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When I was in 6th grade, my family moved to Pittsburgh PA (1983) and a christian radio station there gave two hours a week to rock music. I'm sure they did so reluctantly - they probably tucked the show away on Saturday nights so that the old ladies that listened to the station wouldn't have heart attacks. Anyway, the program had "Horrendous Disc" and the first couple of "Alarma" records in rotation. "I Love You #19" and "Hound of Heaven", though years old at the time, were leaps and bounds beyond most of the other stuff the station had in its playlist. Also getting airtime were "Central Theme", "New Car!", "Walls of Doubt", "Mall (All over the world)" ... the humor and the post-punk sound had me hooked. I was a DA fan.
As I dug into their back-catalogue, I was surprised to find that they started as a country rock band, but having listened to the Beatles growing up, there was a consistancy I recognized in their recordings and it made sense to me, even if their lyrics were sometimes a bit beyond me. That was cool though - Taylor forced me dig into his lyrics and educate myself. I feel like I got more out of those LPs than most youth group talks. As I went through high school, my youth leaders would push CCM that spoon-fed a lot of propoganda and followed trends. Meanwhile, I was trying to wrap my head around "Darn Floor Big Bite". All this to say, Terry Taylor was (and is) way ahead of his time. I may have missed out on the "touring days", but my faith has been enriched by the art of DA and Taylor.
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