Nov. 25, 2013
By Bob Farrell
By Bob Farrell
I refuse to dwell on the evil
I have cast my lot with the righteous
I will live the words of the Master
I will take my stand
This is my manifesto
My manifesto
That's the chorus to the title song of Farrell & Farrell's 7th album, a lyric written in 1987. A year later Jayne and I and our band would make a concert tour to Communist Russia — in the year before the Wall came down.
When I penned words and melody for Manifesto to a Michael Demus techno track, F&F had already been into Communist Poland several times. We were particularly drawn to the plight of Eastern Europeans, where the Gospel was outlawed; and to Western Europe, where there was freedom to worship but the light of the Gospel had flickered to a guttering flame.
The song Manifesto was my way of making a declaration to the entire planet. A personal creed to live by, stand upon, and shout out.
Every christian song I have written since 1971 was to me like a 3-minute sermon. It had to be solidly based in the Word of God; I wanted it to communicate without being preachy; it needed to be the best I could muster; and it should be typified by the finest qualities of great entertainment and 'high art' that I could create.
I believed that if I did all those things well enough and consistently, that some of those songs could be timeless. In humility I am extremely proud to say that some of my writing is still speaking to people's hearts to this day.
Since Fall 2010 I have also been writing book manuscripts and I've discovered that I really enjoy the process of book-writing.
So, here's what I believe God is directing me to now do. I am going to blog on a range of subjects based on my song lyrics: because what interested me back when I wrote them interests me still; and the fact that so many of those song messages are as timely now as the time in which I wrote them — in some cases even more so. There will also be some backstory about how the song came to be.
So start looking for My Manifesto Mondays, which I pray will prod your minds, hearts, consciences, and intellects — and inspire your heart and mind. If you would like to read more about how I arrived finally at taking this blogging plunge click here.
On F&F's Russian tour in 1988 we opened 30 shows in Moscow and Leningrad for our friend Tom Newman's production of Toymaker's Dream, a dance-mime-musical-allegory about the Toymaker (God), His Son (Jesus), and the toys (the people of Earth). We were guests of the Kremlin's Peace Committee and their emissary, Stas Namin.
How contradictory, poignant, and appropriate that the Kremlin should invite us in at that critical juncture in world history.
The shows were wildly successful, playing to sold-out houses — literally hundreds of thousands of hungry souls that devoured the Gospel of Christ through morsels of dance and song.
We got braver and bolder from stage as the tour progressed, not really following the rules of bridling our message according to Communist mandate.
Anyway, when I read Rachel's FB post I immediately went in my head and heart to summer of 1988 — to the Lenin Youth Palace in Moscow, and the Ice Arena in Leningrad: the vaunted city-seats of power for 'the evil empire' (as Ronald Reagan termed it), and the Communist Manifesto that had ruled and ruined several generations of Eastern Europeans. An empire we saw virtually crumbling and self-destructing before our eyes in 1988.
As I mentioned before, the song Manifesto was the personal creed of a self-proclaimed "man on a mission" — to live by, stand upon, and shout out.
Except in the last decade I have found myself shouting out less and less. Not good.
Rachel and my other daughter, Dawn, have been telling me for years that I should be writing a blog,'tweeting', social networking. I'm 64, and like many of my generation, have not warmed to those pursuits.
But Rachel's posting was the proverbial 'straw that broke the camel's back'.
And it served to shake me out of a self-induced reverie and overcome an inertia that has gripped me for years.
I need to give a little background (and I promise future installments won't be as lengthy, so bear with me :).
F&F quit touring and performing in 1991, at which time I switched horses in midstream and diverted all my songwriting energy into scores of other artists. And that horse did truly gallop, as the mouthpieces for my music and lyrics became CCM artists like Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Sandi Patty, Rebecca St. James, Larnelle Harris, Sheila Walsh, Bebe Winans, Kathy Tricolli — and pop and country stars, like Eric Clapton, Wynonna, Anne Murray, SheDaisy, Lonestar, Clif Richard, Peabo Bryson, Laura Branigan, Kenny Loggins — and scores of others.
