If I had not included a title for this music review posting would you have been able to identify the band with 
song titles like “Look Into the Future”, “Spaceman”, or “Next”? Probably not. Those songs were on the three pre-Steve Perry Journey albums. I say pre-Steve Perry because after he joined Journey they made hits that you probably will recognize. Songs like “Anyway You Want It”, “Don’t Stop Believing”, and “Open Arms” to just name a few. Steve Perry created quite a distinction in Journey. Prior to his joining the band and his eventual departure from it, they just were a different band. Prior to Perry, the band Journey was formed out of the hugely popular Latin/Rock band Santana. Two members Neal Schon on lead guitar, and Greg Rolie on keyboards, joined with other studio musicians to create a backup band for established San Francisco Bay area musicians. They called themselves the Golden Gate Rhythm Section. They eventually abandoned the “backup band” concept and developed a jazz-fusion style of music. The original lineup became Schon, Rolie, bassist Ross Valory, and british session drummer Aynsley Dunbar. They would record the three albums mentioned previously before they became the epitome of what an arena rock band was in the late seventies and all through the eighties. In the nineties Journey recorded one studio album before Steve Perry had a hiking accident in Hawaii. He could not perform without hip replacement surgery, which he refused to undergo. Journey replaced Perry with several singers over the years but no one could match the style or popularity of Steve Perry. If you listen to any of the albums with those replacement singers you can hear that they were definitely trying to match the popular sound of the previous Journey.
Author Archives: barrydean
Journey – Revelation
I’ve got a fever and the only prescription is ….
If you’ve ever seen the Saturday Night Live skit with Christopher Walken and Will Ferrell then you know how 
to finish the posting title. For the most part I am an old school rocker. Now don’t think that I don’t keep current with the music being released today, such as it is. But I love the classic rock songs with the crunching guitars, pounding drums, thumbing bass, and yes COWBELL. So when I was looking to purchase some recording software for my daughter and I to record our music, I started my search for an authentic cowbell. My wife and I have scoured many Goodwill stores, thrift stores, and antique shops to no avail. I had all but given up and was contemplating just purchasing one from an online music store. But yesterday my wonderful wife came by the office to get something out of the car I was driving, and she said that she had a surprise for me. She had found an honest to goodness cowbell at the local Goodwill store. Woo Hoo!!
Tonight I am Googling songs with cowbell. I am amazed at just how many there are. The obvious one is Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper”, and Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen”. But can any of my loyal blog readers name any more of your favorites or not your favorites. Just name any song that the only prescription for it is MORE COWBELL!!
For your viewing pleasure, check out the classic SNL skit below.
Skip Carey (Aug. 12th, 1939 – Aug. 3rd, 2008)
I did not find out until this week that Skip Carey, an icon in the field of sports broadcasting, had passed 
away. Skip passed away in his sleep Sunday afternoon August 3rd. His death was announced by the Atlanta Braves. The cause of death has not been determined yet but he had been in declining health with diabetes and liver problems in recent months. See the NY Times article here.
His dad, Harry Carey, became a household name broadcasting for the Chicago Cubs, as did Skip by broadcasting for the Atlanta Braves for 32 years. Skip’s shining moment came at the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game of the 1992 National League Championship Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, when a lumbering runner, Sid Bream, chugged home from second on a single to win the game for the Braves and send them to the World Series. I was watching the game on TV that night and I can still recall the pandemonium. The historical play is in the video below (although the video action is broken a bit) along with the audio from Skip Carey’s play by play. I will miss Skip Carey and his witty commentary. Braves Win! Braves Win!! Braves Win!!!
ht – Steven Altogge at The Blazing Center for prompting me for this idea with his Greatest Moments in Sports History post.
God in the dock?
This weekend we continued our study of Romans. Going verse by verse, we are looking at Romans 1:18-32, 
mainly the wrath of God toward man’s sin. This week we looked at point two of the “Universals of God’s Wrath” regarding man’s sin to help us see just how good the “good news” of Christ is. The second universal is “God’s wrath is universally deserved.” Romans 1:18-23 tell us that God naturally gave all men the knowledge of His existence, but we have chosen to suppress it and have exchanged that knowledge for foolishness. Man has chosen to worship the creature rather than worship the Creator.
As the puritan Thomas Watson has said; “The chief end of man is to glorify God.” But man did not honor or glorify Him. This is the basic and natural function of man. Yet man did not get it right. We have no excuse. Man deserves God’s wrath. Man continues to search for the meaning of life, but his search will be futile. As Romans 1:21 (NASB) says:
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Man’s search, his speculations have become futile. And this my friends is the basis of idolatry, and deserving of God’s wrath. Pastor Pat gave as a nice quote from C.S. Lewis that fits this topic nicely and is the basis for my posting today.
