Dancing At the Policeman's Ball

Prior to Mark Heard's final three CDs, Dancing At the Policeman's Ball was Mark's biggest "hit." It was featured in the movie Dakota starring Lou Diamond Phillips. Although not a dance song, it was featured in the scene of a policeman's dance.

As I posted recently, Mark said that:

"Policeman's Ball" is speaking about the isolationism to which I've referred earlier - how we as Christians can get so caught up with our own circles that we again forget about our responsibility to sense what is going on with human beings out there in the "secular world."

Dancing At the Policeman's Ball

You hit the floor at the sound of the band
With a partner in your hand
Restless and breathless you dance the night away
Did I hear you say it is your aim
For every night to be just the same
And you hope the city outside's gonna be okay

Dancing at the Policeman's ball
Dancing at the Policeman's ball
Move your feet while the city sleeps
Dancing at the Policeman's ball

I saw you smile when I heard you say
"A life o' crime just does not pay,
And criminals are heading for a big fall!"
And when I asked to see your badge
You said, "Man, I don't need to flash no badge -
Can't you see I'm dancing at the Policeman's ball?"

Dancing at the Policeman's ball
Dancing at the Policeman's ball
Move your feet while the city sleeps
Dancing at the Policeman's ball

In precinct five, ten people died
In precinct six, it was twenty-five
Nobody taking the law to the streets tonight
Did I hear you say it is your aim
For every night to be just the same
And you hope the city outside's gonna be okay

Dancing at the Policeman's ball
Dancing at the Policeman's ball
Move your feet while the city sleeps
Dancing at the Policeman's ball

Written by Mark Heard © 1982 Bug 'n Bear Music ASCAP

Pastemusic.com is the only place I am aware of that carries the CD.

Nothing Is Bothering Me

Here is a satirical Mark Heard song with a serious message. Mark explained what he meant in the liner notes of his Victims of the Age album:

On this album, "Nothing is Bothering Me," "Dancing at the Policeman's Ball," and "Everybody Loves a Holy War" are all satires touching on problems. The first one is about the lie we can live as people by not seeing what's happening in the world around us. We have no right to interpret our complacent experiences as "the way things are" in this world. The other two are dedicated solely to Christian problems. "Policeman's Ball" is speaking about the isolationism to which I've referred earlier - how we as Christians can get so caught up with our own circles that we again forget about our responsibility to sense what is going on with human beings out there in the "secular world," And "Holy War" speaks satirically of the danger of believing that God is the author of our opinions, or our political leanings. Wars are always being fought between the "holy" and the "holy." Neither side realizes he can't win. Each side believes he has won already.

Nothing Is Bothering Me

No news is good news but news is here to stay
Tightening the thumb-screws from day to day
I hear the tale of a distant fray
War is hell but it's half-a-world away

I'm alright
Nothing is bothering me
I'm just trying to keep the weight of this world
From dawning on me
We get the picture from week to week
The rich get richer and inherit the meek
Long since started preying on the weak
Am I the guilty party if I turn the other cheek

I'm alright
Nothing is bothering me
I'm just trying to keep the weight of this world
From dawning on me

Hey now emotion - is that you again
Don'tcha know that warmth and devotion have passed as a trend
Jesus is knocking but don't let him in
He might come like a thief and steal away your sin

I'm alright
Nothing is bothering me
I'm just trying to keep the weight of this world
From dawning on me

Written by Mark Heard
© 1982 Bug 'n Bear Music ASCAP

I have posted Everybody Loves A Holy War before and I will post Dancing at the Policeman's Ball soon.

Don't Know What To Buy? Try Amazon.com Gift Certificates

Amazon.com has sent me an e-mail with a special announcement: I get a whopping 6% return if you buy a Gift Certificate through my site (this month only). So, if you are one of those people who have trouble thinking of what to buy for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or any other special occasion, would you consider a Amazon.com Gift Certificate?

eMusic Spotlights Mark Heard

Taken from Mark Heard: Orphan of God:

Mark Heard: Orphan of God

by Michael James McGonigal

When one of my editors asked me to write a column on the talented singer, producer and songwriter Mark Heard, I was elated to learn that so much of his discography had recently been added to eMusic’s catalogue. Frequently compared to the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Tom Petty, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, Heard’s stature has increased steadily since he passed away from heart complications fifteen years ago.

