"I came upon a child of G-d..."
- Thomas Tittmann
- May 31
- 15 min read
Updated: May 31
"We are stardust, we are golden
We are caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden"
Viewer digestion advised: These musings began last evening and continued as I awoke. They contain pro life imagery. While initially addressed to folks I know as musicians, they are also intended for all of us...provided we...
"Trouble with you is the trouble with me,
Got two good eyes but we still don't see."
-"Casey Jones" - Grateful Dead
And from a favorite Psalm...
Music Makers,
Hello! I’m offering you an opportunity to compose…way better than decomposing…
…to create a new song to support the pro-life movement…I’m attaching some threads to assist your tune weaving…
As I typed “tune weaving”, I seemed to remember a band with that name. Yup! Their #1 hit was called “Happy Happy Birthday, Baby”…The lyrics weren’t appropriate to our conversation…BUT, it did lead to another song about abortion after I searched for:
“happy birthday song to an aborted baby”
The following appeared at the top of my search results:
“There is a rap song by Flipsyde that uses the melody of "Happy Birthday" to address abortion. The lyrics apologize for involvement in an abortion and imagine a child being born1”
--Lyrics are near the end of the post
The empty swings reminded me of a scene in Les Mis. Eileen and I just shared this favorite film with a young friend. We were introduced to it at the home of Jim and Marylou Jeffries, who with their children, entertained us as they sang parts of the movie’s songs.
BACKSTORY TO POST
This tale/tail (you’ll see why "tail"…) began last evening when I searched to see if I could find any Grateful Dead pro-life songs. Nada. Undaunted, I was inspired to send an email to some music makers I know asking them to write a new pro-life song. To aid and abet their labors, I included a few pro-life tunes. Here's my first email:
I came upon a child of God - Part 1…
Good evening! While looking for particular pro-life articles, I came upon this “child of God…” link and am sharing it with you. It was a message I penned in the Fall of 2008.
I’m an active member of the West Hempstead Community Support Association, so let me know if there’s an interest in hosting another pro life table…
FYI - I’ve recently enjoyed reconnecting with some folks from our Cathedral Church of the Intercessor days. Got to enjoy Kelly Tanza’s all-girl band Pandora’s Vox a few weeks ago at the Double L in Hicksville. Here's their Facebook page.
Fr Joe and Melanie drove me to see Paul Ammendola, Mark Phillips, Mike and Victoria, and others in Broken Arrow and Red Words at the Boulton Center.
"I came upon a child of God..."
--Lyrics are near the end of this post
I came upon this next song and 4 more in an article on pro life rock songs. The lyrics are explicit - like an abortion.
TAKE 5 for LIFE
Lyrics for these 5 are at the end of the post...
Four more from that article…
I came upon a child of God - Part 2…
As I was waking up this morning after I sent my first email to you last night, the following began flowing…
Consider it grist for the mill…
"If I were a carpenter
And you were a lady
Would you marry me anyway?
Would you have my baby?
If I were a miller, at a mill wheel grinding
Would you miss your colour box
Soft shoes shining"
--Tim Hardin
TUNE WEAVERS, "Hear" are some starter threads... ...roses...garlands...ribbons...scarlet colors...babies...
SAINT STEPHEN...
Lyrics By: Robert Hunter
Music By:Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh
Saint Stephen with a rose
In and out of the garden he goes
Country garland in the wind and the rain (note 1)
Wherever he goes the people all complain
Stephen prosper in his time
Well he may, and he may decline
Did it matter, does it now?
Stephen would answer if he only knew how
Wishing well with a golden bell
Bucket hanging clear to hell
Hell half way twixt now and then
Stephen fill it up and lower down, and lower down again
Lady finger, dipped in moonlight
Writing "What for?" across the morning sky
Sunlight splatters dawn with answers
Darkness shrugs and bids the day goodbye
Speeding arrow, sharp and narrow
What a lot of fleeting matters you have spurned
Several seasons with their treasons
Wrap the babe in scarlet colors, call it your own
Did he doubt or did he try?
Answers a-plenty in the by and by
Talk about your plenty, talk about your ills
One man gathers what another man spills (note 2)
Saint Stephen will remain
All he's lost he shall regain
Seashore washed by the suds and the foam
Been here so long he's got to calling it home
Fortune comes a-crawling, Calliope woman
Spinning that curious sense of your own
Can you answer? Yes I can
But what would be the answer to the answer man?
