Tyner

Beyond Belief – Petra

Rick France 1976, 1993, Arena Rock, Hard Rock , , , , , , ,
Beyond Belief
Petra

In the 1990’s I was once asked, “If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only have one album by Petra, which album would you choose?” For me, Beyond Belief was that album; only because the album Jekyll & Hyde was not released until 2003 and this was a 90’s question. That type of question always confused me though because it always makes me wonder, “How am I going to play that album on this deserted island?” But I digress. Beyond Belief is an awesome album with great songs from start to finish but there is that one song that triggers those special memories regarding youth camps.

Promised Land Bible Church was a non-denominational church and as a result we did not have access to the normal youth camps that drew teens from every church in the state of that particular denomination. So we had to improvise. Being that I had come out of the Wesleyan Church, which had extremely strict rules at camp here in the south regarding mixed bathing (girls and guys swimming together), shorts and for that matter pants period for the girls, a couple of my friends who were youth pastors for two of the larger Wesleyan youth groups at that time here in Georgia were starting to think outside the box and organize their own camp. When I caught wind of this I contacted Billy Ginn of Northside Wesleyan Church and Greg Moore of Winder Wesleyan Church about joining in on the adventure. For several years our three church youth groups had some pretty awesome times and not just with these camps, but lock-ins, Atlantafest and many other events.

One of the camps we did had the theme “I Believe” and I was in charge of t-shirt design that year and came up with this idea involving the song “Creed” off of Beyond Belief. Being a musician I did not want to break any copyright laws so since email, texts and twitter did not exist at the time, I thought I would send a letter to Petra requesting permission to use the lyrics of the song. Petra responded by saying something like, “Have at it – it’s the Apostle’s Creed.” After the “duh” moment had passed, I designed a t-shirt that had a scroll on it with the words from the song “Creed”; because theirs did rhyme and flow a little better than the original Apostle’s Creed.

I cannot say for sure if the 1993 camp was the actual “Creed” t-shirt camp, but it stands out in my memory thanks to Jesse Marescalco. That year our camp was just outside of Dahlonega, GA at Camp Glisson. With its beautiful waterfall and lake it was one of my favorite places to take LightForce for retreats and camps. We had baptisms at the foot of those falls on more than one occasion and we watched Daniel Dean climb the falls as a water moccasin climbed with him just a bit faster about 10 ft away. This particular camp is where deep spiritual decisions were made every day by Carissa Gillespie who each morning would move her hair back and forth and ask, “Should I wear my hair up or down today? Up or down? Up or down?” For the sake of time though, maybe I should get on with the story at hand by first taking one more little rabbit trail.

When I was attending Tyner Junior High we use to play this game we called bombardment in gym. Basically everyone was divided into two teams and no one could cross center court. Several of those red rubber balls were placed in the middle and when the whistle blew it was high energy team dodgeball; don’t get hit but hit everyone on the other team as hard as you possibly can. The team with the last man standing won and I loved it. I couldn’t wear my glasses but I could dodge those red blurs with the best of them thanks to my cat like reflexes developed from years of clumsiness. There is just nothing like going through puberty with big red whelps on the side of your face to highlight the acne.

Fast forward back to camp 1993 and it was a rainy night so we had to come up with something to do in the gym. We had three youth groups with about equal number of teens and a whole bunch of red rubber balls. It seemed logical for me to suggest bombardment and we decided we would have two youth groups face off and the winner take on the third. First up was Northside vs LightForce with Winder taking on the winner. Since I do not have a competitive bone in my body it was only natural that I only had one thought in mind and that was to WIN! On a side note, I was later told by Ashley Gard that right before we started play Jesse said, “Finally a game where you can hurt someone!” I guess he had the gift of prophecy.

Once Greg gave the signal to start, that gym became a bloody massacre of rubber ball induced carnage on both sides of the court. Bodies were falling like rain that evening as the onslaught of rubber balls were flying back and forth leaving nothing but the cries of pain and defeat in its wake.  I was focused, like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli; my eyes were intent on Billy and one of his teens, Tobin Hines, who I thought was the only real competition standing between myself and victory when one of my own came to stand beside me and said, “Rick, I think I threw my shoulder out!” As any loving youth pastor would do, I maintained my gaze on the task at hand and simply said with the deepest of compassion, “Go tell Billy.” I have no idea what the conversation was between them, but since Billy is less competitive than me and much more spiritual he must have had a similar reaction and told him to go see his wife Tina.

