Just As I Am
Single Release Notes, August 2019
As you live your daily life on this imperfect and challenging earth, you may feel lost or rejected among the billions of people in the world. No one seems to care about your individual situation. But the truth is, regardless of your past failures or current circumstances, God does care and wants the best for you. God is willing to accept and forgive you if you follow these three simple steps: 1) Admit to God that you are a sinner, repent and turn away from your sin. 2) Believe that Jesus is God’s Son and accept God’s gift of forgiveness from sin. 3) Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.
Charlotte Elliott, of Clapham and Brighton, England, wrote these lyrics in 1836, and William B. Bradbury wrote the tune (Woodworth) in 1849.
Lyrics
Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidd’st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark blot,
to thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, though tossed about
with many a conflict, many a doubt,
fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
sight, riches, healing of the mind,
yea, all I need, in thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, thy love unknown
has broken ev’ry barrier down;
now, to be thine, yea, thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
More Notes
Many hymnals omit verses 4 and 6.
While Just As I Am was written in 1836, it became well-known in recent modern times. This song was always played at Billy Graham crusades after Rev. Billy Graham completed his sermon and invited the audience to come forward to make a public confession of faith in Jesus Christ.
Why I chose this song
I chose to release this song as my first single for one simple reason which is summed up in the title of the song: Just As I Am. We can’t change the past, but starting today, just as we are, we can begin to change ourselves by using our God-given skills, talents and passions to help others and to improve the world around us.
This song was arranged and recorded on my family’s original late 1960’s Cable Nelson spinet piano on which I first learned to play piano so many years ago (during 2nd grade of elementary school). After many years away from the piano and other instruments, I recently rediscovered piano. See my website for my full story.
Technical info
Key of D, time signature 3/4, tempo 107
The interlude I wrote between verses is actually 4/4 time. The difference was not intentional! It just happened due to the chord arpeggios. Surprisingly, the verses and interlude seems to blend together well.
Stereo recorded in overhead ORTF configuration plus one additional microphone near the left back side.
For this recording, no reverb (reverberation) was applied. The reverb you hear is natural from the piano’s metal harp and solid wood structure. Normalization and dynamic compression were used to increase the volume of the lower and midrange frequency notes to help balance with the melody. There was also manual editing of individual waveforms of notes that were clipped or over-accented.
Credits
Thanks to my Mom and Dad for purchasing the piano so many years ago. Special thanks to my Mom for asking me to record some piano music for her. Those songs became a draft CD of my first album which will be released soon. And thanks to my daughter Rachel for designing the font layout in the cover art. Photo by me at Sunriver, Oregon. And thanks to CD Baby artist Lance Frodsham (dulcimer) who lent equipment and answered questions during this recording project. Also thanks to CD Baby artist Dan Friesen (guitar) for answering questions and sharing advice about releasing music through CD Baby