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Photo album

In 1968, a California guitarist named Fred Caban was among the first wave of street Christians to emerge as thousands of hippies experienced the reality of Jesus Christ. As a natural outgrowth of his conversion, Caban started to share his new found faith with a number of his friends who subsequently became new converts. Combining faith with their musical talents they formed a band called Agape. The formation of the band stands as one of  the first attempts at Christian rock and roll music or Jesus music to emerge from what later became known as the Jesus People Movement. Agape was part of the outreach effort of the International Agape Ministry [I.A.M] with pastor Ron Turner in Covina Park.

Agape was aggressive with its sound and evangelistic proclamation. While other '60s activists championed various external solutions Agape spoke of an internal revolution of love. Concert performances were geared toward selling other hippie seekers of truth they had each found. A change of heart through the transforming power of Jesus Christ was the answer to the problem of man's sinful nature. 

This collection of music is important because of the bands influence over the development of Christian music. Though they encountered some hostility from the established church for playing " the devil's music " Agape remained convinced that the combination of Christ and culture could be a powerful tool of communication. The band was instrumental in paving the way for other artists to feel comfortable about their music. They are cited as being a formative influence on other Jesus Rock pioneers including Larry Norman.

This release captures the intensity of Agape's live performances as well as providing some unreleased studio tracks. The live cuts are taken from an 8-track release which was produced as a promotional item and passed around to local radio stations. Only a handful of these ultra rare 8-tracks were ever circulated. Unless other music archeologists uncover something else, this may be the sole recording capturing the raw feel of those early performances.

Richard Greenburg played bass with Agape from 1972-1974. His published book, The Intimate Army, will soon be available on Hidden Vision. Keep checking back.

E-mail:
Fred Caban
Lonnie Campbell [Bissell]
Agape's first bassist
1968 - 1970

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