The battle of the church youth groups continued as more and more teens were being laid to waste and it was down to just a few survivors. Billy and I had begun to talk a little smack and the wagering of mess hall cleanup duties began to take center court. Suddenly, I heard the soft voice of that sweetest of all angels deep within my soul as my wife yelled, “RICK FRANCE!” which was quickly followed by Tina’s, “BILLY GINN! COME HERE RIGHT NOW!”

Timeout was reluctantly called and I could see the look of fear in Billy’s eyes as I’m sure he also saw in mine. We both walked over to our wives like two 5 year olds who had just gotten caught and yet we had no idea what we were in trouble for. There behind our most loving and understanding wives who had decreed their undying love to us for better or worse, stood Jesse. His arm was at a 90 degree angle from where it should have been. It was literally hanging in front of his chest and I must admit it sort of grossed me out because I had never seen anything so misplaced in my life. Jesse had this taunting grin on his face that seemed to say, “You guys are in trouble now!” I do not know what Kathy and Tina said because they were yelling at us both at the same time and who could understand either of them talking over each other in such a rude fashion. In my defense I tried to throw Billy under the bus and said, “I sent him to Billy” but that just seemed to get us both in that much more trouble.

After our wives finally calmed down, I noticed tears flowing down Jesse’s cheeks which I am sure had more to do with the verbal beat down he had just witnessed of these two pillars of God in his life; much more than any pain that he might have been suffering from the dislocation of his arm from his shoulder, but a decision was finally made to take him to the ER. I went to get his medical release form and met Kathy and Jesse at the car and we made the trek to this little hospital in Dahlonega that was more like a doctor’s office. While we were waiting I made that midnight phone call that every youth pastor dreads that basically starts like this, “I want you to know that Jesse is all right but . . .”

They gave Jesse a shot of dilaudid and while we waited on the arrival of his parents, Jesse became very talkative. There is an unspoken agreement between youth pastors and parents that says, “I won’t believe anything your teen says about you if you don’t believe anything he says about me.” I listened to Jesse say more that night than he had spoken in all the conversations the two of us had over all the years combined and Jesse was in one of my discipleship groups so we spoke with each other multiple times a week outside of church. Kathy and I learned a lot of family secrets that night and I can honestly say I don’t remember a single one of them; and if I did there is that unspoken agreement.

Not long after his parents arrived he was dismissed and he somehow managed to talk his parents into letting him return to camp with his arm in a sling; probably because they didn’t want to listen to him all the way back to Woodstock since he had yet to shut up. Whatever the reason the three of us returned to camp and the week went on without anymore incidents to speak of. Well, until RJ Dunn and Stephanie Neal attempted to not be outdone by each spraining their ankle and wrist respectively; at least neither required the dreaded phone call and a trip to the ER.

Every now and then I still get in trouble for not paying attention and maybe even a little competitive when I shouldn’t be. Most of all, I just miss those LightForce days and all of the teens that made those days so special. I still think of them as my own. We saw many of them come to Christ at those events with the three groups and thanks to Facebook I still get a few messages here and there from my kids. Many are still walking the walk and talking the talk. Some have become pastors, worship leaders and church leaders themselves but every one of my kids are still in my prayers. I still want to see each one put their faith where it matters most; know what you believe and why you believe it; keep those arms & shoulders square and take that leap of faith to that higher place Beyond Belief.

Rick E. France

 

Fishin’ In The Dark – The Best Of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Rick France 1987, 1988, Classical, Country , , ,
Fishin’ In The Dark
The Best Of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

The song “Fishin’ In The Dark” was the last number one hit for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. First appearing on Hold On in 1987, but I never had a copy until their greatest hits CD years later. I was more interested in their songs that received a little more airplay on the stations I grew up on in Chattanooga back in the 70’s; WFLI, WGOW & KZ106. Songs like “Mr. Bojangles”, “American Dream” and “Make A Little Magic” and yes I know the latter was 1980, but I was Class Of 1980 at Tyner High School so cut me some slack – it counts as the 70’s as far as I’m concerned. Those songs defined The Dirt Band to me, and up until I met Kathy those three songs were pretty much all I knew about the band. Boy was I in for a rude awakening.

After she finally said, “Yes” in late November of 1987, we started making plans for not just our wedding but our lives together. One of our first dilemmas revolved around season tickets. I am a rocker at heart, but I am primarily a “Prog Rocker”. One side effect of Progessive Rock is a love for Classical Music and I had season tickets to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Kathy had season tickets to Lanierland Music Park which had been providing country music fans their country fix since the early 70’s. Needless to say, I had never heard of the place. We both came to the conclusion that we couldn’t keep both sets of tickets and so a decision was made to meet in the middle. Kathy loved ballet and since the Atlanta Symphony played for the Atlanta Ballet we decided to get season tickets to the Atlanta Ballet from that point forward. In my opinion, I was coming out on top in this deal.

