Amazing Grace - Marshall (John Newton)

I once worked in the Civil Service/Statutory Board for 10 years without any promotion or upgrading with a miserable pay. It was a mental torture to say the least having to get the same miserable pay without any significant recognition or reward for several years on end. After some time your mind becomes deranged and you become "Comfortably Numb" (Pink Floyd) like a vegetable thinking that there is no life out of the Civil Service. Its like they feed you with Morphine/Opium (mergre salary) to fill 3/4 of your stomach and when you want more they make you suffer the drug withdrawal symptoms year after year with no increment. Your salary is designed in such a way that you are not poor to meet the benefits and subsidies for the needy provided by the government and at the same time there is not enough to make ends meet because you are not rich either. You're in between the big sandwich gap between the poverty and the rich where you endlessly are at wits end to meet the ever increasing prices. The locals here have to compete with third world country labour cost as they constantly tell us to compete against China and India in a developed country's lifestyle cost of living to keep up with the Joneses of other developed countries and to always be number one all the time. However they don't want to accept that the salary scales of other deveoped countries are much higher. They want the best of both worlds at the expense of ordinary middle class citizens. Second place doesn't exist in their dictionary.

Anyway, during the interim i would not give up, i would study Engineering for seven and a half years in night classes while i worked at this dreaded place hoping for a better future. At the time I had a colleague who used to email me. Her name was Sabrina. We would talk about lots of stuff and i would basically tell her my predicaments at work and she would make me laugh with her witty humour in her emails to me. She would also give me a Christmas card every year without fail. When i finally graduated from the Engineering Institution, i applied for a position in the same company that i worked for assuming that they would reward me for my efforts and loyalty of working there but they would just shun my application without giving me a reason. All I wanted was to work in the technical field which i so dearly love. A year later after numerous applications in the public sector, i clinched a job as an Assistant Engineer, outside of this dreaded Satutory Board. So when i told Sabrina, she felt happy but sad altogether as i was leaving. As a farewell gift, she gave me an old rugged piece of rock in which the lyrics of the first verse of Amazing Grace was cast in stone.

Ironically Sabrina is Muslim and she gave me a Christian gift yet again. How beautiful is it when an ordinary Muslim is a good friend of an ordinary Christian.

Today i place this rock proudly at my new workplace as a reminder to be always humble in life and be thankfull of my new job. I also believe that people of different religions colour, and creeds can work together as one. No matter what the odds are, never stop rockin. Coz its a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll. Its still a long way for me and will always be a long way because i chose that road.

The hymn Amazing Grace as how i see it is about the liberation of slavery and its evil ways with the help of God. And so I performed this song in a version which i feel depicts how a slave would have sung when he had been liberated from slavery. Incidentally i wonder if a slave would have had a guitar to play with.lol :oP

This video is for my former colleague Sabrina and everyone be it a Christian or a non Christian. Thanks for the Ears all these Years Sab.

Marshall

Category:

Music

Tags:

• John
• Newton
• Amazing
• grace
• Sabrina
• Life
• of
• Rocker

[MarshalltunesZZ]

mucho gracias comparande :o)

Marshall

[GreatMooglyGoogly]

Thanks for the song, and for your words. An inspiring journey - keep rockin'!

[MarshalltunesZZ]

As ACDC says, It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock & Roll. :o) Always loved and lived by that song. It has always been my prayer. Thanks for the generous encouragement my friend.

Cheers and God Bless.

Marshall

[torstenq]

One of the best versions on youtube! *****

[MarshalltunesZZ]

I'm glad you liked it my friend and thanks for subscribing,

Marshall

[ThorSpirit]

Nice harmonies

[MarshalltunesZZ]

Thanks Sir.

Marshall

[bmwordrive]

Cool

[mop123451]

beautifull

[SlyHobbit]

Dude I am generally partial to female singers, but WOW you've got some nice pipes! Great, controlled playing as well! The harmonics at the end were near perfect! I am very impressed, and I was raised as a VERY critical musician, only listening to the best in every genre. 5 stars, subscribed, keep em coming!

[EdgarBIX]

me gusto mucho aun que ni si quiera lo vi pero si llego a verlo me desmallaria de lo mal que cantas