Compiled by Albie The Good, your average desert-dwelling, Bible-believing, Christian Beatnik and Incurable Bookworm... Thoughts about stuff... oh, and things too. :)
Albie's Note: Right in the middle of the widespread Beatlemania of 1964, this odd-ball western tale was a #1 Billboard pop hit! Lorne Greene, a Canadian-born Jewish Shakespearean actor-- at the time riding high as the patriarch of TV's BONANZA-- gave a dead-on reading of this tale of friendship versus law and order that still makes a cool listen even today. Maybe it helped that the word "RINGO" was selling high at the time too... ;)
As a weird added note, I always thought Bruce Springsteen's "HIGHWAY PATROLMAN" was a sort of a modern version, even if "the boss" only did it sub-consciously.
The montage video from YOUTUBE below is pretty entertaining too... enjoy:
RINGO
[words and music by Don Robertson and Hal Blair]
He lay face down in the desert sand Clutching his six-gun in his hand Shot from behind, I thought he was dead But under his heart was an ounce of lead But a spark still burned so I used my knife And late that night I saved the life of Ringo (Ringo... Ringo . . .) I nursed him till the danger passed The days went by, he mended fast Then from dawn till setting sun He practiced with that deadly gun And hour on hour I watched in awe No human being could match the draw of Ringo (Ringo... Ringo... ) One day we rode the mountain crest And I went east and he went west I took to law and wore a star While he spread terror near and far With lead and blood he gained such fame All throught the West they feared the name of Ringo (Ringo... Ringo... ) I knew someday I'd face the test Which one of us would be the best And sure enough the word came down That he was holed up in the town I left the posse out in the street And I went in alone to meet Ringo (Ringo... Ringo... ) They said my speed was next to none But my lightning draw had just begun When I heard a blast that stung my wrist The gun went flying from my fist And I was looking down the bore Of the deadly .44 of Ringo (Ringo... Ringo... ) They say that was the only time That anyone had seen him smile He slowly lowered his gun and then He said to me "We're even, friend" And so at last I understood That there was still a spark of good in Ringo (Ringo... Ringo... ) I blocked the path of his retreat He turned and stepped into the street A dozen guns spit fire and lead A moment later, he lay dead The town began to shout and cheer Nowhere was there shed a tear for Ringo (Ringo... Ringo... ) The story spread throughout the land That I had beaten Ringo's hand And it was just the years, they say That made me put my guns away But on his grave they can't explain The tarnished star above the name of Ringo (Ringo... Ringo... ) (Ringo... Ringo... )
Albie's Note: The heat is on you if you still dare to be a Christian supporting the State Of Israel-- and of course this shouldn't be a surprise to any Bible-reading believer-- it is just the way of a world that flatly refuses to believe and live by some "book" they can't control. The media increasingly pressures against any kind of "two-state" solution to the Israeli/Palestinian dilemma [itself a ludicrous comprise in some interpretations.] The current anti-Israel offensive touts a "single state" that, of course, conveniently eliminates Israel in favor of a "Palestinian fiefdom" allowing a smattering of Jews to remain as a disenfranchised minority. In light of all this, I present this article by Evangelical writer Elwood McQuaid.
You may as well know I agree with every word written here.
Adli Sadeq, the Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to India, has been quoted as saying both the terrorist Hamas organization and Fatah, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, utterly reject Israel’s right to exist:
They [Israelis] have a common mistake, or misconception by which they fool themselves, assuming that Fatah accepts them and recognizes the right of their state to exist, and that it is Hamas alone that loathes them and does not recognize the right of this state to exist. They ignore the fact that this state, based on a fabricated [Zionist] enterprise, never had any shred of a right to exist.
Strange though it may seem, facsimiles of Sadeq’s declaration are showing up across the United States. At the “One State Conference” held in March at Harvard, anti- Israel academic elites and their acolytes declared Israel’s right to life null and void. Professor Susan M. Akram of Boston University’s School of Law articulated the essence of the hatefest:
Israel’s claim of a state on the basis of exclusive and discriminatory rights to Jews, has never been juridically recognized. In other words, the concept of the Jewish people as a national entity with extraterritorial claims has never been recognized under international law.