-----(William Tell Bridge to "The Eleven")-----
High green chilly winds and windy vines in loops (note 3)
Around the twined shafts of lavender
They're crawling to the sun
Underfoot the ground is patched
With climbing arms of ivy wrapped
Around the manzanita stark and shiny in the breeze
Wonder who will water all the children of the garden
When they sigh about the barren lack
Of rain and droop so hungry 'neath the sky
William Tell has stretched his bow
Till it won't stretch no furthermore
And/or it will require a change that hasn't come before (Note 4)
Here's a nice blend of genders...
More Stephen...
The above post included this letter to David Dodd who has a 'grate" website for fans.
--as with all annotated songs on this site, words are hyperlinked for your Deadification. Here's one example in which David Dodd posted these reader comments on the word "garland." (my added emphasis)
garland
This note from a reader:
Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2006 From: Damian G Stephen Subject: St. Stephen hints David, I love your Dead annotation website. I was born a little too late and kept in the dark too long to be a full-blown Dead fan right now. Am working on that... In the meantime, I love what you're doing with the lyrics. It's a great project. I wish I knew more about the Dead, but I enjoy your pages regardless. I learn something new with every browse. In the meantime, I came across the song "St. Stephen" this weekend. As you might be able to guess from my last name, I have an interest in things Stephen. What jumped out at me was the word "garland." The Greek word for "garland" is "stefanos"--if I had Greek fonts, I'd give you the actual spelling--essentially the name of that first martyr. That brings me to point #2: "martyr" is Greek for "witness," an individual who is asked to answer truthfully. Why Stephen wouldn't know how to answer, I'm not sure about that one. Keep up the awesome work, Damian
“It must have been the roses…” – Grateful Dead
"Annie laid her head down in the roses
She had ribbons, ribbons, ribbons
In her long brown hair
I don’t know, it must have been the roses
All I know is I could not leave her there"
Let's hear it from a woman...
MORE ROSES: Our Lady of Guadalupe Mexico...
--you can read about her online...
SAINT GEORGE...
“I can tell by the look in your eye that you’ve never met a man with nothing to say”
Similar to these from the Grateful Dead’s St. Stephen:
“Stephen would answer if he only knew how…”
St. George and the Dragon - Toto
"I can tell by the look in your eye
You've never seen the man with nothing to say
I can tell by the look in your eye
You'd better watch yourself, St. George is on his way
Can you tell me where I might find the Hydra?
Is he wearing a familiar face?
Does he still live below Seventh Avenue
In the slums of Satan's grace?"
The Hydra is an immortal, many-headed snake in Greek mythology. It haunted the swamps around Lake Lerna and is most famous for its battle with the hero Heracles. The Hydra is depicted as a serpentine monster with the ability to regrow two heads for every one that is severed. It is believed to be the offspring of the monstrous Typhon and Echidna. SOURCE
If you've read this far, you get a cartoon...
Our story has a happy ending...
As the turn tables…
--lots of applicable references in the article: tree of life in garden, a dragon exacting human sacrifice, conflict between light and darkness, the serpent entwined around the tree,
“Tiamat, the scaly, winged, foul dragon, and Apepi the powerful enemy of the glorious Sungod, were both destroyed and made to perish in the fire which he sent against them and their fiends: and Dadianus, also called the 'dragon', with his friends the sixty-nine governors, was also destroyed by fire called down from heaven by the prayer of Saint George. See next song reference.
Fire On the Mountain
--Song by Grateful Dead and often performed with "Scarlet Begonias" (follows below "Fire")
"Long distance runner, what you standin' there for?
Get up, get out, get out of the door
You're playin' cold music on the barroom floor
Drowned in your laughter and dead to the core
There's a dragon with matches that's loose on the town
Takes a whole pail of water just to cool him down
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Almost ablaze, still you don't feel the heat
It takes all you got just to stay on the beat
You say it's a livin', we all gotta eat
But you're here alone, there's no one to compete
If Mercy's a business, I wish it for you
More than just ashes when your dreams come true
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Long distance runner, what you holdin' out for?
Caught in slow motion in a dash for the door
The flame from your stage has now spread to the floor
You gave all you had, why you wanna give more?
