Stormy Saturday

Not long ago I mentioned Dougie MacLean in this blog. When the ridiculous Grammy event was taking place on television, I was in Asheville with friends, where we listened to Dougie MacLean perform songs that are real and rich.


For the past couple of weeks, the band has performed this song at Cherokee. It's MacLean's "Ready for the Storm." We haven't put the words up on the screen--at least I don't think we have--so it seems appropriate to post them here as the thunder rumbles now and then somewhere near my home:


The waves crash in and the tide pulls out
it's an angry sea but there is no doubt
that the lighthouse will keep shining out
to warn the lonely sailor
and the lightning strikes and the wind cuts cold
through the sailor's bones, through the sailor's soul
till there's nothing left that he can hold
except the rolling ocean


but I am ready for the storm, yes sir, ready
I am ready for the storm, I'm ready for the storm


Oh give me mercy for my dreams
cause every confrontation seems
to tell me what it really means to be this lonely sailor
but when the sky begins to clear
and the sun it melts away my fear
I'll cry a silent weary tear
for those that need to love me


but I am ready for the storm, yes sir, ready
I am ready for the storm, I'm ready for the storm


The distance it is no real friend
and time will take its time and
you will find that in the end
it brings you me, the lonely sailor
and when you take me by your side
you love me, Lord, you love me and
I should have realized
I had no reason to be frightened


but I am ready for the storm, yes sir, ready
I am ready for the storm, I'm ready for the storm


Now, the "Lord" in the third verse isn't MacLean's. That substitution was made, it seems, by Rich Mullins when he recorded the song for one of his albums. Rich replace Dougie's "warm" with "Lord."


By the way, if you're not familiar with Rich Mullins, he was one of the great Christian songwriters and performers of the 1980s and early '90s, the writer of "Awesome God." He died in a terrible traffic accident some years ago.


One thing more: today I attended the memorial service for a friend and colleague of mine. His name was Steve Gross, and we worked in the Department of English together. He taught linguistics and was a brilliant man and an enjoyable friend. Steve and I earned our doctorates at the same time at the University of South Carolina. Literature and linguistics are often housed in the same department, but the paths they lead their scholars on don't necessarily cross one another that often. So, we didn't really know each other at USC. But we were hired into ETSU at the same time--August 2001--and became good friends since then. He died suddenly sometime last weekend, and my head hasn't been on straight since last Tuesday evening when his body was discovered at home in his bed.