Take the Highway to the End of the Night

In 1967 I was at a point in my life where I knew I had to decide whether I wanted to take my parents' and family's word for what I believe or what often times seemed to be the very opposite of what they said and showed that they believed. In the middle of that profound belly button examining, I came across the Doors...Jim Morrison et al. As I recall, I borrowed my best friend's copy of their first album and began to listen at first to learn "Light My Fire" for the band and discovered the writer of these songs seemed to be where I was...maybe. I listened to "Break on Through" and its words, "You know the day destroys the night...night divides the day..."  Almost Biblical or maybe Biblical but warped. But Jim seemed to be struggling with it all. The dude in other songs definitely had a strange outlook on the world.

In my total naivety, while I fell in love with "Back Door Man" I was clueless as to its more deep sexual reference other than a dude sneakin' in to the back door to see his girl, or someone's daughter. I wished I had such boldness. That's as far as my consideration of the lyric went.

Well I eventually, not long after that, decided not to take either group at their word, but to take God at HIS. Turns out, my parents and family had pretty much been on target, not that anyone is perfect. Today, belief system intact and continuing to strengthen, it's very interesting to observe other rocker's struggles and expressions...John Lennon's famous declarations of noisy UNbelief, Dylan's journey, Barry McGuire's Christian faith and his telling me how he shared it with Bob Dylan, there was Noel Stookey, Paul of Peter, Paul and Mary and Dion and Alice Cooper's faith and God delivering him from almost killing himself with alcohol.

The faith community (church...SOME evangelicals) are very jealous and when BJ Thomas professed faith in the Lord, they'd criticize him when he'd sing the old hits like "Raindrops..." saying, "Sing for the LORD, BJ!" They wouldn't leave the guy alone. Like JD Sumner said, "Ernie Ford sang 'Sixteen Tons' and people thought that was great and they'd marvel at his gospel songs, but let the Stamps back up Elvis and people say 'that that rock'n'roll stuff. I can tell you this, I bet more people came to faith in Christ hearin' Elvis sing 'How Great Thou Art' than all us gospel singers COMBINED."

MayBE. But I get excited when I hear how people are singing, some that you would never suspect of giving spirituality or holiness a thought.