Christian Rock ...

[brianspencer66]

Though Im not a "Christian" per say. I had the wonderful experience of playing bass in a church near my home over the summer. Not only were the players in tune with most secular contemporary music. But it takes lots of passion to play that kind of music. Its sort of like theatre one must know when to play and when not to play. You have to know not to play to much if your playing quietly when the orator is speaking and when to rock out when his or her sermon comes to a loud crescendo. Its all about peaks and valleys and knowing how to manipulate the parishioners. My view is that one can clearly learn lots from listening to all kinds of music and not brushing a broad stroke and just saying somthing sucks.

 

[WayTooD]

This is another one of those things that is purely opinion. For me personally, I never really like christian rock, even when I was being dragged to church every week by my parents as a child. That's just me, I don't think less of people for listening to it.

 

[naughtylucy]

Back in December of 1988, I was battling the ol' demon booze and while I was at a party one night, I saw how alcohol had its grips on me. So I just silently prayed to whichever God happened to be listening that night... and the next day, I had no desire to drink! Well, it just so happened that I had a few Christian friends who were only too happy to take me under their wing and get me baptized and all that jazz. Anyway, as time went on I got disillusioned with Christianity (battles over speaking in tongues and the whole 'holier than thou' thing sickened me) so I chose to explore other philosophies and open up my mind (I still think highly of Jesus and I hope he's more than just a man-made entity used by churches to control the minds and lives of their flocks, but I found that a lot of his followers were a bit too rigid, conservative and legalistic for my liking). To make a long story short, in my Christian days, I spent time listening to some of the Christian artists that were around. I mostly listened to a lot of artists who were former hippies who made Jesus Rock in the '70s. I won't lie... a lot of Christian music sucked but to be fair, there were some songs and artists who, to this day, I fondly think of and was happy to have them in my life. Here are a few examples:
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Keith Green - "Your Love Broke Through" (1977) On July 28, 1982, Keith Green and two of his children died in a plane crash just after taking off from the airstrip located near their Last Days Ministries property in Garden Valley, Texas.
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Phil Keaggy - "Time" (1976)
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Daniel Amos - "Shadowcatcher" (1986)
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Larry Norman - "Medley" Larry Norman was with the rock band People, who had a top ten hit in 1968 with the song, "I Love You." Larry Norman died on February 24, 2008 at the age of 60.
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Russ Taff - "I Cry" (1987)
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King's X - "I'll Never Get Tired Of You" (1990)

Well, that was a blast from the past. My mum was involved in the Jesus Movement in her 20's (back in her post-hippy incarnation...I snaffled a few of her old batik skirts recently, but that's for another thread). I remember some of that music on the old record player, in a series of Vancouver area apartments, along with a smattering of CCR and the like. In fact, I was taught to ride a bike by a semi-famous Christian rock star who shall remain nameless. Goodbye, training wheels! Hello, freedom!

But yeah, I generally am unimpressed by ideologically-led art. Creativity invloves a collaboration between the subconcious and concious mind, which is why I think that music which is all about a 'message' just amounts to propaganda.

 

[chicago]

It's one thing when an artist notorious for his or her pop or rock music makes a "spiritual" or "religious" song. I love Stevie Wonder's "Jesus Children of America" but that is kind of more vague than a lot of Christian rock music. When such an artist makes this kind of song, even if it sucks, it's kind of forgiven by the masses that are used to a certain kind of music.

Real Christian rock is utterly unbearable especially for someone like me that just cannot subscribe to any of the ideals that are being preached in those songs.

And for the record, Bob Dylan's "Christian" phase is when I, and a lot of people, stopped listening.

 

[featherfingers]

It's one thing when an artist notorious for his or her pop or rock music makes a "spiritual" or "religious" song. I love Stevie Wonder's "Jesus Children of America" but that is kind of more vague than a lot of Christian rock music.

Back in the late '60s/early '70s, Jesus (and religion in general) became a hip thing for people to sing about. The Edwin Hawkins Singers sang "Oh Happy Day" in 1969. George Harrison, as mentioned before, released "My Sweet Lord," with it's alternating Hallelujah/Hare Krishna chant in 1970. Around that time Billy Preston wrote "That's The Way God Planned It," which he would sing at "The Concert For Bangladesh" in 1971. Norman Greenbaum came out with "Spirit In The Sky," with it's line that said "gotta find a friend in Jesus," in 1970. The Who's "Baba O'Reilly" (1971) was a Pete Townshend song dedicated to his spiritual master Meher Baba. The Doobie Brothers revived the old Byrds song, "Jesus Is Just Alright With Me" in 1973. With the exception of George Harrison*, most of these artists didn't write entire albums based on Jesus, Krishna or any other deity. But even the worst of the religious songs by popular artists are better than the music being produced by some of these new no-name Christian bands... or bands only known to the Christian population.

