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Wednesday, December 8, 2021

It Was 1987 ( #BOTB Results )

       The Christmas countdown has begun!  I'm not counting the days though.  The days are just coming and passing by.  I'm California cold and not going anywhere much at all.  It's California after all.  Nowhere I care to go and wear a mask to do it...



Battle of the Bands Results


         In my most recent Battle I had Christian artist Matthew Ward up against Leslie Phillips with two very different sounding songs that were praising God.  This was in honor of the Christmas season as well as to remember songs that I'd enjoyed many years ago while working on the road.

        Since several hours a day were usually spent riding in our van as we travelled from town to town, we tended to listen to a lot of music on cassette recordings.  Consequently, in order to keep a flow of new music playing, we bought many many cassette tapes during those years.  I tried to keep a wide range of different types of music on hand in our library.  One genre that began to dominate in the collection was contemporary Christian music.  I scoured record stores across the country trying to acquire interesting finds new and old.

       One record store that stands out in my memory was in the mall at the Christian theme resort run by Jim and Tammy Faye Baker--Heritage USA.  Since our company was based in nearby Charlotte NC we made a number of visits to the park.  During one of those visits I spent some time perusing the cassettes at the Heritage record store.  It was spring of 1987.

        Among the tapes I purchased were Michael W Smith's The Big Picture and the then newly released Second Chapter of Acts Faraway Places, which was being heavily promoted at that time. I had heard of Second Chapter of Acts for quite some time, but had never purchased any of their albums.  They struck me as some kind of weird Jesus Freak group that sung songs that wouldn't interest me that much.  However I knew they had quite a reputation and I guess I succumbed to the store advertising and my own curiosity.

          Their music was pleasant enough--better than what I was expecting--but one song by the brother member of the group, Matthew Ward, somewhat perplexed me.  I never paid the song much mind until in about September of that year.  We had stayed in Sedalia MO on a Saturday night so we could be in town for a Sunday matinee show.  In no hurry to make a jump to another town, I was taking my time in the motel room getting ready.  I happened to have the Faraway Places cassette playing in the room.

          When the song "You Are All in All" came on I became transfixed by it.   I began to play it repeatedly as I focused ever more closely upon it.  The original perplexed feeling came over me. What was it about this song?  It somehow made me imagine that the music had been read upside down or backwards or something that I couldn't quite figure out.

           I now think "You Are All in All" is an incredibly beautiful and unique song.  The group Second Chapter of Acts was an amazing group.  I probably have most of their albums in my collection.  I can't say where my original perception of them came from, but not for the first time I was wrong about something.  Again.

          In this contest you probably would guess correctly that my vote went to Matthew Ward and his sisters in the group Second Chapter of Acts.  And really the outcome wasn't all that shabby...

Final Vote Tally

Matthew Ward         8 votes

Leslie Phillips           10 votes           


Next Battle of the Bands...

      Might be on December 15th but ultimately whenever I please.   If you don't see me on that day then it's probably because of something that kept me from doing it.  But you probably know that.







6 comments:

  1. If I could sum up this contest in one word, it might be "Worthy."

    If I could sum up the results in one work, that would be "Mountain."

    This was super close!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michael, I thought it was a pretty worthy contest. Not sure what the "Mountain" part means, but I'll take it.

      I do like the close Battles.

      Lee

      Delete
    2. Leslie West is your Mountain Connection. You put his name as winning the contest, rather than Leslie Phillips.

      Delete
    3. Oops! Thanks for the heads up. I guess I was pretty absent minded when I was composing this post, but I can be pretty absent minded much of the time. Correction made.

      Lee

      Delete
    4. Michael Todd ~

      >>... If I could sum up the results in one word, that would be "Mountain."

      Ha!-Ha! Funny stuffs! :^D
      I'd noticed that too, a couple days back, but I didn't have time right then to actually type a comment.

      ~ D-FensDogG
      STMcC Presents BATTLE OF THE BANDS

      Delete
  2. LEE ~

    We both had top-notch Battles this time. A one or two vote spread is outstanding!

    Once upon a time, I thought I had BOTB all figured out and that I could create a really tight Battle every time. (Because I'd had numerous really close contests in a row.) But then it all went South again.

    There is no real BOTB formula. From one Battle to the next, ain't none of us knows a thing for certain. There are definitely a few "DON'Ts", but beyond that, it's all a crapshoot.

    ~ D-FensDogG
    LEARN THE HOLY BIBLE IN 15 MINUTES!

    ReplyDelete

Go ahead and say something. Don't be afraid to speak your mind.
I normally try to respond to all comments in the comment section so please remember to check the "Email follow-up comments" box if you want to participate in the comment conversation.

For Battle of the Bands voting the "Anonymous" commenting option has been made available though this version is the least preferred. If voting using "anonymous" please include in your comment your name (first only is okay) and city you are voting from and the reason you chose the artist you did.

If you know me and want to comment but don't want to do it here, then you can send me an email @ jacksonlee51 at aol dot com.

Lee