Hurrican Dora
An illuminating story I know of Eliot, involves his being from the “Sunshine State” (Florida) where, from the beginning of June until November, there is an ever-present, if unofficial, “hurricane watch”.In 1964, Hurricane Dora came screaming up the coastline of Florida and decided that Jacksonville would be her focused landfall. With all else her terrible winds accomplished, she deposited a waterlogged, badly beaten guitar in the driveway of one of Eliot’s friends. This friend called, suggesting that they learn how to play it. With no school, due to the storm and because “Monopoly burnout” had taken a firm hold, Eliot agreed to come over. In the lives of little boys, God’s hand is not so readily seen. In the lives of these two Jewish boys, God was about to show himself far mightier than Dora’s passing storm.
After Looking For A First Song
After looking for a first song they might learn to play, inexplicably, the only one that seemed simple enough, found in an old folk-song book was, “Were You There, When They Crucified My Lord?” Isn’t that just like the Lord? He took two young boys right where they were, and taught them to sing a song that begs the question above all questions, especially considering the young Jewish mind: “Where were you when Jesus died?”
In Those Years
In those years, Providence sent many opportunities to the young musician. There was the meeting in Los Angeles with the British Group, The Hollies, one of the “hottest” Pop-Rock groups of that era. It was decided that their manager would also become Eliot’s. What followed surely must have seemed a leap to immediate success! -- one day in Los Angeles, the next day, meeting with the head of CBS Records in New York, and the day following, in London preparing to record his original songs with the Hollies as backing musicians. It was anticipated by all involved that after his recordings were completed, there would be a contract with Epic Records, the CBS label under which the Hollies were having such successes as, He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother, Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress and The Air That I Breathe. But, that same guiding hand of Providence seemed not to be so obvious to him when months later, the head of CBS Records left for another company, and with his leaving, CBS’ interest in Eliot seemed to have left as well.
Discouraged, But Not Yet Defeated
So, discouraged but not quite defeated, Eliot took a job managing the parking lot at the Miramar Sheraton Hotel in Santa Monica. With a tired soul, he crammed his remnant keyboard of minimal musical success into the glass booth there, and quietly continued to write his songs. And with each song written, he yet imagined the possibility, the glimmer-hint of some new “self” esteem and a renewed “self” confidence.
The truth, however, more felt than recognized, was that step by progressive step, Eliot had lost confidence in his “self’s” songwriting. What had once surely seemed the tool for finding happiness, seemed now to have become the device of his spiritual pain. But, if his songwriting had failed, then where, pray tell, might lie a different direction?
Then, One Afternoon
Then, one afternoon, a memory of the Henry David Thoreau book, Walden, popped into his head. “A friend had once recommended it”, Eliot recalls. “I think the reason it came to me then was that I remembered it being something about a lost soul who finds himself -- and happiness maybe?” So, after work that day, he walked the few blocks from the parking lot to the Santa Monica Mall, where there were two bookstores – each at an opposite end of the shopping center. He went to the closest one, immediately found the book, Walden, and headed toward the checkout counter. But before it was his turn at the register, oddly, something compelled him to put the book back; and further, to go to the bookstore at the other end of the mall to buy the same book there. What was that about?
Most People, Who Are Not Jewish
“Most people, who are not Jewish”, Eliot explains, “do not understand the relationship Jews have to Jesus – even to the name ‘Jesus’. Because Jews are ‘born’ Jewish, we make the assumption that whoever isn’t born Jewish, must be born Christian. The thinking from there, though mostly unspoken, is that everyone who’s Jewish is in one camp and everyone else is in the other camp. That Christian camp, then, includes the likes of the Cossacks of Russia, Hitler – literally, everyone else who isn’t Jewish. It certainly includes Jesus. Jesus has become, in the minds of Jewish people, the ultimate symbol of non-Jewish-ness; which is a terribly sad irony."
Over The Next Ten Years
Over the next ten years, he continued to write. There were a few recordings – one by the musical family The Jets, of, All Alone On Christmas Eve; another song recorded by Frankie Laine, Fly Away, and various others of his songs appeared in TV movies and in the feature film, “Tank”.
Why I Wrote Songs To Begin With
“The reason I wrote songs to begin with was to try to understand human relationships, especially romantic love relationships. But I was becoming less and less convinced that my happiness depended upon my understanding of anything -- outside of the only true relationship – the one between Jesus and me. I was learning that any other relationship in my life was simply a reflection of where I was, or was not, in my relationship with Him.”
And So, Onward
Then Eliot smiles, heaves a sigh, and uses a phrase that would become the basis for a song he would later write: “And I knew, I would never be the same.”
Eliot Tucker is my dear brother in Christ, and my comrade of artist’s heart. I have often heard him summarize his journey to Calvary by saying, “Jesus met me right where I was!”