Bruce Cockburn called Heard “America’s best songwriter,” while the alternative adult contemporary music magazine Paste argued in a lengthy 2003 feature that “no artist has crafted three consecutive albums with both the lyrical radiance and the musical vibrancy to rival Dry Bones Dance, Second Hand and Satellite Sky.” I wouldn't go quite that far myself, but those three records really are exceptional — poetic, slice-of-life stuff by any standard. Heard is an original, an iconoclastic figure who presaged the work of artists like Chris Rice and Jeremy Enigk. In a two-sentence biography on All Music Guide he is casually called “brilliant.” Heard’s 1982 long-player Victims of the Age album was ranked in the top third of CCM magazine’s list of the all-time greatest Christian albums. And yet Mark Heard remains something of a cult figure.

Heard came of age in contemporary Christian music’s infancy — the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. CCM had yet to become a multi-million dollar industry, and in many ways was still a holdover from the so-called Jesus Rock movement of the ‘60s. Rear-guard CCM artists often questioned the nature of faith, but newer singers like Amy Grant had begun to proffer a simpler, more saccharine approach to mixing faith and music. Heard must have known that, in this context, his work had power and deserved to be heard by as wide an audience as possible — certainly by as many people who purchased Bob Dylan’s 1980 album Saved. “I'm not looking for votes, and my music isn't only for Christians,” Heard told New Christian Music in 1984.

The fact that Heard had songs with titles like “Everybody Loves a Holy War” might clue you in to his approach. In a series of amazing advertisements for his 1979 album Appalachian Melody, Heard wrote that “most Christians would say that the music should in some way glorify God… [however] one assortment of notes on the scale can't glorify God more than another. Neither can certain assortments of words... If you are an up and coming Christian singer and you have to sing for a Christian audience, you'd better throw as many words like "saved" or "hallelujah" or "sweet Jesus" as you can, otherwise your spirituality will be discussed behind your back. But anybody can [simply] say the words. Like Groucho says, 'Say the secret woid, the duck comes down, you win a hunnid dollas.'”

Heard’s early work is in the folky vein; he was often compared to James Taylor, and not always favorably. In his later recordings, he veers towards flat-out rock in a country-tinged Tom Petty-ish style that also encompassed Appalachian folk, Tex Mex and zydeco on that great Dry-Hand-Sky trilogy. Even his best albums feature the gated drum sound, reverb-saturated vocals, U2-ish guitar leads and other elements of mainstream ‘80s rock production. His voice is strong, though, especially on his sadder ballads. But what really propels his work is his way with words. Take “Fire” from Dry Bones Dance: “Oh, to find love's hiding place/ We are beggars and bootleggers/ Fading embers caught out in the rain/ Wondering what's it take to burst into flames/ And meanwhile hammers fall on anvils of grief/ Molten souls in madmen's cauldrons.”

Heard was struck down during his creative peak, and his spirit and wit are as much missing from contemporary Christian music as his exceptional songcraft. In that series of ads for Appalachian Melody, Heard said he liked “to write songs about things which cause me to glimpse the worth of God. Sometimes that might be the ocean, sometimes it is love for my wife, sometimes it can be absurdly simple things… We shouldn't search for a spiritually symbolic rationalization for [every] activity we enter into. It is not evil to enjoy a good laugh or a hike in the Sierras for what they are.” Having suffered the banalities of one too many well meaning but excruciatingly boring CCM acts (not to mention anemic praise and worship performances), these words still ring loud and true for me, nearly thirty years after the fact.

I am going to add a few words to the bolded quotes above. I have had (and even still have) the same complaint about Christian music played on the radio. Almost all of it comes down to variations of: "Jesus loves me this I know; for the Bible tells me so." Before getting an e-mail notifying me of this review of Mark Heard's work, I had been thinking about this very issue this week and had been thinking about writing about it anyway.