After our wedding, since the season for both venues was drawing near an end, we decided to sell those few remaining tickets we had save for one pair to each. Kathy had no preference with the symphony and since I favor strings over brass my favorite classical composer is Mendelssohn, and the Atlanta Symphony was featuring Mendelssohn and Gorski in one of the remaining concerts which is what I chose. For Lanierland, Kathy suggested I might like Restless Heart and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I had heard one Restless Heart song that sort of sounded like pre-Hotel California Eagles but mainly visions of “Make A Little Magic” and “American Dream” made me go, “yeah, I think that would be a pretty good concert.” So the decision was made, tickets set aside, and date nights established.

The two concerts were a few weeks apart and first up was the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Kathy and I got all dressed up for this one; one of the few times that I put on a coat and tie. I can clean up nicely from time to time, but she on the other hand looked stunning. We had a nice dinner beforehand in Roswell and then made our way to downtown Atlanta for the symphony. I had pretty good seats right in the middle about 30 rows back and the place was packed with everyone in their Sunday best. They first performed Mendelssohn and after a brief intermission finished the night with Gorski. During the intermission most everyone left the auditorium, but we remained behind with a few others. I asked Kathy what she thought so far and she said, “It’s good, but I like violins better when they’re fiddles.”

This one lady that looked like an old schoolmarm about four rows in front of us turned around slowly and pulled her glasses down on her nose and gave us a look that could stop a train. As she turned back around we both cracked up, but the comment and schoolmarm was engrained in our psyche from that day forward to be referenced whenever the situation allowed. The rest of the evening with my new beautiful bride was wonderful with the exception of Kathy standing at the finale and waving a lighter in the air while yelling “Free Bird!” OK, maybe she didn’t really stand up and yell, but it is still one of my favorite jokes to tell regarding that evening.

Next up was Lanierland. I must admit it was much more my style of a blue jean date night. Lanierland Music Park was a fairly small venue so they would have two shows each night of the same bands and our tickets were for the second show. I have been blamed for being cheap and my car at that time fit that bill. It was a white Nissan Sentra straight-shift that had no air conditioning and no radio. We arrived at Lanierland with the windows down on a cool summer evening thanks to the wind blowing off of Lake Lanier. I could tell it was going to be a cool night to enjoy this little “American Dream”, and then without warning – IT HAPPENED! As we pulled up to park the car the first thing I heard was, “You and me goin’ fishin’ in the dark. Lying on our backs and counting the stars where the cool grass grows.”

In total shock I said, “What in the world is that?” I was hoping that the first show was a completely different band.

Unfortunately, Kathy responded with, “That’s Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.”

I’m thinking, “No it’s not! It can’t be! Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is 70’s Rock and that’s not 70’s Rock” but all Kathy did was laugh at me because of the pathetic look on my face.

What I found out real quick was simply this; it ain’t the 70’s no more and this was not my childhood Dirt Band! Nitty Gritty was full blown country and this evening was not going to be “Make A Little Magic” – this evening was “Fishin’ In The Dark” and the two were not the same. I came real close to turning that car around and leaving, but I was quickly reminded by the voices in my head that it was my idea to take her to the symphony and then to this, this, whatever it was. I was here and there was no way of escape.

Oh sure, they did a medley of those 70’s hits – a medley – not the whole songs – a medley. Thank God they did “Mr. Bojangles” in its entirety, but even those 70’s songs seemed to have a bit more of a country twist on them than I remembered. All I can say is I felt more like a fish out of water in the dark than anything else remotely close to that evening. I had been to a lot of concerts at this point in my life, but none had prepared me for this night of music.

Still, I looked at this beautiful woman standing beside me singing every word to every song. The smile on her face as she danced and swayed to the music and all I could think was that I was the luckiest man alive. The style of music may not have been to my taste at that time, but that night was more than I could ever imagine. I was in love with this country music loving girl and there was no place on earth that I would rather be than right there with her. Crickets were singin’ and lightning bugs were floatin’ on the breeze and it felt so good to be right there with her and I would do it again right now if the opportunity arose.

What can I say? She’s a little bit country and I’m a little bit rock n’ roll. They say opposites attract and you can’t get more opposite than the two of us. I’ve always said and maintain to this day that if two people are just alike then one of them is unnecessary. Through the years, I have grown to enjoy and appreciate some of Kathy’s country music which is probably something I would never have done on my own accord. Plus, “Fishin’ In The Dark” has become our unofficial song because every time we hear it one of us will always say, “they’re playing our song.”

