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"Larry
Norman,
the All Saved
Freak Band and the
Resurrection Band
were three of the
most important of the early Jesus Music
bands. All three were closely associated
with the Jesus Movement, a movement among
young people, many ex-hippies and ex-drug
users turning to Jesus Christ for salvation,
and ministering through street-level
ministries such as coffee houses and
outreach ministries in the inner city."
[Conservapedia]
"There
is an extraordinary urgency to the All Saved
Freak Band. At a time when the growing
industry of CCM was making its saccharine
pact with the pop devil their music crackled
with apocalyptic power and the desire to use
the rock song as a vehicle of total
transformation. Though it may be hard to
square the All Saved Freak Band with the
slick, suburban profile of CCM, they remain
formative figures in the genre, with their
messianic intensity providing the essential
rock 'n' roll element of
risk."
[Erik
Davis,
Slate
Magazine]
"One of the most fascinating,
and controversial, aggregations in the whole
development of Christian music. The All
Saved Freak Band were a pivotal group as the
Church sought to come to terms with the '60s
and '70s musical culture to develop Jesus
music." "....an unexpected and ongoing
musical legacy." [All
Saved Freak Band: Jesus Music Pioneers,
Cross
Rhythms U.K.,
Tony Cummings]
"One joy is
the fact that they wrote songs that were simple
in their message...songs that would stop people
in their tracks and make them respond to the
Gospel...an art that seems to be missing in
modern Christian music." [Mike
Rimmer,
Cross Rhythms U.K]
"Truth be told, Jesus music was
best served weird and the All Saved Freak Band
had this down to a science. It was surprisingly
good —part folk, part garage, part psychedelic,
part blues and part who-knows-what." [Rachel
Khong,
Yale Herald]
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Welcome
to the online archive of the All Saved Freak Band®,
accidental pioneers, born of the
Jesus Movement and present at the birth of
contemporary Christian music. The bi-product of an era,
the group's history began in 1968 when co-founders Larry
Hill and
Joe Markko broadcast their first songs over
WREO radio in Ashtabula, Ohio. Over a span of 11
years, ASFB recorded four albums now recognized as
classic examples of the earliest "Jesus" music. Prior to
global news, instant communications or the Internet the
band was unaware that anyone else was recording, what
would later be called, Contemporary Christian
Music
until they heard Larry Norman's first album in 1969. In
fact, the liner notes from ASFB's first album,
My Poor Generation, read:
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"In the
beginning, God gave music.
Joe Markko was a
drug user fresh out of the street and Larry
Hill was a Pastor of a church made up of
social outcasts, former dopers, hustlers,
revolutionaries, outlaws, etc. Both had put
their former association with rock music
completely out of their lives for a walk
with God. For one, it had been fourteen
years; for the other, three months. And then
the Word was revealed and a new kind of
music was being created. The first
Jesus-rock group in the nation was born, the
All Saved Freak Band." |
Though history
calls that last statement into question it was,
at the time, the nearest thing to truth band
members knew. Independently recorded and
produced, the music of ASFB was
played on hundreds of radio stations in 14
different countries by the time they disbanded at
the end of 1979. Now residing in Ohio, Georgia, Tennessee and
Arizona, former members remain active in their
local churches and continue their spiritual
journeys in Christ.
We encourage you to spend some
time with our
Jesus Music Timeline. Attempting to examine the
first several years of Jesus Music's initial impulse, we've
compiled, by year, a list of musicians/ministers
generally considered formative to the genre of Contemporary
Christian Music. With YouTube videos and samples of their music,
we believe our suggested
Timeline can provide a rich experience for students of the
Jesus Movement and Jesus Music in particular. While it
will likely take several hours to finish the
entire Timeline we trust it will prove time
well spent.
Finally, we suggest that, if
Larry Norman
is the "father" of Contemporary
Christian Music then the All Saved
Freak Band are its dysfunctional aunts and
uncles, the kind people prefer to keep locked in
their rooms. Brothers of Misfortune, three band
members lost their lives in their attempt to
forward the long Unaccepted Message in a then
unacceptable medium. This site remembers those
pioneers and casualties of Contemporary Christian
Music who mortgaged their futures in their
attempt to change the world, one person at a
time. "Take
what you've got and do with it what you
can, cause the Good God in Heaven needs a
sower in the land."
[asfb:Sower,1980]
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