Today’s post was written by Paul.
The song I’m sharing today is the last song that I sung in my set at the Martins Creek Community Center on September 26th.
I expected to be one of three performers, but unfortunately, one had to cancel and the other simply didn’t show up. I went prepared to do 7 songs, 5 of them being Pap’s, but thankfully, I was able to come up with enough material to play/sing for an hour. The folks who keep the community center going work very hard, and many of them are elderly, so I didn’t want to let them down.
They pay the monthly power bill for the community center through hosting gospel singings during the summer months. Once winter sets in, there’s also the heating fuel cost to cover.
This a song that Pap wrote around 1989. He and I sang it a few times together, and he and Uncle Ray even made one test recording of it at Wayde Powell, II’s studio. However, they never finished or did anything with that recording.
Sadly, the roof fell in on that studio, and Wayde abandoned it several years after we stopped recording there. As a result, that test recording is lost. One day, Wayde let me wade through the rubble (pun intended) to see if I could find any recordings. I found one large reel-to-reel master, and I took it home and cleaned it off. I later turned it over to another recording engineer, Steve Snowden. After that, I don’t know what became of it. If I remember correctly, it may have been the master for the album “Jesus is My Choice.” This song did not appear on that album. It just put me in the mind of all that.
Pap absolutely loved children. Nothing made him smile and laugh more than little kids, so it’s no surprise that one of his songs expresses sympathy for children who suffer. Some folks might conclude from the second verse of this song that Pap was a pacifist, but as a former Marine, he believed in fighting when it was needed. When he watched warlords on the evening news absconding with food and aid that was intended for starving families, that side of him quickly kindled. You can see a small trace of it in the closing line of the first verse: “someone should have to pay.”
When I sang this song at the community center, I hadn’t sung it in several years. I am surprised that I performed it as well as I did, but I sang the second verse incorrectly. What I sang worked meaning-wise, but I accidentally took away from the more intricate rhyming pattern that Pap created in the verse. I placed the correct lyrics below.
After Pap passed, I included this song on my most recent CD of his music, “Live to Never Die.” You can hear the studio recording of the song here. You can also buy the CD featuring this song here.
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed this original song from Pap.
I hear of children dying, from hunger every day.
In fear and pain they’re crying. Someone should have to pay.
Some day, far away, in Heaven, we’ll find a brighter day.
Somewhere over there, in Heaven, it won’t be this way.
We’ve made such mighty weapons. In dread, we now await,
Afraid of what might happen, our destructive power so great.
Some day, far away, in Heaven, we’ll find a brighter day.
Somewhere over there, in Heaven, it won’t be this way.
Paul
Original singles released on Spotify.
Shepherd of My Soul (Album released in 2016).
The Wilson Brothers Words of Life Album released in the 70s.
