Monday Music: Backslidin' Blues (Petra)

The early 1970s saw the emergence of "Jesus Music," so named in large part due to its connection with the "Jesus Movement" that came to prominence on the West Coast during those heady and reactionary times. 

Jubillation! was a  1975 Myrrh Records sampler with some of the best Jesus Music of that time. It included such artists as Barry McGuire, Love Song, Ken Medema, Evie, Honeytree, Larry Norman, and The Second Chapter of Acts.

One of the stand-out tracks on that album was "Backslidin' Blues" by Petra. Petra was more rock and less "mainline Church" compared to the others, and as it turned out, the group had more staying power. They continued to record until 2006.

 

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As the Ruin Falls (Phil Keaggy)

C.S. Lewis's poem, "As the Ruin Falls," was set to music back in the 1970's by guitarist Phil Keaggy who was a huge talent in the field of contemporary Christian music that was just emerging at that time. Lewis's words gave more depth than was typically found in the Contemprary Christian music genre. Scroll down to see the lyrics. If you really want the full depth of Lewis's poem, read his novel Till We Have Faces. This song, in addition to being effective poetry, is a good meditation for Holy Week.

As the Ruin Falls

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.

I never had a selfless thought since I was born.

I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:

I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,

I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:

I talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--

But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.

I see the chasm. And everything you are was making

My heart into a bridge by which I might get back

From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains

You give me are more precious than all other gains.

                                                    ~ Clive Staples Lewis

                                              

                      


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Monday Music: Andraé Crouch (I'll Still Love You)

[This post also appeared on The Music of the Spheres]

Last week we lost a pioneer in Contemporary Christian Music and a legendary Gospel artist when Andraé Crouch died at the age of 72. I'll never forget the morning at breakfast in my college cafeteria when one of my classmates mentioned a new album by Andraé Crouch and the Disciples, Take Me Back. "Finally!" he said, "Christian music is as good as anything you can hear on the radio!"

Andraé Crouch was a crossover artist in many ways. Virtually the only African American on the "Jesus Music" scene in the 1970s, he was recognized as one of the best in the field of what became known as Contemporary Christian music. He was schooled in "Black Gospel" growing up in The Church of God in Christ (which has produced many talented black musicians). Crouch became a Grammy award winner and a mainstay in the music industry, doing music for television and movies, and working with many of the luminaries in the business.

Here is the opening track from Take Me Back, released in 1975, "I'll Still Love You."

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