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| A PLACE TO STAND by Geoff Moore + The Distance (1988) Sparrow • SPR 1151 |
Producer: Billy Smiley
File Under: Christian Rock
Time Capsule-Worthy Track:
Heart and Soul
This is the one where the graphic designer and photographer got all carried away in their eightyness. The font, the layout, the placement of the text, the clothing...it all screamed EIGHTIES. This was also the first one with Geoff Moore fronting a band, instead of just flying solo. And it was Moore's first project for Sparrow Records after three albums for the Benson Company.
Listening to it again, it's more muscular, more rocked-up than I remembered. Producer Billy Smiley had The Distance (Arlin Troyer, Lang Bliss, Dale Oliver and Tom Reynolds) sounding all rough and rowdy on some of these tracks. Help was given by such notables as Chris Rodriguez, David Mullen, Rick Florian, David Martin, and Carl Marsh. Even Bob Hartman and John Schlitt of Petra got in on the act on the title track.
Speaking of Petra, GM+TD cover Bob Halligan Jr's I Come Out Fighting - the same I Come Out Fighting that former Petra frontman Greg X. Volz recorded that same year. Now, Geoff Moore is a likable bloke and a fine singer. But I've got to believe that no one in his right mind would ever knowingly place himself in the unenviable position of being directly compared to the pipes of one Greg Volz. Even a slightly-past-his-prime Volz is going to sing circles around most others. So when I hear this GM+TD version of I Come Out Fighting, it only reminds me of Greg. Which is unfortunate because Moore actually does a fine job on the track.
Moore and the band write or co-write about half of the songs on A Place to Stand; the rest were written by a slate of well-known and very competent songwriters with names like Rob Frazier, Steven Curtis Chapman, and the aforementioned Perkins and Martin.
The band's recording of Dave Perkins' Calling Londontown is a high-water mark. But for me, the undisputed highlight of A Place to Stand is Heart and Soul, a heartland ballad that I used to play on the radio back in the late 1980s. Written by the very talented David Martin, Heart and Soul is given a bit of a Bruce Hornsby treatment as Moore sings about giving...giving to the poor and giving to meet ministry needs, but also giving everything that we are to the Lord:
I took a walk one day
Right down by the waterside
People were standing everywhere
Somebody called my name
Said son give me what you have
Little or much I don't care
Oh, He wanted everything
Said I'm giving You
Two hands
You can call them Your own
Two feet to lead
Wherever you want them to go
And two eyes to see
The things you want me to know
Said I'm giving You
Everything, everything, everything
Everything heart and soul
I passed a church one time
Where a rich man filled the plate
But he gave just a piece of what he had
An old woman that nobody saw
She didn't have much of anything
But the little she had you know she gave
Oh, she gave everything
She said I'm giving You
Two hands
You can call them Your own
Two feet to lead
Wherever You want them to go
And two eyes to see
The things You want me to know
Said I'm giving You
Everything, everything, everything
Everything heart and soul
Be it little or much
What you got's gonna be enough
If you can put it in His hands
Be it great or small
A little love can break the wall between us
I passed a hill one time
A Man, He hung in silhouette
As thunder rolled across the sky
That Man, He had no blame
And I can't forget His words
Not my will, oh, Lord, but Thine
Oh, He gave everything, everything
Said I'm giving you
Two hands
You can call them Your own
Two feet to lead
Wherever You want them to go
And two eyes to see
The things You want me to know
Said I'm giving You
Everything, everything, everything
Everything heart and soul
Heart and Soul would peak at #14 on Christian radio airplay charts in 1988.
Geoff Moore would record and tour with a band for the next decade or so. The members of The Distance would change over the years, but the group had a quite successful run, especially after making the move to yet another label home, this time Forefront. Moving more in a pop direction and focusing their efforts on the church youth group scene, Geoff Moore and the Distance would see no fewer than six singles climb all the way to #1 on Christian radio during the 1990s, with a slew of other songs garnering spins as well. Not to mention Dove awards and Grammy nominations. Not bad, not bad at all. At the end of the day, Geoff Moore secured for himself not only a place to stand but a place in the annals of CCM history.
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ReplyDeleteLoved this album! For a long time I used to wonder why they put a circle over the face of the one guy on the cover, before I realized it was a hat and he was looking down and away! The song you list as the high point of the album, is indeed the high point. The lyrics, musicianship and the passion in his voice - it gets me every time! My second favorite, would be "Go To The Moon," followed by "Outsider." Great album.
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