1986

Fallen Splendor – Jeff Johnson

Rick France 1986, Ambient Rock, Prog Rock ,
Fallen Splendor
Jeff Johnson

Jeff Johnson is a category unto himself. He has moments where he falls into the progressive rock category. Then his instrumental albums are often dubbed as “New Age”, yet he was doing that style years before “New Age” was even a term. At other times you could say he is a fantastic jazz artist and yet he puts out some wonderful music for times of personal worship and meditation. He has been labeled as “Intelligent Pop” as well but some of my favorite music would be his Celtic works with Brian Dunning and Stephen Lawhead. With over 40 albums to his credit, and I own almost every single one of them, the listener of his music is constantly being given something new to immerse themselves into.

In 1986 I had been a Christian for not quite a full year and I was not listening to any secular music at that time, for I was discovering this new world of Christian music that was suddenly coming into its own as an industry with artists and albums that were as good, if not better, than the secular world of that time period. Yet there was one empty hole in my musical world – I was not finding any artists that were shall we say, very heady.

One day I walked into The Christian Armory on Lawrenceville Hwy. As usual, everyone was nicely groomed and in a shirt and tie like they had come right out of the “Christian Cloning Machine” in back and here I was walking in with my hair halfway down my back, purple lens glasses, jeans and a t-shirt. I approached one of the employees and asked him, “Do you have any – any – deep music?” He said, “What?” “You know – any really, really deeeeeep music?” He sort of cracked a smile at me and asked, “What exactly do you mean?”

This was harder than I thought. How do you ask this straight laced guy you want some Christian music that sounds like the stuff that many listen to when they are in an alternate state of mind? So I lowered my glasses and looked him straight in the eyes and said, “You know, Jesus is for the heart, the soul – and the head?” Now he was smiling really big and he leaned closer and in a low voice he handed me a cassette of “Fallen Splendor” and said, “You mean like Pink Floyd? You can listen right over there”. So I put the headphones on and popped in the tape and it was queued somewhere in the last 2 minutes of the song “Old Germany”. There was this squeak going thru my head with this constant booming from the depths of Moria. A fretless bass was groaning out a melody in the background while this musical tapestry was weaving in and out. I thought I had died and gone to heaven!

Thirty seconds of one song is all it took and I walked out of there with two Jeff Johnson albums – “Fallen Splendor” and “Icons”. Within a month I had purchased his entire repertoire to date, spoken to Jeff Johnson several times on the phone (a story for another day) and they knew me by name at The Christian Armory. That employee would have tapes set aside for me when I came in that he thought I just might be interested in. As I grew as a Christian, so did Jeff Johnson as an artist. Like I said, he never stuck to one style of music and while something like “Fallen Splendor” might not be for the Ruth Graham’s of the world, other stuff must have been because she asked him to arrange and record her favorite hymns for meditation which became his CD entitled “A Quiet Knowing: Canticles for the Heart”. I’ve played his instrumental CD’s during communion at church or prior to and after service and someone will always ask “who is that and where can I get it”.

To this day “Fallen Splendor” is one of my favorite albums. I listen to it frequently and I honestly think I am discovering something new to my ears on this album every time I listen to it. It has so many layers of interesting and creative art woven throughout. The delicate cymbal work of “Wind and Water” and all the clockwork woven into “Time Waits For You”. The album is magnificent and yet he has so much more in other albums that it would be very difficult for me to label this one as his best. One of his best but Jeff Johnson has so much to offer I could never settle on a single album. Let’s just say as I listen to it right now, it is my favorite at this moment in time.

Jeff Johnson reminds me that we are all God’s magnificent creation. We are His masterpiece. Yet without the reality of God in our lives; in our schools; in our country; in our world; well, we see the results of trying to rule ourselves without God in the headlines every day. Society continues “Looking For God Using A Spotlight” when all along He is right here in front of each and every one of us. Thankfully by faith, I am no longer a Fallen Splendor.

Rick E. France

 

Unfortunately, I could not find “Old Germany” on you tube which is why I went with “Looking For God”.

