Well, here’s something that was a long time coming -- a DVD compilation of our band, The 77s.  Didn’t know for sure if we’d see it in our lifetime, but danged if we don’t have two discs of group performances and video clips from nearly all the way back to their beginnings as a savage young band thrown together from scratch -- highlights, warts and all. And there are plenty of both.

In fact, this could be the only way this project could come to pass. Like some of the greatest bands in rock history like The Who or The Rolling Stones, on some nights there could be wince-inducing moments, but on many more nights, they could be transcendent, powerful. Like the old stage joke “Tonight, we’re the best band you’re seeing right now,” The 77s were often likely the best band playing anywhere that night.

Watch the DVD Trailer!

Unfortunately, unlike The Who or the Stones, entire tours weren’t professionally taped or filmed. In fact, relatively few shows were professionally captured. If ever a group was allowed to carry on for as long as this band has, it’s because of the dedication of the fans for 27 plus years in encouraging the group, staying through the various personnel changes, supportive of different musical directions.

Oh, and bootlegging them -- that too, because some of what you’re going to see on this compilation was filmed by fans. In addition to the few shows that were filmed professionally, some of the best moments presented here were filmed by the faithful. Thankfully.  So if any 7’s related project owes one to the fans, this is it.  You helped make this possible.

I’ve been sitting through hours of rough cuts of what will eventually make it on this project at this writing. As hard (but fun) as that was to do, I can only imagine what that was like for Mike to wade through.  Looking as far back as Warehouse ’82, through all the flat to exhilarating performances in these tapes (and yes, the history of Mike’s hair), I know it was hard for him, but I think it also gave him a new insight as to how good -- scratch that, how great -- this band has been.  The fact that Roe was willing to share any of this with us is something of a small miracle. But thanks, Mike!

Life With The Lions



1964

I’ve broken my left leg in a bicycle accident, and to help me pass the time at home while in a full leg cast, I’m given a batch of 45’s and a portable record player to play them with. In addition to current Beatle records, there’s also everything in there from Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole -- it’s all over the musical map, but I soak it all up as one.  It’s an education that was entirely possible in the 1960’s, before we were told we were supposed to listen to one format, or style, over the other. This eclectic approach continues throughout my life, which accounts for something of an out- of-control collection today.


1984

One day, while browsing through a favorite record store, I see the All Fall Down cover, which immediately attracts me. I’d heard Ping Pong Over The Abyss through a friend, but apart from the title track, I was not really impressed. Something moved me to pick All Fall Down up unheard, however, so I did. I played Side One three times before ever turning it over, having been blown away from the start by the musical and lyrical depth in these songs. By the time I finally heard the Comsat Angels-influenced “Another Nail” ending Side Two, I was convinced I’d heard the next great band, and one that had taken what I had experienced 20 years earlier -- assimilating various influences and styles -- and made it entirely their own. I’d found my band.

Wrote to 77s’ bassist Jan Eric with my initial reactions, and he wrote back a really nice letter thanking me essentially for “getting” what they were trying to do, and that the album was currently being returned in droves by bookstores for not being a “Christian” album. Indeed, locally the bookstore in town kept it behind the counter and you had to ask for it by name, probably in a brown paper bag.  Anyway, that correspondence started a relationship with the band and Exit Records, their record label during the 1980’s.


1987

By this time, I was sending copies of Exit Records albums out to radio, helping to promote their releases during the period when Island Records had taken over distribution for the label. When I heard the pre-release mixes of the upcoming 77s album, I knew the band had taken another leap forward, and had found a way to take the energy of the live show into the studio. Although we were excited to have Island press and distribute the album, not being signed directly to the label would prove to be a problem. This became apparent when “Can’t Get Over It” became one of the country’s most added singles at radio, but Island wasn’t shipping the album to the stores on a timely basis. As I was also a retail buyer for a large record chain, I found this frustrating. I will never forget going up the chain at Island, talking to a guy who was the head of Island retail, and voicing my complaints. His response? “They’re a Christian band, and that’s all they’re ever going to be”-- in other words, they weren’t going to bother to promote it beyond what was minimally required.

Having just put on a concert in Oregon with The 77s that was a huge success locally, promoted by myself and KZEL, the #1 AOR station in the state that went four cuts deep on the record (attended by over 400 people, the majority who were not Christians and were only exposed to the group by radio airplay), I was pretty angry with Island’s assessment and forwarded it on to Exit. The relationship between the two labels kind of spiraled downward from there.

