Chuck shares about the songs. March 1997
A LOVE SONG
Lyrics & Chords
Jesse Johnston was one of our early guitarists. He came to me with this 3/4
time chord line that reminded me of a Walt Disney movie song, kind of like
something Tinker Bell would sing. I had been thinking about writing a kind
of theme song for the first album , which would include the group name, and
the idea just kind of fell together. Lyrically, I was trying to say simply
"For he who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the
church". I had planned to make the first album a concept album along the
lines of "Sgt. Pepper", with the opening song reprising at the end, and
kind of tying it all together. I had never thought of the song as more than
a little "ditty", but it became very popular, and we eventually extended it
with a guitar solo and fleshed it out a bit for concerts. Later we
recorded that version for the live album, and also for the remake "Welcome
Back" album in 1994. The song became a #1 hit on secular radio in Manila in
the Philippine Islands and opened the door for us to minister the gospel to
over 10,000 people per night for 5 nights in a huge baseball stadium, with
thousands getting saved.
CHANGES
Lyrics & Chords
This is a Denny Correll collaboration. This was actually Denny's idea if I
remember correctly. Denny and I had kind of a Lennon/McCartney songwriting
relationship, Denny representing the harder edge Lennon side, while I
leaned more in the sweet McCartney direction. (I am a Lennon fan over
McCartney, however). I think the lyric was mostly Denny's, and we
collaborated on the whole flow of the song. It was purposely short, as I
felt that it said what it said, and didn't need to be longer. It has a
kind of building effect throughout the whole song, and I felt that it was
just right without going to a guitar solo or whatever and coming back to
the song.
I never felt it to be a heavyweight song either musically or spiritually,
but people liked it and we did it often in concert. When we remade it in
1994, I changed the lyric
considerably, as I never really liked the syrupy sentiment of the original
lyric. I had forgotten that the lyric was basically Denny's, and heard
that he was a little miffed that I changed it without consulting him. In
retrospect I agree, but it's too late now.
LITTLE COUNTRY CHURCH
Lyrics & Chords
A Fred Field collaboration. We had a strange writing relationship that
really worked for me, because we didn't really collaborate. Fred would
bring me some amazing chord line with cool chords that I would never think
of, and just leave me alone to supply the words and melody. The band was
in Northern California, staying in a private home for the afternoon before
a concert. Fred brought out the guitar, and began playing the chords to
LCC. I looked up on the wall and there was this sepia tone photo of a
rural church that caught my eye. I began to sing "Little country church on
the edge of town".... .as I went on I realized that what was shaping was
really the story of Calvary Chapel. Calvary wasn't strictly a "Country"
church, but was kind of out in a field, but I realized that this song
represented the whole Jesus movement . It was about the open minded
attitudes of the pastors like Chuck Smith, who had the courage to embrace
the hippies and allow a new thing to happen in the church; to allow new
musical styles and not judge the hippies for their look, but realize that
God changed the heart.
FREEDOM
Lyrics & Chords
One night after church at Calvary, I asked Chuck Smith if I could stay over
and use the piano. He showed me how to lock up, and left me there alone to
write. I felt the inspiration of God and that I would get something that
night. Actually, Freedom was 2 song ideas I had going that were originally
separate songs. There was a great ambiance in that church, and the feeling
of God's presence was palpable. As with most good songs, this one came
very quickly. I loved songs that had "movements", like a short rock opera.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is probably the ultimate example of this kind of a song.
As I saw how the 2 ideas could complement each other, I began to sing the
different movements, and the lyric started to come together. The presence
of God was very strong in the room, and the ambiance and the power of the
lyric all came together in a big rush It was one of the most emotional
songwriting experiences of my life.
WELCOME BACK
Lyrics & Chords
The music and melody to this song were written back in the pre-Christian
hippie days. I remember sitting on the hill behind our hippie house in
Laguna Beach, CA, with my guitar, smoking a doobie and playing with the
chords and melody. I never had a lyric for it then, but I could hear the
harmonies in my head. After I got saved, I started to play with it again,
and the lyric came. In my mind it was a song for the unsaved, but in that
context, it has a kind of humanist meaning, It really only works as a
Christian song if you perceive it as a song for a backslider. Otherwise,
it assumes that man is basically good, and that someday he will come back
to that goodness, which is not a Biblical idea.
