06 January 2012

Music Day

Just in time for a new year of Music Day posts, I've acquired a considerable amount of music in the past few weeks.

It started with the discovery of classicchristian247.com this past November. Not only have I discovered songs from my childhood that I had previously not known the names of, I have also discovered other music I've come to enjoy. (I would have said 'new music' except it's mostly from the eighties.)

However, the music they play on the station that I tend to like usually exceeds the iTunes Store's repertoire. So I turned to eBay.

In the past month or so, I've rounded out my entire White Heart collection (save Don't Wait For The Movie), gotten that one last Petra album that iTunes steadfastly refuses to carry, and bought at least one album from a flash-in-the-pan because I kept hearing songs from that artist on the radio.

Then, just before Christmas, I stopped at the second-hand store. I needed one last component for my little sister's gift and my mother suggested looking at the second-hand shop.

What I needed conveniently happened to be right next to the music section. So while I waited for my mother to return (she had dropped me off and taken the rattletrap to get groceries), I browsed through the music.

There I found Jars Of Clay's debut album on cassette, plus Steven Curtis Chapman's Signs Of Life, Newsboys' Take Me To Your Leader, and Petra's Petra Praise 2 on CD. All told it was less than five dollars. All of the CDs are in good condition and at least side one of the cassette is good (I haven't gotten around to the second side yet).

For Christmas my parents got me two Newsboys albums I didn't yet have and a friend got me an iTunes gift card, which, when added to the store credit I already had, yielded nearly fifty dollars. I'm still chipping away at that.

And now... I've talked about getting a USB record player for years now. My father has quite a collection of 1980s Christian records, most of which I'd also fallen in love with back when I was four or five years old and he would play DJ in our living room in the evenings, spinning his favourite songs on vinyl and CD for our enjoyment. Even now, hearing the songs he played most often brings me back to those evenings when I would sit by the stereo with him on our brand-new white carpet and look at all the album covers and -- perhaps most importantly -- look for the copyright year of each one (because even back then I was nerdy enough to care about this).

Anyway, back to the story.

So the other day I needed something at the electronics store. My father came with me, saying he wanted to look at something.

We left the store with the cable I needed... plus a shiny new record player. I think it was a purchase for him more than it was for me -- I've never seen him so excited.

Long story short I've spent the better part of the past two or three days importing vinyl. I intend to convert a few of his favourite albums to CD for his birthday next week, but right now I'm high on all his DeGarmo & Key and David Meece albums. (Though I'm sure he would enjoy having those on CD too -- after all, he evidently liked their music if he kept buying their records.)

So today, after much deliberation, I have decided to feature this:

Title: You Are The One
Artist: Keith Green
Album: Songs For The Shepherd
Year: 1982
Label: Pretty Good Records
iTunes here; YouTube here.

(Note this is Keith Green, not to be confused with Steve Green (this confused me to no end as a child). Keith Green was the guy with the really thick curly hair who died in a plane crash. Steve Green, as far as I know, is still around (in fact, I think he's still recording).)

When I first heard a Keith Green song, about a year or so ago, I wasn't particularly impressed. I don't remember which song it was, but I remember thinking it was rather boring.

However, after a couple of months of hearing his work on the radio, it's started to grow on me. I think he composed with the piano rather than the guitar, a rarity in Christian music to say the least (David Meece is the only other Christian artist I can think of right this second who also composes on the piano). In fact, I read a review of a Keith Green album once that said simply, 'Keith Green makes the piano keys sing.' The more I listen to his songs, the more I'm inclined to agree. The rock feel of some of his other material (not so much in this song) has a sort of 'class' that isn't easily found elsewhere. I like electric-guitar-based rock as much as the next person, but piano-based rock is a nice burst of fresh air.

Another thing I've grown like about his music is the passion, the love he had for God. You hear it especially in the song I just posted... you can hear the smile in his voice, like he's almost about to laugh just from joy. It's such a simple song, but he has so much fun singing it you can't help singing along.

I was dying
But You gave Your life for me
Oh...

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