No Other Love

I wrote this song back in college. I was sitting in a keyboard studio room playing with different sound patches, noodling on the keyboard, and got locked into playing a repeating pattern of chords: G / D / emin / C. There is something about that chord pattern, I – V – VI – IV in any key, that makes for creating what I would call an “emotional space” sonically. I didn’t realize at the time how often it’s used in popular music (example, U2’s With Or Without You, or Alicia Keys’ No One, or Black Eyed Peas Where is the Love). And later as I got more familiar with contemporary Christian music I would find that same chord pattern there a lot.

I think it is interesting the way that different chord changes alone can produce a feeling in us. Music is literally built into the Creation (I’ll write more some other time about the overtone series and my music school experience). There is something in he way we were created and the way we sense the world around us that makes certain intervals, certain chords, certain shapes of melody sound beautiful to us, much the same as a gorgeous sunset is stunning to someone of any language or culture. As artists, sometimes we want to be original, want to find some unique chord, some never-been-done-before pattern of melody or chord structure. I got kind-of stuck like that at one point –looking for originality. Then I decided: who cares –use the same old chords! This has freed me up a lot as a song writer. Maybe I’ll never win a Grammy, but I’ll write a lot of songs.

See, I believe music is a part of God’s creation — a gift from him. [Amazing how we try to use it just for ourselves, isn’t it? I guess we do that with a lot of what God gives us.] In fact, music is even pre-creation in some sense, as God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation… while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7) I think God gave us music for the purposes of singing his praise, connecting with him, remembering what he has done (the way this song does) and sharing it with others. Let’s steal good music back from those that would use it for fleshly purposes and put it to proper use.

Anyway, I hope you can connect with something in the lyrics, melody, or I-V-VI-IV chords of this song!

No Other Love (studio recording, from my album “Be with Me Lord”

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NO OTHER LOVE

I was cold and all alone
Lost in darkness and far from home
You’d loved me, but I walked away
Left your love and I cursed your name
Was weak and small, but you gave your life for me
You heard my call, and gave your all

There’s no other love that’s like your love
You’re there when I’m lonely
When I fall you lift me up
There’s no other love that’s like your love
I’m thirsty and only your love can fill my cup

Now here I am just a grain of sand
A spark of life in a loving hand
My sight is shallow, a narrow view
But you open my mind when I walk with you
You hold my hand, you stoop down and make me great
Just the grain of sand that I am

There’s no other love that’s like your love
You’re there when I’m lonely
When I fall you lift me up
There’s no other love that’s like your love
I’m thirsty and only your love can fill my cup

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