I co-wrote four musicals, oratorios, and rock operas in the 90's: Saviour, The Story of God's Passion for His People, which chronicles God's pursuit of man from creation to present day; Emmanuel, which traces the incarnation through Old and New Testament; Le Voyage, a musical allegory depicting the life/road of an 'everyman' character making a spiritual journey to The Homeplace; and !HERO, the Rock Opera, which poses the question: What if He were born in Bethlehem ... Pennyslvania? All these works have been performed and toured nationally, some still are.
Greg Nelson and I co-wrote several songs that are now in hymnals. I got multiple Grammy and Dove nominations for my songs, winning 7 Dove awards and NSAI's Gospel Song of the Year in 1995.
But like many in the music industry, since the late 90's I have been depleted, de-horned, and traumatized by the new model for music consumption and the new realities of single-song-digital-downloads; from the near-total-extinction of CD sales, due to file-sharing (more accurately song-royalty-stealing); and by the phenomena of American Idol — that posits that anybody and everybody is a pop-star.
Added to my personal dilemma was another irrefutable truth: that I didn't leave christian music — it left me. I began writing christian pop songs and Jayne and I began performing to audiences wherever possible immediately after we became christians in 1971. Along with Lovesong, Keith Green, Second Chapter of Acts, DeGarmo and Key, and many other artists were Jesus Music — which became CCM — which became an industry.
In the late 90's CCM made a seismic shift into worship and praise — exclusively. Not that there's anything wrong with that expression — just why did it have to become the only expression allowed?
At any rate the combination of all these realities and factors did something I never would have thought possible: they served to shut me down.
Yep. A guy who was around as a contributor-to and active participant-in a genre he and other pioneering artists had literally birthed; who had lived well and raised a family on the royalties generated by the free-market principles and hard work he had believed in and espoused all his life — till the buyers started stealing the music instead of buying it; who didn't normally take defeat sitting down; and who continued writing and stockpiling songs even though he couldn't get them recorded — or if he did, could not make much money from them anymore.
So that by Spring 2010 (in fact, the exact time at which the Nashville Flood smacked Jayne and I good and proper) that guy had become so ineffective, broke, disillusioned, frustrated, and clueless that he had ceased doing what he had been excelling at for over 4 decades: writing songs.
I hear some of you saying, "Oh, yeah. Another whiner. More sour grapes. Waa-waa-waa."
But, honestly, that's not what this is — or, at least, that's not what I want or intend. This is just stating the realities and what they have done to my psyche, my motivation, my drive, my ministry, my income — my being. I am truly not bitter and throwing stones at the darkness. I'm simply honest as to the realities — and dismayed enough to send out a 'message in a bottle' (thank you, Sting — again). An S.O.S. that exhorts, reminds, forewarns, predicts, expounds — about some things we have forgotten, or are losing to apathy and complacency.
Whether or not you feel my words are valid is something you will have to decide.
Whether anyone is listening or is interested in my postulations is something I will just have to find out — by making them.
It was interesting to see comments after Rachel's FB post last summer. A couple said their fave lyrics of mine (because they found themselves saying them every day) were:
When I penned words and melody for Manifesto to a Michael Demus techno track, F&F had already been into Communist Poland several times. We were particularly drawn to the plight of Eastern Europeans, where the Gospel was outlawed; and to Western Europe, where there was freedom to worship but the light of the Gospel had flickered to a guttering flame.
The song Manifesto was my way of making a declaration to the entire planet. A personal creed to live by, stand upon, and shout out.
Every christian song I have written since 1971 was to me like a 3-minute sermon. It had to be solidly based in the Word of God; I wanted it to communicate without being preachy; it needed to be the best I could muster; and it should be typified by the finest qualities of great entertainment and 'high art' that I could create.
I believed that if I did all those things well enough and consistently, that some of those songs could be timeless. In humility I am extremely proud to say that some of my writing is still speaking to people's hearts to this day.
Since Fall 2010 I have also been writing book manuscripts and I've discovered that I really enjoy the process of book-writing.
So, here's what I believe God is directing me to now do. I am going to blog on a range of subjects based on my song lyrics: because what interested me back when I wrote them interests me still; and the fact that so many of those song messages are as timely now as the time in which I wrote them — in some cases even more so. There will also be some backstory about how the song came to be.
