Give To Live by Sammy Hagar

The mid to late 1980's the radio rocked with hair bands who offered up power ballads that all the girls could sway to! Each song follows a sonic formula. Start the song big with lots of sound, big drums, synthesizer, and guitars. Then bring it all down to a quiet piano or acoustic guitar as the rock singer emotes. The song builds again to the chorus and then off to the stratosphere with a Gilmour-esque guitar solo. Break out the Bic butane lighters and sing along!

It seemed every rock band out there had a power ballad on their album collection of rocking tracks. One of the successful artists of the 1980's was Sammy Hagar. He's actually been around since the late 1960's in the southern California music scene. He eventually found success with the band Montrose, but Hagar left the band to start a solo career in 1976. His solo career produced such hots like I Can't Drive 55 and There's Only One Way To Rock. In 1985 Sammy Hagar became the frontman for Van Halen after David Lee Roth exited the band. As part of a contractual agreement with Geffen Records, Hagar released his last solo album in 1987 entitled Sammy Hagar. It was later renamed I Never Said Goodbye. A power ballad called Give To Live made it to the top of Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts.

What I find most interesting about the song, other than its formulaic power ballad approach, is the compassionate call from Hagar to his listeners to give a little in their hearts. the basic message is if you want love, you got to give a little love. It sort of says "be the change you wish to see in the world."

Give it a listen.  http://youtu.be/Had7QGAbfwI


Give To Live

Songwriter: Sammy Hagar

Ooh, I can see that you've got fire in your eyes
And pain inside your heart
So many things have come and torn your world apart

Sammy Hagar, The Red Rocker

Oh baby, baby, baby
Don't give up
Don't give up
Don't give up

(If you want love)
If you want love, you've got to give a little
(If you want love)
If you want faith, you just believe a little
(If you want love)
If you want peace, turn your cheek a little

Oh, you've got to give
You've got to give
You've got to give to live

An empty hand reaching out for someone
An empty heart takes so little to fill
It's so much easier to push instead of pull

Oh baby, baby, baby
Don't give up
Don't give up
Don't give up

(If you want love)
If you want love, you've got to give a little
(If you want love)
If you want faith, you just believe a little
(If you want love)
If you want peace, turn your cheek a little

Oh, you've got to give
You've got to give
You've got to give to live

Each man's a country in his own right
Oh, everybody needs a friend
One friend, one God, one country
No man need defend, yeah

I believe in fate and destination
But so much of that lies in our own hands
If you know what you want, just go on out and get it

Oh baby, baby
Just don't give up, no, no
Don't give up, yeah, yeah

(If you want love)
If you want love, you've got to give a little
(If you want love)
If you want faith, you just believe a little
(If you want love)
If you want peace, turn your cheek a little

Oh, if you want love, you've got to give
(If you want love) oh, give to live
(If you want love) you've got to give
You've got to give, you've got to give to live
(If you want love)

(If you want love) oh, oh
(If you want love) oh, oh
(If you want love) oh, oh
(If you want love) oh, oh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hagar wrote to people who are hurting, hungry and searching. The song addresses those who are angry and hurt by something in their lives. The song calls for compassion on those in need, either because of poverty, or just empty inside. A little bit of compassion goes a long way.

The decade known of its greed, the 1980's, engendered a certain amount disparity between the rich and the poor. As time has marched on the middle class has eroded. I just saw a Facebook post from a school teacher having to take on a second job. Times are hard, even harder than they were for some in the 1980's.

Sammy Hagar is known for his charitable side.

Last summer during his North American Four Decades of Rock tour, Hagar gave about $2,500 to local food banks in each city he visited. Raised in a poor household by a single mother of four, Sammy Hagar spent his childhood summers picking fruit and vegetables so he could afford to buy clothes for school.

"My mom was always half on welfare or food stamps and would get in line during Thanksgiving or Christmas when people were giving away free turkeys," says Hagar, whose alcoholic father abandoned his family. "I grew up like that, and remembered how it made a big difference in our life."

After preaching a bit in his lyrics to Give To Live, Hagar seems to nod to everybody's freedom to be their own guide, their own ruler. "Each man's a country in his own right," Hagar sings. While that is true that we all have freedom of choice, we also need one another. No man is an island. Hagar seems to be trying to call people out of solitary sadness and bitterness and into a hopeful embrace of love. It begins by loving, not waiting for someone else to love you.

Is it any wonder that the New Testament reduces down all religious law to one rule? The only rule in Christianity is "do what love does." The so called Golden Rule, taught by Jesus Christ, is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Mat 7:12)

When Jesus was asked what were the most important commandments in the Law of Moses, He answered that it is to love God and love your neighbor. The Jewish scholars all agreed.

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Mat 22:35-40)

For if you love in the way that God loves us, by laying down His life for us, then you will know love beyond measure.

We tend to follow the kind of economic transactions we are accustomed to in our society. We are capitalist consumers. We know how the game is played. "Nobody gets nothing for free," we say. While that may be true in the marketplace, it's a different world in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of love.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:23)

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:31b-32)

So go ahead and give a little love and see if your world doesn't improve.

Lord, Your love transcends all the emptiness and cruelty of this life. Open us up to obey Your love and humble ourselves before one another. Help us to be generous souls with glad hearts who know You. Amen