December 6, 2024 • 29 mins
Enjoy legendary Ralph Carmichael . Honoring Ralph in one of his final interviews, he was a highly influential music composer, arranger, and conductor, particularly known for his contributions to Christian music. His significance lies in several key areas:
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- Pioneering Christian Music: Carmichael helped shape the modern Christian music genre, blending traditional hymns with contemporary and popular music styles. He was instrumental in bringing jazz, pop, and other secular musical forms into the Christian music scene.
- Innovative Arrangements: He was renowned for his innovative musical arrangements, especially within the context of church and gospel music. His work demonstrated a deep understanding of both classical and modern styles, which allowed him to bridge the gap between sacred music and secular trends.
- Collaborations: Carmichael worked with many influential figures in the music world, including notable Christian artists like Billy Graham, and he was the musical director for many of Graham's crusades. His influence extended beyond the Christian community, as he also worked in mainstream music, including for television.
- Impact on Worship Music: He composed hundreds of hymns, anthems, and choral works that remain staples in Christian worship. Songs like "The Savior is Waiting" and "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" have become beloved classics.
- Recognition and Awards: Over his long career, Carmichael earned numerous awards and honors, reflecting his immense contribution to both religious and popular music.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/legends-extraordinary-lives--5351541/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is Carla from Gracefully Yours Greeting Cards. We
are Texas Aggie's but Base are publishing headquarters in Austin, Texas.
I want to let you in on a little secret
about greeting cards and the people that write them. We
really have a sense of humor and we love to
encourage others. We talk like we write, with a few
(00:20):
words that matter the most, and we try to avoid cliches.
You will enjoy sending these popular cards that feature eagles
and hummingbirds from Alabama's Larry Martin, along with some of
the prettiest flowers. Each unique card says something witty and inspiring.
What's different about us It's our incredible artist combined with
(00:44):
the passion translation. Here's an example of how the passion inspires.
You have supercharged my life so that I can soar
again like a flying eagle in the sky from Psalm
one oh three. Blitch greeting cards inconvenient twelve packs. It's
like having a card shop in your own home, so
(01:06):
every time you need a card, you have them handy.
So visit gracefully dash yours dot com to buy greeting
cards where art and message connect to your heart.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And welcome back to success to significance. I'm rick to Kinney.
Our very special guest today is Ralph Carmichael, and this
is a reprisal of one of the shows that we
did several years ago. Ralph has gone on to his
eternal home. In his time here on earth, he was
one of the most significant influential music composers, arrangers and conductors,
(01:57):
especially with his contributions to Christian music. His significance lies
in several key areas that you'll hear about pioneering Christian music,
innovative arrangements, collaborations, the impact on worship music, in the
countless number of awards and recognition that he received. We
(02:19):
hope that you enjoy this reprisal of a wonderful, loving
conversation with the most significant Ralph Carmichael enjoyed.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
We are so pleased to have you on our show
and honor to.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Have you on.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
As a musician for the last forty years. I know
about you and you have often been lauded as the
father of contemporary Christian music. What do you believe had
been your overall contribution to the entire genre of Christian music.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Well, I think that the fact that the church has
been very slow to accept new ideas. You know, we
were pretty mean to the guy that invented the printing
press because he was publishing portions of the Scripture. And
(03:19):
then there was another gentleman in a denomination back on
the East coast that introduced harmony singing in the church,
and they ran him out of the town because they
thought that was worldly. And my father and see it
(03:41):
would have been I would have been about eight years old.
He spent some church dollars on radio time and had
a little radio weekly program preaching the gospel, and the
church board called him on it and said, you can't
spend church money, that radio is the devil's little black box.
(04:05):
So he spent his own money because in those days,
I think he was paying ten dollars for a half hour.
And then when television came in and I was in
a Bible college, there was a wealthy gentleman that put
us on television on a weekly program. And first it
(04:29):
was just going to be one program, and then they
got so much hate mail at the station said oh,
we got to do this some more. Well, the president
of the school called me in and said, now you
can do this program. It was called the Campus Christian Hour.
You can do this program, but you can't mention the
(04:50):
name of the school. I was going to Southern California
Bible College, and I said, okay, that's a deal. Well,
about fifty weeks into the program, we got an Emmy,
and it was all over the papers that this religious
program ended up getting an Emmy. And President called me
(05:10):
in again and he said, Ralph, you know, we're paying
for the gas for the transportation for the students to
go down to the studio, and we're letting them, letting
you take them out of class to rehearse, and we
think the least you could do is give the school
some credit. So the next television program, we had signs
(05:35):
put up and pretending like it was the stage was
the campus, and we had Southern California Bible colleagues. So
you see, we've been slow in accepting new ideas. And
when I would go out to my car in the morning,
(05:56):
I had like a ten year old daughter, and and
I'd find that she had borrowed my keys and gone
out and turned the radio on during the night to
listen to her rock station was KFWB. It had just
gone on the air and I realized that the kids
(06:21):
were listening to a whole different kind of music. So
at that time, Rick I was writing some film scores
for doctor Billy Graham and one of them was called
One of the films was called The Restless Ones, and
I wrote a little song called He's Everything to Me
(06:45):
and we put it in the film, and you could
hardly call it a rock and roll song, However, it
had that contemporary beat Dung gun Kung in the stars
is handy, were I see? And my daughter liked that
(07:05):
song and she learned it, and so did a few
thousand other kids. So we began to write some music
that the kids would sing and listen to. And it
was a great joy for me to be at that
place at that time, and the Good Lord opened the
(07:29):
door for me to present the gospel in a contemporary
form of music. Now, what was the cause?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I think that that's that's one of those seminal moments
for our music industry. And Ralph, I think, having played
drums in a praise and worship team for too many
years and I no longer do it now, but that
you what you did, and in the pioneering that you
(08:03):
achieved broke through a chance for young people to personally
be able to relate to God and Christ and faith
in a very personal way because the music related to
us and it became it became a part of our
generation in the in the backbeat of of our faith.
(08:27):
So I think that the difference that you made is
just uh has had some fantastic ripple effects. And from
this one singular drummer here, I want to thank you
for the for the sea change that you started within
the entire industry.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Well, thank you, Rick, and uh Uh. I'm just thrilled
to be able to visit with you today. Uh. I
want to also mention that the I love the old
hymns and I don't by any means pass them up
and use of them in our repertoire. I've done several
(09:09):
albums with the London Symphony and I love the choir,
and we even do concerts with a big band, which
is four trumpets for trone bones, five saxophones in rhythm.
In fact, I just got back last night at two
thirty in the morning from doing four Christmas concerts with
(09:29):
the big band up in Northern California, And so there's
room for everything. And I'm so glad that we're able
to put all the different forms of music to work.
And I'm getting ready to do a tour where we'll
be we'll have a symphony orchestra, and right in the
(09:51):
middle of it we'll have the big band, and then
we'll have a mass choir of one hundred and fifty
voices or so plus some soulo us. And God has
just been so I'm so grateful for the way He
is opening the doors for us to use music to
(10:11):
communicate the gospel and to lift him up absolutely.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
And I you know a lot of people know you,
mister Carmichael, as that music director for some of the
most the most popular TV shows like I Love Lucy
and Red Skeletons from when you look back in the
rearview mirror. What did all of that mainstream music experience
(10:36):
teach you?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Well, the I was able to learn the best way
to go into a studio with the film cues for
films and TV shows, and it came in very handy
(11:00):
in my work with the world not not not only
World Vision, but with the Worldwide Pictures, the Billy Graham
Film Organization, and what I learned in the secular field.
I was able to put it to good use. Uh
in the gospel field.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
It sure sounds like and if you had one pick
of one song from your entire career that gives you
the most satisfaction today, what would you say to that is?
What's that song? And why?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Well? I wish you'd give me two chances.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I'll get what will give you as many chances as
you want.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
There is a song that I wrote when I was
minister of music at Temple Baptist Church in downtown LA
in the mid fifties. It was an invitation song. The
past called me in and he said, we're going to
have a revival meeting for two weeks and I'd like
you to write a new invitation song. So I wrote
(12:07):
a little song entitled The Savior Is Waiting and we
used it every night after he finished his sermon, the
trio or quartet would step up and sing The Savior's Waiting.
And it wasn't only it was only a few nights
that finally the audience was joining in and we passed
(12:28):
out the lyrics for them. And then one night doctor
Bob Pierce, when he wasn't traveling, he would come to
He would come to the church and he heard this song,
and the following week he called in and said, Ralph,
World Vision is sponsoring a revival meeting in Tokyo, calling
(12:51):
it the Tokyo Crusade, and I'd like you to go
over there and we'll put together a thousand voice choir
and we'll use a symphony bud. He said. The one
thing I request is that you're doing a require arrangement
and every night after my sermon, I want you to
do the Saviors Waiting. Well, we were visited during that
(13:13):
crusade by many many pastors from the United States who
were supporters of the World Vision ministry, and that little
song just spread. So that would be one of the
great satisfactions of my life, is that the use that
(13:38):
has been made of the Saviors Waiting as an invitation song.
Then the other of course, there's kids all over the
world that have learned and sung. He's everything to me,
and that's a great satisfaction too, that must be.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
We had some interesting people on this Life Lesson show
who have also written music, from the likes of Johnny
Mercer and or Johnny Mercer's family and many others. Gloria Gaither,
who wrote because he lives, and the question we always
love to ask Ralph is how do you How did
(14:24):
you come about writing those songs? What was the process,
and what advice can you give to young songwriters today
relative to their own ability of connecting with God and
then delivering a great, memorable song.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Well, my experience has been that it happens in two
or three different ways. Occasionally, because I am a musician,
I will wake up in the morning of with a
melody in my mind, and I'll jot the melody down,
(15:05):
and the melody itself will suggest the tone of the lyric,
whether it should be like happy and care free and exuberant,
or if it should be quiet and like a lullaby
(15:25):
and something along the line of meditation. So sometimes the
melody dictates what developed what develops in the lyric. On
the other hand, the other way is that I will
(15:45):
start with an idea, and most generally it has a
scriptural base, and from that I'll do a lyric. And
then after the lyric is done, which is laying on
my desk looks to be two or three verse poem,
(16:06):
then I'll put a melody to that that will fit
the spirit of the lyric and the message of the lyric.
Then there's still another saying that I have experienced many times.
I will be given the assignment by a minister or
(16:31):
a preacher to write a song that would could be
sung either before he preaches on a certain topic or
a song that would be sung after his sermon. But
he gives me the topic, and then I check the
scripture to make sure we're scriptural, and so I call
(16:55):
that writing a song on assignment. Sometimes you sit there
with no inspiration at all, but you have to discipline
yourself and you stay right there because you've got a
job to do. And I'm sure that a lot of
preachers understand that there's a topic they have to speak
(17:17):
on and they have to do their studying, their research,
and it takes some discipline. But sooner or later the
inspiration dawns. And if you discipline yourself and stay with
the job, God will give you a reward and let
you come out with a finished product.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
That's priceless. Advice coming from the one and only Ralph Carmichael. Ralph,
when we had the Mercer Family on, we talked about
how Johnny Mercer and Hokey Carmichael and Johnny Mercer and
some four or five hundred other collaborators work together. Can
you get some advice to our young songwriters about when
(18:03):
they do collaborate with one or two other people. What
are some lessons that you've learned in the past on
what's the easiest route to writing something significant when you
do collaborate with someone else.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Well, I have not collaborated often. It's difficult for me
to team up, but I have done it. And when
you discipline yourself to share ideas and spend the time together,
(18:40):
and you have one goal in mind, and that is
to create something that will communicate with the listener or
the singer, it's performing. It's a rewarding experience. And although
I haven't done it often, I've done it two or
three times, and it is a rewarding experience. And as
(19:04):
I think back, of course, I'm a great fan of
Johnny Mercer and Hogy Carmichael. For fifty years, people have
been asking me if Hogy Carmichael is a relative of mine,
and I don't know, And lo and behold, I have
a little niece, a darling little niece who is involved
(19:29):
in the events that are sponsored by what they call
the Carmichael Clan, and she did some extensive research, and
it turns out that way back on the family tree, Hogy,
Carmichael and I are hooked up somehow.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
How about that? Yeah, that's so interesting. I've got to believe, Ralph,
that your music is not only good for the soul,
but is could be therapeutic for a nation that's in
it's grieving right now. Yesterday at at our church, and
(20:10):
our church normally plays pretty fast, loud contemporary music. They
sang on Christ the solid rock, I stand no other ground.
Is all other ground is sinking?
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Sand am wonderful?
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yes, sir, tell us why going to your concerts right now?
Maybe the kind of kind of good dose of medicine
that Americans could could use to pull themselves up by
the bootstraps after what happened on Friday in Connecticut.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Well, the U there is a hymn that I often use.
It's entitled be Still my Soul. The Lord is on
our side. And uh in these troubled times, I'm I'm
not belittling or in any way taking away the terror
(21:09):
or the horrible things that are happening in the world,
but I am saying that as Christians, we are so
fortunate to have God and his promise and his provision
for us. And I think that the only thing left
(21:32):
for us is to turn to him. And in my
concerts I will make use of some of those great
old hymns, like on Christ the solid Rock. I stand,
it's our hope, and we better make use of it.
(21:56):
And I love the old hymns that are filled with
the scriptural assurances. And you come to a concert and
you'll have some contemporary and you'll have some of the
old favorites, and and we all, incidentally, we always end
our concerts with the amazing Grace, which is still the
(22:20):
best known and best loved old him around the world.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
It is indeed, And I must tell you, Ralph, that
this past summer, my wife and I, on our continued
quest to find out more about great songwriters, we visited
the Germany and went to Martin Luther's home and where
where he penned some of the great hymns of all time.
(22:45):
And to our surprise, his wife was a real ogre
and sort of beat him up. And and uh, he
was very h in his writing. He was actually subordinated
by his wife. And I think to some extent he
wrote he wrote from that biography not only that, and
(23:06):
from his understanding of what grace is all about. And
I point that out from the perspective of you've had
a lot of people to influence you and shape you
throughout your illustrious career. Can you name two or three
people along your journey that you think influenced you the most,
and feel free to share a humorous story if you will. Well, I.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
Lost my father in nineteen sixty. He passed away in
the flu epidemic are in the Southland. But my father
was a great inspiration and encouraged my inquisitiveness and my
experimental research. When he was a kid, he was converted
(24:02):
in the church over in Scott's Bluff, Nebraska, and he
had just started playing the violin. He bought himself a
violin from money that he earned. He was probably a teenager,
and when he was converted, they told him he'd have
to quit playing the violin because the violin was an
(24:23):
instrument of the devil. It was. They used it in
those days to play for barn dances, and so my
dad quit playing the violin, but he didn't get rid
of it. He put it in his in the in
the case violin case and hid it under his bed. Well,
after six or eight months, the church people were not
(24:49):
too happy with his spiritual growth, and they mentioned to
his parents that something needed to be done. And by
the way, did he get rid of that violin? Well,
it turned out that they discovered the violin was still
under his bed, and they blamed the violin for his
(25:10):
lack of spiritual growth. So he had to get rid
of the violin all right. Now, fast forward, my dad
ended up going to Bible school. He met my mom there,
they got married, and I came along and guess what
the first thing they put in my hands not a
(25:31):
ball bat or a ball or rolling skates roller skates,
but at age three and a half, they bought me
a quarter size violin. My dad started me on violin
lessons at three and a half, and I had violin
lessons even during the depression until I left home on
(25:52):
my own at seventeen to go to Bible College, and
then I paid for my own lessons until I was
in my bunnies. Uh. My dad also encouraged my listening
to the radio. He would I would listen to the
bands on the radio, and I would complain to Dad,
those bands sound much better than our orchestra at church. Well,
(26:18):
what are you going to do about it? Son? And
so I would find the different chords and I would
show my dad these chords on the piano, and his
first reaction was was, Son, I think those are wrong notes.
But I kept pounding away at him until finally he
got so he was liking those quote unquote wrong notes.
(26:40):
And my dad would, uh. He got me a little radio,
and I would listen to the bands uh playing from
the from Chicago and from uh the northern California, San
Francisco area and UH. By the time I went away
(27:02):
to college, my interest was putting together musical groups. And
I had a trio girls trio, and a male quartet
and a mixed quartet. And then I experimented with the
four gals and four guys an octet and writing close harmony.
And then I started a trumpet trio, and then a
(27:24):
brass quintet, and then pretty soon I finally found five
guys to play saxophone, and I had five saxes and
four trombones and four trumpets and a rhythm section. And
the next thing you know, we're on television. So I
would have to say that my father and his encouragement
(27:46):
to in musical experiment. He encouraged my inquisitiveness and I'm
ever grateful for that. But then there are some people
that the well, the Youth for Christ in the fifties
was an organization that I participated in. I would lead
(28:08):
the singing and organized choirs, and those Youth for Christ
directors were very inspirational for me, and people like doctor
Bob Pierce and doctor Billy Graham. Uh. My relationship with
the Graham Organization and the film scores and the songs
(28:31):
that they let me write for this films there were marvelous.
They were marvelous doors of opportunity and I will always
be grateful to God for that association.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Well, Ralph, it has been an honor to have you
on our Life Lesson show, and we welcome you back anytime, and.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
We hope that you enjoyed today's program with Ralph Carmichael.
He truly left an enduring legacy, particularly in the blending
of sacred and contemporary music. In his work, as significant
as it is, will always continue to influence the way
Christian music in particular is performed and appreciated. Today, we
(29:16):
hope that you all have a great week and We
wish you success on your way to significance.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
Epicy
Hi, this is Carla from Gracefully Yours Greeting Cards. We
are Texas Aggie's but Base are publishing headquarters in Austin, Texas.
I want to let you in on a little secret
about greeting cards and the people that write them. We
really have a sense of humor and we love to
encourage others. We talk like we write, with a few
(00:20):
words that matter the most, and we try to avoid cliches.
You will enjoy sending these popular cards that feature eagles
and hummingbirds from Alabama's Larry Martin, along with some of
the prettiest flowers. Each unique card says something witty and inspiring.
What's different about us It's our incredible artist combined with
(00:44):
the passion translation. Here's an example of how the passion inspires.
You have supercharged my life so that I can soar
again like a flying eagle in the sky from Psalm
one oh three. Blitch greeting cards inconvenient twelve packs. It's
like having a card shop in your own home, so
(01:06):
every time you need a card, you have them handy.
So visit gracefully dash yours dot com to buy greeting
cards where art and message connect to your heart.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And welcome back to success to significance. I'm rick to Kinney.
Our very special guest today is Ralph Carmichael, and this
is a reprisal of one of the shows that we
did several years ago. Ralph has gone on to his
eternal home. In his time here on earth, he was
one of the most significant influential music composers, arrangers and conductors,
(01:57):
especially with his contributions to Christian music. His significance lies
in several key areas that you'll hear about pioneering Christian music,
innovative arrangements, collaborations, the impact on worship music, in the
countless number of awards and recognition that he received. We
(02:19):
hope that you enjoy this reprisal of a wonderful, loving
conversation with the most significant Ralph Carmichael enjoyed.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
We are so pleased to have you on our show
and honor to.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Have you on.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
As a musician for the last forty years. I know
about you and you have often been lauded as the
father of contemporary Christian music. What do you believe had
been your overall contribution to the entire genre of Christian music.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Well, I think that the fact that the church has
been very slow to accept new ideas. You know, we
were pretty mean to the guy that invented the printing
press because he was publishing portions of the Scripture. And
(03:19):
then there was another gentleman in a denomination back on
the East coast that introduced harmony singing in the church,
and they ran him out of the town because they
thought that was worldly. And my father and see it
(03:41):
would have been I would have been about eight years old.
He spent some church dollars on radio time and had
a little radio weekly program preaching the gospel, and the
church board called him on it and said, you can't
spend church money, that radio is the devil's little black box.
(04:05):
So he spent his own money because in those days,
I think he was paying ten dollars for a half hour.
And then when television came in and I was in
a Bible college, there was a wealthy gentleman that put
us on television on a weekly program. And first it
(04:29):
was just going to be one program, and then they
got so much hate mail at the station said oh,
we got to do this some more. Well, the president
of the school called me in and said, now you
can do this program. It was called the Campus Christian Hour.
You can do this program, but you can't mention the
(04:50):
name of the school. I was going to Southern California
Bible College, and I said, okay, that's a deal. Well,
about fifty weeks into the program, we got an Emmy,
and it was all over the papers that this religious
program ended up getting an Emmy. And President called me
(05:10):
in again and he said, Ralph, you know, we're paying
for the gas for the transportation for the students to
go down to the studio, and we're letting them, letting
you take them out of class to rehearse, and we
think the least you could do is give the school
some credit. So the next television program, we had signs
(05:35):
put up and pretending like it was the stage was
the campus, and we had Southern California Bible colleagues. So
you see, we've been slow in accepting new ideas. And
when I would go out to my car in the morning,
(05:56):
I had like a ten year old daughter, and and
I'd find that she had borrowed my keys and gone
out and turned the radio on during the night to
listen to her rock station was KFWB. It had just
gone on the air and I realized that the kids
(06:21):
were listening to a whole different kind of music. So
at that time, Rick I was writing some film scores
for doctor Billy Graham and one of them was called
One of the films was called The Restless Ones, and
I wrote a little song called He's Everything to Me
(06:45):
and we put it in the film, and you could
hardly call it a rock and roll song, However, it
had that contemporary beat Dung gun Kung in the stars
is handy, were I see? And my daughter liked that
(07:05):
song and she learned it, and so did a few
thousand other kids. So we began to write some music
that the kids would sing and listen to. And it
was a great joy for me to be at that
place at that time, and the Good Lord opened the
(07:29):
door for me to present the gospel in a contemporary
form of music. Now, what was the cause?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I think that that's that's one of those seminal moments
for our music industry. And Ralph, I think, having played
drums in a praise and worship team for too many
years and I no longer do it now, but that
you what you did, and in the pioneering that you
(08:03):
achieved broke through a chance for young people to personally
be able to relate to God and Christ and faith
in a very personal way because the music related to
us and it became it became a part of our
generation in the in the backbeat of of our faith.
(08:27):
So I think that the difference that you made is
just uh has had some fantastic ripple effects. And from
this one singular drummer here, I want to thank you
for the for the sea change that you started within
the entire industry.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Well, thank you, Rick, and uh Uh. I'm just thrilled
to be able to visit with you today. Uh. I
want to also mention that the I love the old
hymns and I don't by any means pass them up
and use of them in our repertoire. I've done several
(09:09):
albums with the London Symphony and I love the choir,
and we even do concerts with a big band, which
is four trumpets for trone bones, five saxophones in rhythm.
In fact, I just got back last night at two
thirty in the morning from doing four Christmas concerts with
(09:29):
the big band up in Northern California, And so there's
room for everything. And I'm so glad that we're able
to put all the different forms of music to work.
And I'm getting ready to do a tour where we'll
be we'll have a symphony orchestra, and right in the
(09:51):
middle of it we'll have the big band, and then
we'll have a mass choir of one hundred and fifty
voices or so plus some soulo us. And God has
just been so I'm so grateful for the way He
is opening the doors for us to use music to
(10:11):
communicate the gospel and to lift him up absolutely.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
And I you know a lot of people know you,
mister Carmichael, as that music director for some of the
most the most popular TV shows like I Love Lucy
and Red Skeletons from when you look back in the
rearview mirror. What did all of that mainstream music experience
(10:36):
teach you?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Well, the I was able to learn the best way
to go into a studio with the film cues for
films and TV shows, and it came in very handy
(11:00):
in my work with the world not not not only
World Vision, but with the Worldwide Pictures, the Billy Graham
Film Organization, and what I learned in the secular field.
I was able to put it to good use. Uh
in the gospel field.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
It sure sounds like and if you had one pick
of one song from your entire career that gives you
the most satisfaction today, what would you say to that is?
What's that song? And why?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Well? I wish you'd give me two chances.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
I'll get what will give you as many chances as
you want.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
There is a song that I wrote when I was
minister of music at Temple Baptist Church in downtown LA
in the mid fifties. It was an invitation song. The
past called me in and he said, we're going to
have a revival meeting for two weeks and I'd like
you to write a new invitation song. So I wrote
(12:07):
a little song entitled The Savior Is Waiting and we
used it every night after he finished his sermon, the
trio or quartet would step up and sing The Savior's Waiting.
And it wasn't only it was only a few nights
that finally the audience was joining in and we passed
(12:28):
out the lyrics for them. And then one night doctor
Bob Pierce, when he wasn't traveling, he would come to
He would come to the church and he heard this song,
and the following week he called in and said, Ralph,
World Vision is sponsoring a revival meeting in Tokyo, calling
(12:51):
it the Tokyo Crusade, and I'd like you to go
over there and we'll put together a thousand voice choir
and we'll use a symphony bud. He said. The one
thing I request is that you're doing a require arrangement
and every night after my sermon, I want you to
do the Saviors Waiting. Well, we were visited during that
(13:13):
crusade by many many pastors from the United States who
were supporters of the World Vision ministry, and that little
song just spread. So that would be one of the
great satisfactions of my life, is that the use that
(13:38):
has been made of the Saviors Waiting as an invitation song.
Then the other of course, there's kids all over the
world that have learned and sung. He's everything to me,
and that's a great satisfaction too, that must be.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
We had some interesting people on this Life Lesson show
who have also written music, from the likes of Johnny
Mercer and or Johnny Mercer's family and many others. Gloria Gaither,
who wrote because he lives, and the question we always
love to ask Ralph is how do you How did
(14:24):
you come about writing those songs? What was the process,
and what advice can you give to young songwriters today
relative to their own ability of connecting with God and
then delivering a great, memorable song.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Well, my experience has been that it happens in two
or three different ways. Occasionally, because I am a musician,
I will wake up in the morning of with a
melody in my mind, and I'll jot the melody down,
(15:05):
and the melody itself will suggest the tone of the lyric,
whether it should be like happy and care free and exuberant,
or if it should be quiet and like a lullaby
(15:25):
and something along the line of meditation. So sometimes the
melody dictates what developed what develops in the lyric. On
the other hand, the other way is that I will
(15:45):
start with an idea, and most generally it has a
scriptural base, and from that I'll do a lyric. And
then after the lyric is done, which is laying on
my desk looks to be two or three verse poem,
(16:06):
then I'll put a melody to that that will fit
the spirit of the lyric and the message of the lyric.
Then there's still another saying that I have experienced many times.
I will be given the assignment by a minister or
(16:31):
a preacher to write a song that would could be
sung either before he preaches on a certain topic or
a song that would be sung after his sermon. But
he gives me the topic, and then I check the
scripture to make sure we're scriptural, and so I call
(16:55):
that writing a song on assignment. Sometimes you sit there
with no inspiration at all, but you have to discipline
yourself and you stay right there because you've got a
job to do. And I'm sure that a lot of
preachers understand that there's a topic they have to speak
(17:17):
on and they have to do their studying, their research,
and it takes some discipline. But sooner or later the
inspiration dawns. And if you discipline yourself and stay with
the job, God will give you a reward and let
you come out with a finished product.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
That's priceless. Advice coming from the one and only Ralph Carmichael. Ralph,
when we had the Mercer Family on, we talked about
how Johnny Mercer and Hokey Carmichael and Johnny Mercer and
some four or five hundred other collaborators work together. Can
you get some advice to our young songwriters about when
(18:03):
they do collaborate with one or two other people. What
are some lessons that you've learned in the past on
what's the easiest route to writing something significant when you
do collaborate with someone else.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Well, I have not collaborated often. It's difficult for me
to team up, but I have done it. And when
you discipline yourself to share ideas and spend the time together,
(18:40):
and you have one goal in mind, and that is
to create something that will communicate with the listener or
the singer, it's performing. It's a rewarding experience. And although
I haven't done it often, I've done it two or
three times, and it is a rewarding experience. And as
(19:04):
I think back, of course, I'm a great fan of
Johnny Mercer and Hogy Carmichael. For fifty years, people have
been asking me if Hogy Carmichael is a relative of mine,
and I don't know, And lo and behold, I have
a little niece, a darling little niece who is involved
(19:29):
in the events that are sponsored by what they call
the Carmichael Clan, and she did some extensive research, and
it turns out that way back on the family tree, Hogy,
Carmichael and I are hooked up somehow.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
How about that? Yeah, that's so interesting. I've got to believe, Ralph,
that your music is not only good for the soul,
but is could be therapeutic for a nation that's in
it's grieving right now. Yesterday at at our church, and
(20:10):
our church normally plays pretty fast, loud contemporary music. They
sang on Christ the solid rock, I stand no other ground.
Is all other ground is sinking?
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Sand am wonderful?
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yes, sir, tell us why going to your concerts right now?
Maybe the kind of kind of good dose of medicine
that Americans could could use to pull themselves up by
the bootstraps after what happened on Friday in Connecticut.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Well, the U there is a hymn that I often use.
It's entitled be Still my Soul. The Lord is on
our side. And uh in these troubled times, I'm I'm
not belittling or in any way taking away the terror
(21:09):
or the horrible things that are happening in the world,
but I am saying that as Christians, we are so
fortunate to have God and his promise and his provision
for us. And I think that the only thing left
(21:32):
for us is to turn to him. And in my
concerts I will make use of some of those great
old hymns, like on Christ the solid Rock. I stand,
it's our hope, and we better make use of it.
(21:56):
And I love the old hymns that are filled with
the scriptural assurances. And you come to a concert and
you'll have some contemporary and you'll have some of the
old favorites, and and we all, incidentally, we always end
our concerts with the amazing Grace, which is still the
(22:20):
best known and best loved old him around the world.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
It is indeed, And I must tell you, Ralph, that
this past summer, my wife and I, on our continued
quest to find out more about great songwriters, we visited
the Germany and went to Martin Luther's home and where
where he penned some of the great hymns of all time.
(22:45):
And to our surprise, his wife was a real ogre
and sort of beat him up. And and uh, he
was very h in his writing. He was actually subordinated
by his wife. And I think to some extent he
wrote he wrote from that biography not only that, and
(23:06):
from his understanding of what grace is all about. And
I point that out from the perspective of you've had
a lot of people to influence you and shape you
throughout your illustrious career. Can you name two or three
people along your journey that you think influenced you the most,
and feel free to share a humorous story if you will. Well, I.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
Lost my father in nineteen sixty. He passed away in
the flu epidemic are in the Southland. But my father
was a great inspiration and encouraged my inquisitiveness and my
experimental research. When he was a kid, he was converted
(24:02):
in the church over in Scott's Bluff, Nebraska, and he
had just started playing the violin. He bought himself a
violin from money that he earned. He was probably a teenager,
and when he was converted, they told him he'd have
to quit playing the violin because the violin was an
(24:23):
instrument of the devil. It was. They used it in
those days to play for barn dances, and so my
dad quit playing the violin, but he didn't get rid
of it. He put it in his in the in
the case violin case and hid it under his bed. Well,
after six or eight months, the church people were not
(24:49):
too happy with his spiritual growth, and they mentioned to
his parents that something needed to be done. And by
the way, did he get rid of that violin? Well,
it turned out that they discovered the violin was still
under his bed, and they blamed the violin for his
(25:10):
lack of spiritual growth. So he had to get rid
of the violin all right. Now, fast forward, my dad
ended up going to Bible school. He met my mom there,
they got married, and I came along and guess what
the first thing they put in my hands not a
(25:31):
ball bat or a ball or rolling skates roller skates,
but at age three and a half, they bought me
a quarter size violin. My dad started me on violin
lessons at three and a half, and I had violin
lessons even during the depression until I left home on
(25:52):
my own at seventeen to go to Bible College, and
then I paid for my own lessons until I was
in my bunnies. Uh. My dad also encouraged my listening
to the radio. He would I would listen to the
bands on the radio, and I would complain to Dad,
those bands sound much better than our orchestra at church. Well,
(26:18):
what are you going to do about it? Son? And
so I would find the different chords and I would
show my dad these chords on the piano, and his
first reaction was was, Son, I think those are wrong notes.
But I kept pounding away at him until finally he
got so he was liking those quote unquote wrong notes.
(26:40):
And my dad would, uh. He got me a little radio,
and I would listen to the bands uh playing from
the from Chicago and from uh the northern California, San
Francisco area and UH. By the time I went away
(27:02):
to college, my interest was putting together musical groups. And
I had a trio girls trio, and a male quartet
and a mixed quartet. And then I experimented with the
four gals and four guys an octet and writing close harmony.
And then I started a trumpet trio, and then a
(27:24):
brass quintet, and then pretty soon I finally found five
guys to play saxophone, and I had five saxes and
four trombones and four trumpets and a rhythm section. And
the next thing you know, we're on television. So I
would have to say that my father and his encouragement
(27:46):
to in musical experiment. He encouraged my inquisitiveness and I'm
ever grateful for that. But then there are some people
that the well, the Youth for Christ in the fifties
was an organization that I participated in. I would lead
(28:08):
the singing and organized choirs, and those Youth for Christ
directors were very inspirational for me, and people like doctor
Bob Pierce and doctor Billy Graham. Uh. My relationship with
the Graham Organization and the film scores and the songs
(28:31):
that they let me write for this films there were marvelous.
They were marvelous doors of opportunity and I will always
be grateful to God for that association.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Well, Ralph, it has been an honor to have you
on our Life Lesson show, and we welcome you back anytime, and.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
We hope that you enjoyed today's program with Ralph Carmichael.
He truly left an enduring legacy, particularly in the blending
of sacred and contemporary music. In his work, as significant
as it is, will always continue to influence the way
Christian music in particular is performed and appreciated. Today, we
(29:16):
hope that you all have a great week and We
wish you success on your way to significance.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
Epicy
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