So, in the words of The Urban Sophisticates let’s “take it back like Cosby sweaters” and start with the very first Cornerstone Festival in 1984. A Chicago-based organization called Jesus People USA put on a music festival at the Lake County Fairgrounds in suburban Chicago. Resurrection Band (called REZ in the 80’s) was one of the musical outgrowths of the organization and JPUSA sought to bring together like-minded artists for a summer festival. Cornerstone was not the first Christian music festival, but it did take a little different approach than many festivals, selecting from a wider variety of artists including a growing nucleus of New Wave artists from southern California to complement some of JPUSA’s own musicians. Cornerstone’s coup in the very first year was getting Kansas guitarist Kerry Livgren, who had just left Kansas and was starting his own band. Livgren’s negotiations with his label and the festival were such that even up to the festival Cornerstone had him billed as a very special surprise artist.

One of the other artists booked for the first Cornerstone was a new musician named Steve Taylor:

Steve Taylor gained a reputation of a satirical wit where he showed no fear of attacking Christianity’s sacred cows, while drawing from such 80’s musical influences as David Bowie and The Talking Heads. Here’s a clip of his performance of his early signature song “I Want To Be A Clone” Later in this performance, Taylor decided to jump off the stage into the crowd but ended up breaking his ankle in the process. “The show must go on” and Taylor, in great pain yet unaware that he had broken his ankle, dragged himself back up on stage and finished the show hopping on one leg. The rest of his band, thinking he was starting some sort of new dance move, imitated him. Taylor finished the rest of his tour performing from an electric wheelchair which sometimes malfunctioned which Taylor recalled as “Dr. Strangelove”-like performances.

Taylor’s sharp wit would not fail. At Cornerstone Festival next year, he sold t-shirts that said “Did he fall? Or was he pushed?”

You can purchase an mp3 of “I Want To Be A Clone” from amazon.com