From: Steve Harris Date: Mon, 01 Jul 1996 11:33:16 -0400 (EDT) Well, I guess us die-hard fans have many favorites which were not radio releases, and it appears that Rich followed the standard format of a greatest hits by releasing all his radio songs plus a couple new ones. Too bad that we who have all his albums will have to spend full price for the CD to get only the two new songs. Well, that's the music industry for ya. :) Steve\
From: Ashwin Vasavada Date: Mon, 1 Jul 96 11:01:19 PDT Hi Danl - Thanks for continuing to provide all the great info. I'm a bit unclear on which of the songs have been recorded especially for the album. I know 'Sing Your Praise' and 'We Are Not as Strong' have, but what about Elijah, Screen Door, Verge of a Miracle? Thanks, Ash (ashwin@ptolemy.gps.caltech.edu) ----------
Hi Ash,
"Sing Your Praise" (which was obviously redone for this CD) was recorded by Rich on his first album before he went solo; before he was discovered by Amy Grant. The album is called Behold The Man, and the group was Zion, which was a praise band from Cincinnati College. See: [RichMailList 22]: Rich Discography & ReleasExtra, also [RichMailList 64]: Results: Rich Top 20 Survey
The new song is "We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are". Rich has never recorded this one at all. Interesting story on this one. See: [RichMailList 50]: Rich in Tulsa
"Elijah" was re-recorded especially for this CD, however, now that you mention it, I've never heard that arrangement of "Screen Door" other than live, so it must have either been re-recorded or more probably a version they had and didn't use on Pictures In The Sky. "Verge Of A Miracle" was also previously on Pictures In The Sky.
Danl
From: John Santosh
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 96 14:26:32 EDT
Hey bro, I got back from Creation 96 yesterday. It was a blast.
I'll try to give you a summary later. I've got lots of work to
catch up on as you can imagine. sigh...
Just wanted to let you know 2 things..._Songs_ was available at
Creation and I got to hear it. _Sing Your Praise to the Lord_ is
too good! I love the guitar. As for _We Are Not As Strong_...
well, I thought it was OVERproduced. I was kinda hoping for Rich
and a piano, period. But still, it's good stuff...plus, there are
2 more verses to add to the lyrics we have. The other thing is
that Rich made a surprise appearance at the end of the Hokus Pick
segment and sang "Step By Step" with them. You know...HP started
singing and playing...Rich casually walks on stage, sings, and
leaves.
I love RM...he's just the man...I'll try to write more later.
Hope all is well.
God bless always.
Finally, be strong in the Lord.
Philippians 1:6
"We are frail, we are fearfully and wonderfully made,
Forged in the fires of human passion,
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage.
And with these our hells and heavens,
so few inches apart,
We must be awfully small,
and not as strong as we think we are." -RM
From: Brendt Waters
Date: Thu, 04 Jul 96 00:56:00 -0500
[snip]
Danl wrote:
> In case you're wondering which of the songs we picked to make it on
> the greatist hits (see [RichMailList 64]: Results: Rich Top 20
> Survey) , I've
> done the figuring already. I guess we didn't do very good, as we
> only picked slightly more than half of the songs.
Depends on how you define "good". Rich told me in the interview that
they decided to simply go with what did well on radio, "which is a
pretty good indication of how the songs were received" (rough quote
from memory). However, he also said that if he had picked his
favorites, there would be several songs on the album that didn't make
it, and several that did make it that he wouldn't have chosen.
[snip]
Thanks,
Brendt
Date: Mon, 08 Jul 96 07:40:50 CST
From: Kathie Scott
Danl wrote:
>Cool. I finally got to hear "Sing Your Praise" on the radio today. I like
>the arrangement. It's really different from how Rich usually does it live,
>especially since I usually heard him do it solo (w/piano). But I really
>like the rhythm section and the feel. Can't wait to hear "We Are Not As
>Strong". I'm anxious to hear how you like the "original" recording of "Sing
>Your Praise" on _Behold The Man_.
Listened to it Saturday. I liked it. Kind of has a 70's
folk flavor to the whole album. I had heard Rich really
used to be a piano-pounder, and it's more evident in that
version than in more recent stuff (a few missed notes here &
there as well). I have to admit that I'm not really fond of
the women's voices...kind of thin & reedy. But then, I'm
terribly critical of women's voices. Margaret Becker is
just about the only female artist I listen to.
[snip]
Kathie
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 96 08:02:36 CST
From: Kathie Scott
Did you get it? What do you think? I just love the photos
on the front & back. I also love the guitar line on "We Are
Not As Strong As We Think We Are."
And I've always been partial to the long version of "Screen
Door." I always kind of felt cheated that it wasn't
available & I could only hear it on the whim of my radio
station.
Also, do you find that you know Rich's other releases so
well, that you expect a certain song to follow the one you
just heard on this release? It always kind of throws me not
to hear whatever song comes next on the original release.
Anyway, just hoping that you finally got your copy!
Later!
Kathie
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 10:01:03 -0700
From: Dan Moynihan
Hi,
I picked up songs on 7/11. I love the two new songs, Sing Your Praise
and We Are Not As Strong. Nice arrangements and well sung. Rich does a
remake of Elijah, which is one of my alltime favorites. Allthough the
arrangement is good, I think he sang it with more passion on the first
album.
As for the content, It must have been really hard deciding where to cut
off the selections. I was pleasently surprised to see "Calling Out Your
Name" make the cut. It is one of my top favorites, didn't know it was
anyone elses. I was disappointed that "What Susan Said", "Growing
Yound" and "Maker Of Noses" didn't make it but hey, this could have been
a five CD set if I had my way. The Long version of Screen Door is a
nice touch.
Dan Moynihan
Forestport, NY
From: Steve Harris
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 02:53:44 -0400 (EDT)
I just got the Songs CD and was checking the liner notes to clear
up a question I had, but it is not any clearer, so I'll as the
the Rich experts. From looking at Screen Door's lyrics in the
new CD, it is obviously a blind copy of the lyrics from the earlier
album and not the true lyrics of this longer version of the song,
so I'm guessing that the lyrics for Sometimes by Step are also
a copy from the WABIRIt Vol II, Where in the lyrics, it says:
Sometimes it seemed to STEEP so close
Listening to the song, Rich might be saying STEEP or STOOP, and
in concert, he definitely said STOOP. STOOP also makes better
sense in context as I've never seen steep used as a verb before,
though if he is using it, it is very clever poetic license
and there is no doubt what he means. So which is it REALLY?
Thanks for the help.
Steve Harris
----------
Hi Steve,
I used to sing it as (and have it written out on my guitar sheet as) "seemed too steep, so close", until you mentioned this once before. I think you're right. I'm fairly certain Rich is saying "stoop" when he sings it.
Danl
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 96 04:56:37 UT From: Julia Christian Danl, Hi! Haven't heard from you in a while. I got Songs this weekend and I really like the songs I hadn't heard, though I still can't quite get Amy out of the background on Sing Your Praise... [snip] Blessings, Julia