INSPIRED & UNINSPIRED SONGS!              DFO 92            7/74

         1. WHEN WE HAD THE LITTLE CLUB IN CALIFORNIA & some of our dear would-be stars insisted on droning on hour after hour all alone, I had to put a stop to it & this boring monotony by telling them that nobody can stand to listen to any one singer for more than two or three numbers at the most, no matter HOW good they are! So I limited the number of songs per set per artist to either two long ones or three short ones so we'd have no more of this sameness going on & on forever!
         2. EVERYBODY NEEDS A CHANGE, & VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE, no matter how good the singer is & how good the accompaniment or how good the song, & not everybody likes the same kind of music or the same singer all the time.
         3. SOME MUSIC REMINDS ME OF THE MAN IN THE INSANE ASYLUM who, when asked why he kept beating his head against the wall, replied, "It feels so good when I stop!" That's the way we felt by the end of some numbers. Some of your music has that monotonous, discordant, endless harping on the same few notes as that awful jungle music! With a little more quaver you could hardly tell the difference! Some of it is flippant, shallow, monotonous & worst of all, lacks real spirit of the kind that really moves you! It's superficial! Sorry!
         4. IF WE WEREN'T TRYING TO RUN A REVOLUTION, FIGHT A WAR & WIN A WORLD, WE MIGHT HAVE TIME TO LET YOU PLAY AROUND with your little playmates & their corny music! But when you oughta be in there fighting together with us & not against us to help your kings to help you make some real hits of real show business quality to not only take your town & win your country but to reach the WORLD with the message, we haven't got time to let you play around like this, causing so much trouble & doing so little good!
         5. QUIT BEING DELUDED BY THE RIDICULOUS IDEA THAT YOU KNOW IT ALL! You don't know anything about the business you're now trying to crack into & you need all the help you can get from kings that really know what they're doing! They may not be as SPIRITUAL as you'd like & they may not always be RIGHT, but when it comes to SHOW business, YOU'RE more apt to be wrong than THEY are!
         6. IF THEY DON'T BELIEVE IT'LL SELL, IT PROBABLY WON'T, & I certainly agree with them that some of those songs WON'T!-And that even some of OURS may need a little changing in form or context to make them go over better, as long as they don't change the BASIC MESSAGE. If they even get a LITTLE of it in we can be thankful, for what they DO get in will reach the whole WORLD if it makes a HIT! In your own desire for respect, don't forget to respect your kings, too!
         7. A SONG HAS GOT TO MOVE YOU! It has got to make you want to DO something--to dance or fight or love or cry!--Or something! Our songs of the Revolution for Jesus are not for ENTERTAINMENT--they're sung to make people RESPOND to a MESSAGE--to evoke EMOTIONS which result in ACTIONS!
         8. BUT YOU CAN'T EVEN GIVE A GOOD MESSAGE, IF YOU HAVEN'T GOT A CATCHY TUNE! For no matter how good your MESSAGE is, if the TUNE is not appealing, you might as well FORGET the song!
         9. THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT MUSIC THAT REALLY EXPRESSES EMOTION!--Just the music without ANY message or lyrics. Because the MUSIC ITSELF must EXPRESS the MESSAGE, TOO! If you've got a song that has real cheerful words speaking of happy situations, yet the tune has a hopeless sadness to it, you've defeated your very purpose, & because you sing it sadly, it makes people feel, "I don't really believe you". No matter how happy your words are, if your music is not in accord with your words, something is wrong & your song sounds hypocritical.
         10. MOST PEOPLE WILL REACT TO THE TUNE MUCH MORE THAN TO THE WORDS OF A SONG. A STRONG tune can carry the message, regardless of poor words. On the other hand, if the words are catchy, appealing or arresting, they will add to & supplement the tune & make it even stronger. But if the WORDS don't go with the MUSIC, then something's wrong with the TUNE & you have to have a strong, convincing tune to overcome them.
         11. WHEN IT COMES TO MUSIC, THE MUSIC IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING: The MUSIC should BE the MESSAGE TOO. The MUSIC ITSELF has got to paint the EMOTIONAL picture or FEELING of the MESSAGE of the song. The TUNE should be sad if the WORDS are sad; glad, if the WORDS are glad; the TUNE should be funny, if the WORDS are funny.
         12. REAL INSPIRATION COMES WITH REAL FEELING--really FEELING a certain emotion, & both words & music will express it. BOTH will move you in the SAME direction. Even though some songs have a sad REFRAIN, they include a lilting, silver lining, beyond the dark cloud of their sorrow, as rays of hope break through the clouds. As Wordsworth said, sometimes:
                  "Sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought,
                 E'en sincerest laughter with some pain is fraught."

         13. SO EVEN A SAD SONG CAN HAVE SOME SWEETNESS & A CHEERFUL RAY OF HOPE--a silver lining--a happy ENDING--the ANSWER to the problem. Otherwise, all is lost & you leave your audience in the depths of gloom, even deeper & darker than before, like so many worldly songs. But even our SAD songs give HOPE, like "I Shall Be Released", "Jesus Really Loves You", "Cry of Revolution", "Now the Time".
         14. SO A SAD SONG DOESN'T HAVE TO NECESSARILY BE ALL SAD--it can end with a cheerful note--a ray of hope! It's like witnessing: You first have to show someone that they're a SINNER before you can convince them they need a SAVIOUR & give them the happy ANSWER of Who He is. First you must cry, "WOE, WOE," but then, "JESUS SAVES"! So our songs are a combination of the best of BOTH.
         15. WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO SAY IS THAT HAPPY WORDS MUST BE BORNE BY A HAPPY TUNE, just as SAD words must be carried by a SAD tune; but you CANNOT have HAPPY words to a SAD tune or vice versa.--But you CAN have a sad song--SAD words with a SAD tune--which ENDS with or INCLUDES some HAPPY note--with HAPPY words with a HAPPY tune--a HAPPY ENDING.
         16. IN THE MOST POPULAR SONGS EVER WRITTEN, THERE IS USUALLY ONE PHRASE THAT KEEPS REPEATING--ONE CATCHY PHRASE that the people really remember--& that ONE part of the song is its THEME. If you've only got one good line in a song & you keep repeating that line, you could have a HIT, regardless of the rest of the song--even if only that ONE LINE is inspired!
         17. ONE OF THE SECRETS OF "YOU'VE GOTTA BE A BABY" IS THAT YOU KEEP REPEATING THAT ONE PHRASE over & over--& it STICKS with people & they CAN'T FORGET it! When titling a song, always make the TITLE the CATCHY PHRASE or the phrase that has the message or the one that's repeated most.
         18. AFTER ALL, OUR PURPOSE IN SINGING IS NOT TO ENTERTAIN--BUT TO IMPLANT AN IDEA or message in people's minds that they just can't shake--& the best way to do it is to make the MUSIC & THE TUNE BOTH so CATCHY they CAN'T FORGET it!
         19. A SONG THAT HAS TO BE EXPLAINED IS NOT MUCH GOOD! What makes a song a hit & gets across its message is usually a COMBINATION of the TUNE that carries the MESSAGE & that one outstanding phrase or REFRAIN REPEATED constantly throughout the verse--worked in throughout the song--emphasised where you can really hear it. You must repeat...repeat...repeat! It will be that ONE UNFORGETTABLE PHRASE that will stir your EMOTIONS & provoke you to ACTION!--Hallelujah!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family