The more that you give, the more it will take
To the thin line beyond, which you really can't fake
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! Fire on the mountain
Fire! Fire on the mountain"
LOOK when it was recorded: Saint Stephen's Day in 1982...
--singing starts around 2:22...first...had to get the fire goin'...
On June 12, 1980 the Grateful Dead performed at Portland Memorial Coliseum in Oregon just weeks after nearby Mount St. Helens erupted leading to the most deadly and economically destructive volcanic eruption in the history of the United States. According to legend, just as the Dead lit into “Fire On The Mountain” in Portland, Mount St. Helens exploded once again. Basketball legend Bill Walton told the story of that night from his perspective during a Reddit Ask Me Anything session.
Grateful Dead Sunday School & Youth Group
FYI- For much of my grown up life I've been playing & praying with kids of all ages both abled and disabled...
Here's a favorite choir of youngun's from deep in the HEART of Texas...Cool part is they're already DEAD...
Words Don't Get in the Way...They Make a Way...
WOODSTOCK - Joni Mitchell
"I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm *
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try an' get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it's the time of man
I don't know who I am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
back to the garden"
HAPPY BIRTHDAY - Flipsyde
"Happy Birthday...so make a wish
[Verse 1:]
Please accept my apologies, wonder what would have been
Would you've been a little angel or an angel of sin?
Tom-boy running around, hanging with all the guys.
Or a little tough boy with beautiful brown eyes?
I payed for the murder before they determined the sex
Choosing our life over your life meant your death
And you never got a chance to even open your eyes
Sometimes I wonder as a fetus if you fought for your life?
Would you have been a little genius in love with math?
Would you have played in your school clothes and made me mad?
Would you have been a little rapper like your papa da Piper?
Would you have made me quit smokin' by finding one of my lighters?
I wonder about your skintone and shape of your nose?
And the way you would have laughed and talked fast or slow?
Think about it every year, so I picked up a pen
Happy birthday, love you whoever you woulda been
Happy birthday...
[Chorus:]
All I thought was a dream (make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed (happy birthday)
All I thought was a dream (make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed
I made a mistake!
[Verse 2:]
I've got a million excuses to why you died
Bet the people got their own reasons for homicide
Who's to say it woulda worked, and who's to say it wouldn't have?
I was young and strugglin' but old enough to be your dad
The fear of being a father has never disappeared
Pondering frequently while I'm zippin' on my beer
My vision of a family was artificial and fake
So when it came time to create I made a mistake
Now you've got a little brother maybe he's really you?
Maybe you really forgave us knowin' we was confused?
Maybe everytime that he smiles it's you proudly knowin'
that your father's doin' the right thing now?
I never tell a woman what to do with her body
But if she don't love children then we can't party
Think about it every year, so I picked up a pen
Happy birthday, love you whoever you woulda been
Happy birthday...
[Chorus:]
All I thought was a dream (make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed (happy birthday)
All I thought was a dream (yeah, make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed
I made a mistake!
And from the heavens to the womb to the heavens again
From the endin' to the endin', never got to begin
Maybe one day we could meet face to face?
In a place without time and space
Happy birthday...
From the heavens to the womb to the heavens again
From the endin' to the endin', never got to begin
Maybe one day we could meet face to face?
In a place without time and space
Happy birthday...
[Chorus:]
All I thought was a dream (make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed (happy birthday)
All I thought was a dream (make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed
I made a mistake...!"
Take 5 for Life...
BODIES The Sex Pistols
Lyrics are explicit just like an abortion. Click here to view the bodies.
BRICK Ben Folds Five
"6 a.m., day after Christmas
I throw some clothes on in the dark
The smell of cold, car seat is freezing
The world is sleepin', I am numb
Up the stairs to her apartment
She is balled up on the couch
Her mom and dad went down to Charlotte
They're not home to find us out
And we drive
Now that I have found someone
I'm feelin' more alone
Than I ever have before
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly
They call her name at 7:30
I pace around the parkin' lot
And I walk down to buy her flowers
And sell some gifts that I got
Can't you see
It's not me you're dyin' for?
Now she's feelin' more alone
Than she ever has before
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly
As weeks went by, it showed that she was not fine
They told me, "Son, it's time to tell the truth," and
She broke down, and I broke down 'cause I was
Tired of lyin'
Drivin' back to her apartment
For the moment, we're alone
Yeah, she's alone and I'm alone
Now I know it
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly"
YOU CAN'T BE TOO STRONG - Graham Parker
"One, two, three, four
Did they tear it out with talons of steel
And give you a shot, so that you wouldn't feel?