So start looking for My Manifesto Mondays, which I pray will prod your minds, hearts, consciences, and intellects — and inspire your heart and mind. If you would like to read more about how I arrived finally at taking this blogging plunge click here.
On F&F's Russian tour in 1988 we opened 30 shows in Moscow and Leningrad for our friend Tom Newman's production of Toymaker's Dream, a dance-mime-musical-allegory about the Toymaker (God), His Son (Jesus), and the toys (the people of Earth). We were guests of the Kremlin's Peace Committee and their emissary, Stas Namin.
How contradictory, poignant, and appropriate that the Kremlin should invite us in at that critical juncture in world history.
The shows were wildly successful, playing to sold-out houses — literally hundreds of thousands of hungry souls that devoured the Gospel of Christ through morsels of dance and song.
We got braver and bolder from stage as the tour progressed, not really following the rules of bridling our message according to Communist mandate.
Anyway, when I read Rachel's FB post I immediately went in my head and heart to summer of 1988 — to the Lenin Youth Palace in Moscow, and the Ice Arena in Leningrad: the vaunted city-seats of power for 'the evil empire' (as Ronald Reagan termed it), and the Communist Manifesto that had ruled and ruined several generations of Eastern Europeans. An empire we saw virtually crumbling and self-destructing before our eyes in 1988.
As I mentioned before, the song Manifesto was the personal creed of a self-proclaimed "man on a mission" — to live by, stand upon, and shout out.
Except in the last decade I have found myself shouting out less and less. Not good.
Rachel and my other daughter, Dawn, have been telling me for years that I should be writing a blog,'tweeting', social networking. I'm 64, and like many of my generation, have not warmed to those pursuits.
But Rachel's posting was the proverbial 'straw that broke the camel's back'.
And it served to shake me out of a self-induced reverie and overcome an inertia that has gripped me for years.
I need to give a little background (and I promise future installments won't be as lengthy, so bear with me :).
F&F quit touring and performing in 1991, at which time I switched horses in midstream and diverted all my songwriting energy into scores of other artists. And that horse did truly gallop, as the mouthpieces for my music and lyrics became CCM artists like Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Sandi Patty, Rebecca St. James, Larnelle Harris, Sheila Walsh, Bebe Winans, Kathy Tricolli — and pop and country stars, like Eric Clapton, Wynonna, Anne Murray, SheDaisy, Lonestar, Clif Richard, Peabo Bryson, Laura Branigan, Kenny Loggins — and scores of others.
I co-wrote four musicals, oratorios, and rock operas in the 90's: Saviour, The Story of God's Passion for His People, which chronicles God's pursuit of man from creation to present day; Emmanuel, which traces the incarnation through Old and New Testament; Le Voyage, a musical allegory depicting the life/road of an 'everyman' character making a spiritual journey to The Homeplace; and !HERO, the Rock Opera, which poses the question: What if He were born in Bethlehem ... Pennyslvania? All these works have been performed and toured nationally, some still are.
Greg Nelson and I co-wrote several songs that are now in hymnals. I got multiple Grammy and Dove nominations for my songs, winning 7 Dove awards and NSAI's Gospel Song of the Year in 1995.
But like many in the music industry, since the late 90's I have been depleted, de-horned, and traumatized by the new model for music consumption and the new realities of single-song-digital-downloads; from the near-total-extinction of CD sales, due to file-sharing (more accurately song-royalty-stealing); and by the phenomena of American Idol — that posits that anybody and everybody is a pop-star.
Added to my personal dilemma was another irrefutable truth: that I didn't leave christian music — it left me. I began writing christian pop songs and Jayne and I began performing to audiences wherever possible immediately after we became christians in 1971. Along with Lovesong, Keith Green, Second Chapter of Acts, DeGarmo and Key, and many other artists were Jesus Music — which became CCM — which became an industry.
In the late 90's CCM made a seismic shift into worship and praise — exclusively. Not that there's anything wrong with that expression — just why did it have to become the only expression allowed?
At any rate the combination of all these realities and factors did something I never would have thought possible: they served to shut me down.
Yep. A guy who was around as a contributor-to and active participant-in a genre he and other pioneering artists had literally birthed; who had lived well and raised a family on the royalties generated by the free-market principles and hard work he had believed in and espoused all his life — till the buyers started stealing the music instead of buying it; who didn't normally take defeat sitting down; and who continued writing and stockpiling songs even though he couldn't get them recorded — or if he did, could not make much money from them anymore.
