FordeFables - Song For Today

Song for Today: 18th February 2019

18/2/2019

Today’s song I sing for you is my version of ‘Cheek to Cheek.’ The song was written by Irvin Berlin in 1935 for the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie, ‘Top Hat’. In the film, Fred Astaire sings the song to Ginger Rogers as they dance. The song was nominated for the ‘Best Song Academy Award’ for 1936, which it lost to ‘Lullaby of Broadway’. The song later went on to become a great hit and was named ‘The Best Song of 1935’. It was inducted into the ‘Grammy Hall of Fame’ in 2000. In 2004, Astaire’s version of the song finished at number 15 in the ‘Top 100 Songs of Top Tunes in American Cinema’.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were two of the best dancers that ever graced a cinema screen. In their time together, the couple made a total of ten films between 1933 to 1939. In many ways, I would consider them to have been the forerunners of ‘Come Dancing’ that the British watch on their television screens each Saturday evening.

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While I used to do Old Time dancing as a 10-11-year old, before I was able to progress into Modern Ballroom dancing, a serious traffic accident that left me unable to walk for three years. Numerous operations on my badly injured legs left me with one leg three inches shorter than the other. This crippled condition effectively ensured that the only way I’d become a future ballroom dancer was ‘in my dreams’.

I never did make the grade of ballroom dancer after I got the movement in my legs back at the age of 15 years, but I did spend many years mastering the art of discovering other ways of sweeping the girls off their feet on the dance floor; especially after the new sound and moves of Rock and Roll and its freestyle dancing hit the nation in the 50s and knocked it for a six. This was a time when it didn’t matter if one got a step out of line on the dance floor. Neither did it depend upon having two legs of identical length to be on an equal footing. All that mattered was one was able to swing one’s hips and move one’s entire body in synchronisation to the rock and roll beat of the drums and the rhythm of a teenage heart out on the pull.

This is a most appropriate ‘Song for today’ for me to choose, especially as I go into hospital for an operation this morning to examine my bottom while I am under a full anaesthetic (itself dangerous for me) and to take samples for a full biopsy to see if the warts are cancerous. If the biopsy proves to be cancerous, I shall require a big operation at Leeds Hospital at a future date, providing they offer me one. Hence, today in the operating theatre, I will be ‘dancing cheek to cheek’.

Love and peace Bill xxx

Song For Today: 17th February 2019

17/2/2019

Today’s song is ‘Jolene’; a song that was written and performed by American country singer and songwriter Dolly Parton. It was released in October 1973 as the first single and title track from her album of the same name, produced by Bob Ferguson.

The song was ranked No. 217 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’ in 2004. According to Dolly Parton, ‘Jolene’ is the song most recorded by other artists of all the songs she has written. Indeed, it is surprising how many songs Dolly has written for herself and other singers also.
‘Jolene’ earned Dolly Parton a ‘Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance 43 years after its original release.

The song storyline tells of Parton confronting Jolene, a stunningly beautiful woman, whom she believes is trying to steal away her lover and asking her "please don't take my man." Throughout the song, Parton implores Jolene "please don't take him just because you can." According to Parton, the song was inspired by a red-headed bank clerk who flirted with her husband Carl Dean at his local bank branch around the time they were newly married.

The song became Parton's second solo number-one single on the country charts after being released as a single in late 1973 (prior to the album's release). It was released as a single later in the UK and became Parton's first top ten hit song in the country, reaching number seven in the ‘UK Singles Chart’ in 1976. The song also re-entered the chart when Parton performed at the ‘Glastonbury Festival’ in 2014.

The song has always been a favourite of mine. I just love the down-to-earth messages and emotions in all of Dolly Parton’s songs. She is undoubtedly one of the most famous yet most unpretentious and modest of singers of the past fifty years.

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This song reminds me of a man called ‘Frank’ who I came to know when I was a Probation Officer in Huddersfield between 1971-1990. Frank had been married seven years and was the proud father of two children. During the early 80s, Frank, who’d been suppressing his true sexuality all his life, formed a relationship with a man of single status from Holmfirth. After much agonising, Frank left his wife and children and set up home with the other man. He still maintained access contact with his children. The relationship with his ex-wife and the mother to his children became toxic and both children were prohibited ever sleeping over at the accommodation of their father and his male lover.

