Ruth Bebermeyer, voice and guitar
Assisted by Steve Mote, guitar
We feel that the songs on this album, written and sung by a member of our community,
help express our commitment to helping people be aware of
the miraculous possibilities of being human and of the unique value of every person.
“The First Steps and The Last Steps” explores human relationships: how they grow,
or fail to grow, into relationships of freedom and intimacy, of valuing and being valued —
how, as the title song suggests, they end and do not end.
The First Steps and The Last Steps
This song is dedicated to my Dad, who taught me how to plow a straight furrow. I wrote it three years after his death from a tractor accident, when my family moved from the farm which had always been home to me.
If I Feel I Ought to Promise
Two of my favorite people are married to each other, which is sort of unusual, and this song is how I see their relationship, which is definitely unusual for its beauty and vitality. My friend Steve Mote plays guitar with me on this one.
The Length of Love
I really don’t want to talk about this one — it has a ‘Personal Property ” stamp on it.
I Caught a Glimpse of Truth Today
This song has a mind of its own; it defies all my efforts to comment on it.
Helpless
It is a freeing insight for me to understand that I can feel helplessness without feeling despair or apathy.
In Self Defense
This is the kind of thing I dash off to provide some comic relief for myself and my coworkers when the seriousness of things threatens our perspective and our courage. Steve is playing with me.
Third-Person World
This is my reaction to someone I met only once and with whom I felt tremendously frustrated. I didn’t express the force of my frustration at the time, perhaps if I had I wouldn’t have needed to write this song.
Dark, Dark Room
This is another song about a frustrating relationship, l’m afraid I sing my feelings to avoid saying them.
When I Feel I Have to Prove My Love
I can’t think of anything to say about this one that the song doesn’t say for itself
(except that Steve is playing guitar with me).
The Label Game
This isn’t exactly one of my “laugh-at-ourselves” songs – I had fun doing it but it’s on a subject I’m serious about. I originally intended it for children.
I Give You Need
It’s very hard for me to remember that expressing need can be giving, too – until I
realize how I feel when I’m with someone I suspect is suppressing it.
It’s a Long Road to Love
This is a special song to me because I wrote it as a birthday gift for a special friend.
Produced by Community Psychological Consultants, Inc., 1740 Gulf Drive. St. Louis, Mo. 63130
Front cover design by Dot Schneider
Photography by Bob Schneider
Copyright © 1971 by Ruth Bebermeyer
Master No. TS 7147-48
Mono
Recorded at Technisonic Studios, Inc., St. Louis, Mo.
Words and music for songs on this and other albums by Ruth Bebermeyer available from Community Pschological Consultants, Inc