And washed it away as if it wasn't real?
It's just a mistake I won't have to face
Don't give it a name, don't give it a place
Don't give it a chance, it's lucky in a way
It must have felt strange to find me inside you
I hadn't intended to stay
If you want to keep it right, put it to sleep at night
Squeeze it until it could say
You can't be too strong
You can't be too strong
You can't be too strong
Can't be too strong
You decide what's wrong
Well I ain't gonna cry, I'm gonna rejoice
And shout myself dry and go see the boys
They'll laugh when I say I left it overseas
Yeah babe, I know it gets dark, down by Luna Park
But everybody else is squeezing out a spark
That happened in the heat, somewhere in the dark, in the dark
The doctor gets nervous completing the service
He's all rubber gloves and no head
Yes, he fumbles the light switch, it's just another minor hitch
Wishes to God he was dead
But you can't be too strong
You can't be too strong
You can't be too strong
Can't be too strong
You decide what's wrong
Can't be too hard
Too tough, too rough
Too right, too wrong
And you can't be too strong
Baby can't be too right"
ABORTION - Kid Rock
"My veins are popping from this love inside
I just can't let it out
This pipe and these needles are my only guide
They've got me on the wrong route
What is my life about
Living in the shadows of a man I've never seen
Dreamin' like a lonely child
I know your brothers and your sister and your mother too
Man I wish you could see them too
Oh Lord
Oh Lord
Man I wish that you could see them too
Man I wish that you could see them too
So can I come to see you sometime
'Cause I been missing you
I've never heard you cry I've never seen you whine
I'm feeling oh so young
But still I must die to get to you
And if I do I wonder how just you will see me
And implicate the things I've done
I'm dying in the shadows of this man I've never seen
I'll see you soon
Now where's my gun
Oh Lord
Oh Lord
Oh Lord
Where's my gun
Oh where's my gun
Oh Lord
Where's my gun
Oh Lord
My gun
Let me open your eyes
Let me see who you are
I am you, you are me
We are a part of
The second coming of Christ
It's God himself in a jar
Yeah...yeah
Yeah...yeah
Let me open your eyes
Let me see who you are
I am you, you are me
We are a part of
The second coming of Christ
It's God himself in a jar
Yeah
Hey
You got me, sad and lonely
When I'm me...me
You know you make me so lonely
I am so alone
And I will pray and then I'll cry
And I will pray and then I'll cry
And I will pray and then I'll cry
And I will pray and then I'll cry"
THE ICICLE MELTS - The Cranberries
"When, when will the icicle melt,
The icicle, icicle?
And when, when will the picture show end,
The picture show, picture show?
I should not have read the paper today,
'Cause a child, child, child, child he was taken away.
There's a place for the baby that died,
And there's time for the mother who cried.
And she will hold him in her arms sometime,
'Cause nine months is too long, too long, too long...
How, how could you hurt the child,
How could you hurt the child?
Now, does this make you satisfied,
Satisfied, satisfied?
I don't know what's happening to people today,
When a child, child, child, child, he was taken away.
There's a place for the baby that died,
And there's time for the mother who cried.
And she will hold him in her arms sometime,
'Cause nine months is too long, too long, too long...
There's a place for the baby that died,
And there's time for the mother who cried.
And you will hold him in your arms sometime,
'Cause nine months is too long, too long, too long,
Too long."
#music #humor #prolife #JoniMitchell #RobertHunter #GratefulDead #Psalms #abortion #LesMis #Jeffries #Flipsyde #RobertPlant #LedZeppelin #carpenter #roses #garlands #ribbons #ScarletColors #babies #DavidDodd #BartonHillsChoir #DeadEye #BillWalton #MountStHelens #volcano #fire #SundaySchool #YouthGroup #dragon #Hydra #StanFreberg #Dragnet #Toto #Eileen #WestHempsteadCommunitySupportAssociation #Intercessor #KellyTanza #PandorasVox #Hicksville #PaulAmmendola #MarkPhillips #MikePerrone #VictoriaPerrone #BrokenArrow #RedWords #BoultonCenter #SaintStephen #OurLadyOfGuadalupe
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