*George's "Living In The Material World," though a #1 hit album, also received poor reviews from critics who were fed up or bored, or both, with his constant preaching. Not every song on the album praised Krishna, but a good percentage of them did, either directly or indirectly.

And for the record, Bob Dylan's "Christian" phase is when I, and a lot of people, stopped listening.

"Slow Train Coming," "Saved" and "Shot Of Love" are the three least-listened-to CDs in my Bob Dylan collection ("Shot Of Love" is the least preachy of those three Christian-era Dylan CDs, though).

 

[featherfingers]

In fact, I was taught to ride a bike by a semi-famous Christian rock star who shall remain nameless. Goodbye, training wheels! Hello, freedom!

Was it Barry McGuire? Carmen? Phil Driscoll? C'mon, you can tell me.

But yeah, I generally am unimpressed by ideologically-led art. Creativity invloves a collaboration between the subconcious and concious mind, which is why I think that music which is all about a 'message' just amounts to propaganda.

That's exactly why I was kinda pissed off at some of the Christian musicians I got to know. They'd tell me, "The only music we'll play must mention Jesus by name in the lyrics." That turned me off big time. A really talented bass player even told me, "I'll teach you to play bass, but only if you use your talent to praise the Lord in song." I never took lessons from the dude. He was trying to lay his trip on me and I, for one, was not about to take it.

 

[nostradamas]

That's exactly why I was kinda pissed off at some of the Christian musicians I got to know. They'd tell me, "The only music we'll play must mention Jesus by name in the lyrics." That turned me off big time. A really talented bass player even told me, "I'll teach you to play bass, but only if you use your talent to praise the Lord in song."

I hate that shit.
I've been to more than one Christian concert (in my youth) where all of the sudden, they wanna pray. They bring people on stage, and start getting all self-righteous.
These assholes I was mixing wanted me to pray with them before their session, and believe me, their prayers went unanswered. They stunk the place up so bad I was thinking about getting a gas mask.

 

[alchemy]

I'm pretty much with Trey and Matt on this one. Christian rock is insipid. Most of it is nothing more than proselytizing to trite rock ballads. The rest of it seems to take the angle that if they play loudly enough and heavy enough, the kids will like their "message" as well.

My main problem with the entire movement is the separatist nature of it. It's like "We can't possibly listen to and enjoy regular rock music because that music is of the world and the world is inherently evil. We need our OWN rock music...then we can still listen to rock, but we wont go to hell for it."

utter nonsense.

Anyway, here's south park to illustrate:
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[featherfingers]

I'm pretty much with Trey and Matt on this one. Christian rock is insipid. Most of it is nothing more than proselytizing to trite rock ballads. The rest of it seems to take the angle that if they play loudly enough and heavy enough, the kids will like their "message" as well.

My main problem with the entire movement is the separatist nature of it. It's like "We can't possibly listen to and enjoy regular rock music because that music is of the world and the world is inherently evil. We need our OWN rock music...then we can still listen to rock, but we wont go to hell for it."

utter nonsense.

It amazes me how a lot of former rock music lovers immediately disown the music they once loved when they become Christians* (it happened to me, too, I'm sad to say, but I snapped out of the trance I was in). I remember a pastor telling the congregation, "I can no longer listen to the music of Kansas because it reminds me of the weed I used to smoke while listening to their songs." I wanted to tell the pastor, "What happened? Did Kerry Livgren force you to smoke that joint? Don't blame the band and its music for your actions."

One dude told me he played in a Christian band called Good Company, which was supposed to be a Christian version of Bad Company. There was another band that would take the great rock hits of the '70s and change the lyrics so they'd have a Christian slant. Imagine hearing the intro to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" only to find that the lyrics have been changed to appease the Christian audience. I wonder if those guys knew that what they were doing was called plagiarism.

*When I told one of those hardcore Christian musicians that established Christian artists like Phil Keaggy still listen to the Beatles and other great bands, the guy said, "He's just weak in his faith," or some drivel like that. So much for 'judge not lest ye be judged.' And yes, I know, I'm judging, too, but that kind of crap annoyed the hell out of me!

 

[drew70]

I'm totally with you, Frankie. I played in Christian Rock bands for years in the 80s. I remember one practice we were talking about Grand Funk, and the guys kind of broke into the guitar break in Closer To Home. I stood there at my keyboards amazed at how good it sounded.

Then it was like, oh shit we shouldn't be playing this secular music, God forgive us. I secretly wondered "What's the big deal? It sounded great."

