Monday, June 19, 2017

“When He Came Into My Life" He set my heart on FIRE! 2017

“When He Came Into My Life" He set my heart on FIRE2017

c. 1978; left 2 right:  Mark Lajoie, Danny Gagnon, Chuck, Jimmy, Joline, Mike & Dave out of sight

"When He Came Into My Life" Click this to listen!

This is a VERY old song written by Danny Gagnon & Dave Bourque back at the very beginning in the 70's. Mike's been busy using GarageBand himself, so! I thought I should get off the snide and do something, too.

In the early days, Danny & his brother Jimmy Gagnon were in the group. Jimmy was our drummer for those first few years and also with our secular band which we called Siloam [another water reference; that became a problem to pronounce just like in that movie “That Thing You Do” where no one can figure out “The Oneders” is pronounced “Wonders” and not “O-need-ers”!]. Danny played guitar and sang and he really wanted to write songs, too. Dave Bourque seemed to help him every time (except for “He’ll Be There” which involved Beth Medeiros?) It’s funny because sometimes Dave and Danny could get testy with each other, too, but they did manage to write some good songs. The one song the group embraced totally and used extensively was “The Lord Will Come” and I sure wish we had that one on tape somewhere! It included an awesome bass line contributed by Dave and I think the dancers did something, too. I have one flash of memory of Danny singing that song for the Steubenville Youth Conference (1978?) and it was wonderful! It got quite a reaction.

I do have one song to offer in regards to Danny. I took one song he and Dave wrote and tried to write it up on the Noteworthy Composer midi program you see featured on this site. In the process, I altered the arrangement and presentation. I had always imagined a bass line in my head for this that was never actually done and that is what I put down here. In that regard it’s similar to “The Lord Will Come”: Gagnon melody, Bourque-like bass line.

I asked Danny if it was OK to use his song and he said it was. I like the simple emotion of the lyrics: ‘He really helped me when it was bad; He can help you, too’! That’s what Danny is still saying I guess in everything he’s doing now.

Enjoy!
Mark Lajoie

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