For the better part of a year, all seemed to go okay between Frank and his male partner, although his wife felt betrayed and never forgave Frank for his deception. After approximately I year of living with his male partner, Frank discovered that he also had been the victim of deception after he learned that his partner was actually ‘bi-sexual’ and had been having an affair with a married but separated woman who lived in Meltham. Frank was initially enraged at his partner’s behaviour with the woman behind his back, and then his enragement turned to fear that his male partner would end their relationship and leave him for his woman lover. The more Frank pleaded with his male partner not to end their relationship, the more determined his male lover appeared to do so. In a final act of desperation, Frank found out the address of the Meltham woman his partner was going to leave him for, and after visiting her house unannounced, he pleaded with her ‘Not to take his man’. His pleas fell on deaf ears.

Whenever I hear the song ‘Jolene’, it always makes me think of ‘Frank’. Shortly after, I was transferred to Batley and then Dewsbury Probation Office where I remained until I retired early on the grounds of ill-health. I never did learn how things worked out for Frank after his male partner left him for the Meltham woman.

Love and peace. Bill xxx

Song For Today: 16th February 2019

16/2/2019

Today’s song is ‘Born Free’. The music is by John Barry and the lyrics are by Don Black. The song was written for the 1966 film of the same name and won an ‘Academy Award for Best Original Song’. After the song was released on the film's soundtrack album, it became the singer's signature tune for the remainder of his career. The song became ever popular following the success of the film ‘Born Free’ and was covered by Andy Williams and Frank Sinatra among many others in the years ahead.

I have many friends who are animal lovers, but my Facebook friend, Janet Brotherton’s concern, particularly for wild life, exceeds the concern of most animal and nature lovers. I dedicate my song today to her.

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I have had a long-established friendship with Virginia McKenna since 1989. We have helped each other raise funds for our respective charities on numerous occasions since. Every Christmas when the postman delivers the first Christmas card to our house, before I open it, I know who it will be from Virginia. I was annoyed when hospital admission prevented me attending her husband Bill Travers Memorial Service in 1994 but Virginia kindly sent me a copy of the event. She was Bill’s second wife and they were married in 1957. Virginia is currently a Trustee of ‘Born Free’ and her son Will is its President.

The ‘Born Free Foundation’ is an international wildlife charity that campaigns to ‘Keep Wildlife in the Wild’. It protects wild animals in their natural habitat, campaigns against the keeping of wild animals in captivity and rescues wild animals in need. It also promotes ‘Compassionate Conservation’,]which takes into account the welfare of individual animals in conservation initiatives. ‘Born Frees’ head office is in Horsham, West Sussex and it also has offices in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa, with representatives covering Sri Lanka and Australia too.

Virginia and Bill always loved animals, but it wasn’t until after 1970 that their concern for the welfare of wild animals really took off. In 1969 Virginia and her husband, Bill Travers who starred in the film ’Born Free’ made the film ‘An Elephant called Slowly’. This featured an elephant calf called ‘Pole Pole’ who was given to ‘London Zoo’ when filming finished. In 1982, McKenna and Travers went to visit ‘Pole Pole’ at ‘London Zoo’. After seeing her, they launched a campaign to get ‘Pole Pole’ moved to somewhere more suitable and with other elephants for company. In 1983, it was agreed to move ‘Pole Pole’ to ‘Whipsnade Zoo’, but following complications during the transfer, ‘Pole Pole’ died.

Her death deeply affected Virginia and Bill, so in 1984 they launched ‘Zoo Check’ with their eldest son Will and renamed ‘Zoo Check’ the ‘Born Free Foundation’ in 1991. ‘Born Free Foundation’ manages and funds projects in more than 20 countries worldwide; across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. It focuses on ‘nine working priorities’ which are: captive wild animal exploitation; trophy and canned hunting; wildlife trade; rescue, care, rehabilitation & release; human-wildlife co-existence and conservation; Integrated Wildlife Protection; transboundary programmes; UK wildlife protection; and education. It also has its own sanctuaries; two big cat rescue centres at’ Shamwari Private Game Reserve’ in South Africa, ‘Ensessa Kotteh Wildlife Rescue, Conservation & Education Centre’, in Ethiopia, and ‘Bannerghatta Tiger Sanctuary’, in India.