This taboo against secular music is very strong in the Christian community. It's mostly based on scriptures like "Be ye in the world but not OF the world." People would take this concept to varying extremes, some insisting that literally everything you say and do must relate to the Gospel. If it didn't, that meant you were "luke warm" like the Church in Laodicea. I personally have always viewed the command to not be OF the world to mean we should draw on spiritual wisdom not on worldly understanding. I never believed in the separation of Christian and non-believer, because frankly, I don't know who believes and who doesn't. That's between them and God.

So I'll listen to Phil Keaggy AND Frank Zappa while I'm doing chores around the house. It's all good music
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[featherfingers]

I'm totally with you, Frankie. I played in Christian Rock bands for years in the 80s. I remember one practice we were talking about Grand Funk, and the guys kind of broke into the guitar break in Closer To Home. I stood there at my keyboards amazed at how good it sounded.

Then it was like, oh shit we shouldn't be playing this secular music, God forgive us. I secretly wondered "What's the big deal? It sounded great."

I guess those dudes didn't realize that Grand Funk's Mark Farner became a major force in Christian music after he left Grand Funk. He even played Grand Funk songs during his Christian concerts, from what I've heard (maybe not "T.N.U.C," though).

I knew a guy who grew up listening only to Christian music in his house. He probably didn't even know who the Beatles were or what songs they sang. That's great... for him, but I don't want some self-righteous snob to tell me what I can and can't listen to. To be fair, this dude was actually pretty nice. It's the former 'secular' rock lovers who could be major pains in the asses.

 

[drew70]

Yep. I saw Grand Funk live at Lisner Auditorium in DC in '96. They rocked all their old tunes.

And when Kansas' lead guitarist Kerry Livgren got saved, he still continued to make outstanding progressive rock. I'd recommend the 1983 album "Seeds of Change" to anybody, because it's some of the best music I've ever heard. Ronny James Dio sings many of the songs on it.
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[chicago]

Back in the late '60s/early '70s, Jesus (and religion in general) became a hip thing for people to sing about. The Edwin Hawkins Singers sang "Oh Happy Day" in 1969. George Harrison, as mentioned before, released "My Sweet Lord," with it's alternating Hallelujah/Hare Krishna chant in 1970. Around that time Billy Preston wrote "That's The Way God Planned It," which he would sing at "The Concert For Bangladesh" in 1971. Norman Greenbaum came out with "Spirit In The Sky," with it's line that said "gotta find a friend in Jesus," in 1970. The Who's "Baba O'Reilly" (1971) was a Pete Townshend song dedicated to his spiritual master Meher Baba. The Doobie Brothers revived the old Byrds song, "Jesus Is Just Alright With Me" in 1973. With the exception of George Harrison*, most of these artists didn't write entire albums based on Jesus, Krishna or any other deity. But even the worst of the religious songs by popular artists are better than the music being produced by some of these new no-name Christian bands... or bands only known to the Christian population.

*George's "Living In The Material World," though a #1 hit album, also received poor reviews from critics who were fed up or bored, or both, with his constant preaching. Not every song on the album praised Krishna, but a good percentage of them did, either directly or indirectly.



"Slow Train Coming," "Saved" and "Shot Of Love" are the three least-listened-to CDs in my Bob Dylan collection ("Shot Of Love" is the least preachy of those three Christian-era Dylan CDs, though).

Sounds good. I'm not Christian, religious, or even very spiritual, so I tend to keep away from that type of music no matter how well it sold, how hip it was to make or who did it.

That's just me.

 

[featherfingers]

Yep. I saw Grand Funk live at Lisner Auditorium in DC in '96. They rocked all their old tunes.

And when Kansas' lead guitarist Kerry Livgren got saved, he still continued to make outstanding progressive rock. I'd recommend the 1983 album "Seeds of Change" to anybody, because it's some of the best music I've ever heard. Ronny James Dio sings many of the songs on it.

I had a copy of Kerry's album, "Prime Mover," which was very Kansas-like musically. His band was called AD at the time. The band even remade the Kansas song "Portrait (He Knew)" for the project. Kerry was one of those Christians who didn't believe you had to mention the word 'Jesus' in every song in order to make Christian music. He also didn't believe you had to listen to just Christian music in order to be a 'good' Christian.

Sounds good. I'm not Christian, religious, or even very spiritual, so I tend to keep away from that type of music no matter how well it sold, how hip it was to make or who did it.

That's just me.

By keeping away from that type of music you'll never have to expose your ears to 'hip' Christian bands like this. Talk about torture:
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Vengeance Rising - "Beheaded" (1988)