Category: Music

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God Music Radio Television

My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics

This week it’s the return of ‘My Fantastic Journey’, as I present to you a current (still climbing up the music charts) pop smash at both mainstream and Christian radio. That’s truly a rarity in this day and age of hit music.

It’s 2009 “American Idol” Champion Kris Allen, and it’s his very inspirational debut smash “Live Like We’re Dying”. 

Yeah we gotta start lookin’ at the hands of the time we’ve been given
If this is all we got then we gotta start thinkin’
If every second counts on a clock that’s tickin’
Gotta live like we’re dyin’

We only got 86-400 seconds in a day
To turn it all around or to throw it all away
Gotta tell ’em we love ’em while we got the chance to say
Gotta live like we’re dyin’

It’s in the lyrics:

Make the most of every single second with God’s Great Creations. Live Life like it’s goin’ out of style. Make an impact. Change the world. Love. Don’t waste this golden opportunity. You may not get the chance to do it again.

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Career History Life Music People Television

Saturday Night Retro

It’s a special Friday night edition of the ‘Saturday Night Retro’ !

Back in November and December of 1985 I spent my first two months overseas in The United Kingdom at my first active duty Air Force permanent duty station. As a newly-assigned Airman I lived in one of the old post World War 2 era dormitories on base – rambler style with centralized community bathrooms. In other words you had to leave your room and walk down the hallway to use the toilet, take a shower, shave, wash your hands, and brush your teeth. There was no plumbing within the actual dorm rooms.

In the military a ‘day room’ is essentially a community living room with assorted furniture and a television. Our ‘day room’ in our particular dorm was damaged / unusable / off-limits, so we ‘dorm rats’ gathered together and took over an adjacent dorm’s day room. We met nightly after work to hang out, eat junk food, smoke cigarettes, drink beer (not me), watch British television, play Uno, and pretty much party like it was 1985 (sometimes all night long). Those are some of the greatest memories of my entire military career – from nearly 25 years ago. One of the biggest mistakes that I made early on was to buy my own television set for my dorm room because once I did that I unintentionally removed myself from that day room camaraderie. A few months later I went back over there, and it was never the same as it once was during those first two months. All of my old buddies had moved on – just as I had done.

One of the great Thursday night traditions that began in that day room and continued on during the entire time that I lived in the U.K. (the next two years) was watching “Top Of The Pops” on BBC-1. It aired weekly for over 40 years, and it was essentially their version of our “American Bandstand”. Here’s how a mid-December 1985 episode started at 7 PM GMT. It was one of those episodes that I watched alongside my day room buddies. On that week’s show Amazulu (an all-female British pop band) were in the Top 20 with their vivacious hit at the time “Don’t You Just Know It”.

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God History Music People Radio Television

My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics

Over 40 years ago Massachusetts-born singer-songwriter Norman Greenbaum wrote and performed “Spirit In The Sky” – a multi-platinum single that became an International pop and rock smash. Although he is Jewish the song is all about Jesus and Heaven.

Prepare yourself. You know it’s a must.
Gotta have a friend in Jesus.
So you know that when you die.
He’s gonna recommend you to the Spirit in the sky.

Goin’ on up to the Spirit in the sky.
That’s where you’re gonna go when you die.
When you die and they lay you to rest.
You’re gonna go to the place that’s the best.

It’s in the lyrics, and it’s in the rockin’ 1986 remake by the U.K. psychedelic rock band Doctor & The Medics. This version of the classic track had all of the British Isles and most of the European continent jammin’ during the Summer of 1986. Even a young 19-year-old chap by the name of Chris M. Day (Airman Hitwaves) went crazy whenever he heard this track get cranked up on the medium wave radio on BBC Radio 1 or on the television on “Top Of The Pops”.

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Saturday Night Retro

In 1997 Bill Clinton began his 2ND 4-year term as President Of The United States, the Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots 35-21 in Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans, the Dow Jones Industrials rose above 7,000 and 8,000 for the first time, Tony Blair became the new Prime Minister of The United Kingdom, Hong Kong transferred over from British to Chinese rule, Diana – Princess Of Wales – died, Mother Theresa died, The Florida Marlins won The World Series, and everyone was discovering the World Wide Web on their fast new Pentium II / 266 MHz desktop computer systems running Windows 95.

I turned 30-years-old in 1997, and I mostly hung out at home with my little buddy Boots of the feline species. My Mom, Dad, and Brother lived up near the Intracoastal Waterway on the far-east side of Jacksonville Florida with our aging childhood cats Fluffy and Barney. On selected weekends throughout the year my 22-year-old brother and I would meet halfway in the state – Orlando – for a few days and nights of fun at the amusement parks, nightclubs, and shopping and restaurant meccas. One of the great techno songs that we used to dance to on the nightly countdown to Midnight celebration at Downtown Disney Pleasure Island was this rockin’ jam of the time:

This concludes another fun week of blogging for me from Tuesday night through Saturday night. 6 blog posts. 5 days. All good. I’ll do it all over again next week from Tuesday night through Friday night before I take a 10-day hiatus from the blog. In fact next week’s ‘Saturday Night Retro’ will occur on Friday night, and it’ll be a song straight out of 1985. Have a great weekend my friends, and I’ll catch ya back here on Tuesday night for my ‘Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’.