Never Picture Perfect

For many of us in the late 80s, we knew Rich Mullins as the one who penned “Awesome God,” a worship song that we teens reluctantly admitted that we liked. This, of course, was back before it was cool to admit we liked worship music, and thus participation on Sunday mornings was usually minimal. And so seeing this cassette on the shelves of the local Christian bookstore made this reviewer take note, not letting anyone know my interest, but I would perk my ears whenever a new song from this album was released on the radio.

Of course, I liked every single one of those songs, but just couldn’t bring myself to quite buy said tape. This was my general relationship with the Rich Mullins catalogue for quite a while–until about the time the more introspective, A Liturgy, A Legacy and a Ragamuffin Band was released.

But here, Never Picture Perfect presented what seemed to be a picture-perfect picture of Rich–at least to the consumers’ eyes–all clad in the latest trend of a mullet, buttoned-up black tucked-out shirt and jeans with a hole in the knee (those were the days). But what we came to learn later on was that Rich was certainly not picture perfect, and if you caught him in concert, you got the idea that his cover photos were put together a little against his will. He’d prefer to go barefoot with a typical undershirt just fine, and keep the holey jeans–maybe a shower and shave the day of the performance, maybe not.

Like the soil on his family’s Indiana farm, Rich had some clay mixed in with his nutrients. This is evident in some of his later releases such as his two-volume The World as Best as I Remember it; and one of the greatest CCM albums of all time, the aforementioned A Liturgy, A Legacy and a Ragamuffin Band. This not-so-picture-perfect Rich and his poetic cry for honesty became much more evident after his untimely death, through the films, Ragamuffin and the documentaries, Homeless Man and A Ragamuffin’s Legacy.

Therefore, Never Picture Perfect was probably Rich’s most commercial album–just one notch above his previous, Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth. It’s polished both musically and lyrically, and full of radio hits such as “Hope to Carry On,” “While the Nations Rage,” “The Love of God,” “My One Thing,” and–as I remember an older gentleman from our church at the time telling us his story of how he was perusing the accompaniment tracks on the shelf of a Christian bookstore in Williamsport, Pa., and thought, What in the world…? And had to listen to it and eventually buy it and sing it for us–“Alrightokuhhuhamen.”

But Rich did let some of his personal musings escape from paper onto acetate, including those aforementioned boyhood memories on the farm with, “First Family,” where, in fact, the title Never Picture Perfect comes from.

And now they’ve raised five children
One winter they lost a son
But the pain didn’t leave them crippled
And the scars have made them strong
Never picture perfect
Just a plain man and his wife
Who somehow knew the value
Of hard work, good love, and real life

Another of his musings is, “Higher Education and the Book of Love,” most likely (as the lyrics imply) written as an outlet of his frustrations with the secular humanism that is often taught in the Science and Humanities departments of most colleges and universities. At this time in his life, he was attending college to become a music teacher for the Native American reservations, which he had a heart for, and was going to be a missionary of-sorts to this often forgotten people group right within our own back yards. The song begins with a somewhat spooky-sounding spoken word essay, then onto the song. This frustration was also probably what inspired his song, “Creed,” a true highlight of his Liturgy, Legacy and Ragamuffin Band album.

Well, when I went to college
They said boy get this straight
You’re just a tailless monkey
You’re a hairless ape
We’re on a scary evolutionary stairway
Who knows where
Trusting higher education
To get us all there
There ain’t no values no morals
There’s no rights and no wrongs
Never knowing where we’re going
Well it’s hard to go wrong

Don’t give me that
I want the truth
Don’t say for fact
What is only your point of view
Don’t give me that
I’ve had enough
We best get back to what was written
In the, in the, in the Book of love
(Higher)
(Higher)
(Higher education and the Book of Love)

Regardless of whether or not this was his most commercial album (you decide) is really a moot point. This is still one of his best. The music and lyrics of his hit songs were not just radio fodder, but truly still, a work of art sorely missing on today’s radio stations.