Back When Christian Music Still Was

May 15, 2009 in album reviews, artists by jakestimp | 11 comments

One of the most frustrating things about “Christian music” today is that it is neither very Christian nor very musical.  Once in a while, you’ll get a group that exemplifies one aspect or the other, but it’s so rare to find people who are devoted to the music and passionate about God.  It seems you usually will get people who make cookie-cutter music that appeases the masses in Christianity, which means the music is not very cutting edge and the lyrics are toned down and “inspirational.”

Once in a while, you’ll get a Derek Webb type who speaks as a prophetic voice to the church, and that’s at least a step in the right direction.  Or you’ll get a mewithoutYou that is pushing the envelope in terms of musical originality.  Or a Danielson Famile who seems to be able to remain radical for God and artistically creative at the same time.

But, and I recognize this is a bold statement, the majority of music, independent or mainstream, made by Christians lacks musical originality and lyrical conviction.  There’s no call to repentance, no zeal for the lost, no radical message of truth, no rallying cry to get out there in the world and help people.  It’s all fluff.  Fluff lyrics and fluff music.

Where’s all the negativity coming from?  A friend of mine, Jack, just walked into my office at church and handed me a CD, Frisbee: the Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher.  Blame him.

Jack was a burned-out hippie drug addict back in the 60s.  Then he came into contact with Jesus and his life was forever changed.  Jesus transformed this burned-out hippie into a radical man of God who trained new Christians to live for God during the Jesus People Movement of the 70s.  Jack played saxophone and harmonica with Jesus-rock groups that raomed the Milwaukee area and beyond.  They played in coffeehouses, clubs, bars, parks, street corners, wherever there were people listening…  They gave away their music for free.  And they witnessed to the lost hippies who were searching for revelations of truth in The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan.

So Jack just handed me this CD with a look of excitement and told me, “I brought you a CD.  You wanna listen to it?”  I know Jack, and if he has a CD for me to listen to, the answer is obvious.  I put it in, rip the tracks (don’t tell the cops), and we sit back and listen.

From the opening track (”Sower” by the All Saved Freak Band) to the end, I was amazed.  Some of the songs seem corny by today’s tastes in music, but as I placed myself back in the early 1970s, I could hear the raw sounds of cutting edge music being created.  OK, I’ll admit I’m exaggerating a little - some of the songs on the album are amazing, some are really good, and some are just fine.

I don’t want to turn this into a whole album review, but you should definitely pick it up.  It’s a great collection of Christian music from the late 60s and early 70s that has been all but deleted from our music histories.  You can barely find anything about Agape on-line, and some of these other bands have only a few comments here and there about them.

Like I was saying, though, this isn’t an album review.  Maybe someday I’ll give an official review and some artist bios for these guys, but today, I just want you to listen to some songs that, for their time, really were radical in their music and their message.  You’d never hear stuff like this on Christian radio anymore.  Too harsh.  Too convicting.  Too radical.  Too zealous.  Too uncomfortable.

I hope you like the MP3s I’ve got below.  These were my two favorites from the album (tracks 1 and 2 oddly enough).  The music is great, truly something more than copying what was already being done, and the lyrics leave no room for doubting the authenticity of the message.

I don’t wanna sound like one of those old guys who just talks about how it used to be and never notices the new thing God is doing, but doesn’t it seem like we need to get back to this sort of stuff, at least to some degree?

Well, here’s your MP3s, then go and get the whole album, which is the soundtrack for the documentary of the same name:

Agape - “Wouldn’t It Be A Drag?” - Download or Stream
All Saved Freak Band - “Sower” - Download or Stream

Website: www.lonniefrisbee.com

Get the CD or DVD from the Frisbee Store

Note: All MP3s will be removed after two weeks

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  1. Justin’s avatar

    Justin on May 15, 2009 at 8:23 pm

    Hi. You posted the wrong links there, I believe.

    Excited to hear this stuff!

  2. Adam Godfrey’s avatar

    Adam Godfrey on May 15, 2009 at 9:21 pm

    How will we know when the links are fixed?

  3. terry’s avatar

    terry on May 15, 2009 at 10:29 pm

    yeah for some reasin both links go to mewithout you songs…

  4. jakestimp’s avatar

    jakestimp on May 16, 2009 at 11:57 am

    Oh, crap. I copied the wrong links in there. Should work now.

  6. Steve’s avatar

    Steve on May 18, 2009 at 9:55 am

    I played in a band a few times with former “Jesus freak” who introduced me to a lot of 70’s Jesus music. Some of it was very dated in sound, but I could pick up on an urgency in the lyrics and music that is missing from many of today’s soft and easy favorites. My local “Christian” radio stations advertises that it is “safe”. Seems like the Christian station ought to be most definitely “un-safe”

  7. jakestimp’s avatar

    jakestimp on May 18, 2009 at 11:28 am

    Yeah, slogans like “Life 101.5 - Safe for the whole family” don’t really inspire me to become a missionary in Mozambique, give my life to preach the gospel in Muslim nations, street preach to college students, or even talk to my neighbor about God.

