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reality part 1: Here's the "Angel Guitar" I designed and carved from a 1958 Fender Musicmaster solid-body while sojourning in Northern New Mexico, summer '74. (Better pickup and turnpegs also added at that time.)
I'm an ungreat singer and half-baked guitarist, as you will discern as soon as I figure out how to mount audio on this page. Meantime, I'll at least share a few lyric lines -- which actually do address our Stormwatch theme of worldview confusion. How 'bout we start with the first ditty I penned within a few months of getting saved in Orlando, Florida. Like most of my musical efforts, this one follows a strict 12-bar-blues pattern, since -- in true hippie fashion -- that's all I know!
THIRD EYE BLUES (all six verses!)
Well I got three eyes, yes I got three: Two for watchin' out with, one for bein' free! Third one's in my forehead, cost me quite a lot -- Found it doin' YOGA, gave up smokin' pot; Only trouble with it As far as eye can see: Is that prince of darkness Jus' keeps starin' back at me!
All my friends have grown one, It's really quite the rage, Funky KUNDALINI has really come of age! But it keeps me guessin', while your aura gleams, Jus' what that snake is up to, twinin' roun' yo' jeans... But I guess it's alright No matter what the jolt Funky kundalini is the devil's lightnin' bolt!
Yeah once that eye pops open, now You better listen well: All your thoughts are subject...uh, to the plans of hell! An' as shadows lengthen, the NEW AGE not in sight, Better look around you, get ready for a fright... There's only One can save you From the demon's chain An' seal your forehead hard as flint An' soothe your fev'rish brain:
So I'd like t' tell ya, how He done for me, JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH, once upon a tree. He seen my heart was broken Wif fear and guilty shame; He ast me jus' t' trust in -- the power of His NAME? I thought that sounded looney But I had no place to turn, An' now He's singin' through me (Sayin') "Sinner, PLEASE DON'T BURN!"
Ev'ry cosmic power, in the sky above An' ev'ry earthly spirit, must bow before His love. He's comin' back on stage, read the Script -- you'll know, An' Satan's gettin' ready, t' put on quite a show! But I'll jus' guarantee ya When the dust is cleared, who'll be bound an' shackled An' Who'll be roundly cheered!
My sweet an' precious Jesus, God's own livin' Son; He wants t' call us brothers, now, He wants t' make us one: He needs us for His Body, 'til He lets out that shout: He's callin' volunteers t'day, He won't leave room for doubt. Lay down the lower life, Let Him perform your story, It ain't too high a costliness For ETERNITY IN GLORY!
OK, so while we're singing in dialect, might as well trot this one out -- which I wrote a couple years later, with obvious reference to John Chapter 9 and the Man Born Blind:
EGYP' LAN' (uh-oh...another SIX verses!)
Went down to live in ol' Pharoah's lan' Down whur th' livin' folks woik fo' th' daid folks Down whur th' blin' folks all laff at they sight jokes Down whur th' light folks be loaded wif hard yokes. Tried t' imitate they dance, Till I slippt into they trance, 'N purty soon I knowed I'd lost my way.
Sometimes I'd awake an see th' chains on me Mos'ly I'd jus' sleep an' dream that I was free: Flyin' high on Pharoah's Lie that I could be An incarnation of the One who was th' Sea An' realize th' Self Bring it down from off its shelf Or if not now th' nex' big time aroun'...
Pharoah sez that we're all One an' all is One -- Black is white an' white is black an' it's all fun. I lik't that fine cause it tickled my mind (Didn't know yet I was goin' blind) Back home I'd known th' light But Egyp's full of fright 'Specially when they come to carry me away...
Then I heard another Man had paid fo' me; If I'd take Him as my master I'd be free. He led me thru a desert place without a single tree; He said my Egyp' ways would havta die fo' me to see. He said, "I have chosen you An' washt you up like new: Now you mus' prove that I've not chosen wrong!"
Pharoah sent a message up from Egyp' lan' Said he'd gimmie all th' women I could stan' -- If I'd only come an' be his slave again, Said he'd put a dolla' in th' palm a my han' I knew he had that power To raise me up like a tower -- But towers fall an' Pharoah's fallin' too!
Th' King I'm servin' now calls me friend-brother-son He's my breath, my bread, my rest; He's my head. He tells me one day that I'll meet Him face to face In a land whose blinding light is His grace So blind I'm bound to be To Egyp's vanity That I may see the light Who made the world.
Well -- since you insist -- I'll add one more, that, "melodically," was adapted from Bob Seger's Fire Down Below. An appropriate New Testament statement throwing some light on this next lyric would be 2nd Peter, Chapter 1:2-4: "Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
AUGUSTINE (big relief -- FOUR verses!)
Augustine was a rounder Yeah he'd known a girl or three; Augie's mama prayed for him That God would set him free. So heaven turned his life around, Grace set his thoughts on high, A prisoner of the Lord at last, No prisoner of the Lie. Augie knew the Bible Yeah he plumbed it like a whale, And from the deep he brought to light Fresh import of a tale.
In his own veins he understood How lust fired high rebellion; Deep puzzled he the mystery That made the heart a hellion. From Genesis he saw a curse Well turned to suit the crime, When rebel wills became ashamed Of "strangers" yours and mine. Branded then like animals, Like such in part became: God granted each a rebel Which still we hide for shame!
Yet still we bore dim image Of Him who died for sin: No wonder now division, Confusion, strife within. Born now to serpent wisdom: To worship rebel self -- To find life now to lose it And crucify old self. In our own strength it can't be done, Our human will's too rotten, But Christ who saves can sanctify His own like harvest cotton!
Through the ages smoke has rolled From the fires of lust: Blinding to the glory Of Him in Whom we trust; Seducing generations To bow to fleshly gods, Ever deaf to warnings This fire returns to sod. Yet through the smoke a lonely cross Shines out a sweet release, Where the blood of God's Own Lamb Has purchased all our peace.
[Coda] Augustine was a rounder, He knew a truth or three Heed not the benders of the light... Who flaunt old nudity.
(Should you care to see for yourself what Brother Augustine had to say about the origin and nature of "lust," I refer you to his monumentally influential City of God, Book XIII, Chapters 3, 13-15 and Book XIV, Chapters 16-26. It seems Christ's Spirit was providing a rare depth to his "speculations" about the appropriate justice of the specific punishments meted out in the Father's disciplining of our first parents -- and us, their descendants!)
Stay tuned!
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While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. Copyright © 2001 STORMWATCH all rights
reserved.
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