Boundless Love -- Dennis Loewen

 

This rocker evidently had a transformation, at least musically. He and his high school/college buddies achieved some fame, but as so often happens with musical acts, the union of their paths did not last, and so Dennis Loewen found another avenue following his early rock and roll days. He was a native Kansan (see the state’s seal here), most likely the place and the influence that helped trigger his song about a “Boundless Love” he proclaimed by the late 1970s. Dennis evidently felt by 1979 that his life, despite its pitfalls, was one in which he could rejoice immeasurably. Nothing could overcome the touchstone of this faith he’d encountered. It was a love that may have left him with questions, but its lure had an enduring quality. Mystery, yet illumination – that may best describe Dennis’ response to the One extending this bit of grace in his direction.    

 

Dennis Loewen found life after his high school/college days of the 1960s and early 1970s did not mean desolation, even after his rock and roll band split up. Dennis was a lead vocalist, and he also played keyboards and guitars, while seven of his high school friends in Hays, Kansas provided a variety of other instrumental background for a hip rock-and-roll group called the Fabulous Flippers, which was known in a 10-state area of the American Midwest. Although the group was successful for several years, it ultimately went through some evolutions and eventually disbanded after 1972. Nevertheless, the fellowship and notoriety of the Flippers stuck with Dennis and the others, so that they performed again as recently as 2011, with Dennis revising his role as lead vocalist (see one link below). It’s evident that they must have really loved what they had experienced together. In the time between their breakup and reunion, Dennis expounded on another love, the ‘boundless’ one that had his attention in 1979. Though what moved Dennis to write and sing about this Divine love is unknown, some elements of his rock-and-roll beginnings lingered on the album called Profile, in which nine other songs are included. The album was described as being in the Folk Rock/Soft rock style when it was released in 1979. Dennis mentions a couple of themes in ‘Boundless Love’ that give us clues about his frame of mind. He was a confessing struggler, mentioning being ‘weary’, ‘fall(ing) down’, and going ‘astray’ (v.1); and, he felt at times like his world was crumbling, ‘fall(ing) all around’ (v.2). Prayer (vv.1 and 2) was Dennis’ refuge, the place where he could find ‘Him’. Loewen is not shy about admitting that he didn’t ‘understand’ everything about God (v.2), and perhaps that is part of the secret draw of discovering God – finding Him to be bottomless, ‘boundless’ as Dennis reiterates throughout, with His gift of love. Friends in a band may separate after a mountaintop experience that lasts a few years, but the relationship with God never has to reach a parting of the ways.  

 

Dennis would probably admit he loved making music with his Fabulous Flipper mates; perhaps that was part of why he was extolling God for ‘my life’ and ‘select(ing) me’ (chorus of ‘Boundless Love’). Indeed, one of the things in Dennis’ life that is apparent is the long-lasting nature of his friendships with those bandmates from his youth and early adult years, including a time in 2017 when some of them gathered at the deathbed of their drummer-friend, Jerry Tamen (see link below). That’s a bittersweet moment, remembering a friendship of over 50 years that is at its end. Wouldn’t it be great if friendships didn’t have to end? In ‘Boundless Love’, it seems that Dennis had encountered such a friendship.          

 

This site provides a brief profile of the author-composer: https://www.discogs.com/artist/3090388-Dennis-Loewen

See here also for information on album on which the song appears: https://www.discogs.com/Dennis-Loewen-Profile/release/5180419

 

Here’s a version of the song by the artist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JBDi8A_zTo

 

See here for description of the band the author-composer helped form in the 1960s: https://www.pipestonestar.com/articles/rock-roll-memories-those-amazing-men-from-lawrence-the-fabulous-flippers/

 

See the reunion group of Fabulous Flippers performing here in 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGzU0d4KN0M

 

Article describing death of one of the Fabulous Flippers: https://www.hutchnews.com/fcebdfab-5599-5ced-bfaf-467efce93c9f.html