Today’s song is ‘Sweet Surrender’. This song was written by David Gates and performed by ‘Bread’ in 1973. The single was the second release from their fifth album, ‘Guitar Man’, and was the last of four Number 1’s for ‘Bread’ on the US ‘Easy Listening Chart’. ‘Sweet Surrender’ spent two weeks at Number 1 spot on the chart, while on the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ chart, it peaked at Number 15.
‘Sweet Surrender’ also did well internationally. It was a Top 10 hit in Canada (Number 4) and New Zealand (Number 7).
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I was 31 years old when this song was first released by ‘Bread although I would be into my 40th year before it first registered with me and became a song that I would regularly play. Indeed, I became intrigued by ‘The Sound of Bread’ and searched out all their songs.
I think it was Oscar Wilde who once generally remarked that he could resist anything except temptation.
There are many temptations to the teenage mind that eat away at the growing appetite for life until one ‘gives way’ and the temptation is tasted. Undoubtedly, the greatest temptation of all is to give way to the ‘sweetest surrender’. Indeed, it is much like the apple tree in the Garden of Eden whereby mankind is rarely content to look only; he must touch and pluck the fruit from its natural habitat and consume, most usually when it's at its ripest and ready to fall, but not always so.
It is both nature and natural in the development of all teenagers that they experiment with all aspects of life, as they seek to come to terms with the pleasures and the pitfalls of life. In my day, if a young man succumbed to the temptations of the flesh with a young woman, and she became pregnant, there was simply nothing for the couple to consider. As soon as possible thereafter, the couple would marry and become parents before their natural time. In short; when a man plucked an apple from the tree of temptation and took a bite out of it, he finished what he started; he didn’t throw the rest of the fruit away after biting into it and tasting it. Or as all parents of the pre-60s said,"You make your bed, you lie in it!"
It moves me less today whenever I hear about such temptations being succumbed to because I know it is natural for such temptations to exist, even if extremely unwise for one to give way to. It does, however, concern me that some women seem to adopt a lifestyle of having many children to numerous fathers, along with the ease that many men become ‘absent fathers’ to their children and avoid all financial responsibility to the mother of their children.
When I think about the wild days of my late teenage years and those temptations I both resisted and those which I gave way to, I consider myself very fortunate not to have been married before my 26th year of life. I can honestly say that I never plucked an apple from the tree of temptation, although I was never resistant to the notion of eating the windfalls (the fallen fruit that lay around). My personal cross that I carried then was one of essentially being a ‘good man’ whose greatest temptation of the flesh was ‘bad women’.
I dedicate my song today to my Facebook friend, Ann Buck from Plymouth who celebrates her birthday today. I hope that you have a smashing day, Ann. Thank you for being my friend. Bill x Love and peace Bill xxx