I realize there is a time and place for simplistic Christian songs; and America is increasingly moving toward a business model of exploiting niche markets (of which Christian music is one). There was a time when a Christian artist couldn't make a decent living producing strictly Christian music. But, on the other hand, the drive for a Christian artist to become monetarily successful requires that they conform to certain social norms within that Christian audience they are trying to convince to buy their music. That means -- all too often -- that they must water down any lyrics that might challenge the Christian audience of long-held orthodoxies. True artists move society forward by challenging their prejudices. Religions, by nature, are conservative -- or even reactionary -- forces on society. Contrarily, art almost always is a progressive force that changes and shapes perceptions toward societal evolution by showing injustices because of conservative ideas.

Back when I was in high school, there were Christian musicians like Randy Stonehill who challenged us about being susceptible to the American culture with its fixation on Fast Food and cosmetic appearances. Where are all the Christian artists today that challenge us to move toward changing our culture? Almost all of them are giving us the message to conform to the culture around us (at least the dominant Christian culture with all of its trappings combined with economic orthodoxies). Sometimes I wonder how Jesus himself would react to a McDonald's inside of a church? (Thoughts of Jesus whipping the moneychangers come to mind.)

(By the way, I would like to point out that the one time I got to see Mark Heard perform live, it was as an opening act for Randy Stonehill. I got to meet Mark after the show and talk to him for a few minutes.)

Anyway, I guess one of the reasons I liked Mark Heard's music so much was that I am the kind of person who likes to be challenged mentally. Even St. Paul wrote: "When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things." 1 Corinthians 13:11. But I feel like too many Christians today in their emphasis on conformity also create an insulated culture that resembles child-like reasoning in areas of science, politics, economics and law. . .even when that means serving mammon rather than God.

I Just Wanna Get Warm

This song is another one by Mark Heard that has a kind of Cajun style to it. It appears on his Second Hand CD and again on the High Noon compilation CD released after his death. You can listen to the song at Rhapsody.com. It is song number 8 on the Second Hand CD.

I Just Wanna Get Warm

The mouths of the best poets
Speak but a few words
And then lay down
Stone cold in forgotten fields
Life goes on in this ant farm town
Cold to the lifeblood underfoot
All talk and no touch
And I just wanna be real
I just wanna be real

The colors here are monochrome
Studies in one shade of grey
The good times and the hard times
Cut from the same grey cloth
And all the fires that crackle here
Consume but do not burn
All light and no heat
And I just wanna get warm
I just wanna get warm

The days they rattle past me
Like a tunnel round a train
Landscapes and heartaches
I don't know what I feel
All I know is my condition
Is worse than I can tell
The small talk and the slow burn
And I just wanna be healed
I just wanna get well

There are things I should remember
But I have forgotten how
I'm all tied up with no time
Trying do too much
And the thoughts that I've avoided
Are the ones I need right now
Like a warm wind and love's hand
And I just wanna be touched
And I just wanna be real
And I just wanna be well
And I just wanna be healed
And I just wanna be warm

Written by Mark Heard
© 1991 Ideola Music/ASCAP

Rise From The Ruins

Since I am on the western edge of Cajun Country, I guess it is only fitting that I use a Mark Heard song that uses a Cajun style.

Rise from the Ruins

Nobody asks to be born
Nobody wishes to die
Everybody whiles away the interim time
Sworn to rise from the ruins by and by
The engines are droning with progress
The pistons are pounding out time
And it’s you and me caught in this juggernaut jaunt
Left to rise from the ruins down the line

We will roll like an old Chevrolet
The road to ruin is something to see
Hang on to the wheel
For the highway to hell needs chauffers
For the powers that be

Go and tell all your friends and relations
Go and say what ain’t easy to say
Go and give them some hope
That we might rock this boat
And rise from the ruins one day

Ever try to carry water in a basket
Ever try to carry fire in your hand
Ever try to take on the weight of the everyday freight
Til you find that you’re too weak to stand

Why so pale and wan, fond lover
Why so downcast and desperately sad
We can walk, we can talk
We ain’t yet pillars of salt
And we will rise from the ruins while we can

Written by Mark Heard © 1990 Ideola Music

You can listen to the song here at Rhapsody.com.

