When Roger Hodgson departed Supertramp in 1983, someone commented that the remaining group was reduced to being just “Tramp”. It was the end of an era for the band after releasing a number of very successful albums. Among them was the classic 1979 release, Breakfast in America. The album included four hit singles (”The Logical Song”, “Goodbye Stranger”, “Take the Long Way Home” and the title cut, “Breakfast in America”).

Hodgson was known for writing songs with spiritual or philosophical themes. Though the songwriting credit on Supertramp’s songs was commonly given jointly to Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, though they wrote alone. They had different styles, and the one who actually wrote the song sings the vocal on it. The two composers have different styles, and in the case of this week’s addition to my new series, Hymns from the Radio Dial, it is Hodgson’s voice we hear singing the lyrics to “Lord, is it Mine.”

Not sure if that’s the image you expected at the top of the links list this week, but you have to admit it’s iconic. And it beats posting an image of the other guy who died that same day and stole most of the news cycle.

But now… thematic puns.

• A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in linoleum blown apart.
• Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine.
• I would like to go to Holland one day, wooden shoe?
• England doesn’t have a kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.
• The Irish should be rich because their capital is always Dublin.
• Italian building inspectors in Pisa can be quite lenient.
• A Scandinavian race is never over until the last Lapp crosses the Finnish line.

The idea was brilliantly conceived. Faced with the economic and logistic realities of suddenly having six extra mouths to feed, the two hatch a plan: get a bunch of television cameras to follow them around and film the whole thing for a television show as a way of earning some extra cash. Maybe the plan went over too well. You all know the story better than I, perhaps… family portrayed as devout Christians with a deep faith in God and down-home family values. You can sense trouble brewing already. It’s too much of a setup, isn’t it?

Following last week’s series introduction, Streams of White Light into Darkened Corners, We open the series in 1974 where Larry Norman’s introduction left off, and from the opposite angle. We begin our series of Hymns from the Radio Dial with a decidedly non-secular song that hit big on the pop charts. In some ways, perhaps this was the acme of the trend that Larry Norman described. In a significant way though, it was a milestone in the formation of what came to be called “contemporary Christian music,” something of which Norman himself was a pioneer. His introduction (last week) sets the stage onto which this particular song emerged.

Random image of the week, a “desert-ed vehicle.” You know, because seven days without a pun makes one weak. Don’t groan, that’s just a foretaste!

• For a while, Houdini used a lot of trap doors in his act, but he was just going through a stage.
• I used to be a tap dancer until I fell in the sink.
• I saw a beaver movie last night, it was the best dam movie I’ve ever seen.
• Did you hear about the fire at the circus? The heat was in tents.
• Somebody was running a flea circus, but a dog came and stole the show.
• A former doctor, while auditioning for a play, broke his leg. But luckily, he could still make the cast.
• I keep reading ‘The Lord of the Rings’ over and over. I guess it’s just force of hobbit.

I have in my record collection (yes, kids, it’s made of vinyl, and it plays on a turntable without any forward-backward interference so as to produce music instead of senseless garbled noises, thank you very much) a 1974 collector’s album by Larry Norman called Streams of White Light into Darkened Corners. I know you’ve all been waiting with baited breath to find out just what I might possibly replace my long-running Sunday hymn series with, and this is it. And I’m really looking forward to digging into it… after this week’s series introduction. Oddly enough, I had the idea for the series a couple of months back, and sat down to list some 50+ songs that fit the bill, and titled my list “Hymns from the Byways.” Then a few weeks later, I was thumbing through my record collection to find something nostalgic and landed on this forgotten LP. The idea is this — convinced that secular:sacred is most likely a false dichotomy, I’m compiling a list of songs which are (a) “Christian”-oriented but scored on the pop charts or (b) spiritual songs recorded by “secular” artists. I’m looking at that crossover space where we find spiritual truth on the radio. “Hymns from the Radio”? Not sure yet what to call the series, but don’t touch that dial.

Updates: June 14^th • June 16^th • June 17^th • June 18^th • June 19^th • June 23^rd • July 1^st • July 2^nd

I received an email from Rob Robinson about a half hour ago informing me that Rick Meigs (who blogs at The Blind Beggar, is behind Friend of Missional and is one of the seven Missional Tribe instigators) has been in a motorcycle accident and is in critical condition. Rick is an avid motorcyclist, and was at the Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally. an email I received from him earlier this week said (in part),

300+ mile to get there, then another 500+ miles of riding over the weekend. Another 600+ miles on the return trip because I’m going to try to make it over to Eagle, Idaho, and visits some of the missional order folks there. There is nothing better than dancing with the wind on a sunny warm day.

This week’s “random” image of the week is from imgfave; lots more over there. Here’s what passes for humour this week:

• A man goes to his doctor and tells him, “I’ve had the song ‘What’s New Pussycat’ stuck in my head for weeks, and it’s driving me crazy.” The doctor replies, “I think you may have Tom Jones disease.” Puzzled, the man says, “I’ve never heard of that. Is it rare?” “Well,” the doctor says, “It’s not unusual.”
• Man walks into a doctor’s office and says, “Doc, I keep thinking I’m a pair of curtains.” The doctor slaps him and says, “Pull yourself together, man!”
• A man walks into a doctor’s office and says, “I need your help, doctor. I think I’m a moth.” The doctor says, “You don’t need a doctor. You need a psychiatrist.” The man says, “I know. But your light was on.”

The author of the second-best-selling book in history (next to the Bible) would have been 80 years old today — June 12^th — had she not died in March of 1945. Ironically, on June 20, 1942, she wrote, “It seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a 13-year-old schoolgirl.” This was one of the earliest entries in the Diary of Anne Frank, who wrote offhandedly on May 11, 1944, “Just imagine how forgetful I’ll be when I’m eighty!” The innocence with which she wrote and the unthinkably tragic way in which her story ends are a jarring contrast, and perhaps this has somehow contributed to her diary becoming one of the key texts of the 20^th century. Events are planned to commemorate the occasion. I’ve mentioned Anne Frank before, but it seems to me that she is one of those standout voices that somehow resonates with us all.

I think I mentioned an event coming up here this October featuring Phyllis Tickle speaking on her book The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why. I’m one of several people who have been asked to present a workshop and sit on a discussion panel over the course of the one-day conference. At the moment, October 31^st seems such a long way off, but I’ve been asked for a topic and a brief description of the workshop I will present.

You mean I have to plan ahead? Oh, of course — I knew that. I fired back saying I’d do something on “Navigating Times of Change” to offer a description of some of the characteristics of liminal space and its effect on leaders and churches. I need to flesh that out a bit further, which will take some digging and reflection to know what’s important to present and what to cut. I think I’ve selected a good topic though, so that gives me a good start.