FRONT SEAT, BACK SEAT
Lyrics & Chords
My participation in this and other country oriented songs was lyrics only.
Tommy Coomes was more into the country thing, and I never would have come
up with the music idea on my own. However, I see the opportunity to say
clever things in this format, so I had no problem working on the lyric.
It's pretty self-explanatory: when I drive the car I make wrong turns, when
I become the passenger and let God drive, my life is on course. Pretty
basic stuff, no Grammies here.
AND THE WIND WAS LOW
Lyrics & Chords
My personal favorite Love Song tune. Again, the music was written
pre-Christian in the Laguna house. A neighbor had a pump organ. You pump
it with your feet. I used to go over and play with it, as it had a very
cool and unique sound. The original title of this song was "And a Child
Was Born", and it was about Jesus. Even though I wasn't a born again yet, I
fancied myself a Christian, and wrote lyrics about Jesus. The lyric never
got finished, but I couldn't get the melody out of my mind. After I got
born again, I got into the image of the Holy Spirit being the wind. The
Beatles had a song called "Because" on the album "Abbey Road" that had a
line in it "because the wind is high, it blows my mind". I always liked
the image of the wind, so I thought, "when the Holy Spirit moves, it's like
the wind comes down to our level and blows on us". So I twisted the idea
around and made the wind low instead of high. My idea was the two types of
baptism. He first brought me to the waters of baptism, then later brought
me to the baptism of fire in the Holy Ghost. For me this was a distinct
experience. Lonnie Frisbee, a hippie preacher from Calvary Chapel, brought
me over to his house one day about a week after I was born again. I didn't
know it, but it was his intent to pray for me to receive the baptism with
the Holy Spirit. He first prepped me for what he was going to pray for, but
when he told me I should speak in tongues, I stopped him right there. I
explained that I used to get stoned in Laguna and start to speak in strange
languages, but it always brought fear and I would quickly stop, Even then,
I perceived I was calling some sort of evil spirit , which is in fact what
I was doing. So I had this negative attitude toward the tongues thing,
without even knowing that this was a point of existing controversy in the
church. He reassured me that this was of God and it would be different from
my previous experiences, and sure enough it was. I immediately could sense
the difference and that I was in contact with God. I began to sing out in
tongues, and wept as I felt so cleansed and empowered. I felt a profound
sense of God's forgiveness and acceptance. I had never felt so clean in my
life. I never even heard that this was controversial in the church until
later. The whole last verse of this song illustrates my exact experience.
A BRAND NEW SONG
Lyrics & Chords
Another Fred Field collaboration, same methodology. Not much to say about
this song except that it was musically unique. There's actually a passage
in 7/4 time. Pretty advanced stuff for a bunch of hippies. My favorite
line is after "Sing unto the heavens with a brand new song"...and goes:
"the one that we've been hearing's been a hit too long." No big experience
involved in this song, just a nice harmony laden exercise.
FEEL THE LOVE
Lyrics & Chords
This was the very first song I ever wrote with a spiritual theme. This song
had more versions and lyric changes than any other before it finally made
it to a recording. I was living in Pasadena, CA at the time in a house I
actually owned because I had taken over payments from my mom. It had been
turned into a kind of hippie commune, and a bunch of us were living there.
People were destroying the house inch by inch by just generally living as
slobs. We were heavily into weed and Bible studies, and very into the idea
of forsaking our worldly possessions and following God. This was during the
early George Grenier period, (see LOVE SONG history) and just prior to our
move to Hawaii. Anyhow, one day I was trying to fix a stopped up sink in
the kitchen, and somebody came and read me the riot act, accusing me of
caring more about my worldly possessions than God. (This kind of guilt and
bondage is common in cult situations). I was torn between my instinct that
somehow this kind of thinking couldn't be right, and my doubts that maybe I
WAS too worldly minded. I was very confused and depressed, and I took a
guitar and went out on the back steps area and poured out my heart singing
"Save the sadness for another time, save the words for a song that rhymes."
As often happens, the songwriting instinct overrides the depression when
you start to get into what appears to be a good song idea, and I shifted
into the consideration of the wider implications of the song, and actually
began to apply myself to it's creation. There was a line in the song that
went through 3 distinct modifications which really illustrate the steps of
my perception of God as I was drawn closer and closer to finding Him. The
line first read" Feel the love that only God can bring". The second
version was "Feel the love that KNOWING God can bring. (Even though I
didn't really know God yet, I thought I did). It was fulfilled in the final
version which was written after I became a real Christian: "feel the love
the Son of God can bring". Kind of an interesting side note.