Closer to home for Zionist Christians were remarks made at the 2012 National Penn Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Conference held at the University of Pennsylvania. Among the bevy of radical speakers was the Reverend Grayland Hagler, a Protestant minister and firebrand activist known for rallying anti- Israel elements to “stand up together until we dismantle the State of Israel.” With such a predisposition to Israel’s destruction, it is not surprising he told a questioner, “One of the things I am constantly doing is trying to disengage Christians from Hebrew Scriptures.”
Facts About Zionist Christians
Technically, anyone who believes God’s promises to the Jewish people are irrevocable is a biblical Zionist. Furthermore, you cannot disengage the "Hebrew Scriptures" from the rest of the Bible.The Old and New Testaments compose a unit with unbreakable continuity—which is why Christian Zionists believe the following regarding Jewish rights:
Biblically.
It is beyond dispute that, if you accept the integrity of biblical revelation, you cannot deny Israel’s central role in the scheme of things. When, for instance, God calls His promise of a land for the children of Abraham through Isaac“everlasting” (Gen. 17:7–8), He means EVERLASTING! When He promises to bless those who bless Israel (12:1–3), He means precisely that! When He promises Israel will survive even under the most adverse circumstances (Ezek. 11:16–17; Rom. 11:2), there is no rational alternative for a believer thinking otherwise.
The Bible says the Jewish people would return to their ancient land and experience a national resurrection (Jer. 32:37–41); and, against all odds, that promise is now a reality. What God says, He means. And if these promises are reduced to allegories, myths, and old wives’ tales, faith collapses—and we are without hope.
Historically.
To argue, as revisionists do, that there has never been an appreciable Jewish presence in the Middle East, that there were no Jewish Temples on Mount Moriah, or that the Holocaust was a Jewish contrivance is hardly worthy of serious comment. The stones cry out, and their message certifies the facts of both Jewish and world history.
Morally.
In view of centuries of dispersions and persecutions, deprivation, and slaughter, it is incomprehensible to argue the Jewish people do not have a right to their homeland. With at least 50Muslim majority countries in the world, to rant against one Jewish country is beyond reprehensible; it is morally criminal.
Legally.
Those who love to hate Israel and congratulate themselves on motivating crusaders to dismantle the Jewish state’s so-called "apartheid" occupation forces have inoculated themselves with a heaping dose of willful ignorance. Israel is a legal member of the international community. Witness the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the San Remo Conference of 1920, the UN Partition Plan of 1947. Astonishingly, accusations that the Jewish peopleSTOLE “Palestine,” at best a never-has-been national entity, carry more weight in the world than the certified credentials of the Jewish state. It is beyond ludicrous!
Behind such twisted politics is ONE ancient, debilitating malignancy: Anti-Semitism. Call Christian Zionists what you will, but they will never be associated with hatred of the Jewish people or denial of the Jewish right to the Land of Israel.
God bless the USA, God bless THE BLASTERS! What would my '80s have been like without them?? I shudder to think...
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This song was first found on their classic 1980 debut album. The clip below is from the very first FARM AID benefit concert September 22, 1985.... and you better know young Albie was watching riveted at the U of A campus in Tucson AZ on the dorm TV that very night...
AMERICAN MUSIC
Words and Music by Dave Alvin
Well, a U.S. soldier boy on leave in West-Berlin
No music there that rocks, just a thousand violins They wanna hear some American music, American music They wanna hear that sound right from the U.S.A.
Well, it can be sweet and lovely, it can be hard and mean One thing's for sure, it's always on the beam They wanna hear some American music, American music They wanna hear that sound right from the U.S.A.
It's a howl from the desert, a scream from the slums The Mississippi rollin' to the beat of the drums They wanna hear some American music, American music They wanna hear that sound right from the U.S.A.
We got the Louisiana Boogie and the Delta Blues We got Country, Swing and Rockabilly, too We got Jazz, Country-Western and ChicagoBlues It's the greatest music that you ever knew
It's American music, it's American music, it's American music It's the greatest sound right from the U.S.A.
