that we couldn’t do the vocals.

I had had some encouragement.  After returning home from Romania that summer I had served as a counselor for a junior-high music camp, and another staff member sang this with me as a duet.  He was a black pastor, and immediately saw what I never had said I intended, that having him sing the verse about the guy leaving Kentucky would give another dimension to the song.

This vocals-over-midi-instruments recording was part of the nostalgic collection of Last Psalm songs recorded for Jes Oldham.  It was one of the songs that utilized all five voices, as I sang the first verse, Peggy (Lisbona) the second, Jeff (Zurheide) the third, Ann (Hughes) the fourth, and Ruthann (Mekita) the last, with four voices on the choruses and five on the final bridge.  Not having a black member of the band until John Miller joined us when we no longer had enough vocalists to include this song, I gave the Kentucky verse to one of the girls for a similar reason.  I’m afraid that Ruth’s vocal range is daunting, and I had to adjust her parts here on the bridge and particularly on the last verse to be able to do something that approximated them, because she went considerably higher than I could manage at the time of this recording.  I had written the song with the one guitar “lead” introducing each verse, and then when the band did it added the second lead above and worked out the bass part below.

The song has five verses, and each verse has a couplet that tags to its chorus.  When in the early aughts I went to record it, I had a lot of trouble trying to recall all five tags–I remembered mine, and I remembered Jeffrey’s, but the others were all eluding me.  I asked Jes, who had briefly sung as our alto before she left and Ann replaced her, if she remembered hers, but she did not.  I am ninety-five percent certain that these are the original couplets, but only about eighty-five percent certain that I have them on the correct verses.  It is a country song, and although it isn’t exactly funny it is light-hearted overall despite its core message.

Never Alone.

So here are the lyrics.

To the girl who left Virginia when I said that I was on my way,
I just can’t even begin t’ tell you what it’s like to live my life this way,
People always runnin’ out on you just when you need them most;
Praise the Lord, I held together through the power of the Holy Ghost

Praise Him, people, the Lord knows what to do.
Praise Him, people, He’ll show you that it’s true.
If your picture’s in the paper, or you’ve lost your only friend,
Just rely upon the Spirit, and you’ll be on top again.

To the guy who left Kentucky when he heard that I was movin’ in,
I suppose that I was lucky that I didn’t have to live with him,
For they say if I lived next to him, he’d drown me with his gripes,
But you know I’ll always love him with the love that comes from Jesus Christ.

Praise Him, people, the Lord knows what to do.
Praise Him, people, He’ll show you that it’s true.
If you’ve got a million dollars, or your belt is up for hoc,
You just cling right on to Jesus, He’s the only solid rock.

To the guy up in Chicago who once hit me in a hit and run,
Well, I just want to tell you about God’s only Son
Who died upon a wooden cross, and rose to be a king,
And if you don’t know my Jesus, then you don’t know anything.

Praise Him, people, the Lord knows what to do.
Praise Him, people, He’ll show you that it’s true.
Don’t play poker with the devil, ’cause you know he always cheats,
And if you don’t know my Jesus, then I hope you soon will meet.

Because you’ll never be alone when you’ve got Jesus.
He will always be beside your side.
He will never leave us or forsake us,
He said so and you know He never lied.

To the men in San Francisco I just simply want to say
That I know that Jesus loves you all out by your little bay.
‘Though I’ve never even seen you, I believe that you are real.
I’ve got proof in my Lord Jesus, and I know the way I feel.

Praise Him, people, the Lord knows what to do.
Praise Him, people, He’ll show you that it’s true.
If this world makes you feel beautiful or miserably down,
You just praise the Lord and thank Him, ’cause you know that He’s around.

To the people in New Jersey I just simply want to sing,
‘Cause I know that Jesus loves me and will give me anything.
But it’s still a two-way bargain, there is something back from me:
I just give my life to Jesus, that’s the way it’s gotta be.

Praise Him, people, the Lord knows what to do.
Praise Him, people, He’ll show you that it’s true.
If you’re just a little baby, or you live on borrowed time,
You just give your life to Jesus, and this world will seem so fine.

Because you’ll never be alone when you’ve got Jesus.
    (Alone, never be)
He will always be beside your side.
    (Alone, He’ll be beside your side, He’ll never)
He will never leave us or forsake us,
    (leave or forsake us,)
He said so and you know He never lied.
    (you know he never lied.)

*****

Previous web log song posts:

#301:  The Song “Holocaust” | #307:  The Song “Time Bomb” | #311:  The Song “Passing Through the Portal” | #314:  The Song “Walkin’ In the Woods” | #317:  The Song “That’s When I’ll Believe” | #320:  The Song “Free” | #322:  The Song “Voices” | #326:  The Song “Mountain, Mountain” | #328:  The Song “Still Small Voice” | #334:  The Song “Convinced” | #337:  The Song “Selfish Love” | #340:  The Song “A Man Like Paul” | #341:  The Song “Joined Together” | #346:  The Song “If We Don’t Tell Them” | #349: The Song “I Can’t Resist You’re Love” | #353:  The Song “I Use to Think” | #356:  The Song “God Said It Is Good” | #362:  The Song “My Life to You” | #366:  The Song “Sometimes” | #372:  The Song “Heavenly Kingdom” | #378:  The Song “A Song of Joy” | #382:  The Song “Not Going to Notice” | #387:  The Song “Our God Is Good” | #393:  The Song “Why” | #399:  The Song “Look Around You” | #404:  The Song “Love’s the Only Command” | #408:  The Song “Given You My Name” | #412:  The Song “When I Think” | #414:  The Song “You Should Have Thanked Me” | #428:  The Song “To the Victor” | #433:  The Song “From Job” | #436:  The Song “Trust Him Again” | #438:  The Song “Even You” | #441:  The Song “Fork in the Road” | #442:  The Song “Call to Worship” | #445:  The Song “How Many Times” | #447:  The Song “When I Was Lonely” | #450:  The Song “Rainy Days”

Next Song:  King of Glory