"I Have A Dream"

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, the youngest man to receive the Noble Peace Prize was assassinated.  I was only 9 years old at the time and didn't understand what had happened.

We lived in Denver, Colorado and I was too young to even connect where Memphis was or even relate it to Elvis.  Back then we could get 5 channels on  T.V., that's right, 5.  ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and a local station.  T.V. for us was in black and white and when the news broadcast the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr I had to ask my parents who he was.

At the age of 9 years old, growing up in Denver, I had no concept of the word discrimination.  I had no idea that people had actually posted signs at drinking fountains that read, "Whites Only".  I didn't know that in areas of the United States buses only allowed people with white skin pigmentation to ride in the front of the bus.

As years passed I never gave the color of someones skin a second thought when I made friends.  It never occurred to me to think twice about someone's ethnic background and the color their skin.  To me it was "Jesus loves the little children.  All the children of the world.  Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight."  The only difference I noticed in the different friends I had was the way they talked.  And I thought that was cool.

I can't honestly say what impact Martin Luther King Jr. had on how I viewed people back then.  At 9 years old my view of people in the world was that Jesus loved them.  Jesus didn't look at skin pigmentation and say you're acceptable because you're skin is black and you're not acceptable because your skin is white.  And I've never read anywhere in the Bible that Jesus died only for white people.  Perhaps the effect Martin Luther King Jr. had on my life is more in the awareness of man's insurmountable way of insane thinking and actions.

It was in Tucson, Arizona on January 8th that my oldest son was born and 33 years later on the same day, in the same city another crazed man with a gun decided to take lives rather than save them.  The world hasn't changed.  Mankind still hates, still murders and still needs salvation.  Mankind still seems to work at hating others while men like Martin Luther King Jr. seem to die in vain.

I used to look back on the 60's and 70's and think of what violent times those were in our society.  But again, nothing has changed.  Let's remember, at least for a day, that one man in America had a dream.

I must be burnt out!

The last CD I released "I'm Not Dead Yet" was started in Sept of 2009 and we released it in April of 2010.  My plan is to release my next CD in March or April of 2012.  In order to not try and cram all the recording sessions into a few months time I've decided to start gathering the songs and begin the recording process now.  For example, one song is 10 minutes long and to record a song that long takes time.  It's a song that took me 10 years to write the music for because it's very Tchaikovsky-ish.

 

About half of the songs I'm going to record are songs I've published from different songwriters that I'm finally able to record and debut.  The other songs are songs I've written and their time is due as well.  When I write a song, or publish one from a writer, I look for the overwhelming factor of "Does the Song have a Message?"  The problem today is that the Radio stations today don't want songs with a message.  They want songs that fit into the format of "Non-offensive, let's not talk about sin and damnation" songs.

I recently talked to a church about booking me and they declined because most of my songs, in their words, "seem to talk about the dark side of life".  They wanted happy happy happy songs.  They wanted someone to come in and tell them everything is alright, Jesus loves them and we Christians don't have a care in the world.  I'm glad it didn't work out to sing for this church because I need to sing for a group of people who aren't perfect and have gone through life with some scrapes and bruises.

 

After dealing with that church I almost re-thought the songs I'd be recording.  For a split second I thought maybe I should record a majority of happy happy songs without using the name "Jesus", "Christ", or all the other words we've strayed away from in Christian music over the past 15 to 20 years.  But no, I decided to keep writing and recording music about Homelessness, Addiction, Christ Crucified, Hell and Damnation.

So as to the Burnt Out!  I'm burnt out with the politics of walking a line so as to not offend someone.  If hearing about your struggle with addiction offends you when you hear one of my songs, then I say you're not offended, you're feeling convicted.  If you're embarrassed or offended about playing music that speaks of Christ Crucified then I say that makes you feel convicted too.

 

And to songwriters I say don't be a singer/songwriter wanting to ONLY write songs for Worship in the safe environment of the church.  Worship songs have their place but people need to hear about Christ dieing on the Cross for their sins and saving them from Hell.  People need to hear that their struggles and burdens in life, Christian or not, are shared by others and that Jesus is the answer.

Jerry Corelli, his life and times.

About six months ago I started a site where I could write a chronology  about my life.  It starts from when I was born and takes the reader through my life.  It's called Jerry Corelli, his life and times.  As life goes on and I find pictures from my past from other contributors, friends, I will probably post them in the appropriate year.

I mainly started this because through the years I've met fascinating people who's life story isn't written down.  When you talk to their family they'll say, "Yea, dad or grandpa or mom or grandma served in this war".  But they don't know much more information.  I wanted to get it down in writing.  It's therapeutic for me and informative to old and close friends, and of course family.  

It would take awhile to read through it all so if you're interested just read a bit at a time.  Laugh a little, cry a little but hopefully enjoy it.