No Glasses Needed – In 3-D

Rick France 1986, Alternative, Prog Rock , ,
In Another Land Larry Norman
No Glasses Needed
In 3-D

It’s obvious that I have not been very loyal to working on this blog. After all, it has been almost three years since the last entry and even that one was only the second entry I had ever made. I can’t guarantee that I will improve on this, but at least I know that improvement is needed and I’m going to make an attempt at it.

For the past several weeks, thanks to a gentleman on Facebook who I guess should remain nameless since I have never met him – we shall just call him Jeff Parker because, that’s his name. Thanks to Jeff, I have been listening to an album I thought had been long lost since it has never been released on CD. This was one of my favorite albums in the 80’s by a band named In 3-D and the album was “No Glasses Needed.” Released in 1985 just before I became a Christian, it was one of the first albums I purchased after my conversion.

In those early months, I was hanging out at the Christian Armory in Atlanta, GA on a regular basis. Mainly because if it was available – the Armory usually had it in stock. “No Glasses Needed” was suggested to me by one of the music department employee’s and after listening to the demo I purchased the LP on the spot. In 1985, very few Christian albums were being released on CD thanks to the industry being reluctant to change after being burned so bad with an overstock of 8-tracks in the late 70’s. So the only choice at that time was to either purchase a cassette or an LP. I chose LP’s because you could easily record them to cassette and usually at a higher quality than the ones you could purchase.

Any ways, this album became a staple in my car. Heavily influenced by the Police with a little bit of Floyd thrown in here and there with some very tasteful guitar work. It was perfect for my newly found faith in helping me to let go of my past life. However the main memory I have of this album happened a year later. Fast forward to sometime in 1986 where I was working as the Youth Pastor at Decatur Wesleyan Church where Jack Vandiver, the associate pastor, had taken me under his wing and leading me through discipleship.

I started the youth group at Decatur Wesleyan with only two teenage girls attending the church at the time, but it quickly grew to over 30 kids in just a matter of months. One of those kids was a twelve year old named Michael. Michael’s mom and dad did not go to church, but his mom liked the fact that Michael had taken interest in something that she saw as a positive influence. I would swing by his house every Sunday morning and evening on my way to church and Michael would grab the “No Glasses Needed” cassette and pop it in every single time. He couldn’t carry a tune to save his life, but he knew every word to every song and we would sing and talk week after week.

I believe Michael was the first person that I was blessed to lead to Christ. If he wasn’t the first, he was the first one that I remember and just like me, he was on fire right out of the chute. He loved Jesus; he loved his new found faith and he wanted to be at church every time the doors were open. When I started my first discipleship group, he was in it and he was like a sponge. But no matter what the event was, if there was a cassette player involved, at some point In 3-D’s “No Glasses Needed” was going in.

I remember one time his parent’s asked me to drop by their house. They told me that Michael was not doing very well at school and they had tried everything they could think of to motivate him to bring his grades up but nothing seemed to work. They had decided that the one thing he seemed to enjoy the most was church. They had made the decision to ground him from church until he brought his grades up, and they would let me know when, and in my mind if ever, I could pick him up again. They asked that I not contact him during this time. I left that day thinking I would not ever get to see him again, but the youth at my church evidently had more faith than me. They would pray for him every week, even when I forgot to mention him. Some of them, I later found out, were actually helping him study at school and after a couple of month’s I got the call from his parent’s that I never thought I would get.

A couple of the teens asked if they could ride with me when I went to pick Michael up for that first youth meeting after the grounding. I remember knocking on his door and the smile on his face as we returned to my car. When I started the car up, one of the guys had already put this tape in and the singing began right off the bat, “He’s Livin’ In The Real World! Livin’ In The Real World! He Can See, It’s Right In Front Of His Eyes!”

As I listen today, I can see Michael’s face as well as that smile of his that seemed to never quit. The memories of the joy in that car on that one day are so real right now that it’s hard for me to believe that it was over thirty years ago. I have no idea where Michael is today. I don’t know what he grew up to do in life. I don’t know if he has a wife and kids but I truly believe that he has kept the faith; that he continued the course; that he will finish the race. From time to time I continue to lift his name in prayer before the throne. I have spoken of  his story to others as an example of dedication and accomplishment. And I know that someday we will meet again and we are going to walk those streets of gold together and we are going to sing, maybe even on key for a change. Most of all, we will see our Savior face to face in all His glory, No Glasses Needed!

Rick E. France