I will always have an affinity with Virginia and the wildlife aims of her foundation. The song, film and foundation bearing the same name will always be held in my close affection. Any contributions to the foundation are always appreciated and welcome.

Love and peace Bill xxx

Song for Today: 15th February 2019

15/2/2019

Today’s song is ‘Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home)’. This song was written by Artie Zwirn and Harry Giosasi and produced and arranged by LeRoy Holmes. The single was performed by New York-based, group ‘The Impalas’. It reached Number 2 on the U.S. pop chart and went number 14 on the ‘U.S. R&B Chart’. Overseas, the song reached number28 on the ‘U.K. Singles Chart’ in 1959. By the end of the year, the song ranked Number 24 on ‘Billboard’s Year-End Top 100 Singles of 1959’.

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The very first time I heard this song was by Brandan Boyer, an Irish singer in ‘The Waterford Showband’ around 1964. Having been born in County Waterford, ‘The Waterford Showband’ was always a popular group of mine that my parochial loyalties led me to keep an ongoing interest in.

I recall during my own teenage years when me and my next-in-line sister, Mary, might apologise half-heartedly to my sister Eileen after we had arrived home late, following a night bopping at ‘The Ben Riley’ in Batley. ‘The Ben Riley’ was a dance hall where me and sister Mary would escape to every Wednesday evening.

I was the oldest of seven children and one year separated myself, Mary and Eileen from each other respectively, but as far as Mary and I were concerned, it might as well have been five years in regard to our younger sister Eileen. Mary and I had learned to bop at the same time, and we even practised and taught each other different moves in our home during weekday nights. If I wasn't available for practice, our Mary would tie a length of washing line to a door handle as a bopping-partner substitute.

We loved to go dancing down Batley every Wednesday night, but we had a family impediment that threatened to spoil our weekly pleasure; our 15-year-old sister Eileen. When Wednesday nights came around and the time to catch the Batley bus for weekly rock and roll venue, Mary and I would get dressed up at the very last moment and wait in our bedrooms until a few minutes before the Batley bus was due to arrive. At the very last moment, we would both dash out of the house and jump on the bus.laughing and waving to Eileen as the bus parted from her sight.

Once our sister Eileen discovered where Mary and her older brother slipped off to every Wednesday night, she naturally wanted to come along and resented not being a part of what we were doing.

Mary and I would weekly run out on sister Eileen at the last minute and travel to ‘The Ben Riley’ on the same bus, but we would always separate upon arrival at the dance hall. For the rest of the evening we would go about our own business and we would very rarely come back on the last bus together after the dance had ended. Mary would invariably catch the last bus home and I usually got home much later. After alighting the bus, Mary would ‘run the rest of the way home’, hoping that dad (who started his shift at the pit at 6.00am) was fast asleep.

I never asked our Mary what ‘she did, with whom and where’ on Wednesday nights and she never stuck her nose into my business. As far as we were concerned, what happened at the 'Ben Riley' on a Wednesday night, stayed at the 'Ben Riley'! Our Eileen, however, could not be trusted by myself and Mary not to inform our parents on anything her big brother or sister had got up to, 'had she been allowed to gooseberry'. As far as Mary and I were concerned 'two was company and three a crowd' and neither of us wanted younger sister Eileen cramping our style on our night out.

As Mary and Eileen shared the same bed, however, every Wednesday after Mary had returned from the dance, my sister Eileen wouldn’t talk to her for having 'run out on her' at the last minute. Mary would have to offer the same apology to Eileen week after week (probably putting the blame on big brother for her exclusion). I was 17 years old at the time, our Mary was 16-years-old and sister Eileen was 15-years-old.

After growing fed up of being left behind by me and Mary every Wednesday evening, within the year our 16-year-old sister Eileen started courting John, whom she later married. Eileen and John recently celebrated their 56th Wedding Anniversary and spend every Wednesday night in their front lounge bopping and smooching together. The first marriages of myself and sister Mary fared much worse than that of sister Eileen. Whereas Eileen's marriage lasted the test of time (allowing her and John to be awarded a 'Blue Peter Badge'), Mary and I experienced our partners 'running out on us'. It's not a nice feeling being left behind, is it?

