Keith Green - So You Wanna Go Back To Egypt

Back in the early '80s I started to listen to Christian music, and the pickings were pretty slim. The number of artists I really liked I could count on one hand. Keith Green was a piano playing singer who dropped his first "Christian" album in 1977. He'd release a couple of albums with label support before being overcome with the desire to go all in on his version on ministry, to the point where he felt he couldn't charge for his his albums.

So he did the unthinkable, he put his money where his mouth was, and he made an album his way. Then said (I'm liberally paraphrasing here) "I'll send it to you if you want it. If you want to send a love offering that would be nice, but if you can't that's cool too." A couple of my friends had his earlier albums and they liked them ... I never did get them - But, I did send a my gift (can't remember how much, but it was about what I'd have paid) and sure enough a little while later the album arrived.

It was a weird time musically as Christian music came in two flavours, shitty and not quite as shitty. Neither flavour was really accepted as there were still a lot of television talking heads who were convinced that everything that had drums was of the devil and that backward masking was driving kids to play Dungeons & Dragons and if Old Scratch was really on point you would be tempted to drink beer.

Music was a gateway drug ... period. Donny Osmond lead to Neil Diamond, and Neil would lead to Black Sabbath, and Black Sabbath was contributing to the decline in the bat population in a lot of suburban neighbourhoods. It was a terrible thing - especially if you were a bat and just wanted to eat bugs and hang upside down after a long night.

Christian music is a weird genre that was never quite in step artistically or musically with what was going on. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it did lead to a lot of confusion. The still raging debate over the merits of so called CCM (contemporary Christian music) as to whether or not it is a ministry, or "Christian" music and music by Christians continues to this day. 

Here I was just getting into a genre that was mostly horribly produced and performed, but it was supposedly a joyful noise unto the Lord, and the few albums where I was genuinely moved by the music was relegated to a very small list of artists, and oddly the albums I was most into in the early '80s were steeped in the '70s. 

Along comes Keith Green, and as I'd mentioned I do not have any of his other albums, but I have heard them - a long time ago ... but I did have So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt and Mr. Green was very much firmly ensconced in the music as ministry camp - however, the vehicle to attain his goals was his music. In this regard he wasn't kidding around. He assembled the best musicians to help him realize his vision.

Just for giggles, I'll just write out the credits, because it is a wonderful list (or you can look at the picture).

• In addition to producing the album with Keith, Bill Maxwell played drums
• Bass and Guitars were by Hadley Hockensmith
• On percussion was Alex Acuna
• Harlan Rogers played organ
• Bob Dylan played harmonica on one song, so that warranted a credit.
• Ralph Carmichael arranged and conducted the strings 

Some of the names you may not be familiar with and honestly at the time the only name I recognized was Bob Dylan, and honestly where I was at the time musically, this was not a drawing card.

This is my long meanderambling way of saying this is still a crisp and sonically rich album that still sounds amazing. Now, having said how great it sounds, even back when I got this it wasn't really my jam. The piano playing singer songwriter artists weren't really my thing. Keith was a fine singer who at times reminded me of Joey Scarbury, you know the guy who sang the theme to The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not), and a young Matthew Ward from 2nd Chapter of Acts. When I bought an album I was looking for music, and the lyrics were important but I wanted to hear a hook. Of course if the lyrics sucked it could sink a song too.

Lyrically as you'd expect this was a deeply Christian album, but it wasn't heavy handed in the way so many other "Do as I say" artists came across. It was about the human condition and the search for meaning. Meaning Keith was sure to be found in Jesus. He wrote about his struggle in trying to maintain his faith and his continued journey to be more Christ like. He saved the recriminations and finger pointing for those who weren't aware of the plank sticking out of their own eyes.

Listening to this now for the first time in several decades, I was drawn to the silliness of the title track. It's as funny and quirky and just plain awesome as it was when I was in my teens. The other song I remembered was the closing track to the first side, "Lies" that was equal part rock song and how I felt at the time in my faith journey. The song moves between I and You but is a shared struggle, and Keith of course having found his answer wants to let you know as well.

But even now my doubts will open up for me a world that I just despise.
And then the shades come down, the light turn off,
And I'm left alone with my helpless cries. 

I was really pretty stoked to have found this, and while the lyric sheet was missing it wasn't an issue. While this was never one of my favourite records, it was a special record and having it again is like welcoming an old friend into my home. Keith was a rare artist who really seemed to live his life in the manner he believed would reflect his life and ministry.

He walked the walk and talked the talk and before he was thirty years old he was gone. It makes me wonder what the passage of time would have wrought with Keith had he not died in that place crash in '82.  

Regardless, it's just a passing thought, and honestly Keith's music is set in amber now, and it is as it was.