Girder Music has recently remastered and re-released classic Christian rockers DeGarmo & Key’s first three studio albums: 1978’s It’s Time to Thrive, 1979’s Just Keep On, and 1980’s This Ain’t Hollywood. There was an era when musicians released new albums every year. But I digress. I digress. Each disc is an improvement in sound quality. They have more depth and crispness to them than the previous releases. Their emergence provides a welcome opportunity to detail DeGarmo & Key’s history and state why they still matter today, some 27 years after their last album came out.
Eddie DeGarmo and Dana Key were childhood friends who first discovered rock’n’roll, DeGarmo playing keyboards and Key playing guitar, and then found Jesus. They released their debut album, devoted to Christian music at that time. It’s Time to ThriveMusic was the only way to feed starving Christians. It was the music that would make them happy for forty years. Leaning toward the progressive side of arena rock, DeGarmo & Key were Styx without the silliness. Key’s soulful vocals, intertwined with his powerhouse guitar and DeGarmo’s deft keyboard work, was something to behold, immediately winning the band a small but devoted following.
The band’s sophomore album Just Keep OnThe sound was wonderful. It had a more spacious sound than any other. It’s Time to ThriveThe songwriting became more confident and direct. It was an album Christian music fans could listen to for their friend, without worrying about immediate wrinkles. The Christian music industry didn’t like it.
1980’s This Ain’t HollywoodIt was quite a change from the other records. Songs became more concise and the arrangements were more mainstream/pop. It was easier to focus on the words. This Ain’t HollywoodIt was safe enough to be nominated as the first ever Christian-rock record for a Grammy. It was defeated by The Imperials.
After an excellent live album released in 1982, DeGarmo & Key returned the following year with Mission of MercyIt was. It was the mainstream tendencies of This Ain’t HollywoodTo the point of selling prog and mainstream music for pop/rock. Although the band’s original fan base was dismayed, the new direction, which was necessary to continue making music while providing such luxuries as food and shelter, worked. Christian radio eagerly latched onto anthems such as “All The Losers Win” and “Let The Whole World Sing.” 1984 saw CommunicationKeep going in that same direction. Oddly enough, one of the album’s few rock tracks, “Six, Six, Six,” was the major hit and even briefly received airtime on MTV before it pulled the plug, claiming the video was too violent. It is true.
DeGarmo & Key next went for a somewhat new wave-ish sound on their next album, Commandant Sozo, The Charge of the Light Brigade, then to the delight of original fans, went into muscular arena rock mode on the following year’s Street Light. This time, the video from the album didn’t get banned by MTV.
They continued on this route for five more studio albums as well as one live recording before finally calling it quits around the middle of the 1990s. While Key was a pastor, DeGarmo continued to be involved in the music business. Key, who suffered from ruptured blood clots, died tragically in 2010. Key was 56 years old.
What made DeGarmo & Key work, regardless of which phase they were in musically, was both overriding skill and, especially in the pop and arena rock phases, a fierce commitment to ministry. The band put their money where their mouth was; for example, the first run of 1987’s D&KOn cassette, special packaging contained an additional cassette of album that could be distributed as an evangelical tool. DeGarmo & Key hewed close to the fundamentals lyrically, constantly reinforcing faith’s foundational truths along with providing ample rallying cry material for young believers to use while contending earnestly for the faith. They had the chops to go toe to toe with the world, but DeGarmo & Key chose instead to follow in the steps of nail-pierced feet.
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