So that by Spring 2010 (in fact, the exact time at which the Nashville Flood smacked Jayne and I good and proper) that guy had become so ineffective, broke, disillusioned, frustrated, and clueless that he had ceased doing what he had been excelling at for over 4 decades: writing songs.
I hear some of you saying, "Oh, yeah. Another whiner. More sour grapes. Waa-waa-waa."
But, honestly, that's not what this is — or, at least, that's not what I want or intend. This is just stating the realities and what they have done to my psyche, my motivation, my drive, my ministry, my income — my being. I am truly not bitter and throwing stones at the darkness. I'm simply honest as to the realities — and dismayed enough to send out a 'message in a bottle' (thank you, Sting — again). An S.O.S. that exhorts, reminds, forewarns, predicts, expounds — about some things we have forgotten, or are losing to apathy and complacency.
Whether or not you feel my words are valid is something you will have to decide.
Whether anyone is listening or is interested in my postulations is something I will just have to find out — by making them.
It was interesting to see comments after Rachel's FB post last summer. A couple said their fave lyrics of mine (because they found themselves saying them every day) were:
Give me the words
When I don't know what to say
Give me the words
When my heart can't find a way
You're the voice inside me — that knows just what to say
Give me the words
My own prayer, circa 1982.
My other daughter, Dawn had this comment:
For His pardon sets the hopeless captive free
Chords of love and words to live by — thx BOB!
Exactly. Thanks Dawn.
I also got another missive from God that same day as Rachel's post — via an Arthur Blessit e-newsletter. Wow. What a guy (he's the one who carries the cross all over the world).
Jayne and I met him in 1972 when we recorded our first album in Atlanta. He was speaking at Rehobeth Baptist Church, who supported him financially. I was so completely blown away with his stories and ministry that when he was leaving town I went to him and said, 'I want to do what you're doing.'
'Cool.' he said. 'That's great. Let God lead.'
After a second it hit me what he was saying, but I rejoinder-ed anyway: 'No, I mean Jayne and I want to come WITH YOU.' The circus was leaving town and we wanted to go with it.
He just smiled like Arthur always does, and said sweetly: 'Oh, no, brother, I've found alone is best for me. You just let God lead YOU! He'll do it...I promise.
Needless to say we didn't go with Arthur, and God did lead Jayne and I.
The headline of that newsletter I read last summer said that Arthur had passed the "40,000-mile-mark" carrying the cross — arguably the longest walk for any human in history. That amazed me, but how God really pierced my heart was this reminder: Arthur was still doing the same exact thing he had been doing since I met him in 1972. Like Paul the Apostle he chose to "just preach Christ and Him crucified" — and was still at it.
I started out in 1971 as a new believer who began to write songs for the very first time, totally out of a full heart — a 'hopeless captive who had been set free" (to quote a lyric-writer I know quite well :). That new faith grew into years and years of very successful writing and ministry.
Til I let circumstantial evidence shut me down.
The night after God hit me with Arthur's newsletter and Rachel's FB post, I had a dream that was so realistic (as opposed to zany fantastical) that it kept waking me up — which is what usually happens when the action in my dream hits really close to home. F&F were singing Manifesto with our band — Demus was there — and each time I came awake it was as if God was saying: "You're still supposed to be doing this." Huh.
I would then fall back to sleep, but rather than jumping to some other dream as per normal, there I was — singing with my wife — exactly where the last dream-segment left off.
Huh.
After about the fourth time that happened I decided I wasn't going to have a normal night so I got up and began writing this piece you're now reading, in which I've tried to explain why I'm launching My Manifesto Mondays — in hopes it will answer that "you're-still-supposed-to-be-doing-this" part (surely You didn't mean buy a bus and go back on the road — did You, God?).
So, off we go. be looking for My Mainfesto Mondays.
And let me close with a very cool thought: it only took a year for Rachel and Dawn to show their IT-challenged Dad how to do this.
(lyric excerpts from Manifesto, circa 1987; Give Me the Words, circa 1983; No Need, circa 1978)
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