This song is still very special to me, and is one of my favorites, right
behind "Wind was Low".
FINAL TOUCH LINER NOTES
"FINAL TOUCH" was an album made up mostly of songs that were left over from the first LOVE SONG album, as well as several new songs that were written in the meantime. This isn't to suggest that these songs were inferior. It was just that the first album was so highly conceptualized that many songs didn't fit and were shelved until later.
There were some major differences between the first and second albums. With the diversity of material that was left it became difficult to harmonize the material into a cohesive work, so the album wound up being a little more uneven than the first. Each song still seemed so important that leaving any songs off seemed out of the question, especially in view of the fact that we knew this would be our last album. So we recorded this as an album of songs rather than a concept album as the first had been.
By this time our original drummer had returned to the group, and we had a lot of time in live concert to nail these songs down, much more so than the first album. The one concession we made to progress was the addition of strings, and fading out some of the songs. (The first album had no fades, only endings, the way we did them live).
The title FINAL TOUCH was agreed upon, signaling the fact that this was the last time a LOVE SONG album would touch hearts.
SINCE I OPENED UP THE DOOR
Lyrics & Chords
This was a typical Field/Girard song. Fred
would come up with the great music idea and I would write melody and words.
Fred would sometimes have a working melody idea but basically we stayed
out of each other's areas. These country oriented songs were never my
favorites from a musical standpoint, but were very popular in concert This
one simply speaks of the joy of first meeting Jesus.
JOYOUS LAMENT
Lyrics & Chords
The idea for this title came from the feel of the music,
which had to me a gospel R&B type feel, and was not a happy sounding song
like SINCE I OPENED UP or FRONT SEAT BACK SEAT.
The lyric speaks warning to the world that the choice about Jesus must be
made, yet we were singing it from the position of having made the choice,
therefore the joy. Also the title sounded very cool to me, so it stuck.
This to me was one of the most different LOVE SONG songs. I never cared for
this too much when it first came out, but when I listened to it again 25
years later when it was re-released on CD, I thought it was marvelous. I
was too close to it then.
JESUS PUTS THE SONG IN OUR HEARTS
Lyrics & Chords
This was one of the first Christian
songs we wrote after getting saved. I remember we had just moved out of
Laguna Beach and were living in a donated room above Bing Turnham's garage
in Orange County. The room had nothing in it but four sleeping bags. We
even had to go in the house at night to go to the bathroom, yet we were
the happiest we'd ever been. One Saturday night Fred brought out the
guitar and began playing the chords. As I began to sing the spontaneous
melody and words, the other guys gathered around and the harmonies were
born on the spot as we worshipped the Lord with the new song. I remember it
was a Saturday night because we sang the song at Calvary Chapel Sunday
morning service the next day.
As usual, it had an evangelistic theme, which made it a little melancholy
and preachy. Perhaps with a little different lyric approach, it would have
been more of a standard.
THINK ABOUT WHAT JESUS SAID
Lyrics & Chords
One of the few songs I wrote on guitar.
Simple chords, heavy message. I was trying to get across the idea that our
hearts will witness to the truth of the gospel, but if we lead with our
mind, we can miss God altogether. This became a big altar call song.
LIVING WATER
Lyrics & Chords
The only song Jay Truax wrote for the group. I would have
liked to have seen Jay do more as I don't believe has talent was ever
really tapped, as this song attests. This was one of the loveliest most
haunting songs on either album. Jay came up with the very different chords
to the main part, and we moved toward the water theme as the music seemed
to suggest. The diminished chord is what makes it so unique, and we
capitalized on that. I have always loved the haunting sound of the song by
Buffalo Springfield "Expecting to Fly" The bridge to "Living Water", for
which I wrote the music, was trying to capture that Neil Young harmony
feeling that is resident in that song. The parts on the bridge were so
hard to sing that eventually we gave up on doing it as a group, and Jay and
I stacked the vocals in many hours of sessions. As with most of our songs,
the emphasis is on evangelism.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
Lyrics & Chords
The only Coomes/Field/Girard collaboration. I wrote the
metaphorical lyrics to create a poetic feel, unlike the blunt evangelism
of most of our songs. This was as I remember, one of the only times Fred
balked at one of my lyrics. I don't think he related to the poetry of it or
something. I really liked the approach, as I felt it was so different from
our other songs.
