Holy Spirit Thou Art Welcome in This Place
I Will Glory in the Cross
Behold the Lamb
Somebody Prayed for Me
Closer Home
Closer Home
The Perfect Rose
He Sees Me Through the Blood
Breaking Bread
Oil and the Wine
The Mercy Throne
Holy of Holies
For What Earthly Reason
Midnight in the Middle of the Day
We're the Generation
No Less a King
The Artist
You Will Have to Live the Song
Throughout the series of posts I have written about the gifted songwriter Dottie Rambo, I have periodically given the background behind some of the songs she has written over the years such as "Germs" "On the Sunny Banks", "He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need", for example. For the next couple of weeks, I will give a background behind some of the songs penned by Dottie Rambo. There are numerous songs that she has written that I don't know the motivation behind the penning of them. What few I do know I've learned from the YouTube specials I saw about Dottie Rambo. I will only take the time to mention a couple on this particular post. I'll mention the background behind some of her other songs in the next post. In this particular post I've featured some of the most recent songs Dottie had written in her songwriting career dating back from the 1970's.
I Go to the Rock
I don't know much about the background behind this song. I do know she wrote this song in 1970. I can't prove this for certain but I have a feeling she may have written this song in the midst of the marital problems she and her then husband Buck faced. Dottie had submitted this song to her recording company, Benson, to record this song. If what I read serves me correct, they wouldn't record the song because it sounded "too rocky". As I've stated in a past back in November concerning Rambo, she was a trendsetter in gospel music. Janet Paschal stated Dottie was an "edgy" songwriter who had went beyond the boundaries some of the others in southern gospel music had set. One thing that was unique about Rambo, she gave a lot of soul to her music. She had an alto voice. Another thing that was unique concerning Rambo and her singing family was they didn't fit the bill of southern gospel music when they first performed before the National Quartet Convention in 1964. Southern Gospel groups typically had a bass singer. The Rambos didn't have a bass singer. The Rambos consisted of Buck, Dottie, and Reba. Also, they utilized inverted harmony into their singing style. They would complement one another in singing. When the lead became too high for one person to sing, another would pick up where the one left off. So being unique was nothing new for Dottie. Dottie was also different in the fact she recorded her first "spirituals" album in 1968 featuring a black backup choir. They recorded an album entitled, "The Soul of Me." Dottie won a Grammy for that album and Billboard Magazine labeled her as "Trendsetter of the Year." She recorded music for different genres of music. She wrote music for traditional gospel, black gospel, contemporary, and even country gospel.
This particular song that she penned, "I Go to the Rock" was a different type of song that Dottie wrote. It's a song that many black choirs and gospel groups sing today. Whitney Houston, the former pop singer who died in February, performed this song in the late 90's. As I've mentioned earlier, Dottie tried to get this song recorded, but the recording company they were signed to refused to record it. Therefore, she tabled that song for a number of years. I don't know the event which resulted in the resurrection of that song, but somebody learned about that song and recorded it and Dottie eventually recorded that song. My knowledge about the background of this particular song is sketchy. Consequently, that's all I know about this particular song.
The Oil and the Wine
This song was written by Dottie sometime in the late 1970's following the divorce of her daughter, Reba from her first husband. Reba got married for the first time when she was 23 years old and her marriage ended in divorce. I don't know all the events that took place that resulted in Reba's divorce. However, many people in Christian circles didn't react very positively to it. She faced a lot of ridicule for her divorce. There was an event that Reba attended in Dallas and she was "booed" off the stage. Dottie was very hurt over the crowd's reaction towards Reba at that time as a result of the divorce. It was through that incident that Dottie penned the song "The Oil and the Wine." The theme of that song is we need to learn as Christians to be the Good Samaritan and reach out to those that are inwardly hurting.
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