Cool discovery I just made

This sounds pretty cool. I like this guy's voice. Anyone else into ASFB?

Kinda sounds like The Doors to me.

They were all over the place musically. I have all of their albums, and they vary greatly. They had some pretty weird situations if you look into the band. One member was taken to a "de-programmer" because his family felt he was in a cult, which actually was not far off in the big scheme of things. Musically they were outstanding, but had some rather controversial beliefs which plagued the band as a whole.

I dig their sound. I got 2 albums by them. Original vinyls go for a hefty price.

Naz, I wasn't aware of that stuff, pretty interesting - gonna hafta read up on them.

From Mark Alan Powell's "Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music"

"One-time Assemblies of God minister Larry Hill had founded the Church of the Risen Christ (first called Harper's Field Community Bible Church) in the late '60s. It was a Chritian commune overseen by Hill and his right-hand prophetess Diane Sullivan. Initially, they focused on street witnessing to lost souls out and about in Cleveland or to students at Kent State. The musical group was used only to attract crowds. After Schwartz [Glenn] and the talented Massmanns joined, however, the emphasis changed to focus primarily on the band. The community moved to a farm near Orwell, Ohio, where everyone worked to support the band's ministry. Hill kept total control over all finances. ASFB toured extensively and was eve named the official 1971 Mardi Gras band in New Orleans, designated to play the Mayor's Ball at City Hall. Meanwhile, Larry Hill had visions of the end of the world, which he published and declared the equivalent of Scripture. He determined that when redemption came, only members of his select group would be saved and so insisted that any who left the community's 'Arc of Safety' would be damned for all eternity. The community began to stockpile weapons and to train in martial arts. Then Hill designated all women in the group to be his inner circle and sexual servants. Men were relegate to living in the barn and were periodically shipped or humiliated for various infractions. Eventually, government agencies intervened amid allegations of child abuse, and Sullivan voluntarily incriminated herself on all accounts. Hill reportedly fled the state to avoid prosecution."

WOW.... I had no idea...

I haven't noticed any of the weird stuff in their lyrics, but I haven't read them in depth either.  Are you aware of anything aberrant in their lyrics ?

The above information I posted used to be available online, but I cannot find it any longer. There is an ASFB website: http://allsavedfreakband.com/ that gives more of the bands history than just the dark hours of it written about in Powell's article. The legitimate members of the band are still affiliated with the website, but Larry Hill is not affiliated with the band at all, and has not been since the early 70's.

Here is the information about Glen Schwartz that I referred to, taken from a Wikipedia article:

In February 1975, after lead guitarist Glenn Schwartz's family grew concerned about the deteriorating social conditions at the church's communal farm, they had him kidnapped for an intense, three day "deprogramming" effort by famed cult deprogrammer, Ted Patrick.^[8][9] The attempt was unsuccessful and the Band issued their third album, Brainwashed in, as what one ex-member termed, "a cynical response" to critics of the band's lifestyle. Brainwashed is listed as album #4 on the "Top 50 Collectible Jesus Music Albums of all Time," compiled by contemporary Church historian, David DiSabatino.^[10] "This is a tough band to figure out. With some of the best Christian 70s rock by anyone anywhere their music is stunningly powerful with a dark, creeping psychrock menace achieved via songwriting and guitar/organ arrangements that spell big league all the way. If "For Christians, Elves & Lovers" is the mellower side of ASFB, "Brainwashed" is the flip side of the coin. This album is non-stop sizzling stuff with plenty of heavy organ, harmonica and, of course, Glenn Schwartz's searing guitar fireworks. This is an incredible album folks. So much variety here, too - it never gets boring." ^[11]

G/F, I never noticed much in the way of faulty theology or anything in their lyrics really, but there was some stuff in their last two albums that did seem as if they were lashing out at those who didn't believe their way. I think Brainwashed is predominately a reaction to the Glenn Schwartz incident as described in the articles. Otherwise, I never noticed anything much.

Very cool. Thanks for the info bro !

Is it just me or do all these religious extremists have 3 things in common: sexual slaves, everyone else is damned to Hell and visions of the end of the world.  Think about it.  That Mormon pastor who went to prison a year or so ago said the same garbage, Jim Jones, David Koresh, etc.  When is a cult leader going to get creative?

ishmael81 wrote:

Is it just me or do all these religious extremists have 3 things in common: sexual slaves, everyone else is damned to Hell and visions of the end of the world.  Think about it.  That Mormon pastor who went to prison a year or so ago said the same garbage, Jim Jones, David Koresh, etc.  When is a cult leader Satan going to get creative?

Pardon the correction

I've often wondered 2 things in life:

One, why do people KEEP getting sucked into these cults and KEEP following freaks (even after ALL the examples that have been given over the years)?

Two, when are people going to realize that they can't kill someone and get away with it ? (my wife always watches these forensic shows and murderers ALWAYS get caught, even if it's 40 years later)

Those are my 2 questions to mankind (and womankind)