BOOK OF LIFE
Lyrics & Chords
Self explanatory little country ditty about the importance of
God's Word. Like all the country songs, a concert favorite, as we drew out
the "I..keep...my" parts longer and longer in concert. Fun.
DON'T YOU KNOW
Lyrics & Chords
A "Beatle-ish" exercise, with Beach Boy overtones. About
the importance of maturing in your walk. I don't remember too much about
the writing of this song. I can't tell you where I was or anything, but I
think it turned out to be one of the more interesting songs on either
album. We even did it some in concert, but it never became one of the "big"
songs in people's minds.
LITTLE PILGRIM
Lyrics & Chords
I began to write this song for a dear friend who was the
drummer in many of my groups. We had gone on the hippie path together, but
he'd not ended up making a decision to receive Jesus as I had. I thought
about how two people can walk the same path and yet wind up with different
answers. I was actually lamenting him in the song, but as I got in deeper ,
I saw the more universal message evolving and it wound up being a very
powerful song for altar calls. I always hated the title, and wanted to
change it to "Little Children". I still don't know why I didn't ...maybe it
was better off being left alone. Some of the images always struck me as
unclear, and when we re-made the song in 1994, I made a couple of lyric
changes.
EXTRA:
MARANATHA
Lyrics & Chords
Not much I remember about this song. I think it was written on a trip
up north in our van. I always thought the word "Maranatha", (it wasn't
a famous word yet) had a Hebrew ring to it, and it reminded me of
"Marymartha,Marymartha". I wrote it after the idea of Mary and Martha
seeing Jesus after he had returned from the grave, like calling Jesus
"The Master", etc. But I put the current 1970 spin on it, because Calvary
Chapel teaching was very much into the soon return of the Lord. It was
like we were the Marys and Marthas waiting for his return. The music
also in my mind had a Jewish/folk/lament/wailing wall quality to it.
There never was an "official" recording of it. The first Maranatha
album which is the only recording of it, was to me more like a demo. I
was going to put it on a later Chuck Girard solo album, and actually
tried to cut a track, but it never came off, and other more current
material crowded it out.
Tommy shares about the songs. July 1997
TWO HANDS
Lyrics & Chords
I was staying with my parents for a short while in early 1970, paying off a
court fine, and working nights. I had been to Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa,
California about three or four times and was intrigued by what I'd seen there
- true Agape love that was ageless, color blind and saw past financial and
social status. I was amazed that I could exist on this planet for 24 years
and never see or know these things - almost like they were the best kept
secret in the Universe.
I was reading my "Good News For Modern Man" every spare moment and was deeply
moved by how much Jesus cared for people. I had never read the Bible for
before. (It's amazing how much we accept as being true without checking
things out for ourselves.) By the way, aren't you glad that God is not
troubled by an honest question or an inquisitive mind.
One afternoon an old friend named Chuck Butler came by to show me a lyric he'd just written. Chuck and I had played in bands together - he's a truly great singer, but did not play an instrument at the time. He had also seen what God was doing at Calvary Chapel and couldn't help but write a song about it. (By the way, look up Psalm 40:1-3 and you'll see what I mean.)
I was totally floored by the lyric - it said it all. He had captured the essence of true faith and discipleship. "With one reach out to Jesus, and with the other bring a friend." It's what we felt and knew to be true. Chuck had an idea for how the melody on the chorus should go and asked me to write the music.
I knew this was something from God - not just another song. I stared at that piece of paper for two days, prayed and would go to my old upright piano from time to time to try and find what I was hearing. That's the way it often works best - almost like a Heavenly tape recorder starts playing and I wind up taking dictation. (Maybe a little bit of "Seek and you'll find.")
To this day I think I often pray better with an instrument in my hands and a love song in my heart - using my own "Two Hands."
FRONT SEAT, BACK SEAT
Lyrics & Chords
Chuck Girard, Jay Truax, Fred Field and myself were just a few months old in
the Lord. We were living in an empty room above a garage with no furniture
and happier than we'd ever been. It was very common to write a song in the
van, in the middle of reading our Bibles, etc. You never knew when the inspiration
would hit.
