CProg

No, this article isn’t about C programming, but a trend that’s been emerging over the last 20 or so years.

Read more below!

Beginnings

About a year ago, an old friend of mine, Mark, was talking about how his roommate, Dave, was always listening to Kansas. I thought it was funny at the time, but now I can see why. After hearing the remark, I later decided to give Kansas a try. Kansas’ music was unlike anything I was used to. Quite complex, yet fun to listen to.

Kansas opened me up to the world of Progressive Rock. In a nutshell, prog rock (or, simply, “prog”) primarily came about in two ways: 1.) rock artists who purposefully steered rock music toward classical styles, and 2.) classically trained musicians who fell in love with rock and integrated their backgrounds into their own music. In a nutshell, prog takes the basics of rock (vocals, guitars, drums, keys, lyrical content) and adds styles that you would normally hear in classical and experimental music. Elements such as non-standard and frequently varying time signatures, lengthy songs (it is common to see 10 to 20-minute long tracks), an album-oriented format (each song tells part of a story or is part of a theme), deep/difficult-to-interpret lyrics, experimentation with new sounds, and extensive instrumental solos. The result is the best music you’ve ever heard and some of the most amazing rock musicians you’ll ever hear.

After hearing about Kansas, I looked them up on AMG, read their bio, and found that their lead guitarist, Kerry Livgren, became a Christian in 1979 while touring with La Roux (La Roux’s lead singer, Jeff Pollard, witnessed to him). There’s a nice synopsis here of Livgren’s spiritual journey, recounted in his book Seeds of Change.

After Livgren’s conversion, you can really start to see the changes in the lyrics of songs he wrote for Kansas. 1980’s Audio-Visions, 1982’s Vinyl Confessions, and a track on 1983’s Drastic Measures contain lyrics that have Christian meanings. After Audio-Visions, Steve Walsh (lead vocals) left Kansas and was replaced by John Elefante. Both Livgren and Elefante left Kansas soon after Drastic Measures. Livgren formed a full-on CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) rock band, called “AD” with Elefante as producer. While AD disbanded in 1985, Elefante went on to produce a few albums by everyone’s favorite 80’s Christian hair band, Petra.

Around the time of Audio-Visions, Livgren produced his own solo album, Seeds of Change. This album contains more evangelistic lyrics and departs from the Kansas formula. Since then, he put out several solo albums until recently reforming his pre-Kansas band, Proto-Kaw.

Something Fresh

One of Livgren’s criticisms of CCM is that there is very little originality in the genre. I heartely agree with his statement. It seems that within CCM, there are so many “sound-a-like” bands. Whenever Julie turns on the local Christian radio station, it seems like anything they play is either Jeremy Camp or a band that sounds like Jeremy Camp. Furthermore, too many times I’ve seen the “knock-off brand” of Christian bands who are modeled after popular secular bands. Your parents won’t let you listen to the Mighty Bosstones? Listen to the Supertones! Do you like the comedic punk of Blink-182? Hey, here’s Relient K! Do you like Creed and Linkin’ Park? Here’s Kutless! In fact, Jeremy Camp is basically a Christian Nickleback. **shudder**

There are a few good CCM bands out there, David Crowder, Caedmon’s Call/Derek Webb, and acoustic Jars of Clay being prime examples. However, they are rare.

What’s exciting to me, though, is the history and rise of the Christian Progressive Rock scene, or, cprog.

CProg

You see, Kerry Livgren wasn’t the only prog rocker born of the Spirit.

David Hope, the bassist for Kansas, converted after Livgren, joined him to form AD, then (according to Wikipedia) became an Anglican priest.

Rick Wakeman, famed keyboardist for Yes grew up in a baptist family. After a stint of drinking 2 bottles of brandy a day, he suffered a heart attack when he was 26 and renewed his faith.

In the late 80’s, King’s X hit the scene and became popular around the Pearl Jam era. Much of their lyrical content in the early years were spiritual, but their lead singer’s struggle with his faith has made the band a bit controversial as of late.

Lead guitarist and songwriter John Petrucci of Dream Theater is a practicing Catholic. James LaBrie, lead vocalist and, recently, Mike Portnoy are also Christians. Alot of Dream Theater’s songs draw on Christian themes and some songs, such as I Walk Beside You certainly point to Christ. They have also, notably, been outright critics of violence in the name of religion with In the Name of God and Sacrificed Sons.

One recent shakeup in the prog world came when Neal Morse of Spock’s Beard and Transatlantic became a Christian. Spock’s Beard’s album Snow features Neal’s first foray into CProg, with the album’s story of fame, despair and redemption, with an amazing praise song at the end:

And you are the wind at my back
You give what I lack
You’re the jewel in my hand
You’re like rain, you’re like rain
You’re like rain now

And my soul has been kissed
Just because you exist
You’re the gold that is free
You’re the groom on one knee…

Morse also put out an album, Testimony, which features Kerry Livgren. Recently, Morse released an album entitled “?” which describes the personal experiences of the ancient Israelites making sacrifices at the Tabernacle, and develops the theme to relate it to Christ’s ultimate sacrifice.

I am sure there are others I’m forgetting…

In addition to some prog converts, there has been a growing number of prominent CProg artists:

While considered more prog folk or inidie rock, Sufjan Stevens made a splash with his Seven Swans album. Stevens’ popularity seems to have faded now that indie rockers have realized many of his songs have Christian undertones to them.

Bands like Ajalon, Salem Hill, and Glass Hammer are proving to be some up and coming names in the genre.

So, why did I write this big article about Cprog? Well, to me, it’s exciting to finally see some quality music that actually has some relevant spiritual meaning/content. It’s frankly embarassing that since the Early Romantic period in classical music, secular artists have been the majority in creating some of the best music. We, as The Church ought to use our talents to create great music that’s pleasing to God’s ears and not meant to be a packaged product intended to be a cheap imitator of secular/pagan rock.

OK, off the soap box now.

Supporting links:

• Virtuosity
• Wikipedia