Day 2 – Something Is Missing

As a kid, I used to love listening to the radio and singing along with my favorite artists. I think I learned that from my aunties who wouldn’t cook or clean without Barry White or Denise Williams blasting on the old stereo in the living room. They’d sing and dance like they were on stage and snap their fingers with such precision that I thought they were percussion instruments. When they had finished, the food was good, the house was clean, and everything seemed right with the world.

One Christmas, I remember getting a Donnie and Marie record player, and it came with a microphone. My mom bought me a few 45s to play on it. I’d sing the popular song a hundred times before playing the flipside which usually paled in comparison. My mom and my aunts had an amazing record collection, and I’d sometimes sneak an album from one of the crates so that I could go into my room and play those old songs by Lenny Williams, Marvin Gaye, and Smoky Robinson. So many of those songs were about love and heartbreak, which I knew very little about back then.

What I realize now is that love and heartbreak can occupy the same space at the same time without you even realizing it. Billy Preston taught me that with Will It Go Round In Circles. I remember getting that record after earning Principal’s Honor Roll and seeing my name printed in the Rayne Acadian Tribune. Preston’s lyrics tell a story of life’s ups and downs. Sometimes you’re stuck or going in circles; other times you’re soaring.

I’ve got a song, I ain’t got no melody
I’ma gonna sing it to my friends
I’ve got a song, I ain’t got no melody
I’ma gonna sing it to my friends

Will it go ’round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?
Will it go ’round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?

I’ve got a story, ain’t got no moral
Let the bad guy win every once in a while
I’ve got a story, ain’t got no moral
Let the bad guy win every once in a while

Will it go ’round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?
Will it go ’round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?

I’ve got a dance, I ain’t got no steps, no
I’m gonna let the music move me around
I’ve got a dance, I ain’t got no steps
I’ma gonna let the music move me around

Preston, Billy. Will It Go Round in Circles. Lyrics. Written by Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher. Music is my life, A&M Records, 1972.

Today we can Google the lyrics, but back in the day, you had to figure it out. My cousin Jackie and I were next door neighbors, and we were determined to get those lyrics right. We’d grab an old Steno pad, a pencil with a cap eraser, and get to work. We’d listen for a few seconds, and then take the needle off the record so we could write down what we heard. We always compared notes, too — this was a serious matter. Then we’d play it from the beginning again and sing along. We did this until we had transcribed the whole song, being extra careful not to scratch the record as we placed the needle on the grooves again and again.

For some reason, I misheard that last stanza about his dance not having any steps. I heard, I got a house; it ain’t got no steps. In fact, I didn’t learn the actual lyrics until I searched for them a few minutes ago. All these years, I thought Mr. Preston was living in a shack. Having no steps tells me that a major part of this house was missing. The more I thought about it, if the builder neglected to attach steps to the house, what else might he have forgotten? Surely the Lord wouldn’t build a house without steps, or would he?

Do you remember what scripture says about building a house? Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. The Message Translation states If God doesn’t build the house, the builders only build shacks. In other words, unless our efforts are aligned with the will and guidance of God, our efforts may be futile or unsuccessful.

This makes me wonder about Billy Preston’s song. He had a song without a melody, but we still sang it. He had a dance without steps, but the music still moved him around. I grew up in a single parent home, but I had lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, and community members who stepped up as part of our intentional village. Despite what the world would deem broken, God still used it mightily. In fact, I didn’t realize that brokenness could be a good thing. I only knew that if something was broken, it should be discarded; but within my house, that would’ve meant discarding everything and everyone.

Reflection: Even though Billy claims that he had a story without a moral, this story definitely has one — Some things still function well without all of its pieces. As you reflect on this post, what is God revealing through the power of story? “What do YOU have in your hand to fashion the family, business, or community God intended?”

P.S. If you missed Day 1, you can read it here. You can also go to Day 3.