Late one evening, in the middle of Ed Plummer capturing all of our songs on his new "Sound on sound," reel to reel, four track Sony tape recorder, I was kind of punchy and started goofing around with the opening lines "I was a runnin' from my Master." I thought it sounded like Johnny Cash. Chuck immediately said, "Hey what's that?" I didn't know. I was tired and it came out almost unconsciously, yet a natural as falling off a log. I believe Chuck wrote down a few quick lines and then we were back to work recording. We may have finished most it by the time the night was over.
I can't tell how many of our songs were a result of that kind of collaboration. Fred Field would often play a chord progression for Chuck and he would reach for that little notebook he kept in his shirt pocket. Kind of reminds me of bluegrass players swapping licks, just having fun and trading ideas.
"Front Seat, Back Seat" was our story of conversion and a funny way to say that it's better letting God have control of your life. It's my Dad's favorite song. He and his friends have a saying I like a lot, "If it ain't Country, It ain't music!" And they aren't kiddin'.
Jay Truax and I were up late one evening having the kind of argument that young Christians often have. He was right. I was right. I remember praying before I fell asleep, "Lord, if I'm right, why do I feel so bad.?" I wound up reading John chapter seventeen for the first time. The prayer of Jesus recorded here is longer than what we call the Lord's prayer. It's still one of my favorite scriptures, because the lesson of unity was so relevant.
I woke up the next morning and apologized to Jay - it didn't matter who was right, it just mattered that I loved my brother. I think I heard something on the radio that day, probably by Carlos Santana, that suggested the Latin rhythm that became the framework for the song. I love rhythm and percussion. I love energy and excitement in music. One person has said that one way to talk to God is to "Sing our prayers." That's what "Let Us Be One" was to me. It's still my prayer because fighting is so natural to us. Every man thinks he is right in his own eyes. It's a big problem. God help us. Make it real.
I remember hearing Chuck Smith give an evangelistic message using a text from Ezekiel. The thought that hit me was that I would NOT want to be ignorant and find myself in an Army that's fighting against God.
Chuck Smith has always been interested in Bible prophesy, and it was the current thought back in the Cold War days that Magog was represented by Russia - the invading army out of the uttermost parts of the north. (It may be unpopular at the moment but the story isn't over yet.)
A had the idea and the title for the song right away but I couldn't get past the first verse and chorus. A short while later, I was returning from a ministry trip in the desert with my friend Tom Stipe. Tom is a great piano player and a great songwriter - especially good at painting a picture with words. We wrote three more verses by the time we got back to town.
I love good ol' American rock and roll. No wonder the mainline churches didn't understand where we were coming from at the time. Who would have thought about putting a message from Ezekiel to a rock and roll beat?? Works for me! But then, what do I know; I'm just a guitar player. (Actually a trumpet player gone wrong.)
There's really not a lot to say about this little ditty. Somehow we got used to doing this in our concerts and thought it needed to go on an album. It's just a happy song that says that God is bigger than anything. We often had a way of saying simply what could be said with a thousand words. I guess that's one of the main differences between music and books. The musician only has three to four minutes and fifty words to make his mark. I only used up about thirty seconds and twenty nine words. I like short songs.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON
Lyrics & Chords
I really don't remember much about this one. The melody seemed to be around
for quite a long time. I think this was mostly Chuck and Freddy (and Jay?)
BOOK OF LIFE
Lyrics & Chords
There was a young drummer friend that we all knew before we came to Christ
named Michael Fickling. You never know who will respond to the love of God
and when and how they might do that. Conversion is a process, in many ways a
step by step convincing of the heart and mind. We had shared our newfound
faith with Michael but there wasn't much of a response for awhile.
A year later he reappeared through my side gate with his thumb in a small Bible. He was literally jumping for joy about some truth he had just discovered. It was a Polaroid moment and a living lesson. Nothing can do what God's word can do. It's designed that way. It lives and abides forever, it's the light on our path as Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith said anew. We're wise to keep our thumbs in there too, no matter what age we are.
It reminds me of a preacher who had everybody laughing during a hard teaching. He warned them, "Just remember, when you're laughing, I can knock your teeth out without splitting your lip."