Well, a US soldier boy has to stop right in his tracks When he hears that crazy beat, he turns and doubles back Because they're playing American music, American music The whole world digs that sound from the
Albie's Note: Although I am no Roman Catholic, I like the famous Peace Prayer attributed to St. Francis Of Assisi. [1181-1226] It eloquently prays for God to use the individual Christian to spread His Peace in a fallen world... I sure can't find any problem with that!
Here is the prayer set to music by the great Catholic singer/songwriter John Michael Talbot [born 1954] back in-- I believe-- 1980. It is one of my all-time favorite Christian songs. Talbot used to come do free concerts at my college [John Brown University, Siloam Springs ARK] back in the 1980s and he would always play this. Great memories.
Back about 10 years or so ago, during my massive "rockabilly mid-life crisis" period, I bought a great 1997 CD by Josie Kreuzer entitled HOT ROD GIRL. It remains one of my all-time favorite albums. Josie, who recorded a couple more albums and then disappeared, was a great songwriter and the album was filled with well-performed original material, but my favorite song on it was this cover of an old Sonny Burgess single originally recorded on the SUN label back in 1957. Burgess was an unusually smooth rockabilly cat who is pretty hard to cover legitimately, but I think Josie, as backed by the great San Diego trio HOT ROD LINCOLN, pulled it off...
Behold: the great "Ain't Got A Thing":
Well I got a car, ain't got no gas
I got a check, but it won't cash
I got a man, he ain't got no class...
Well I got a guitar, ain't got no strings
I got ten fingers, ain't got no ring
I got a man, ain't got a thing...
Well I got a stove, ain't got no heat
I got some drums, but ain't got no beat
I got a man, but he ain't so sweet...
I got two feet, ain't got no shoes
I got a wagon, ain't got no mules
I got a man, but he ain't so true...
I got a piano, ain't got no keys
I got a cracker, ain't got no cheese
I got a man, but he climbs trees...
Just about a month ago I blogged a mini-sermon by Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith called "Exploits!" [Read it HERE if you like.] I said in the header that he was one of my true heroes in the Christian Faith and I meant it. Yesterday old Chuck passed from this mortal coil and into an eternity with The Christ he loved and preached for over 70 years. I got a chance to go and see him in person in Tucson back in 2011. I don't often say these kinds of things about mere men, but the man had a spiritual presence you could almost feel. It was an amazing service. He will be missed.
Lord, do it again!
HERE IS A TRIBUTE PRINTED YESTERDAY
ON CHRISTIANITY TODAY'S SITE:
Chuck Smith, the evangelical pastor whose outreach to
hippies in the 1960s helped transform worship styles in American
Christianity and fueled the rise of the Calvary Chapel movement, died
Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013, after a battle with lung cancer. He was 86.
Diagnosed in 2011, Smith continued to preach and oversee administration
at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa (California), where he'd been pastor since
1965. In 2012, he established a 21-member leadership council to oversee
the Calvary Church Association, a fellowship of some 1,600 like-minded
congregations in the United States and abroad.
Smith was known for expository preaching as he worked his way through
the entire Bible, unpacking texts from Genesis through Revelation and
offering commentary along the way.
Yet it was his openness to new cultural styles, including laid-back
music and funky fashions of California's early surfer scene, that helped
him reach young idealists and inspire a trend toward seeker-sensitive
congregations.
"He led a movement that translated traditional conservative Bible-based
Christianity to a large segment of the baby boom generation's
counterculture," says Brad Christerson, a Biola University sociologist
who studies charismatic churches in California. "His impact can be seen
in every church service that has electric guitar-driven worship, hip
casually-dressed pastors, and 40-minute sermons consisting of
verse-by-verse Bible expositions peppered with pop-culture references
and counterculture slang."
Born to a Bible-quoting mother and a salesman father who became a
zealous convert in midlife, Smith grew up in Southern California, where
he witnessed to the Gospel from a young age.
After Bible college training and a stint as a traveling evangelist, he
sought a niche in Pentecostalism by pastoring several Church of the
Foursquare Gospel congregations. But he confesses in Chuck Smith: A Memoir of Grace: "I just never succeeded" in that denominational environment.
