Today’s featured song: Walking This Road by Silverwind, from their self-titled 1981 debut album.
Our travel through songs played on CCM radio in 1984 continues with track 11 from Tape JM-31. Demonstrating that this group’s first album had staying power on the radio, here is a song from that release still in rotation three years later. The fact that I included this in my recording, and that I have four other tracks from this album on my various JM tapes, indicates that I enjoyed Silverwind’s sound.
Sadly, this recording is muddy and not as distinct as I would like; it sounds far better on the actual record album (or MP3 track).
Times I felt life wouldn’t work out
Thinking no hope was in sight
Then right at my lowest
Outward would come a shining lightTo brighten my days, giving me faith
To keep inside my heart
Now that I’m seeing, not merely believing
I’m making a startWalking this road is making me strong
My faith is in Jesus
I know he’s been changing me
All along the way
Walking this road is making my strong
My faith is in Jesus
I know he’s been changing me
All along the wayThings I’ve gone through can’t always explain
Questions fill my soul
But I know there’s reasons and throughout the seas ons
I’m believing moreCause I’ve heard a whisper that’s calling my heart
To stay on this narrow road
I feel so unworthy, but I’m running early
To follow the LordWalking this road is making me strong
My faith is in Jesus
I know he’s been changing me
All along the way
Walking this road is making me strong
My faith is in Jesus
I know he’s been changing me
I know he’s been changing meWalking this road is making me strong
My faith is in Jesus
I know he’s been changing me
All along the way
Walking this road is making me strong
My faith is in Jesus
I know he’s been changing me
All along the way …
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Walking This Road – purchase MP3 on Amazon |
Tags: Silverwind, WHME
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 breezeAnd 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 childI
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 YouAnd 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 childI 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 childI’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
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Tags: Sheila Walsh, WHME
Today’s featured song: Keepin’ My Eyes On You by Twila Paris, from her 1982 album of the same name.
Track 9 on my 1984 tape recorded from the radio is a song to remind me to look to Jesus, and no one else, to be my source of joy and confidence. I cannot expect myself to be able to handle life, and no one else – not my church, my pastor, anyone in my family, even the person I admire the most – is able to always fully comfort me and keep me going.
I’m not looking behind me
At mistakes I’ve already made
Hope is living inside me
I believe that my debts are paid
Trusting You now
I know I can make it
I made a vow
I don’t want to break itLord, I’m keeping my eyes on You
Following You, following You
My Lord, I’m keeping my eyes on You
Following You
Following You, my LordThere’s no good in comparing
With my friends who are serving You
Lord, all the grace that You’re sharing
Is enough for what I must do
Trusting You now
I know I can make it
I made a vow
And I’m not gonna break itLord, I’m keeping my eyes on You
Following You, following You
My Lord, I’m keeping my eyes on You
Following You
Following You, my LordI won’t look to the left or right
My only goal is keeping You in my sightLord, I’m keeping my eyes on You
Following You
Following You, my LordLord, I’m keeping my eyes on You
Following You, following You
My Lord, I’m keeping my eyes on You
Following You, following You
My Lord, I’m keeping my eyes on You
Following You, I’m just following You
My Lord, I’m keeping my eyes on You
Following You
I’m just following You, my Lord
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Keepin’ My Eyes On You – purchase MP3 on Amazon |
Tags: Twila Paris, WHME
Today’s featured song: Love’s Not A Feeling, by Steve Camp, from his 1983 album, Fire And Ice.
Our travels through the audio of Jesus music that I recorded off the radio in 1984 continues with today’s song. It is preceded by a station identification and a summertime music promotion from WHME-FM in South Bend, Indiana. For the years that I had recorded music off the radio, part of my enjoyment of it was not just having the song, but also the station jingles, the comments of the DJs, and so on. For that reason, this tape also gives a snapshot of what WHME sounded like back in 1984. Track 5 from this tape shows the WHME hourly ID, which started with a scripture version, in this case Psalm 118:24, and then the station name, and their slogan that year, “We’re reaching out!”.
Track 6 on Tape JM-31 was Praise The Lord by The Imperials. Since I already featured that song on a blog post back in 2008 (see Recovery), I’ve skipped it here.
The next track on the tape was a WHME summer promotion, featuring popular artists and their songs from that year. And then we come to today’s song by Steve Camp, sung as a duet with Michelle Pillar.
Love and feelings are compared in the song, pointing out that loving is not dependent on how I feel about a person, but that it is primarily a decision. The feelings may not always be there, but love, like the agape love of God, is there whether or not the recipient of the love is deserving of it. It’s what God shows to us; may He help us know how to show it to each other!
Take a look around
So many broken hearts on the ground
No one was there
To take the time to really care
Well, a commitment’s what love should be
But we wash our hands of it so easily
We give up so fast
And then wonder why love doesn’t lastLove’s not a feeling, oh, we’ve got to learn
To get past our emotions to the meaning of the word
Love’s not a feeling we can lose or throw away
Lord, give us the courage to live it every day, oh…There’s a love that Jesus showed
And our desperate hearts need it so
His love is alive
It never ends, it never dies
God won’t walk out on us
When the pressure’s on and times are tough
Just trust in His power
He’ll see you through your darkest hourLove’s not a feeling, oh, we’ve got to learn
To get past our emotions to the meaning of the word
Love’s not a feeling we can lose or throw away
Lord, give us the courage to live it every day‘Cause love’s not a feeling, oh, we’ve got to learn
To get past our emotions to the meaning of the word
Love’s not a feeling we can lose or throw away
Lord, give us the courage to live it every dayLove’s not a feeling, oh, we’ve got to learn
To get past our emotions to the meaning of the word
Love’s not a feeling we can lose or throw away
Lord, give us the courage to live it every day, oh…Love, oh, love, love’s not a feeling
No, no, no, no
Love, oh, love, love’s not a feeling
Ooh…
Love, oh, love, love’s not a feeling
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Love’s Not A Feeling – purchase MP3 on Amazon |
Tags: feeling, love, Steve Camp, WHME
