LET 'EM FLY

Work Trax

This is a familiar story. The ultimate little-guy-vs-the-giant scenario. We see it every day. The neighborhood bully throws his considerable weight around, pushing and shoving and intimidating all of the little kids. Sometimes that bully is a physical menace, sometimes he (or she) uses words or insults or bravado or any number of social biases, stigmas or stereotypes to threaten the less brazen. In today's world, the bully may use political, racial or intellectual slogans or clothing to get his or her way. Sometimes the bully is an unruly and violent mob, an elitist who intimidates with their pompous intellectualism, ridiculing and dismissive rhetoric or a cowardly, anonymous online predator.

But none of these are what they seem to be. None of these are unbeatable. And none of them have anything on the original giant, Goliath. None. But it takes a willing "little guy" like David to stop them. Maybe that's me. Maybe that's you. Whoever it is, it takes more than guts and skills to beat bullies. It takes a belief that there is a God ready and able to stand beside you, behind you and before you. David understood that, even in the face of a towering "mountain." He knew that only in God's name could he survive his giant.

You may be facing an intimidating giant right now; you've certainly faced some before and will again. When you do, think like David, "shivering in his sandals," did when he faced the original "Goliath."

(This is a fun, uptempo and memorable piece suitable for a broad variety of genres. Both work tracks below are in 4-part harmony. The first has a honky-tonk country piano sound. The second is traditional Southern Gospel a la the Booth Bothers, Gather Vocal Band, The Oaks, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound, etc.

Let 'Em Fly (shuffle version Demo) - A Song Demo - Dave Hebert

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Let 'Em Fly (Souther Gospel version) - A Song Demo - Dave Hebert

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READ THE LYRICS...

THE DEMO:

(A professionally recorded demo is in the works for early in 2021. In the meantime, the above are two different versions with my own very amateurish vocals and instrumentation supplied by a clever software app called "Band-in-a-Box." They ain't pretty but I hope you can get the idea of the song from these.)

THE STORY:

This song has a long and weird history. The original idea came, literally, on my 20-minute commute to work one morning in the mid-1990s. The entire chorus was written by the time I got there and I quickly wrote it down. I had no melody, no verses, no idea how it might develop... but I LOVED the lyrics right from the get-go.

The story gets weirder. Over the next few years, I wrote down a bunch of ideas for how I could build on the theme set in the chorus. I even came up with parts of verses but they never fused together. I was so enamored with the chorus I didn't want to "screw it up" with verses that weren't it's equal. So the song sat, and sat, and sat.

About ten (10!) years later I was preparing to perform at a Christian camp and wanted something uptempo to play for them. But, ever the balladeer, I had nothing like that. So I dug out "David's Song" (the unimaginative working title) and gave it another shot. Still nothing. The night before the gig I thought about and prayed about it and thought some more. Voila! The next morning I had four verses -- exactly as you hear them today; no edits, no changes, no improvements.

I've never experienced anything like that before or since. (By the way, due to some more weird happenings, I never did get to perform that weekend. And I've never performed the song live. Yet, Someone seemed to want me to finish this song.

Who knows? Maybe it was meant for you all along.

Dave