Rise Again by Dallas Holm
The first time I heard this song I got chills and tears came to my eyes. It was at our church in the early 1980's. My youngest son applied for a job as a drummer with a Christian band from Milford called “New Creation”. They said to him, “You Know your not getting paid for this, and Jeff replied “That's ok, I just want to play the drums” He was in the band for a few years until their schedules and work hours made it hard to continue. They played every Friday night and occasionally Saturdays. They performed at our church a couple Sunday mornings. I heard the song again a couple months ago and thought it would be good song for the coming Lenten season. The song was written by David Holm and released in 1977. David Holm recalled in “CCM Magazine presents 100 Greatest Songs In Christian Music”, that he wrote this song about Christ's resurrection during a time when he was struggling for ideas. Holm said: "Normally I can sit down and come up with some kind of idea either musically or lyrically. But this time I was totally out of ideas. Finally out of frustration I began to pray, 'Well, Lord, if you were transported to this time and this place, what would You say?' And as hokey as it may sound, I got this mental image of Jesus with the beard and the rope and the whole thing just standing onstage with a guitar. I didn't hear any voices from heaven, no thunderclaps or lightning flashes, but I began to write, and it was literally like taking dictation. In 10 minutes tops, the music and words came out and it was done."
This was recorded live (the clue is in the album title). Holm and his band were fresh to the music scene and somewhat green as he admits to CCM Magazine "We didn't know anything; we did everything wrong you could possibly do. First of all, we decided to record it live, and nobody was buying live albums! We spent a whopping $4,500 producing the whole thing, using semi-professional equipment with these cheesy eight-track channel boards set up in a camping trailer. We recorded it at Lindale High School in a 300-seat auditorium. It was truly live with no fixes. We just blew through it and sang our songs, the whole thing took 45 minutes."
Holm's record company optimistically shipped out 100,000 copies to Christian retail outlets only to find few were interested and there were an alarming amount of returns. However once Christian radio discovered this track and began spinning it nationwide, suddenly the retailers were demanding that the records be returned to them.
This song won the 1977 Dove Award for Song of the Year. Among the many artists to cover this is Bob Dylan during the period that he was singing overtly Christian material. He even called his 1980 tour, the "Rise Again Tour." Dylan made no official recording but it can be found on various bootlegs. Songfacts®:
Go ahead, drive the nails in My hands
Laugh at Me, where you stand
Go ahead, and say it isn't Me
The day will come, when you will see
'Cause I'll rise, again
Ain't no power on earth can tie Me down
Yes, I'll rise, again
Death can't keep Me in the ground
Go ahead, and mock My name
My love for you is still the same
Go ahead, and bury Me
But very soon, I will be free
'Cause I'll rise, again
Ain't no power on earth can tie Me down
Yes, I'll rise, again
Death can't keep Me in the ground
Go ahead, and say I'm dead and gone
But you will see that you were wrong
Go ahead, try to hide the Son
But all will see that I'm the One
'Cause I'll come again
Ain't no power on earth can keep me back
Yes, I'll come again
Come to take My people back They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.” Mark 10:34