Today’s featured song: Growing Up To Be A Child, by Sheila Walsh, from her 1984 album, Triumph In The Air.

As in the past several posts, I am continuing to share songs played on Christian radio from thirty years ago in 1984, taken off a tape that I personally recorded. As for the last several songs, this is again from WHME-FM in South Bend, Indiana. I haven’t yet explained my recording methods, so this is as good a time as any.

One method of doing recordings off the air is to start the tape, and just record (and keep) everything, including commercials and news. This method, which has become know as an “aircheck”, is a way to take a snapshot of programming on a station at a particular time in that station’s history. It might feature a day in time, or a particular DJ or a program. This is the ideal method of archiving radio programming. However, it requires the availability of a large number of recording tapes, and (preferably) a reel-to-reel recorder.

Another method is to take individual snapshots of bits and pieces of programming. When I began doing this recording way back in the early 1970s, I was recording music off of top 40 radio, and was doing it to get copies of songs I liked but could not afford to purchase (does that sound familiar?) At the time of my very oldest tape, from 1970, I was no just a freshman in high school, and it was a challenge to be able to afford cassette tapes; a proper reel-to-reel recording was way beyond my means. The process I used was to have a blank tape in my cassette recorder, ready to go. The recorder was in the “pause” position, and when I heard the first bars of a song I liked I would quickly release the pause button and tape it. If the song was not one I liked, I would rewind and wait again. This resulted in a number of songs that didn’t have their beginning, or repetitious renditions of stations jingles.

As time passed, I found that this resulted in less-than-desireable results. When I was older, and slightly more able to afford blank media, I changed to record an entire hour or more of everything off the air, and then would go back and copy from one tape to another the specific songs I wanted. The result was a much better collection of music, and that method wasis what was used when this 31st tape was compiled.

And with that long discourse out of the way, it comes to our song of the day by Sheila Walsh. This particular recording sounds like it might have been recorded from a top-twenty countdown on that station; the DJ doesn’t give the time or other typical announcements, but instead introduces the song with Jesus’ words from Matthew 19:14. The song if from Walsh’s fourth solo album, and is a more mellow offering than the other radio hit from that album, No Alibi, which also received a lot of air play. I could not find the lyrics to this song anywhere on the internet, so this is an exclusive here.

I like the lyrics because they point out that our love for Jesus is not to be based on having a deep theological understanding of the incarnation and crucifixion. Although study of those aspects of the life of Jesus are worth learning, it is not knowledge that will make me right with God; it is my simple, faithful acceptance of His offer of salvation that brings me into relationship with Him. So, like she sings, I want to “grow up” so I can have the simply faith of a child.

Unlike many of the songs I’ve featured here, this track is not available for MP3 purchase; the only things I’ve found are the vinyl record for sale.

Don’t need a reason for Your love
It cannot be explained
It just flows free
And it rains on me
And I
Don’t need a reason for the song
Stirring inside of me
It just flies free
Like a summer breeze

And You
Make it so easy now to laugh
Laugh at myself and all my pride
I’m growing up to understand
And when
People despise my simple trust
I’ve got no time for all their fuss
I’m growing up
To be a child

I
Find such a peace when I trust You
Something so beautiful
It lifts me high
When the storms roll by
I feel
Like I get younger every day
Rolled in my Father’s love
It feels so good
To be close to You

And You
Make it so easy now to laugh
Laugh at myself and all my pride
I’m growing up to understand
And when
People despise my simple trust
I’ve got no time for all their fuss
I’m growing up to be a child

I hear
Deep in my heart the spirit cry
You are my Father, I’m your child
I lift my high salute to You
And when
People despise my simple trust
I’ve got no time for all their fuss
I’m growing up
To be a child

I’m growing up
To be a child
Don’t waste time, I’m growing up
Don’t waste time, I’m growing up
Don’t waste time
I’m growing up