Love and peace. Bill xxx

Song For Today: 14th February 2019

14/2/2019

On this Valentine Day of February 14th, 2019, instead of a card, I will give my Valentine a vocal rendition, to hopefully ‘Jib Jab’ her into the realisation of just how much I love her. ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ is my chosen song I sing to Sheila today. I have never sung this song before, although I have heard it in the background from time to time. It is a beautiful song and I’m simply amazed that I missed it. I welcome this morning’s opportunity to redress this omission and consider it a perfect song to sing for the occasion of Valentine's Day.

This is a 1957 folk song that was written by the British political singer and songwriter, Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger, who later became his wife. At the time, the couple were lovers, although MacColl was still married to Joan Littlewood. Seeger sang the song when the duo performed in folk clubs around Britain.

During the 1960s, it was recorded by various folk singers and became a major international hit for Roberta Flack in 1972, winning Grammy Awards for ‘Record of the Year’ and ‘Song of the Year’. Flack's slow and sensual version was used by Clint Eastwood in his 1971 directorial film debut, ‘Play Misty for Me’ to score a love scene featuring Eastwood and actress Donna Mills.

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Many people doubt the romantic phenomenon of there being ‘love at first sight’, but I tell all ‘Doubting Thomas’s’ that they are wrong! Whereas it can take a lifetime to understand the treasure one has been blessed with, it only takes a second to fall in love. It is, unfortunately, a sad fact that until our love has left our life (has separated from us through either choice or death) or (has been unwillingly separated from us through illness such as dementia or abduction); only then, when we miss what we have had, only then do we realise what we have truly lost!

I will never forget the ‘first time ever I saw Sheila’s face’. It wasn’t the attractiveness of the facial features that drew me towards her and made me stick to her like a magnet. I have always been a man who preferred to see long black hair on a woman, and when I first looked at Sheila, I thought her hair to have been cropped too severely. It seemed too harsh for the tender facial bone structure it framed. The severe cut of her hairline did little to make her immediately appealing to my male eyes.

I have always loved physical attractiveness on the surface, but only when it is surpassed by the beauty that lies beneath the skin; the beauty that grows more beautiful with the passing of time and never wrinkles with age. It was plain to see that Sheila possessed that inner beauty, along with a depth of sensitivity and compassion that I found most alluring. As we spoke, her truth of expression in her words, the purity of thought coming effortlessly from her mind, and the innocence she exuded, drew me ever closer and kept me wanting to be ever nearer. Shelia came across as being non-pretentious and enabled me to see her human flaws and fallibility of character, which merely made her more humanly desiring, along with hints of ‘the little girl’ inside her. All these things I was able to see in her from being with her and talking to her for a few hours the first time we met.

By the time I’d left her on that first occasion, I had been smitten by her and knew instinctively that I'd just met a beautiful woman who'd ensnared me in a mesh of my own values and beliefs that she had cast (knowing or unknowingly). I knew that I had met my soulmate, someone who would make me half of ‘a perfect two’.

After I’d returned to my own home that first time after leaving Sheila, although I wasn’t wholly aware of it at the time, I had willingly allowed myself to fall into a ‘love trap’ that I was happy to be in and didn’t want to be extricated from. We had started to fall in love from the start of that first date and have been in love with each other ever since. Being in love with each other has enabled me and Sheila to be much more in love with life and our fellow beings. I LOVE YOU, MY VALENTINE.
Love and peace Bill XXX

Song for the Day: 13th February 2019

13/2/2019

Today’s song is ‘It Takes Two’. The song was a hit single recorded in late 1965 by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston for Motown’s Tamia label. Produced by Weston's then-husband, long-time Gaye collaborator, William ‘Mickey’ Stevenson, and co-written by Stevenson and Sylvia Moy. ‘It Takes Two’ revolves around a romantic lyric that depicts many things in life (dreams, love, wishes, etc.) being better with two people instead of one. The single became Gaye's most successful duet single to date; later outperformed by Gaye's duets with Tammi Terrell. The song duet peaked at Number 14 on the ‘Billboard Pop Chart’ and reached Number 4 on ‘Billboard Soul Singles’ chart in 1967. ‘It Takes Two’ was also Gaye's first major hit in the UK, where it peaked at Number 16 on the British singles charts in the spring of that same year.