He found his groove in the 1960s, when many evangelicals were frowning
on the wild outfits, long hair and psychedelic music that were all the
rage among young adults. One seminal moment came during his early days
at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, where old guard trustees posted a sign in
their renovated sanctuary: "no bare feet allowed." Smith tore it down
with a promise to reach young souls for Christ, even it meant throwing
out new pews and carpeting and bringing in steel folding chairs.
"Lifestyle issues and morality issues were things that he would expect
Christ would clean up in these folks lives," said Larry Eskridge,
associate director of the Institute for the Study of American
Evangelicals at Wheaton College. "But the informality of these folks and
the music they were fond of – he was willing to let that slide quite a
bit."
Smith never became a hippie, Eskridge said. But he nonetheless won a
following as a non-judgmental father figure by welcoming a blend of pop
music, poetry and aspiration to live like Jesus. Together with hippie
Lonnie Frisbee, Smith helped propel the Jesus People Movement, with its
embrace of Christ's teachings and disavowal of institutional church
trappings.
Smith also pioneered translations of Gospel teachings into 20th-century
pop art forms. In 1971, he launched Maranatha! Music, a pioneering
record label designed to promote the "Jesus music" that his young
followers were producing on the California coast.
Ministries born in the 1960s and 70s grew into a distribution empire.
By 2013, Smith's radio and television programs were airing in more than
350 cities around the world. The Word for Today, a publishing program
begun in 1978, now packages Smith's messages through books for adults
and children, DVDs, CDs and other channels.
"From age 50 on up would be his larger fan base," said Word for Today
General Manager Mark Rich. But Smith's easy-to-understand messages keep
attracting followers from other demographics, Rich says, because "Pastor
Chuck has always been able to relate to the younger crowd and to
children."
Never a denominational man, Smith forged a different type of fellowship
among congregations as word of his success spread. Calvary Chapels,
concentrated largely in coastal population centers, reflect Smith's
preferences for authoritative male pastors, expository preaching and
openness to contemporary music. What Eskridge describes as "restrained
exuberance" in worship has spread from Costa Mesa to Calvary Chapels on
the East Coast and beyond.
Some in other Protestant groups now look to Smith as a role model, whose methods have become the stuff of seminary workshops.
"Chuck Smith is one of my heroes," said Kurt Frederickson, a church
vitality expert who invokes Smith's work when he trains pastors in
Fuller Theological Seminary's doctor of ministry program. "He's able to
read the culture and to see a group of people who've been marginalized
by the institutional church and say, 'these people too should be cared
for'…. So he opens up his arms."
In Smith's absence, the Leadership Council of the Calvary Chapel Association will continue to govern the fellowship's affairs.
Early today, Evangelist Greg Laurie posted on his blog,
"I am so sorry to tell all of you that our friend, pastor Chuck Smith,
has died." At age 19, Laurie began ministry under Chuck Smith's
leadership. Laurie is the founding pastor of Harvest Christian
Fellowship in Riverside, California.
Then Came Bronson was a short-lived American TV series about an existential biker traveling the country in search of... well... adventure? himself? meaning? ... that whole sixties quest thing.
It starred Michael Parks, a good actor who also sang the theme song, and ran for just the one 1969-1970 season in a pack of 26 epsiodes. The run began with a special pilot movie that aired before the official fall season on Monday, March 24, 1969. Unfortunately this excellent pilot film-- at this writing-- is still the only episode available on DVD.
Although I was born in 1964, I actually have distinct memories of this series. I remember watching the cool closing with Parks riding his Harley Sportster to the tune of the theme song "Long Lonesome Highway" [an actual Top 20 hit that somehow never gets played on oldies stations today.]
My other 2 memories are odd ones. I remember my older brother Joe was a big fan who even named a kitten of ours "Bronson" in honor of this show; and I remember that our Dad, a WW2 vet and hard-rock copper miner with no time for "hippies", also loved it... mainly, I think, because he always seemed to love shows with a wandering, traveling theme.
