Take Me Away

My sin was sweet for a season
but soon it left me empty inside
Jesus, you have given me a reason
to leave the guilt and lonliness behind
Lord, you’ve done so much for me already
and now I’d like to ask for one thing more

Take me away
to the place where I belong
Take me away every day
to the place where I belong
Take me away

Someday I may leave this tent of sorrow
to receive a body clean and new
then again you You may return tomorrow
to catch me up and take me home with You
One way or the other does not matter
either way the promise is the same

You'll take me away
to the place where I belong
Take me away
to the place where I belong
Take me away
to the place
where I 'll see you face to face
Take me away
to the place where I belong
where I belong

I'm the kind of guy who gets inspired to compose, not so much from an idea in my head, but just from the way things sound. I don't even pretend to understand this. It's just how I am. Around 1981, I bought a guitar that I'd been dreaming about for years: a Takemine 12-string. I'd just gotten it home and was savoring it's sound (thinking "Finally! You're mine! Mine! All mine!"). It was then that I remembered a simple, but sweet, tune that Rich's brother, Mike, had written. It was very pretty, but it was, in effect, just a chorus with no real verses.

That was all it took. Aided by the one-of-a-kind sound of a new Takemine 12-string, the additional words (which became the verses) immediately began pouring out. It's what you call a God-send. And so it was that Mike originally wrote the chorus, and I finally wrote the verses.

Of course, I got Mike's permission (through Rich) to "keep" this alteration of his original work. He didn't seem to mind.

Allan and I recorded the song a few weeks later, using two tracks. Everything got layered up so there was double guitars, double voices, and an extra harmony voice. All that layering made the recording pretty noisy, but I thought the result was worth it.