November 2007 Offerings Of The Month:
"The Return"
Written by Edward Jerlin and Bryan Celano
© 1984 EJ & BC/2007 Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved



Written in the summer of 1984 originally as a piano solo, it's about The Return of Christ, the second coming. Though it's an instrumental, the music represents the arrival, the initial bewilderment, the gathering, the triumph, and the majesty of Jesus' return to earth for his church as predicted and depicted in the Bible in 1 Thessalonians 4, Revelation 20-22 and many other places.

In Fall '84 during college, I met and formed the band "G-FORCE" with Bryan Celano, a drummer who also plays keyboards, sings and writes music. We hit it off really well, wrote a lot of music together, and remain great friends to this day. I have never been as telepathic with a musician before or since as with Bryan. We're both into the same kind of music, and tend to hit our accents in the same places, uncannily so.

One of the first times we ever rehearsed together, getting to know each other, playing songs we'd written for each other to learn, I half-jokingly played this just-written piece, never expecting that any drummer would be able to follow along with all the crazy time-signatures, rhythms, and tempo changes. But Bryan took a shine to it and insisted on trying it out and began playing along almost immediately, marveling at the idea that I played it exactly the same way note-for-note each time, and took learning it as a challenge. It took maybe 3-4 tries, but to my amazement, he pretty much nailed it, and added a number of ideas and accents that I loved. The drum part became such an integral and essential part of the song, that I've always considered Bryan to have co-written it.

Presented here is a new recording of it with me playing all the instruments. The subtle crunchy guitar parts and leads are 2007 additions. Otherwise, the piece remains note-for-note unchanged since 1984. For the drum parts, I co-opted all of my favorite Bryan-bits from the many studio and live versions I have of him playing it. It took me awhile to learn how to play all his riffs.

Bryan and EJ playing 'In The Cage' at the rooftop concert in May 1986

Bryan and me playing Genesis' "In The Cage/Cinema Show/Duke's Travels/Afterglow"
medley May 16, 1986 at the 'rooftop gig' on the roof of the Crane School
Of Music at SUNY Potsdam just before finals week our senior year.

This is my favorite pic of us, wailing away,
concentrating, trying to get all those parts right.
I can't believe the hair...
or the beard for that matter!

Later that evening we played a four-and-a-half-hour gig as a final
farewell and a celebration of four years of college before we all graduated...

One of the best days of my life, certainly in the top five...

Enjoy!