"Rejoice in the Lord" by Ron Hamilton - Mr. P. Sings Stuff - Ep. 04

 

Ron Hamilton (a.k.a. Patch the Pirate) probably did more to shape my musical tastes than any musician I've ever listened to. As much as I love the works of Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Masayoshi Soken, numerous other Japanese composers for video games, and even bands like Metallica, Pink Floyd, and Foreigner, none of them hold anywhere near as special place in my heart as this one individual. I remember when I was still a little kid sitting in the dining room in front of our record player next to my brother and listening to Patch the Pirate records over and over again. For you Gen Z people, a record is like a giant oversized cd...then again, I may need to explain what a cd is...uh...it was a metal round thing that had music recorded on it and, before the days of mp3's, you had to figure out some way of hooking a cd player up to a cassette player to record your favorite songs onto a separate piece of hardware called a cassette tape, which was like a small VHS tape...ugh. Nevermind. It was the dark ages of having music recordings and it was awesome! We liked it! We liked it just fine! We didn't have this "technology" stuff.

Anyway, grumpy old man ramblings aside, Ron Hamilton produced numerous audio dramas for kids, beginning as something he was doing for his home church shortly after losing his left eye to cancer. Over time, it became more and more popular and he and his family (the main cast) as well as other voice actors got together to produce new family friendly stories complete with sound effects and musical numbers that ranged from teaching kids about the importance of manners to deeper songs dealing with theology and even the realities of life, such as encouraging parents to treasure the times they have with their children before they grow up. Each adventure had its own moral lesson it was trying to teach and it was always done in a fun and entertaining way for kids. Nowadays it may not have quite the same appeal since you have to use your imagination to picture the characters and settings, but for those of us who grew up on it and have imaginations, it's very well done.

Incidentally, this is what got me into my love of audio drama and audio production. If you listened to the first two Lovecraft stories I recorded, especially the first, you'll notice how I tried to incorporate sound effects and background music into them. That all stems from my exposure to that sort of thing because of Mr. Hamilton.

Ron's testimony about the song which serves as the namesake for this article and the embedded video is one of taking Paul's words to the Philippians seriously:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! (Philippians 4:4 NASB2020)

Paul's words weren't a recommendation as an apostle, but a command that we should always rejoice in God's provision and kindness to His children, even when circumstances would seem to dictate otherwise.

Unfortunately, Ron has been hit with early onset dementia and no longer writes music or records as far as I can tell. Fortunately, his legacy will long outlast him and live on through the countless children who grew up listening to the adventures of Patch the Pirate and his crew on the Jolly Roger and try to teach their own children the same values. I wanted to do my own recording of one of his most well known songs which also is probably the earliest one I remember hearing that blew me away as a kid.

Thanks for everything Patch.

Ron's Testimony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mnq096XedJs Backing track purchased from Majesty Music: https://www.majestymusic.com/wings-as-eagles-pa-digital-download.html Song featured as part of the Misterslippi River Race story: https://www.majestymusic.com/misterslippi-river-race-digital-download.html