Today you’re going to listen to me and watch me instead of read me. In doing research for a school report on someone at least 50 years older (that would be me; I was 52 when Chandler was born), Chandler happened upon a YouTube video taken from an interview I gave as part of a “First Love” project that explored the beginnings of Jesus music in the 1970s.
Click on “listen to me and watch me” above to view the clip. It will take you about as long as it takes to red a normal Catch. This may be about music, but the same can be said of any art or discipline, as in: The world doesn’t need a Christian marketplace, it needs Christians in the marketplace.
John Fischer The Catch 
Most Churches hated “Christian Rock” in the 70’s. I’m sure that is part of what drove me to it.
They say that if you say that you remember the 70’s then you weren’t there. We just had a different place to be and we were all sober. It was “our” music and there was a message that spoke our musical language and reached out hearts.
And yes, I heard John sing many times. And Randy Stonehill, and Phil Keaggy, and Keith Green.
One time, Phil Keaggy played in San Jose but he had lost his voice. He played for a couple hours and invited people to come up from the audience to sing.
Randy Stonehill was (and still is) a lot of fun, but some of his songs still touch me deeply. He’d get you laughing with something goofy and then hit you right in the heart.
And Keith Green’s music was so convicting and pushed me to a closer relationship with Jesus.
The thing I like about John’s music was the way he told a story that was my life, too. And it spoke to me personally.
Thanks for the memories.
But you know, there is still some of that going on now; it’s just that sometimes you have pick thru an awful lot of plastic music to find something real.
Enjoyed the video!! So true..
John, Christian music and Christians in the marketplace are not mutually exclusive. We still need Christians making music; it is how we worship God and share the Good News. And, we still need to be in the world but, not of the world because we are called to be Salt and Light to the world. We, both Christians and non-believers, need yours and others Christian music just as much as we and the world need your Salt and Light. That is the beauty of it all, we can, we must have both and we are lacking when one is sacrificed for the other. Love you John; hang in there and “Bet the Farm on God.”
John, you hit the nail on the head again in that video! We need to “be with”…
I feel the same disconnect that Tim C. feels regarding much of today’s Christian music – he calls it “plastic” – I refer to it as “pablum / oatmeal.” As a new believer, it was Christian music that challenged me to grow – to never be content with where I was – there was always a conviction that I had to continually seek deeper meaning…and then put what I discovered into play in my life; into my relationships on every level. There was always an ‘edge’ – I can’t describe it any better – I don’t feel that now. As a singer I’ve covered a lot of Christian ‘covers’ from the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s; always a song that challenged me. I want people to go away with more questions than they came with – Jesus is always the answer – but in the questions is where we live out that answer. I miss Petra (Greg Voltz), David and The Giants, Mylon LeFevre and Brokenheart, White Heart, Love Song, Michael Card, Scott Roley, and so many others. As a teen leader, I have heard the current artists, and most of the time I am not touched.