In 1990 ‘It Takes Two’ was covered by Rod Stewart and Tina Turner and featured in a television advertising campaign for Pepsi. It was released as the lead single from Stewart's album ‘Vagabond Heart’ in late 1990. The duet was a European hit, peaking at Number 5 in the UK, and becoming a Top 10 single in several European countries. It later appeared on both artists' greatest hits albums: Turner's ‘Simply the Best’ (1991), and Stewart's’ The Very Best of Rod Stewart’ (2001).

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In 1624, the English poet, John Donne wrote a line of prose that was to remain forever remembered when he said in a sermon, ‘No man is an island’. His meaning was that no one is self-sufficient or self-reliant. No one exists in splendid isolation and no one is immune from the actions of others around them. Think about a time in your life when you felt sadness or pain, and wouldn’t have benefited from the presence, understanding and empathy of another to help ease your unhappiness and discomfort; you cannot! Whether one hates or loves, we all need another upon whom to focus our emotions and direct our actions.

Six workmates from the mill I worked at decided to emigrate to Canada in December 1963. One by one they pulled out at the 11th hour, and I decided to go on this adventure alone. I won’t pretend that it was easy facing a new world all on my lonesome.

For the first three months, I frequently experienced feelings of homesickness. Three or four months later, I found myself doing what many tourists to the Niagara Falls find themselves doing; as I stepped across the borderline that divides Canada from the USA; back and forth like a child playing hopscotch. I smiled to myself at the time, but had I been sharing the experience with another, you could bet that we’d have both laughed out loud.

It’s like going to the cinema alone and watching an extremely good film; it’s just not the same! Even if your companion is sitting quietly next door to you, merely being together and sharing the same experience transforms and heightens the sense of enjoyment and excitement! Even going on ‘The Big Dipper’ or travelling ‘The Ghost Train’ either alone or with another seems to add to the fear level and excitement you each experience.

No one thing/person/experience or aspect of one’s life exists in isolation, wholly unconnected to another. No person or thing can be said not to have an effect (for either good or bad), upon another. When we are happy, we tend to make others around us happier than they otherwise might have been. Indeed; any emotion we express produces a greater likelihood of that very same emotion being expressed by others in your presence.

When one person in the West eats two slices of bread where one would suffice, someone in the East will starve as an indirect consequence of global interconnection! Hammer out a bump in a sheet of metal and a depression will appear elsewhere in the form of displacement. Strengthening one part of an object can often weaken another section of the same object as a direct consequence. How many times have we seen the solving of one problem directly lead to the creation of another problem?

The Creation of the Universe was the finest of balances imaginable in producing an Earth of 'relativity'. Mankind needed the ‘two’ primary planets of the Sun and the Moon to maintain a life of balance on the Earth. The creation of Mankind required both Man and Woman to bring meaning and a sense of purpose and happiness to one’s existence. According to the Bible, when God destroyed the Earth in ‘The Great Flood’, He saved ‘pairs’ of humans: Noah and his wife, their three children and their wives. Animals and all creatures that entered the Arc came in ‘two by two’.

So, whether it is friendship, companionship, romance, sexual activity, cohabitation, marriage or true love one seeks, it will always require the presence of two people to make it happen. Even obtaining one notable sensation of the body requires at least two of the body’s senses to bring such about. To come into ‘contact’ with something/someone necessitates ‘two objects/people meeting’.

Whichever way one looks at the facts, there is simply no denying that ’It takes two.’ Sheila and I know that!

Love and peace Bill xxx

Song For Today: 12th February 2019

12/2/2019

Today’s song I sing for you is one that ‘Gerry and The Pacemakers’ made famous; ‘Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying’.The song composition is credited to Gerry Marsden and the other band members, Freddie Marsden, Les Chadwick and Les Maguire. It was first recorded by Louise Cordet, and then recorded by the group themselves in early 1964.

The song was given first to Louise Cordet, a singer who had previously toured with the group as well as with ‘The Beatles’. Her version was produced by Tony Meehan and released on Decca Records in February 1964. The group then decided to issue their own version. The record, like the group's earlier releases, was produced by George Martin.

It was released in April 1964 as Gerry and the Pacemakers' fifth single in Britain. It spent 11 weeks on the United Kingdoms’ ‘Record Retailer Chart’, reaching No. 6 In the US. It was the breakthrough single for the group, spending 12 weeks on the ‘Billboard Top 100’, reaching No. 4.