The song is found on the CD Dry Bones Dance

Eye of the Storm

Eye Of The Storm

When it's dark outside you've got to carry a light
Or you'll stumble and fall like tumbling dice
It takes a steady step, it takes God-given sight
Just to tell what is the truth, what is wrong, what is right

In this world
Thunder throbs in the darkness
Out in the eye of the storm
The friends of God suffer no permanent harm

When the night sky glows with the red fires of war
And the threat of annihilation pounds at your door
You don't have to pretend that you got nerves of steel
To believe that the love of the Lord is actual and real

In this world
Thunder throbs in the darkness
Out in the eye of the storm
The friends of God suffer no permanent harm

When the daybreak comes with a trumpet blast
And the true fruit of faith is tasted at long-last
When the darkness dies and death is undone
And teardrops are dried in the noonday sun

In this world
Thunder throbs in the darkness
Out in the eye of the storm
The friends of God suffer no permanent harm

Written by Mark Heard
© 1983 Bug ´n Bear Music

You can only get the album Eye of the Storm at iTunes.com as a music download. It only costs $9.90, though. That's pretty cheap.

You can the song Eye of the Storm on Mark Heard's Greatest Hits CD, however.

Sounds So Simple

In my previous post, I referred to a song by the musician Pat Terry. He is still active as a songwriter and performs now and then.

His LP Humanity Gangsters never caught on with the Christian audience, but lyrically it was very progressive in Christian terms (it probably helped that Mark Heard produced it). The concept behind the album title is explained in the liner notes:

Could you comment on some of the songs on your album, "Humanity Gangsters?" ... Could you summarize your thoughts about it?

Yes, I wanted to find a title that said something about the theme of the album in a graphic kind of way. In one of the songs there is a line that says, "Humanity Gangsters, there stealing our compassion away," and I think that puts the idea behind the album in a nutshell. It's like were being robbed of all the things in life that are beautiful and we don't realize it. So, the album is just a kind of plea for people to be aware of that battle, and to find their own individual ways to fight it. I think it's also an album about faith that walks hand in hand with reason ... faith with substance.

The song Sounds So Simple is a song that appears to contrast unbelief with the often shallow thinking of Christians.

Sounds So Simple

Love is alive up in heaven tonight
And life goes on in this crazy mixed-up world
If we could bring some down
Well, I know it would be alright
Sounds so simple
Don't it girl

The rest of the world
Now they don't believe it
And I don't blame them
For the example we gave
It's hard to understand
Much less receive it
When the way they see it
Is through the way we behave

The sleeping masses
They just go on dreaming
While we keep swimming
On our surface world
I'd like to dive into the depths
And come up screaming
Sounds so simple
Don't it girl

Love is alive up in heaven tonight
And life goes on in this crazy mixed-up world
If we could bring some down
Well, I know it would be alright
Sounds so simple, don't it girl
Sounds so simple, don't it girl
Sounds so simple, don't it girl

***Update***

Pat Terry e-mailed me back after I informed him of the post. Here is what he said:

Fred,

Thanks for dropping a line, and for posting "Sounds So Simple" on your blog. It's been a long time since I'd looked at those lyrics. I think I'll pull it out and start performing it some when I go out and play. Thanks for the reminder.

Unfortunately my albums have not been re-released on CD or any other current media. I'm working on it and hope I can work out a licensing deal that will allow me to make them available. Word Inc. owns the actual master tapes. I appreciate your interest.

All the best,

Pat Terry

Pat also has a MySpace site where some of his new material is played. Here is the site:

The Real Pat Terry

The Pain That Plagues Creation

How could I have forgotten this song on Earth Day. What a great environmental song this could be: Mark Heard's The Pain That Plagues Creation. But Al Gore has presented a new opportunity to post it in honor of his Earth Concert.

I don't think that Mark's song, which is found on the the rare Eye of the Storm CD, was meant primarily to be a environmental song. ("The Pain," I think it's clear, was meant to refer to the fallen nature of mankind in the Christian context.) But it certainly could have a secondary environmental meaning.

