And even though their music was really good and a lot of fun to listen to, I would turn my back on them so that I could continue down the straight and the narrow. They were devoid of all honesty and truth. From my superior vantage point, secular bands had nothing to offer Christians. In fact, what they said would have the opposite effect. These bands were comprised of sinners and that meant that nothing they could say would help me in my spiritual journey. No more would I listen to the likes of Nirvana, Collective Soul, Pearl Jam, and most definitely not The Beatles. That music was causing me to sin, backslide, and abandon the faith (once again – speaking poetically). No more of that terrible secular music that was birthed in the very pits of hell.
God gave rock and roll to you license#
Through much study, prayer, and fasting (I’m using poetic license here) I decided that I would only listen to Christian music. One of the main areas of my life where I was resolute in my beliefs was in regards to the music I listened to. I knew what I believed and nothing would dissuade me from my convictions. Or at least all the answers that really mattered in my life. I’ve known a lot of people that have gone down that road. When I was in my early twenties, back in my college days, I was confident, sure of myself, and completely convinced I had all the big and important things in life figured out. )įinally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. He was actually mocking false prophets and going for a Jim Morrison vibe with that cover, for what it’s worth.(An edited version of this article originally appeared in The Brink Magazine, published by Randall House Publications. Which was too bad, as it’s a great album too. That whole album is strong, from the title song to “ Hero” to “Sin for a Season.” “ On the Fritz” from that album is also a sneaky beast of a song, as is “I Just Wanna Know.” His I Predict 1990 album cover got him accused of dabbling in Tarot because that’s the kind of thing we argued about in Baptist churches in 1989. I’ll go with “We Don’t Need No Color Code” from Meltdown (1984) because it tackled a huge issue, racism, from the Christian perspective decades ago and with a moral fire that few can match. “You save the whales, you save the seals, you save whatever’s cute and squeals, but you kill that thing that’s in the womb, would not want no baby boom.” “ Bad Rap” was in fact a bad rap that skillfully skewered the green pro-whale/anti-baby left. “ I Want to Be a Clone” tackled being a maverick in the face of conformist culture. He has put out so many songs across so many decades in so many different sounds - and under different bands, such as Sixpence None the Richer (he wrote and produced their massive hit “ Kiss Me“) and Newsboys, not to mention Chagall Guevara and Steve Taylor and the Perfect Foil - that his best is very hard to pin down (so is his worst, for whatever that’s worth). He had a knack for making words that shouldn’t rhyme live together and pretty soon he was stealing the show at Christian music festivals and being written up in Rolling Stone. Steve Taylor was a youth minister who started writing songs for his church youth group. They’re back to sporting the yellow and black and still flying with the harmonic riffs. Here’s “Do Unto Others,” which they released in 2020. Stryper, for one, broke through in that era and they’re still going strong. Some of them wrote about issues years or decades ahead of their time, some went all the way from Eagles-style country to experimental, some faded away, and some covered Led Zeppelin covering Blind Willie Johnson and are still cranking out good stuff. Some we’ve long forgotten, and nature has reclaimed them like undergrowth on a jungle temple. Some of them were interesting and creative trails that are not yet finished. Even One Bad Pig.įrom the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, a whole bunch of bands followed after the 60s Jesus Music phenomenon led by the late Larry Norman and blazed some trails.
What heavy stuff, you probably didn’t ask? Well, Steve Taylor for one. Actually, for those days I was something of a rebel, a Baptist bad boy, because I eschewed the likes of Steve Green and Sandi Patty for the heavy stuff. But it was Texas just south of Dallas in the 1980s and it was our culture. Whether I was born or born again that way we’ll never know.
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