Liang Music recently Remake and repost The first three studio albums of the classic Christian rock singer DeGarmo & Key: 1978 Pass this time, 1979 Directly on, And the 1980s This is not hollywoodYes, guys, there was a time when music artists would release a new album every year. But I digress. Each of the three records has a significant improvement in sound quality, with more depth and clarity than the original version. Their appearance provided a great opportunity to introduce the history of DeGarmo & Key in detail and explain why they are still important today, about 27 years after their last album was released.
Eddie DeGarmo and Dana Key were childhood friends. They first discovered rock music, DeGarmo played the keyboard, Key played the guitar, and then found Jesus.Dedicated to the little-known world of Christian rock at the time, their first album Pass this time It is the music manna for hungry young Christians. They seem to be destined to spend 40 years wandering in soft pop and syrup in 99.44% of the Christian music at the time. Leaning on the progressive side of arena rock, DeGarmo and Key are no stupid Styx. Key’s affectionate singing, intertwined with his powerful guitar and DeGarmo’s dexterous keyboard works, is eye-catching and immediately won the band a small but loyal following.
The band’s second album Directly on It is a kind of enjoyment.The sound is more spacious than on Pass this time, And song writing has become more direct and confident. This is an album that Christian rock fans can play for their unsaved friends without worrying about frowning immediately. Naturally, the Christian music industry ignored it.
1980s This is not hollywood It runs counter to the previous two records. Songs become more compact, arrangement is more direct, mainstream rock/pop. The lyrics have also become more compact and focused. This is not hollywood Safe enough to make it the first Christian rock record ever to be nominated for Grammy. It lost to the Empire team.
After releasing an excellent live album in 1982, DeGarmo & Key Mission of Mercy. It adopts a more mainstream tendency This is not hollywood In extreme cases, avant-garde and mainstream rock are exchanged for shiny pop/rock. Despite the frustration of the band’s initial fan base, the new direction necessary to continue making music while providing luxuries such as food and shelter worked. Christian radio eagerly played national anthems such as “All losers win” and “Let the world sing”. Saw in 1984 communication Continue in the same way. Strangely, one of the few rock tracks on the album, “Six, Six, Six” is the main hit song, and even briefly played for a while before MTV went off the air, claiming that the video was too violent. Yes really.
DeGarmo & Key then tried a somewhat new wave-like sound on their next album, Commander Sozo and the charge of the light brigade, And to the delight of the original fans, he entered the muscle arena rock mode in the second year Street lampThis time, the videos in the album were not banned by MTV.
Before the end of the mid-1990s, the band continued this path, releasing five more studio albums and one live album. DeGarmo continues to work in the music industry, and Key becomes a pastor. Sadly, Key died of a ruptured blood clot in 2010. He was 56 years old at the time.
What makes DeGarmo & Key work, no matter where they are in music, is the overriding technique, especially in the pop and stage rock stage, the firm commitment to ministry.The band puts money on its lips; for example, the first run in 1987 D&K The cassette tape features a special package, which contains an additional cassette tape for an album, as an evangelical tool. DeGarmo & Key approach the fundamentals lyrically, constantly strengthening the basic truths of the faith, while providing young believers with sufficient slogan materials for young believers to use, and at the same time earnestly fighting for the faith. They have the courage to face the world, but DeGarmo & Key chose to follow the footsteps of nails.