Gerry and the Pacemakers performed the song on their first US television show, ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ on 3 May 1964, three months after the Beatles had appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. I lived in Canada at the time and can still remember watching both groups on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’. The group's earlier UK hit singles ‘How Do You Do It?’, ‘I Like It’ and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and ‘I'm the One’ were then re-issued in the US to follow up its success, but "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" remained their biggest hit in the United States.

Personally, this song title always reminds me of my mother’s words when I was growing up. If ever she saw me tearful, she would open the window curtains as wide as possible, let in the sun and say, “Look, Billy. It’s a brand, new day. Now, don’t let the sun catch you crying, boy.” This is a philosophy of life that I have held ever since and whenever I have been faced with difficulties that initially appear insurmountable, I look to nature for the
constancy of purpose, in the reassurance, that ‘tomorrow will always bring a new day’ and that ‘the sun will shine down again’.

Love and peace Bill xxx

Song For Today: 11th February 2019

11/2/2019

Today’s song is ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’. The song was written by Freddie Mercury of Queen in 1979 and appears on the group’s album ‘Greatest Hits’ in 1981. It became the group’s first Number 1 single on the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ in the US in 1980 for four weeks and topped the Australian ‘ARIA Charts’ for seven weeks.

Having composed ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ on guitar, Mercury played rhythm guitar while performing the song live, which was the first time he played guitar in concert with Queen. Since its release, the song has been covered by several artists including Elvis Presley. Freddie Mercury said that he originally wrote the song as a tribute to Elvis. Mercury also said, “I wrote the song in ten minutes, using a guitar which I can’t play for nuts, and in one way it was quite a good thing because I was restricted, knowing only a few chords. It's a good discipline because I simply had to write within a small framework. I couldn't work through too many chords and because of that restriction I wrote a good song, I think”- Freddie Mercury.

Having written ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ on guitar, for the first time ever, Mercury played guitar in concerts, for example at ‘Live Aid’ at the Wembley Stadium, London in 1985.

Personally, while I recognise that love may be ‘crazy’, of one thing it certainly isn’t, it could never be described as ‘little’! It is the most important thing in the life of any man, woman, child and even animal.

Apart from God, parents and family, the greatest embodiment of love I know in my life is my lovely wife, Sheila; the protector of my body and the custodian of my heart and soul. Every time I look at her, I fall in love with her all over again. Despite my life-threatening condition that was medically diagnosed shortly after our marriage, I can truly say that I have never been happier in my life as I am today. I know that I will always love Sheila because whatever trial faces us, she will always love me back. If I sleep better today it is because of Sheila’s love. Whereas dreaming of Sheila has the tendency to keep me asleep, being with her is undoubtedly keeping me alive. If I have one regret, and it refers directly to that ‘Crazy thing called love’, it’s that I cannot turn back the clock. Was I able to, I’d be able to have found Sheila sooner and loved her longer, and what's 'little' about that?

Love and peace Bill xxx

Song for Today: 10th February 2019

10/2/2019

Today’s song is a long-time favourite of mine, ‘Amazing Grace’. Ever since I was born, I have been brought up Christian in a Catholic family and have always believed in both the presence of God in our lives and His infinite power and grace that He bestows on those who believe in Him. At the age of 11 years, following a serious accident when a wagon ran over me, mangled my twisted body around its main driving shaft-axel and left me with extensive injuries, I was to experience several unusual events over the following months and years.

I spent nine months in hospital; the first month on hourly observation, in and out of consciousness on the critical list. During this month period, I had what I can only describe as ‘an out of body experience’, which following full consciousness was followed by a ‘calling’; a ‘re-conversion’ (or) 'strengthening’ in my belief of God’s power, presence and grace.

During my first month of hospitalisation, my parents were daily prepared by the medics for my imminent death. After I had regained full consciousness and had lived through my initial ordeal, my damaged spine led the doctors to tell me and my parents that I’d never walk again. Over the following 18 months, I was to have over fifty operations breaking and resetting my legs (not to help me walk again), but to enable me to look more normal in body appearance. I didn’t walk for three years but never stopped praying and never stopped believing that I’d someday walk again.

When I did walk again, the newspapers called me ‘miraculous’ and the hospital medics found my ability to walk again ‘inexplicable’. I was annually placed on display and used as a specimen of curiosity and inexplicable improvement by conferences of hospital specialists between 1957-1960. I have no doubt whatsoever as to the true explanation of my recovery, and that is why my belief in God’s grace, power and presence in my life has strengthened daily ever since.