Might I suggest that next time you and the one you love look up and see a lazy yellow moon shinin’ through the trees that you take a little walk across the fields down to where the creek turns back and try a little Fishin’ In The Dark.

Rick E. France

 

All The World’s A Stage – Rush

Rick France 1976, Hard Rock, Prog Rock , , ,
All The Worlds A Stage
Rush

Dubbed The Musician’s Musicians and rightfully so, Rush was the first to merge Prog and Hard Rock together. Very few would disagree that The Professor, Neil Peart, is THE BEST Drummer in the world bar none. I would also argue that you would be hard pressed to find a better bassist in the world than Geddy Lee and in my humble opinion Alex Lifeson would make anyone’s list of “Top 10 Greatest Guitarist Of All Time”. This is just one awesome trio of musicians and about as close to the perfect band as you can get – but then there are vocals – that’s why I said close to the perfect band. Still they are such good musicians and songwriters that I actually can overlook the vocals in this case – besides, Geddy does sing on key and his voice seems to fit the style of music too. So while Geddy is no John Elefante he is distinctive and the perfect lead singer for Rush.

Now before anyone starts to question the inclusion of a “secular” band on this here blog, it is a blog about the soundtrack of my life. My musical retrospective in the key of life did not start once I became a Christian, and in the words of Steve Taylor, I do not only drink milk from a Christian cow. I am pretty selective when it comes to secular music in regards to my faith but I do eat at both Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s so I see no reason I can’t enjoy both Petra and Rush. If that offends you, then that’s your problem not mine.

While All The World’s A Stage is not what I would label as the best album Rush has ever created, it does have a special place in my memory bank. This live album came out in 1976 after the tour for what is one of their best albums, 2112. It was about this same time that I met my best friend in Jr High and High School, Steve Core. In my youth I was fortunate to have two best friends actually, and both were named Steve (I wonder if that is why I named my son Stephen?) but Steve Jackson had been my best friend since 2nd grade. According to Brian Regan one can have two favorite snow cones, grape being the favorite but if they’re out of grape cherry’s ok because it’s a favorite too. Therefore I conclude that one can have two best friends growing up because they’re both best. Core was grape and Jackson was cherry – simple as that.

Core was the new kid on the block (no relationship to the boy band) having moved from up north about a year or two earlier. We would jam together with the Jacksons (also no relationship to that boy band), Billy, Mark & Steven, in the Jackson’s garage on Davidson Ave along with Mike Rodgers. The six of us played the song “2112” A LOT! But the story of the garage band is for another day.

While I knew and jammed with Core prior to 1976, it was about this time that he became my best friend. I use to hang out in Core’s room and he would put All The World’s A Stage on so we could play along. Steve did not own a drum set at the time. If I recall correctly, he sold it before the move down south. He did have a weight bench in his room with books strategically stacked around it. He would point his drumstick at various weights and books and say, “This is my crash, this is my ride and here’s my hat. This stack of books is my floor and this one’s my snare” and so on until he had accounted for and described his entire kit that he was someday going to buy. Then he would place the needle right on “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Professor on the drum kit” and Core would proceed to play that solo right along with Neil Peart.

I thought Core had to be the best drummer in the world too because he was tearing those weights and books up! I would play my guitar while he would play those weights and books pretty much every day it seemed like. “Fly By Night”, “Working Man”, “Bastille Day”, “By-Tor & The Snow Dog”, we could play them all. In hindsight, maybe not quite as good as I thought especially since I have always been a rhythm guitarist, but in that bedroom we were awesome! We were the original Wyld Stallyns. We just needed Geddy Lee instead of Van Halen.

It wasn’t too long after that before Core finally bought his Rogers drum set that he still plays today and a couple of years ago when I went to see him play live, those drums still sounded so good. In hindsight though and after years of listening to Peart, maybe Core was not hitting every click of that drum solo – he’s a great drummer and probably the best I have ever known personally or played with but we are talking The Professor here. What I do know without a shadow of doubt is Peart can’t hold a candle to Core on a set of weights and a stack of books. And I think those were some of the best jam sessions of my entire life because in my mind’s eye I was playing guitar with a drum superstar that was my best grape friend.

As for Rush, this particular live album focuses mainly on their pre-prog days which was pretty good in its own right. The linear notes state that it is “the end of the first chapter of Rush”. The music that follows this album is simply prog-history. But when I listen to this one, I hear drumsticks hitting weights and books and very few things in life sound cooler than that! It just goes to show you that even in a teenager’s bedroom we find that All The World’s A Stage!

Rick E. France