The year after Steve Taylor released his debut Christian
music ep, he released his first full length project MELTDOWN (1984, Sparrow
Records). That year during his
performance at Cornerstone Festival he fractured his ankle jumping off the
stage. More importantly, he won a Grammy
nomination for ‘Best Male Gospel Performance’ and a Dove nomination for ‘Best
Contemporary Album.’ MELTDOWN was
produced and engineered by Jonathan David Brown.
‘Guilty by Association’ is a pop song with touches of
jazz. It takes on critics of Christian
rock: “I have found a new utensil in the devil’s toolbox/And the heads are
gonna roll if Jesus rocks/It’s a worldly design/God’s music should be
divine/Try buying records like mine/Avoid temptation, guilty by
association.../If the Bible doesn’t back it/Then it seems quite clear/Perhaps
it was the devil/Who whispered in your ear.”
‘Hero’ is a memorable rock ballad.
It points to God as bigger and better than all superheroes. He never lets us down: “When the house fell
asleep/From a book I was led to a Light that I never knew/I wanna be your
Hero/And He spoke to my heart from the moment I prayed/Here’s a pattern I made
for you/I wanna be your Hero.”
‘Jenny’ is about a small town girl who falls for the wrong
guy and abandons her faith. She thinks
she can’t return. She meets a tragic
end: “On a train, stowaway/Jesus loves you still and your mama wants you
home/But oh, bridges burn/When you carry your shame and you think you can’t
return.../When they finally found her body on a cold dog day/It was in a cattle
car, buried in the hay.../In her right hand, Jenny held the Bible of her
mother/Jenny had a pistol in the other.”
‘Baby Doe’ is sparse musically. It
is about a couple whose baby is born with a defect. The courts allow them to let their child
starve to death. Steve issues a call to
action: “I bear the blame, believers are few/And what am I to do?/I share the
shame, the cradle’s below/And where is Baby Doe?”
‘Meltdown (At Madame Tussaud’s)’ is a fun, party sounding,
pop/dance tune. It is one of Steve’s
hits. The video even made it onto
MTV! The song is as relevant today as it
was when it was written. It is an
indictment of celebrity: “Celebrity status only got in the way/Had my hands in
my pockets on the Judgment Day/You can’t take it with you-there’s a fire in the
hole/Had the world by the tail, but I lost my soul/Meltdown at Madame
Tussaud’s/The queen is losing face/Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s/A national
disgrace.” ‘We Don’t Need No Color Code’
is a dancefest using gang vocals and saxophone.
It is a criticism of Bob Jones University’s anti-interracial dating
policy: “Whose translation do you read?/True believers won’t be snowed (2X)/We
don’t need no color code!”
‘Am I in Sync?’ is cutting edge musically. It may just be the best track on the
album. Singing in a lower register on
this one, Steve speaks of the foolishness of chasing after fame: “Am I in
sync?/Paint a picture on a subway train/Carve my name in a video game/Am I in
sync?/Out looking for the camera crews/Sell my soul for a second on the evening
news/Am I in sync?/Live ‘til the bubble pops/Hold my breath when the big one
drops/Am I in sync?/Immortality is what I’m buying/But I’d rather be immortal
by not dying.” ‘Meat the Press’ has a
punch to it. It takes aim at mainstream
media: “A Christian can’t get equal time/Unless he’s a looney committing a
crime/Listen up if you’ve got ears/I’m tired of condescending sneers/I’ve got a
dog who smells a fight/He still believes in wrong and right.”
‘Over my Dead Body’ uses electric guitar to good
effect. On it, Steve gets political:
“After the Nazis we were baited by the Russian bear/Our liberators wanted
Poland for a thoroughfare/Rise up my brothers, don’t despair the Iron Curtain rod/Someday
we’ll draw the strings assisted by the hand of God/I was a victim of December
1981/I took a final beating from the blunt end of a Russian gun/You made a
memory, the memory will multiply/You may kill the body but the spirit it will
never die.” ‘Sin for a Season’ has a
dark, plodding feel to it. This song
reminds us our sins will always find us out despite our excuses: “But he reaps
his harvest as his heart grows hard/No man’s gonna make a mockery of God/I’m
only human, got no other reason/Sin for a season.”
Admittedly, MELTDOWN does have some songs that sound like
B-sides. That being said, there are also
several songs here that helped secure Steve Taylor’s place as a leading pioneer
in Christian alternative music. Today’s
Christian rock is missing some of the directness of message that Steve brought
to the table. I’m rating MELTDOWN 86%.