The Pain That Plagues Creation

As this planet falls around the sun
Trapping us in the orbit
Creation groans in unison
Like a race of frightened orphans

The darkness of this raging storm
Is covering up our portals
But a yearning for the light
Is bourne in the heart of every mortal

Day to day we ache
With the pain that plagues Creation
Night to night we lie awake
And await its restoration

Heaven knows our lonely ways
Heaven knows our sorrows
And Heaven knows things that we don't know
And the joy of eternal tomorrows

But through this glass we dimly see
This world as it was made
Oh and the good we know
Must surely flow
From the heart of a kind Creator

Day to day we ache
With the pain that plagues Creation
Night to night we lie awake
And await its restoration

So hold on in this restless age
And do not fear your shadow
Your alternating tears and praise
Are prayers that surely will matter

Day to day we ache
With the pain that plagues Creation
Night to night we lie awake
And await its restoration

Written by Mark Heard
© 1983 Bug ´n Bear Music

House Of Broken Dreams

Does this sound like an appropriate song to describe my life in recent years? (See Seven Years Of Bad Luck and Live Like You Were Dying posts.)

House Of Broken Dreams

Hear the whistle blow
It echoes down my soul
It's something I have always known
Nothing sounds so sad
A cry to the unknown
The fundamental sigh of all who've gone this way before

Lay me down to sleep
Come and comfort me
I'll sleep in peace
In a house of broken dreams

I'm old enough to know
That dreams are quickly spent
Like a pouring rain on warm cement
Or fingerprints in dust
Nectar on the wind
Save them for tomorrow and tomorrow lets you down again

Lay me down to sleep
Come and comfort me
I'll sleep in peace
In a house of broken dreams

Give me the reasons to go on
Soften the sorrow that shatters and bends
And mend broken dreams

Sentimental hearts
Hungry for the past
Penniless at the wishing-well
Memories will last
And cover certain scars
Acquired in the daily grind of being what we are

Lay me down to sleep
Come and comfort me
I'll sleep in peace
In a house of broken dreams

Written by Mark Heard © 1990 Ideola Music

This song can be found on the CD High Noon.

Strong Hand of Love

The song Strong Hand of Love was Mark Heard's biggest "hit." I just found a MySpace page today that will play the entire song online.

If the song doesn't load up when the page first loads, you can just click on the Song title in the upper right hand corner.

Here are the lyrics from MarkHeard.net:

Strong Hand Of Love

Down peppers the rain from a clear blue sky
Down trickles a tear on a youthful face
Feeling in haste and wondering why
Up struggles the sun from a wounded night
Out venture our hearts from their silent shrouds
Trying to ignite but wondering how

We can laugh and we can cry
And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows
We can dance and we can sigh
And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows

Young dreamers explode like popped balloons
Some kind of emotional rodeo
Learning too slow and acting too soon
Time marches away like a lost platoon
We gracefully age as we feel the weight
Of loving too late and leaving too soon

We can laugh and we can cry
And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows
We can dance and we can sigh
And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows

Written by Mark Heard © 1990 Ideola Music

Music CD: The View From Here

Singer Bob Bennett, who did the tribute song of Mark Heard's Heart of Hearts (see below for the video), was kind enough to stop by and leave a comment. Here is a link where you can buy his CD that has the song Heart of Hearts on it through Amazon.com:

The View From Here

Environmental Issues In Popular Music

I have been trying to find a music video on YouTube that follows an environmental theme from popular Top 40 music (pop, rock, Christian or country) but I can't seem to find any that really talk about environmental or ecological issues. The closest I seemed able to find was the Australian band Midnight Oil's Blue Sky Mine. But that was not a Top 40 hit -- at least not here in the U.S. Their one Top 40 hit, Beds Are Burning, was really about the treatment of Native peoples (Aboriginal) in Australia.

I have read several artists, such as Peter Gabriel and Sting, that are involved in Social Justice and Environmental causes, but I have not been able to find actual examples of popular songs that deal with environmental concerns.

Can my regular readers think of any popular Top 40 songs that were about environmental issues for Earth Day?

Victims of the Age

And for a Mark Heard song that showcased his lyrical poetry, Victims of the Age was also the title of the album on which it appeared. The music and lyrical content was far ahead of its time for Christian radio. (Actually, it probably still is.) Billboard magazine reviewed it as one of that year's best albums.

Victims Of the Age

Asphalt ocean roars
At islands with rubber wheels
City kid can't keep on even keel
Neon world says, "Gotcha"
Heart says, "No, no no"
Don't be swimming in the undertow

Caught between these voices
The sirens and the sage
One too many choices
For the victims of the age

Radio says, "I love you"
Street says, "That's a lie"
Billboard says, "Give anything a try"
Sidewalks don't say nothing
Streetlights don't ask why
Could stars be screaming in the evening sky?

