This Story-Telling Song Rings a Bell
A story-telling song I remembered from my youth is realized....
[VIDEO at the end!]
Ring the Jesus Bell: it was "in my head" as a young boy; That makes it a ‘Mark Lajoie song’, for sure. How did the song happen?
I was a voracious reader; I had read the teen novel "Ring the Judas Bell" back in the 60's. The book was set in WWII Greece and the title referred to an alert about traitors. There was one incident in the novel where a boy is surrounded by wolves but walks away. But, in my mind I made up an entirely different story.
My story imagines an Anytown where - as so often happens in real life - "the people turned away" from the One who made them. A young boy sees the problem and tries to warn them, but no one listens. (I think I felt this way myself. No one seemed to ‘get it’ about faith, and it meant so much to me early on, until my teen loss of it.) The boy wanders off and the same kind of thing happens with the wolves as happened in the novel. The miracle isn't really that the wolves went away, it is that this boy gains his self-confidence and is able to stand up for himself and for the welfare of others. He marches back into town and everyone immediately senses the change in him and they start ringing the JESUS Bell now, NOT the Judas bell. And the boy doesn't even need to "say a word"!
This song is one the group, Living Waters, never did, although I probably showed it to just about all of the LW people at some time or another. Heading into 2010 or so, I had never put down in real music how I imagined the song would sound. Dave gave me Noteworthy Composer at that time; that was my chance! I was able to use that tool to get down what I was hearing. One example is the '“fuzz bass” on the chorus - I was undoubtedly influenced by “Think For Yourself” on the Beatles’ Rubber Soul album, which I listened to so many times.
It’s also interesting I included a French phrase in there. My mom told me that I spoke French at two years old, before I spoke English! Levons nos yeux a Jesus! Let’s raise our eyes to Jesus! Including a little French? Why, that seems like something a young Mark LaZHWAY would definitely do.
In creating a grown-up version of this, I changed the title from “Ring the Judas Bell” to “Ring the JESUS Bell”! I decided not to change the lyrics that much, because I want to honor the integrity of that young boy back then who read a book and was trying to grow up in such a bad situation, a boy who saw Hope in his Faith.
Now that I’ve lived a full adult life, this song is a real celebration for me. I no longer - ever - want to ring the Judas bell in my life and I highly regret those times I did; I want to ring the JESUS Bell every minute I have left!
With Sincere Love for you all,
Mark Lajoie of Living Waters
And you can see the VIDEO with the improved audio HERE below; CLICK!:
Ring the Jesus Bell VIDEO
