“I Will Be Here” November 30, 2006

Whew. The last wedding of 2006. But the first I’ve done for someone I hardly know. She’d seen my previous work and liked it. Unfortunately, I don’t think I did a good job on her’s, what with an impolite videographer always blocking the view at the last minute (so there was no time to manoeuvre into line of sight) and a very erratic battery.

This song was played at all, if not most, of the 10-15 weddings this year, and it’s finally gotten under my skin:

“I Will Be Here”
Steven Curtis Chapman

Tomorrow morning if you wake up
And the sun does not appear
I, I will be here
If in the dark, we lose sight of love
Hold my hand, and have no fear
‘Cause I, I will be here

I will be here
When you feel like being quiet
When you need to speak your mind
I will listen
And I will be here
When the laughter turns to cryin’
Through the winning, losing and trying
We’ll be together
I will be here

Tomorrow morning, if you wake up
And the future is unclear
I will be here
Just as sure as seasons were made for change
Our lifetimes were made for these years
So I will be here

I will be here
And you can cry on my shoulder
When the mirror tells us we’re older
I will hold you
And I will be here
To watch you grow in beauty
And tell you all the things you are to me
I will be here

I will be true to the promise I have made
To you and to the One who gave you to me

Tomorrow morning, if you wake up
And the sun does not appear
I will be here
Oh, I will be here

The sappiness still sits uncomfortably, and the 90s-type CCM rifts still bug me but the story behind it is interesting: this song apparently emerged from a very dark time when Steven found out his parents would be getting a divorce, and he wanted to assure his wife, Mary Beth, that he’d be there for her even through the most difficult fights and the times when she felt totally ugly; a vow of commitment.

Lawyerly senses prickle and warning bells ring: the promise of something you’re not sure you can deliver! Can you promise you’ll always be there? Shouldn’t there be a carve-out for kicking the bucket, for incapacity, for (hurhur) being raptured, for your innate sinfulness that might cause you to betray your spouse in the years to come?

“Force Majeure

The covenanting party shall not be responsible for its failure in the performance of its obligations hereunder if such performance is prevented by an act of God, fire, explosion, war, civil commotion, strikes, riots, acts of terrorism or any cause which is beyond the control of the said covenanting party, or its innate sinfulness”.

*Mulls*

Maybe only God the Faithful can, in full honesty, sing this song?

The Cure November 1, 2006

I’ve been listening to my post-punk collection: Devo, The Fall, Gang of Four, The Raincoats, Wire, Joy Division, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees…
How much I utterly <3 The Cure and Robert Smith’s unique lo-fi sound made, allegedly, by running his Fender bass VI baritone guit through an early ’80s Peavey Ultra head into a 4×12 cabinet. These guys say that his personal settings for the head are to remove the mids, set the bass half and the treble completely turned up.

If I ever lay my hands on an electric guit and a nice collection of pedals, how much I’d like to spend my nights playing in underground indie pubs to people who’d understand – not just the mod dressers in their polkadots and stripes and skinny jeans and bumblebee sunnies, but people who’d appreciate the textures and the layering.

How very postpunk revival. How very passe. Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, British Sea Power, Dirty Pretty Things, Franz Ferdinand, The Futureheads, Hard-Fi, Interpol, Kaiser Chiefs, The Killers, Le Tigre, The Libertines, Louis XIV, Maximo Park, The Strokes, Snow Patrol, We Are Scientists…

In line with my need to understanding the whys and whatfores of everything, am on the hunt for this book: