#270 NEVER FOR NOTHING by Margaret Becker (1987)

NEVER FOR NOTHING by Margaret Becker (1987)
Sparrow | SPD 1134

Producer:

Billy Smiley

File Under: Chick Rock/CCM

Time Capsule-Worthy Track:

Never For Nothing

She got her start writing songs and opening for the likes of Steve Camp and Rick Cua at the height of their music careers. But when this, her debut, hit store shelves, Christian rock devotees finally had a legitimate female rock chick to call their own. One with a muscular but well-trained voice...and she played guitar! 

Pat Benatar? Ann Wilson? Phhtt. We had Maggie B.

Margaret Becker was raised Catholic in Bay Shore and East Islip, two coastal hamlets on Long Island, about an hour and 20 minutes from the heart of New York City. Becker played in coffeehouses, taught music, and took opera lessons. She moved to Nashville in 1985 shortly after graduating from James Madison University with a communications degree in hand. The plan was to pursue a career in music. 

[Sidebar: This story is typical, but I never cease to be amazed at how creative people - whether musicians, actors, comics, whatever - will simply pull up stakes and relocate to LA, New York or Nashville in order to follow their dreams. I was a musically creative and talented kid if I do say so myself, but I would never have had the nerve to just throw caution to the wind and uproot my life in order to chase a dream. I'm thinking that would require a large dose of reckless ambition. It worked for Margaret Becker and lots of others. But for every Margaret Becker, there are multiplied thousands of waitresses, bartenders, and baristas who tried a similar plan and it just never worked out for whatever reason. #risky] 

Margaret's gamble paid off when she landed a gig with Sparrow Records as a staff songwriter. She ended up co-writing a handful of songs that were recorded by Steve Camp and served as a backing vocalist on Rick Cua's Wear Your Colors Tour. Then she was featured in a duet with Camp - the title song from his One on One album. After that, it was time for Sparrow to give Becker her own shot which came in the form of 1987's Never For Nothing.

Album covers were hugely important back in the day, especially when deciding whether to plunk down your cash on a new artist you'd never heard before. The album cover was the first impression and had a lot to do with making the sale. The Never for Nothing cover photo alone made a statement. The hair, the earrings, the color palette, just the attitude emanating from Becker in that cover photo let us know that this wasn't going to be another Kelly Willard or Michelle Pillar album. It wasn't even Amy Grant territory. This was a woman who really knew how to rock. And she got extra points for those humongous shoulder pads. This was, after all, the 1980s. Art Direction was by Barbara Catanzaro-Hearn, Stan Evenson came up with the design, and that striking photo of Margaret Becker was taken by Steven A. Heller.

Becker's rock 'n roll vocal chops were evident on songs such as Fight for God, Standing on Top of the World, Break the Silence, and Giants Will Fall. In fact, key lines from several songs worked perfectly as arena rock-style chants in concerts...

Fight for God!

Standing on Top of the World!

Giants Will Fall!

Later, Becker's work became much less bumper stickery and much more nuanced and thoughtful. It's very difficult if not impossible to imagine 2019 Margaret Becker pumping her fist and belting out Fight for God! to a concert audience. But, again, this was the 80s.  

There were a few songs, however, that were not standard CCM fare from a lyrical standpoint. Those tracks gave us a glimpse of where Becker's songwriting would eventually head. What You Feel addressed the fact that love is a decision and not based on feelings. 

You said that you would stay committed
You even gave your solemn word
Looking back it seemed too simple then
When passion was your nerve
Standing at a crossroads
It's either search or fight
Go looking for a new love
Or stay and make this one right

I've heard that love is sacrificial
It's a decision of the will
Sometimes you have to push those feelings
Beyond the point of what you feel
Love in its purity
Is labor of the heart
And it will always stand the test
When feelings fall apart

What you feel
May be real
But that doesn't make it wrong or right
Vows you've made
Can't be vague
Commitment is black and white
Oh, what you're feeling isn't right

Break the Silence speaks of a "house where the heart of love once beat so strong" and encourages transparency and honesty.

Break the silence
Dare to be exposed
Break the silence
Shatter the common mold

White Heart's Billy Smiley produced Never for Nothing. Some of the musical choices give the project a somewhat dated, very-80s sound in spots. And I hate to be redundant, but hey...it was the 80s, after all.

Becker's voice was often favorably compared to the aforementioned Pat Benatar and Ann Wilson of Heart. I remember talking with her for a live phone interview when I worked for HisRadio. I asked her if she ever tired of the comparisons and she said, "No, I take it as a compliment." 

Never For Nothing featured a lot of very accomplished musicians, including bassist Mike Brignardello, White Heart drummer Chris McHugh, guitarists Dann Huff (formerly of White Heart), Chris Rodriguez and George Cocchini. Interestingly, ex-Petra keyboardist John Slick played on one song (Love Was Waiting); Tommy Dorsey played keys on the rest of the album.

A talented and seasoned group of background vocalists participated on this album, including Chris Rodriguez, Billy Smiley, Dave Mullins, Marty McCall (Fireworks, First Call), Peter York, and White Heart's Tommy Sims.  

The album was recorded at a number of studios - OmniSound, Center Stage, Downstage, Bullet, Master's Touch, and Peace In The Valley. It was mixed by David Schober at Mama Jo's and mastered by Steve Hall at Future Disc. Brent King, Doug Sarrett, Jeff Balding, Joe Bellamy, and Mike Psanos all served as engineers on Never for Nothing. 

For many of us, this record maintains a soft spot in our hearts due primarily to three songs: the title track, Sacred Fire and For the Love of You. 

Sacred Fire reached #2 in 1988 on Christian rock charts. It was a great rock track that spoke of being completely committed and sold out to God:

Fire of refining
Fire of discipline
Burn away all my impurities
Fire of consecration
Carefully define
The image of the Holy One in me
I know that I am privileged
To bear the sacred light
So I will lay down everything
To keep the flame alive

Sacred fire
Burn Your mark on me
With Your flame brand the Name
For everyone to see
Sacred fire
Burn your mark on me
I am honored to be set apart
So burn your ownership into my heart

The album's title song was a classic rock ballad. It was encouraging and heartbreaking all at the same time. 

You cried alone by the window
Over the love that you lost
You gave it all
Never counting the cost
Rain like tears beat on your window
Melting your heart to the floor
No love returned
And now you have less than before

It's never for nothing
When you love with no return
It's never for nothing
Light your candle in the darkness
'Cause it's never for nothing

Becker's spot-on, passionate vocal on Never for Nothing helped the song climb to #3 on Christian airplay charts.

For the Love of You was a ballad that presented the idea that we love God not for what He does for us, but just because of who He is.

Been searching deep inside me
To find some hidden clues
About my motivation
For loving You
I know there is the obvious
Your blessings and Your peace
But what if all Your benefits
Were to suddenly decrease?
Way beyond the things I know I will receive
I want my motivations for loving You to be (just)

For the love, for the love of You
Not for what it brings
For the love, for the love of You
Let me do all things
Not for what You'll do
But just for the love of You

It's a theme that has been mined many times by many other artists, but For the Love of You is a well-crafted song and Becker did a really fine job with it. The song reached # 7 on the charts in 1987.

Never for Nothing has been called "an immediately impressive debut" and the fact that it contained three high-charting singles was a strong indication that Margaret Becker would be around for quite a while and would make a lasting impact on Christian radio. She was and she did.

Her sophomore release, The Reckoning, yielded Find Me, Who Am I and Streets of Innocence. Becker began a working partnership with producer Charlie Peacock in 1989 with Immigrant's Daughter. That record contained no fewer than five Christian radio chartbusters. Simple House in 1991 gave us three more hits. Soul came along in 1993 and, with it, four more radio hits (including This I Know and Say the Name). Up next was Grace in 1995 with five more charting singles. Let's face it, the woman has been a machine for Christian radio, just churning out hit after hit after hit. 

Falling Forward in 1998 was the first record Becker recorded without Charlie Peacock in about a decade. This time she went with a trio of producers and they delivered two more charting singles. What Kind of Love in 1999 would be her swan song for Sparrow, ending a very successful partnership with one more hit song (Friend for Life). Becker has appeared on numerous compilations and has recorded specialty albums with other female artists such as Susan Ashton, Christine Denté, Michelle Tumes, Nichole Nordeman, Rebecca St. James, Máire Brennan, Joanne Hogg, Kristyn Getty, and Jennifer Knapp.

Jennifer Knapp (L), Margaret Becker

Knapp, of course, is probably the most famous lesbian to ever escape Contemporary Christian Music (with apologies to Marsha Stevens). Knapp would also be the most vocal and most confrontational former CCMer in LGBTQIA-LMNOP land. So it only stands to reason that eyebrows were raised when Margaret Becker chose to record and tour with Knapp at Christmastime in recent years. And this was no quiet, behind the scenes collaboration. It was much-ballyhooed. The never-married Becker has fully embraced Knapp in a very public way. All it means for sure is that two women recorded and toured together. But rumors have dogged Becker for years, and this does nothing to squelch them. 

A quick perusal of Becker's Twitter feed reveals that she sits, like many of her fellow Nashvillians, on the liberal side of the political divide these days. But one tweet, in particular, demanded attention. On June 26, 2015, Becker tweeted:

SCOTUS: thank you for your work these past few weeks. You've reminded me what is great about this country.

Incidentally, June 26, 2015, was the very day of the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, legalizing same-sex "marriage" in the United States. 

Interestingly, Margaret Becker recorded the song Make It Right for this album. Kenny Marks' version of the song is perhaps better known but for some reason, the lyrics differ substantially on the two recordings. The Marks version begins...

Every boy wants a girl / Every girl wants a boy

The Becker version replaces that with... 

Everybody wants someone / To give them courage and keep them strong 

It was a bit of a mystery so I reached out to the song's author, Mark Chesshir. "Kenny's version is my original lyric," Chesshir replied, "but he did not use the bridge section of the song. Margaret and I rewrote part of the original lyric for her version and she did the complete song with the bridge."


Okay...but why the need for a rewrite? I mean, we could say, "Well, Becker just wanted to be inclusive and respectful of all the various possible genders and orientations out there." Except that nobody was worried about any of that in 1987. Again, no smoking gun...and Becker's content to just let the speculation grow. “My personal life is private and I’m very happy,” she told Joey DiGuglielmo of The Washington Blade. Concerning Knapp, she said, “I am very supportive of Jennifer and this musical partnership we’ve created and look forward to sharing it with her supporters and mine.”

Sometime around the early 90s, Becker became disenchanted with Protestant Evangelicalism, even though that's where she initially came to genuine faith in Christ. "I got tired of people telling me whether or not I was anointed," she told CCM magazine in 1991. "The clutter of what I should and shouldn't do had run me ragged." So, like Dion Dimucci, she returned to the Catholic church, expressing admiration for the liturgy and a fondness of the prayers she remembered learning as a child.

Becker released a full-length album titled Air in 2008. She's also authored two books and spends some of her time producing younger artists these days.

After all that radio airplay, Becker only won two Dove Awards - and both were connected to 1992's Simple House. But Never for Nothing will always be remembered not only for its songs but as the album that launched a lengthy and stellar CCM career.