"I Will Go"

"I Will Go"

August 10, 2010 at 10:24 pm

http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/4847396  click to hear

Like "Step Down" before and "City of Joy" after, I think I can see some U2 influence on some of this, written in 1986, with its short repetitions (like "I Will Follow"; it even says "I will follow"!) It has a very simple 3-piece band spirit about it, but luckily the three pieces we had, Greg, Dave and Tony were pretty tight at this point. One funny memory is Greg and Dave practicing that final run together over...and over...and over...and over. "Da dle da da da da da da da daaah.... Da dle da da da da da da da daaah..." ad infinitum. It got to the point where I actually kind of liked it in a strange 'I might as well embrace it' way!! PLEASE do it again! Denise and I got to do some POWER singing on this; the song allowed us to sing with conviction and emotion. I loved it, though it could be hard when you had a cold or allergies as I so often did!

What we are presenting here is a one-take live recording version from the Sons of Mary "City of Joy" sessions in the early 90's. I remember David Babish hanging out with his dad there (I think). The spirit of it was great; I truly loved recording with all its experimentation and problem-solving. Most of the tracks were laboriously work-intensive multi-track opuses, some of which had turned out pretty well, like "Love's in a Name", but by the end, I think we thought, 'what's the point' with "I Will Go"? It's simple. Not that much 'multi' of 'tracks' needed, so we just did the one-take method. Unfortunately, Denise is a little low on the second verse and there are a few rough spots, but I think it captures the energy and feel of the song and the whole session captured a whole time when we were at our best. For a while we were using it to open our shows and maybe you can see why.

It is based on one of the Suffering Servant passages in Isaiah foretelling the rejection and persecution of the Messiah. It pictures the Servant as not only patient and bearing with the awful pain and shame, not only confident, but triumphantly certain. He is totally willing to listen, obey and go wherever he has to go. "I gave my back to those who beat KNOWING nothing can defeat me." This is an awesome attitude called HOPE. If our relationship with our Creator is what it is meant to be, than this type of spiritual freedom and power is the logical result. And at some point in each life, we are ALL going to need it, that's for sure. Hearing somebody sing about is just like 'living waters' and a healing balm to the soul. Songs like this are the reason we have been doing what we are doing. Music is a great way to reassure and enbolden our trust in Him who is so trustworthy.

Faith, HOPE and Joy,
Mark Lajoie