Living Waters Blog: A Story About "Song of Witness"

Thursday, April 25, 2019

A Story About "Song of Witness"

Mark after singing "Song of Witness" at Church on Easter morning 2019

In the late 70's, I wrote a song called "Song of Witness". It's an Easter song all the way. Each verse is a spoken, poetic narrative. It details Peter and John running to the tomb and finding the shroud, Mary Magdalene recognizing the Risen Lord, The Lord appearing to the Apostles on Easter night. Each verse has its own chorus ("He is risen! Alleluia...", "Long have I waited..." and "Peace be with you..."). After going through the three you join all three choruses together and then end strong on "He is risen!". (I will put the music at the end of the article.)

I happened upon a Christian Songwriters Conference at Estes Park in Colorado (I believe in 1980??). I decided to give it a shot and copied a concert version of "Song of Witness" onto a cassette tape and sent it in. Well, what to my wondering eyes did I behold in the mail but an in-depth breakdown and a pass to the main competition in Colorado! I'll never forget it. The reviewer was Dan Burgess, and we are forever beholden to him for seeing something good in the song.

So! I was off! (Those who know me, know that.) In Colorado, I got to see Amy Grant, Phil Keaggy and so many others. How exciting! Finally the day came for the competition. A room full of 'experts' judged my song. And? They absolutely ripped it apart! One guy said something like, 'what the heck is this?? you can't even tell what it is..." Another said 'this is a poor rip-off of Don Francisco' (I actually didn't even know who Don Francisco was at that point!) I just wished I could crawl under the floor, I was so embarrassed. That particular year? I actually had no reason to be that embarrassed - the winning song, was, I think, "Via Dolorosa" sung by Sandi Patti at the last show - that DESERVED best song, without a doubt far more than "Song of Witness". In later years, "We Are One Body" by Dana beat out my "Peter the Rock" for World Youth Day 1993 (in Colorado aGAIN!!) - once again, clearly destined to be. Interestingly, my son, Stephen, is now teaching in Colorado the last couple of years.

I went again to the Estes Park Conference in 1982, I believe, with Mike McBride, and myself. I had "Tonight" and Mike had "He Will Be". Well, the critics didn't like us that year either! All this might have seemed like a waste of time, but you know what? We learned from it! It made us determined to constantly improve, and boy did we ever! The next few years in the 80's saw a true flowering in so many ways. (By the way, that was the year Steve Taylor debuted on stage, and we were there to see it!)

I hope you enjoyed this tale from our past connection with the Christian Contemporary Music scene in its beginnings. Many thanks again to Dan Burgess and may Our Risen Lord bless you and yours richly!