Caught between these voices
The sirens and the sage
One too many choices
For the victims of the age

Written by Mark Heard
© 1982 Bug 'n Bear Music ASCAP

Victims of the Age can be found on his Greatest Hits (electric) album.



There is also a clip from the song that you can listen to at Amazon's website. The album cover for Mark Heard's Greatest Hits CD is essentially the cover from his Victims of the Age album.

Sunday Music: Happy

I just got a copy of Wow 2007,



and the song Happy by Ayiesha Woods was the bonus track on the first CD. I don't know what it is about the Wow annual CDs; the bonus songs are always the best ones. As far as I am concerned, this could be a hit on mainstream Top 40 radio. The song plays when you visit Ayiesha Woods' website. She also has a MySpace page which has her upcoming concert dates.

Last year, she toured with Toby Mac from DC Talk.

Given how catchy this pop song is, I am surprised it hasn't received more airplay on K-Love radio. Actually, I would think it would have gotten more Top 40 radio attention had it not been on a Christian CD.

If Ayiesha Woods puts out more songs like this in the future, she will be one to watch.

Mark Heard High Noon Review

I recently posted a review of Mark Heard's High Noon CD on Ebay. I am reprinting the review here:

High Noon is basically a "best of" Mark's last CDs: Dry Bones Dance, Second Hand, Satellite Sky and another one that was produced after his death. From Strong Hand of Love (probably his best song ever) to Treasure of a Broken Land, Mark Heard wrote and performed music that was both personally touching and real.

There is a reason why performers as diverse as Bruce Cockburn to Olivia Newton-John performed his songs on a benefit CD Orphans of God after his death. Although a relatively unknown Christian performer during his lifetime, his impact went far beyond the small market that was home to his music. In many ways, he was considered the "Christian Bob Dylan" for his incisive lyrics and progressive and widely varied music. Mark's music ranged from the folksy Appalachian Melody (one of his earlier albums) to the Cajun Rise From the Ruins (on Dry Bones Dance) -- with a lot of rock 'n roll in between. His music also ranged from the powerful driving rock 'n roll to thoughtful ballads.

The song Strong Hand of Love does not sound as good on this CD as it does on Dry Bones Dance, but High Noon contains a complete compilation of his best songs from the later years.
If you listen very carefully, you will notice a pattern to the lyrics. Some words appear over and over: bones, satellite, broken. His music was very philosophical. It contained a lot of very deep concepts. His music is not for those who want nothing but jingoistic, happy talk pop. His music was designed to provoke thought and introspection.

The CD starts out with Strong Hand of Love. A beautiful ballad about life and love and how we can go through life never recognizing how a kind of mysterious unseen love affects us all, whether we know it or not.

Another Day in Limbo was classic Heard. He contrasts immutable natural scenes with ever changing modern technology -- and he is the only singer I have ever known to use an unusual word -- Jacaranda -- in a song and make it seem like it belongs there.

On She's Not Afraid, he sings about a woman who longs for a past long since gone and withered. She reminisces about the beauty and vitality of her youth that she, now older, wishes she could get back.

The Dry Bones Dance is a song that sings of an idealized world (think: heaven) that is unattainable in the here and now. For instance: Every now and then I seem to dream these dreams/ Where the mute ones speak and deaf ones sing/ Touching that miraculous circumstance/ Where the blind ones see and the Dry Bones Dance/.

House of Broken Dreams is another lamenting ballad that typifies much of his later works: Lay me down to sleep/ Come and comfort me/ I'll sleep in peace/ In a House of Broken Dreams/. The song speaks about the transitory nature of life and how we suffer many heartbreaks throughout it.

Nod Over Coffee seems to talk about a married couple who go about their daily lives like automatons. He seems to be telling us to look beyond our daily lives and to "seize the day" without telling us directly.

The Orphans of God talks about the vanity of life and how someday in the future, our contemporary struggles will be mostly forgotten by our ancestors.

The final song is a driving rock song that rounds out the CD. It once again contrasts the corporeal here and now with the spiritual afterlife, and how it is important to live life to its fullest.

If you want a "best of" Mark's later works, this is a must buy.