Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Lasers, Alan Parsons, and Facing Your Fears





This installment is a bit of a departure from 19th century evangelist D. L. Moody, who I've been writing about, but I believe he would say a big, fat "AMEN!" to the message here....The "Dynamic Duo for Jesus, Part 2—Ira Sankey" will continue next time! Thanks again for reading...


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Brenda and I took a walk in our neighborhood Sunday afternoon. While in the rest of the country it was chilly and grey, here in Mobile, Alabama it was a perfect moisture-free, seventy-five-degree day. During the walk I was listening, via my new over-the-ear wireless Sony headphones, to a collection of Alan Parsons Project tunes, ones that became a favorite for me in the late-70s. The songs instantly brought me back to my high school days.

I acquired my first car on my sixteenth birthday in 1976—a land yacht-sized ’65 Dodge Polara—which allowed me to venture into the wild, beyond the safe confines of my Orange County, California upbringing. This meant that, aside from commuting back and forth to school and work, I could occasionally venture into Los Angeles, under an hour away, for concerts and cool date spots in and around Hollywood.

One favorite date-destination for me was the Griffith Park Observatory, which sits on Mt. Hollywood, above serpentine Sunset Boulevard that winds its way to the Pacific Ocean. In the observatory itself, where scientists could look into the stars at night through a mega telescope, the public was also given access for special events. These included laser light shows that were projected within the building’s inside dome, accompanied by trippy music like that of the Alan Parsons Project.

Leaning our heads upward against plainly constructed wooden head rests, Parson’s music—along with other quadraphonically mixed selections like David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon—would transport dreamers like me through a 3-D light show into faraway galaxies. Ivan Dryer premiered the 45-minute “Laserium” show at Griffith Park in November 1973, but sadly it closed in 2002 (see a video from an actual 1977 presentation below).

A song that stuck with me through the years from those Griffith days is one from Parson’s 1977 I Robot album called "Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)." Listening to this song on my walk Sunday transported me again, albeit from the viewpoint of a 56-year-old, with much of life visible only from the “rearview mirror.”

The lyrics speak of a young dreamer much like me who gazed into the stars, looking to do great things in the future, with a life of hope and promise laid out before him. Ultimately, the song speaks of regret for not taking chances as time continues its unsympathetic journey onward.

I can say that I have followed most of my dreams and have realized many. But I can also say that as I got older, fear became an ever-growing companion, making it increasingly difficult to stretch out into the “wild” and unknown territory. After all, I was (and still am) happily married with kids. As a grown-up, though, one’s mind tends to dictate that it would be unwise to venture out into an unknown wilderness filled with lions, tigers and bears, where risk can lead to failure. Many times it was wise to obey the warning signs, and I’m glad I did.

I have taken many risks in my day, and I don’t regret the failures one bit. Even as I have fallen flat on my face at times, I learned great life-lessons. If it were not for those crazy risks, I wouldn’t have been blessed with a great songwriting career and the chance to travel the world playing music. Heck, if it were not for faith in the face of risk, I would have been too intimidated to ask Brenda to be my bride-for-life back in 1985. Boy, am I blessed that I did!

Those dreamy times at Griffith Observatory helped me to define what I wanted to do with life, which was to create music that stirred dreams in others. I have learned that a good song has great power in provoking the soul.  I also came to realize that the Lord placed a vision for the future in me, one that through music would (and still does) help the church worship and connect to God in a way that only music can. This calling still remains as I continue up the path toward a doctorate in worship—a huge risk, by the way!

The lyrics for the Parsons song are below. I pray that anyone reading this doesn’t miss an opportunity due to the fear of risk...please don’t let a huge blessing pass you by. Apprehension may be the only thing that stands in the way of acquiring those “castles in Spain” that you’ve been dreaming about…


Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)

Gaze at the sky
And picture a memory
Of days in your life.
You knew what it meant to be happy and free
With time on your side...

Remember your daddy
When no one was wiser.
Your ma used to say
That you would go farther than he ever could
With time on your side...

Think of a boy with the stars in his eyes,
Longing to reach them but frightened to try.
Sadly you'd say someday, someday...

But day after day
The show must go on,
And time slipped away
Before you could build any castles in Spain...
The chance had gone by.

With nothing to say
And no one to say it to,
Nothing has changed.
You still got it all to do,
Surely you know.
The chance has gone by...

Think of a boy with the stars in his eyes,
Longing to reach them but frightened to try.
Sadly you'd say someday, someday...

But day after day
The show must go on,
And you gaze at the sky
And picture a memory of days in your life
With time on your side...

With time on your side...
(Day after day the show must go on...)
With time on your side...
(Day after day the show must go on...)
With time on your side...



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Writer(s): Eric Woolfson, Alan Parsons

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