The Waiting

Back in 1981 Tom Petty had been fighting with his record company over several issues, which are well discussed in other areas, that had delayed the follow up to his break through album “Damn the Torpedoes” for several months. During the process he took to writing and penned one of his most memorable tunes, “The Waiting”.

Oh baby don’t it feel like heaven right now
Don’t it feel like something from a dream
Yeah I’ve never known nothing quite like this
Don’t it feel like tonight might never be again
We know better than to try and pretend
Baby no one could have ever told me ’bout this

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Well yeah I might have chased a couple of women around
All it ever got me was down
Then there were those that made me feel good
But never as good as I feel right now
Baby you’re the only one that’s ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
Don’t let ‘em kill you baby, don’t let ‘em get to you
I’ll be your bleedin’ heart, I’ll be your cryin’ fool
Don’t let this go to far, don’t let it get to you

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Copyright © 1981 Gone Gator Music

The chorus runs “The waiting is the hardest part” and relates to a relationship and being together but for the last few seasons it also means for me waiting for God’s work to happen in all my family members lives. Some things are short term waits and other much longer. What we consider a long time waiting varies considerably with the situation.  When we’re in a hurry at the store and behind someone who has brought an item to checkout that needs a price check those minutes seem like hours.  When it’s 2:00pm on Friday afternoon and we start vacation at 5:00pm those three hours seem like days.  When we get disturbing news from the test results at the Doctors office and have to wait until next Thursday to get in to see the Specialist those days seem like weeks.  When you are waiting for the job offer that you’ve interviewed three times for and the background check results are fourteen days out those two weeks seem like months.  When your son/daughter/grandchild goes off the deep end in making bad choices those months can seem like years and may literally turn into years.  My point in all this is that The Waiting is a part of life that we must accept and learn to live and listen for God in.  We worry about individual minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years but in reading the Scriptures we see that God deals in very long term projects:  Noah – 100 years of building and ridicule waiting on rain, Abraham – 25 years of hoping and forcing and manipulating God’s Promise waiting on a son, Moses – 40 years of waiting in the desert being manufactured into God’s chosen instrument, David – 7 years of running for his life waiting for his promised throne.  It appears that God’s factory is not the mass production of a General Motors who used to produce around 13,000 vehicles a day (when our economy was rolling), but the care and hand craft of a Rolls-Royce that produces a car in 30 days.  The value of this personalized type of work in our own lives has to come from a sense of contentment that Paul speaks of in Philippians 4:11-12:  ^“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.   I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” To get where we want to be we have to wait, we waited to even arrive where we are at, we must simply wait as we do, as we live, as we experience our day by day minute by minute life – wait that reminds me of yet another tune…

Sweetheart Like You

The line has been stuck in my head for 25 years, “Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings”, from Bob Dylan’s pen through his nasal vocal delivery and into my memory banks it’s been lodged there popping in and out of my thoughts like the poor victim in a Whac-a-Mole game. The context of the lyric comes a couple of years or so into the first Reagan administration years after Vietnam, Watergate, the Carter economy and Disco. Dylan was coming out of his Gospel phase, still two years from releasing one of the first career spanning boxsets in Biograph, and I was a rocker looking to hear the next Led Zeppelin replacement when I borrowed “Infidels” from our local library.  The thing about music that most pulls me in and embedds itself to the point that it stays for years in my thought life is the lyric delivered by a voice is not pitch perfect, something Randy Jackson is always so concerned about, but just delivered in a way that makes the message believable to me.  Whether the song is about cars, love, politics, society, etc the key is that the one giving up control of their ear gate for next three and half minutes believes that the singer has experienced what is being sung about. Bob Dylan is, of course, a master of this and Sweetheart like You is a fine example. Whether it comes from an actual experience of Mr. Dylan or out of his imagination the voice he delivers these words in takes you to the rundown establishment that has been graced by the sweetheart’s presence. What his intentions are, well again another quality of Rock over other forms of lyricism, is really up to the listeners’ imagination giving us the opportunity to relate the scene to our own lives, choices and experiences.

Well, the pressure’s down, the boss ain’t here,
He gone North, he ain’t around,
They say that vanity got the best of him
But he sure left here after sundown.
By the way, that’s a cute hat,
And that smile’s so hard to resist
But what’s a sweetheart like you doin’ in a dump like this?

You know, I once knew a woman who looked like you,
She wanted a whole man, not just a half,
She used to call me sweet daddy when I was only a child,
You kind of remind me of her when you laugh.
In order to deal in this game, got to make the queen disappear,
It’s done with a flick of the wrist.
What’s a sweetheart like you doin’ in a dump like this?

You know, a woman like you should be at home,
That’s where you belong,
Watching out for someone who loves you true
Who would never do you wrong.
Just how much abuse will you be able to take?
Well, there’s no way to tell by that first kiss.
What’s a sweetheart like you doin’ in a dump like this?

You know you can make a name for yourself,
You can hear them tires squeal,
You can be known as the most beautiful woman
Who ever crawled across cut glass to make a deal.

You know, news of you has come down the line
Even before ya came in the door.
They say in your father’s house, there’s many mansions
Each one of them got a fireproof floor.
Snap out of it, baby, people are jealous of you,
They smile to your face, but behind your back they hiss.
What’s a sweetheart like you doin’ in a dump like this?

Got to be an important person to be in here, honey,
Got to have done some evil deed,
Got to have your own harem when you come in the door,
Got to play your harp until your lips bleed.

They say that patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings.
Steal a little and they throw you in jail,
Steal a lot and they make you king.
There’s only one step down from here, baby,
It’s called the land of permanent bliss.
What’s a sweetheart like you doin’ in a dump like this?

Copyright © 1983 Special Rider Music

Idol and 15 minutes

Visited the American Idol audition process this week with my oldest daughter. Andy Warhol was correct about that 15 minutes of fame desire we Americans have. Not that his original statement put the 15 minutes as a desire but more of a part of the normal course of life in a future that has now arrived.