Back to today’s song, ‘Amazing Grace’.This is a Christian hymn published in 1779, with words written by the English poet and Anglican clergyman John Newton (1725–1807). Newton wrote the words of ‘Amazing Grace’ from personal experience. He grew up without any religious conviction, but his life's path was formed by a variety of twists and coincidences that were often put into motion by others' reactions to what they took as his recalcitrant insubordination and refusal to accept certain aspects of life. He was pressed (conscripted) into service in the Royal Navy, and after leaving the service, he became involved in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1748, a violent storm battered his vessel off the coast of County Donegal, Ireland, so severely that he called out to God for mercy, a moment that marked his spiritual conversion. He continued his slave trading career until 1754 or 1755 when he ended his seafaring altogether and began studying Christian Theology.

Ordained in the Church of England in 1764, Newton began to write hymns with poet William Cowper. ‘Amazing Grace’ was written to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773. It is unknown if there was any music accompanying the verses; it may have simply been chanted by the congregation. It debuted in print in 1779 in Newton and Cowper's ‘Olney’s Hymns’ but settled into relative obscurity in England. In the United States, however, ‘Amazing Grace’ was used extensively during the ‘Second Great Awakening’ in the early 19th century. It has been associated with more than twenty melodies, but in 1835 it was joined to a tune named ‘New Britain’ to which it is most frequently sung today.

With the message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of sins committed and that the soul can be delivered from struggle and despair through the mercy of God, ‘Amazing Grace’ is one of the most recognisable songs in the English-speaking world. Author Gilbert Chase writes that it is "without a doubt the most famous of all the folk hymns”, and Jonathan Aitken, a Newton biographer, estimates that it is performed about 10 million times annually. It has had influence in Folk Music and has become an emblematic African American spiritual song. Its universal message has been a significant factor in its crossover into secular music. ‘Amazing Grace’ saw a resurgence in popularity in the U.S. during the 1960s.

The one thing I know that I share with John Newton is the message of this musical acclaim and vocal testament of God’s constant presence, His saving grace, His infinite power and His eternal love for each of us.

Love and peace Bill xxx

Song For Today: 9th February 2019

9/2/2019

Today’s song is ‘Dancing in the Street’. This song was written by Marvin Gaye, William ‘Mickey’ Stevenson and Ivy Jo Hunter. It first became popular in 1964 when recorded by ‘Martha and the Vandellas’ whose version reached No. 2 on the ‘Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at No. 4 in the ‘UK Singles Chart’. It is one of Motown’s signature songs and is the group's premier signature song. Other singers to cover the song include, The Mamas and the Papas, Van Halen, The Kinks, and The Everly Brothers. A 1985 duet cover by David Bowie and Mick Jagger charted at No. 1 in the UK and reached No. 7 in the US.

The song highlighted the concept of having a good time in whatever city the listener lived. The idea for dancing came to Stevenson from watching people on the streets of Detroit cool off in the summer in water from opened fire hydrants. Stevenson thought that they appeared to be dancing in the water as they splashed around playfully.

The song, however, was to take on a different meaning after several inner-city riots in America led to many young black demonstrators citing the song as a ‘civil rights anthem’ advocating social change. This led to some radio stations taking the song off its playlist after a number of black activists such as H. Rap Brown began playing the song while organising demonstrations.

’Dancing in the Street’ came to have two meanings; one representing a call to civil riots and mass demonstrations, and the other of simply being a party song.

‘Motown Records’ had a distinct role to play in the city's black community; particularly within bodies of suppressed minorities. and that community (as diverse as it was), articulated and promoted its own social, cultural, and political agendas. These local agendas invariably reflected the unique concerns of African Americans living in the urban north and the discriminations they faced daily from some of whiter America. The movement lent the song its secondary meaning that often is reported to have fanned the flames of unrest. This song (and others like it), and its associated political meanings did not exist in a vacuum. It was partnered with its social environment and they both played upon each other, creating meaning that would probably not have been brought on by one or the other alone.

The song will for me, however, always reflect a party song that was played constantly when I was first married; a time when partying every weekend at friend’s houses was a common occurrence. Nor have I ever been to a street party where it wasn’t played in association with its literal meaning, 'having fun and a good time'.

Love and peace. Bill