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"The Jesus Movement
looked to already existing forms of
communication. Alternative Christian
newspapers became popular. Dance,
drama, mime and other media were
used. And in perhaps the most
lasting development, the Jesus
movement turned to rock music.
Modern Jesus music was invented and
artists such as Agape and the All
Saved Freak Band burst on the
scene." [The Liturgical
Renewal Movement,
John W. Riggs]
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"Another development was Jesus
Music, the controversial combination
of rock music and the Gospel as one
of the most effective [and
subsequently lasting] institutions
of the revival. Artists and groups
such as
Ron Moore,
Love Song,
John Fischer,
Larry Norman,
Randy Matthews,
Agape
and
the All Saved Freak Band are
just a few of the performers that
felt the need to communicate
spiritual truths through a popular
medium."
[History
of the Jesus Movement,
David Di Sabatino]
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"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, 10/04]
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"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]
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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 with
co-founders Larry Hill and Joe Markko. 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 CCM 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
has proven the last statement inaccurate 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.
We apologize for the
quality of the photographs on this site.
Excluding current photos of former band members,
all pictures were reproduced from the Freedom
Bell newspapers published and distributed by the
band and its home church almost 40 years ago.
Now residing in Ohio, Georgia, Tennessee and
Arizona, former members remain active in their
local churches and continue their spiritual
journeys in Christ.
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"If Larry Norman
is the 'father' of Contemporary Christian Music,
then ASFB 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 victims of Contemporary Christian
Music who mortgaged their futures in their
attempt to change the world, one person at a
time. Would that our passionless age might
burn again with such selfless fires."
[JM] |
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