Ancient man, he explains, approached God (or even the gods) as an accused person approaches his or her judge. But for modern man these roles are reversed. Man is the judge, and God is in the dock.
Modern man has God on trial. We want to see how He measures up for us. We sit in judgement of Him. Oh, how foolish we have become. We most assuredly are deserving of God’s wrath. This reality should cause us to shout and praise God for the grace of Christ and His substitutionary death. He took the wrath for us. But I am jumping ahead in Romans. That good news is described in chapter 3. More to come.
I will be posting the Romans series on my Sermon Audio page, but until then you can hear the entire sermon here.
World’s Fastest Guitarist
I found this video while scanning for guitar techniques last night. This is a video of the winner at the World Record Speed 2008 by Brazilian guitarist Tiago Della Vega. He performs a supersonic version of “Flight of the Bumble Bee.” I have never heard of this guy is but he has incredible dexterity. Notice that the video displays the current beats per minute he has to maintain. If you watch to the end he accomplishes and incredible 320 bpm.
The Chapmans on GMA
If you have access to unlimited kleenex please read further. You may or may not know the story of th
e accident that took the life of Maria, the youngest of the Steven Curtis Chapman family. If not you can read it here.
Robin Roberts of Good Morning America visited the Chapman home for an interview. My lovely wife has posted the resulting video on her blog. Please check it out here.
Third Day – Revelation
I would consider myself to be a Gomer of sorts. A Gomer is identified as a fan of Third Day. It was taken 
from the name of the unfaithful wife of the biblical prophet Hosea. Are you a Gomer too?
Formed in 1991, Third Day has become one of the most popular Christian rock bands in history. They recorded their first full-length album with Furies Studios in their home of Atlanta, Georgia for $3000. They had saved this money to do so, and in 1994 they saw it finalized and 2000 copies were released. Eventually their popularity reached Reunion Records and Third Day signed with them for a multi-album deal. After their signing, Reunion Records immediately released the official self-titled “Third Day” album which has now sold over 300,000 copies. The video for their first single “Consuming Fire” won a Billboard Award for Best Christian video. Third Day was also nominated for a Dove Award for New Artist of the year. One of my favorite Third Day song called “Thief” is on their first album. It is an incredible song which is sung from the point of view of the thief on the cross during the crucifixion of Jesus. Being formed out of the Atlanta area they name other Georgia bands such as The Black Crowes, and REM as influences. You can hear other Southern band influences like Allman Brothers Band, and Tom Petty. Third Day has since gone on to release eight studio records including two worship albums and a Christmas album. They have developed a popular following and much critical acclaim. Third Day has won three Grammy Awards and a Dove Award every year since 1998. Their current lineup is Mac Powell on vocals and guitar, Mark Lee on guitars and backing vocals, Tai Anderson on bass and vocals, and David Carr on drums.
Geeks and Romans
I don’t usually blog about work but I wanted to write about something God has orchestrated in my 
professional life. I work as a technical consultant for a local consulting firm here in Omaha. Just a couple of months ago I was doing a gig for one of our clients who is located in the heart of of downtown Omaha. I was traveling over an hour each way to do this gig. I also found myself doing basically the same kind of analyst work I’ve been doing for the past several years which is fine, but the travel each day was a killer. To shorten a somewhat long story I would just like to say that God ended that contract. He has also put me onto a project with some other consultants in our firm. I am only traveling half the distance for work and I am working with a dear friend who is a Christ follower, and with some other folks who have professional skills I dearly want to learn. The project will last a couple of years and I will be getting some wonderful hands on experience using development tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2005 Database, and C# (Sharp).Net. Included with these tools I will be learning about Reporting Services in the .Net framework, LINQ which stands for Language Integrated Query which is used to easily hook queried data from a database into your code, and AJAX which is a group of interrelated techniques used for creating interactive web applications. With these techniques you can retrieve data from the web server in the background without interfering with the behavior of the existing web page. Needless to say I am extremely excited. I am giving all the glory to God. Ok, enough of the geeks stuff, now for some Romans.
What next, the golden dome at Notre Dame?
Today, it was announced by the London Daily Sunday Times that the famous and iconic clock Big Ben would be 
going digital. Not only would it be going digital, it would also be featuring advertisements. “This is an effort to bring the historic land mark up to the contemporary times”, said Ian McFane, with the British Travel Ministry of London and Buckingham. He also went on to say that “the advertisements were an effort to bring in revenue for the faltering British economy.” I have to imagine what the Old English gents in London think about using this once historical and traditional center piece of the old city for this means.
ht – Post at ReallyRobins. Happy August 1st.
It’s grace, grace, God’s grace.
Thanks first of all to the grace of God. The grace of God is freely given to those who believe and the righteousness of Christ is credited to him. We read in Romans 4:1-8:
1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.
Secondly, a big hat tip to Scott at Through The Veil for finding this incredible video that says it all.
Upon This Rawk 