Later, in the mid-80s in Tucson AZ, my apartment roommates and I would watch re-runs of this show on Sunday nights on TV-18, a UHF channel that also showed stuff like Gidget and The Rifleman. I remember we were always impressed by 2 things: the off-beat stories and the distinctive music-- As the clip below indicates, hymns and folk music often set the strange mood. [Once the soundtrack even included "Piney Wood Hills" being sung by lovely guest star/folkie Buffy Ste. Marie.]
Now, comin' up on 30 years later... I have never seen it run on regular TV since then, which is puzzling to me since it is always referred to as a "cult classic."
Viewed today, this pilot episode holds up amazingly well. In fact, I actually like it much better than the similarly themed but heavy-handed and sloppily directed "classic" EASY RIDER. Sometimes you will hear this show called a "rip off" of the Fonda/Hopper film, but the actual fact is that BRONSON was both filmed and released earlier than RIDER. Also, to me at least, the script for BRONSON is quieter and more intelligent... really much more descendant of Melville, Wolfe and Kerouac than the typical "drop-out" fare of the late sixties.
Sometimes people even dis the show because Bronson-- who rode a lightweight bike and sported no leathers at all-- doesn't live up to the label "Biker." I guess that subtracts from "street cred" or something, but it's one of my favorite aspects of the show. Bronson-- in his wool beanie and brown jeans and t-shirt-- is no Hell's Angel or Son Of Anarchy by any means... in fact, he's something you'd never expect form Hollywood: a beatnik pacifist vagabond with literally no agenda at all.
It's just plain cool, man.
The story is pretty simple. in flashback we learn that Jim Bronson is a journalist who has become disillusioned after the suicide of his friend Nick, played by a young Martin Sheen. He decides to buy back the Sportster he sold Nick from Nick's widow, quit his job, and just ride around seeing the country.
Although the original pilot sort of leans toward a "self discovery" theme, the show that developed was even better. The difference was, as I recall, that the regular episodes sort of lost even this original threadbare concept and instead became nothing short of a weird, Zen experiment in TV drama; as Bronson would just happen into situations and then refrain from judging or advising at all. But still, even this pilot is compelling because of the way it juxtaposes Bronson against the conformist world around him as demonstrated by the dialog below -- which can be seen in the Youtube clip I have attatched-- where Parks first utters his catch-phrase "hang in there" to car-bound suburbanite at a stop light:
Driver: "Taking a trip?"
Bronson: "What's that?"
Driver: "Taking a trip?"
Bronson: "Yeah."
Driver: "Where to?"
Bronson: "Oh, I don't know. Wherever I end up, I guess."
Driver: "Man, I wish I was you."
Bronson: "Really?"
Driver: "Yeah."
Bronson: "Well, hang in there."
Well anyway back to the story. Jim meets a girl on the beach named Temple [played well by the fine actress Bonnie Bedelia] who is a recent "runaway bride." She decides to join him in his travels for a couple weeks, all the way to New Orleans. [Perhaps another reason for the common EASY RIDER comparisons. ]
Oddly, we do not get the love story we have been conditioned to expect in a situation like this. In fact, the whole point seems to be that Jim and Temple are kindred souls whose paths cannot truly intertwine for reasons far beyond them... sounds weird I know, but that's the best way I can describe it. The banter is great too:
TEMPLE: Jim, I want to be your friend.
BRONSON: Ya know, when you take on a friend, you take on a lot.
An especially interesting sequence finds them stopping at the
desert home of Jim's mentor and father figure, the enigmatic Papa Bear [played by vet character actor Akim Tamiroff in what is said to be his final role.] This guy is a
boisterous old artist who live and works with a brood of lively children, and eagerly welcomes Jim's visit. He senses, however, that something is troubling his young
friend, and he approaches Jim as a traveler on a road he himself has trod. The quiet dialogue between
the two is touching and wise.
Well.. for those who haven't seen the film yet-- and it is available--
I won't say anything more about the plot. It's not so much a matter of "spoilers" either-- I just think you need to experience it yourself with no pre-conceptions.
In short, the pilot of TCB is some classic television. Not just a really great time-piece for looking back at the 1960s, but a film that still offers some quiet wisdom in a unique way.
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