    Christianity safe? Hardly. You’ll get mocked, criticized, rejected, and maybe even martyred… if you really go for it.

  8. Julia’s avatar

    Julia on May 19, 2009 at 9:04 am

    hahahaha - save? this could only be an American slogan! hahahahahahaha!

  9. Julia’s avatar

    Julia on May 19, 2009 at 9:43 am

    sorry - not to mock American “Christian culture” -but in Germany you could never catch anyone to listen to your station with such foolishness! hihi, an *up to date* example of pharisees. But I don’t know what is worse, comfortable “save” Christian sub culture, or living in a country were far fewer people consider themselves Christian, and even fewer a Christian following Christ ( you know, atheists, muslims, and then Christian tagged ppl [who were "raised" Christian or are a member of a church on paper but never talk to God] and theeeeeeen maybe 5% Christian?) Who knows. As much as one can mock ghetto Christian life as I have witnessed it in California - I’d rather know more are willing to believe…but then again, maybe not, it led to a lot of evil with good intentions..o man. What about the “AfroAmerican” Christian sub culture? Sometimes it comes across as more real and less pretentious (taking away African TV preachers) Can someone please explain why the 2 seldom seem to mix in the States, and why they even have their own magazines and websites and stuff, and don’t mix even at church? What is wrong with the people?

  10. Jake’s avatar

    Jake on May 19, 2009 at 10:18 am

    Regarding your statement “not to mock American ‘Christian culture’”… Don’t worry, we deserve the mocking. … Though most Americans would call themselves “Christian,” and most attend church on occasion, I’ve read a lot of surveys that show only about 4% are really born-again followers of Jesus. I don’t know, but I’d almost rather have the other 96% be crazed pagan Muslims rather than just semi-Christian church-goers who say they’re Christian but don’t even know God. At least then there’s a clear line between Christian and not Christian.

  11. Julia’s avatar

    Julia on May 19, 2009 at 1:57 pm

    but is there - ever? When does “being a Christian” stop? When you don’t live what you believe? When you no longer try? When you ignore God and live in complete, utter sin/distance from him, constantly?
    It’s so weird, sometimes I think God is so complex, and yet he made us believe in simplicity, for it’s best. Like, whenever I hear the news - God sending his son for us to be saved - it sounds like crap. And I get reminded of how “The message of the cross is sheer folly to those on the way to destruction, but to us, who are on the way to salvation, it is the power of God”. It seems like - God wants for things to not make sense, so we entrust our understanding to him - for then we’ll see. I still have no answer to why a guy bleeding to death on a cursed wood is of powerful action, not when I look with my blind eyes and hear with my limited logic. But God wants me to +believe+ and recognize people as his real hands and feet by the love they have for each other. And I did, so here I am about 10 years later, and still not having answers enough to satisfy my logic. Also not to when and why someone is a tagged Christian and when radical. Because sometimes I wonder why I am so radical in certain points of view, and why some Christians consider me rebellious when I speak the word of God, and I don’t wanna give easy answers to myself, that it is for we will be persecuted for his name’s sake, and because they feel discomforted. But sometimes- it’s very tiring to be the whetting stone that doesn’t stop raising questions when things went wrong ( my church split into 2 in the end, sad, very sad, but I am no better, I go nowhere at the moment, because I don’t wanna go to the old one nor to the new one, so how good is that??) Anyways -my point- it can all be dragging down, the entire music industry, however fake it seems for us to be- churches who see things black and white that don’t have to be limited to a box with 2 lables…to me here, from Europe, it’s just as weird to vote for someone to be president and then not raise question or think about what it must feel like for an Iraqi guy to be “touched” by the hands of a God against all evil- meaning no more order in his country, and his friends getting raped and killed on the streets by other iraqi men gone crazy…what I mean is - things aren’t black and white, and we will never find easy answers. I yearn for things to be examined thoroughly -but at the end there is God, and he is the Judge, who knows and will give peace. Let’s be inspired, become or remain salt ourselves, and leave the rest with God, it surely is “save” with him :) hehe

    Sorry, wow, so long, preachy at the end, I could have just emailed this reply, couldn’t I…
    Have a good day everyone, may my 2 coins thrown in bless, in some way, to just get this tight, direct connection to God stronger and stronger, you guys on here probably rock, your music taste surely does :D
    couldn’t we maybe have a virtual bible study of some sort? Or a chat bout things you think? Could be so cool *dream* *dream*
    (oh, and I am not 100% against Bush/his area, I just mean - I am German and so people still associate my nationality with war crimes, and although Bush has not done something that bad, he lied, and so people here often take the wrong conclusions and think all of American Christianity is like that, when we forget that we all make horrible mistakes at times, and are all capable of depths and widths of sinning that don’t exactly reflect the love of God in us- but we shine, he made us shine, so let’s hold onto that, seek him, so we will shine even brighter ( not think we will shine brighter with our own actions) and surely we will be able to live a faithful live to Him. Sooo preachy, sooo :/
    ok, now, ciao ciao.