Had the band been signed directly to a major label with their full support, there might have been a quite different outcome. If they were starting today, there might be more doors open. But that’s not how it worked out…and interestingly enough, that jerk at Island wound up being right, though perhaps not in the way he was talking about.


1999

I’m watching the greatest power trio I’ve ever seen, and its name is not Cream. Mike, Bruce, and Mark are incredible tonight -- each of them are going places and coming back together to make some glorious rock and roll. I haven’t been this floored by the band since the highwater marks of the 1987-1988 lineup. And as I’m watching the audience, made up mostly of Christians approaching middle age, I realize that the band is reaching this group of fans in ways that go beyond great guitar playing or mouth dropping bass/drum interplay.

A band put together 20 years earlier as a church outreach tool grew beyond in vision, reached out to the mainstream, fought battles with ccm labels, with themselves, and had broken up and come back together more than once. Now, they were being used perhaps exactly as God intended, not because they were playing for Christians, but because their gifts were being utilized in ways I don’t think the band ever quite understood.  But I understand, and will even more over the coming years, that the music endures because it speaks to its audience in a very real, personal, and direct way.  Love, divorce, faith, doubt, despair, and grace -- it’s all there, and presented in ways most other so-called ‘Christian’ groups would have been very uncomfortable with, never mind the labels that fund them. And that honesty, that consistency, is what has been rewarded.

Video Killed The Radio Star



Music videos were still somewhat in their infancy when The 77s started, early enough to where the band could actually get airplay on MTV simply because the channel needed videos 24 hours a day.  I can't recall the last time I watched MTV on the fly and actually saw a music video, but things have changed.

Two years before the band lit up MTV with “Mercy Mercy” and later “Ba Ba Ba Ba”, they began their journey into video with the rather curious clip for “A Different Kind Of Light”, a great song written by the ever-underrated British poet/songwriter Steve Scott. Originally written for Steve’s Moving Pictures album, it was, in fact, one of many Scott songs The 77s regularly performed in the beginning of their career.  If anything can be taken from this video, it’s our first look at the visually entertaining Mike Roe. The facial expressions, or rather, contortions are something fans have thrilled to up to this present day. Fortunately, the striped shirts seen here did not last for as long of a time.

I actually saw "Mercy Mercy" on MTV when it aired, and it’s not too bad of a clip. Once again, Mike’s front and center, and makes for strangely compelling watching. Note: The director used many of the same extras and set for RCA Victor’s act The Nails for their song “Let It All Hang Out”.

"Ba Ba Ba Ba" is probably most remembered for Mike’s hair, but my favorite moment is when Roe, who has only been using a microphone for the song, has the camera cut off to the side for a shot of him playing the solo (in color) and then the camera swings a hard left off the screen, right back to Mike (in black and white) at the microphone with this look in his eye right at the camera, acknowledging slyly the sleight of hand, something like a magic trick.


The remaining videos?.........  Well, of the rest I like “Nuts For You” just because it does give a taste of the band’s visual appeal live (gotta love those 15-year-olds in the front rows!). Not terribly fond of “Snake.” I still haven’t seen “The Boat Ashore” and look forward to it. The real tragedy for me is that videos weren’t made for the eponymous titled Island album --imagine “Can’t Get Over It” or “Do it For Love” as videos -- but again, that probably wasn’t in the budget at the time.

Liver Than You’ll Ever Be



Overall, I think the band, in each of its various incarnations, gave a lot of great shows over the years, and I have seen some of those, some okay shows, and some downright weird. I’ll once again state for the record that the 1987 show at Eugene, Oregon’s “Wow Hall” in front of 400 screaming fans for two hours was probably the best. And that one was set up to tape with video, except the two students from the local college didn’t show up at the last moment. So, you’ll never get to see that.

The 77s returned to Eugene the following year to a similar response during their “shopping for a record deal” tour. The following night found them at the Key Largo in Portland where maybe 40 people showed up, Mike with the flu. And yet, that was one of the best shows I had ever seen as well, just because Mike fought through it and all 40 of those fans got into it.

I’ve seen them at the Roxy in Hollywood playing for record execs, as well as playing a horrible club in San Francisco where the execs never showed up and the few people that were there ignored them. And toward the end of the first “Golden Era”, I even saw them playing covers in a hotel lobby. (That’s the ‘weird’ one) But then came More Miserable, the late 80’s demos that were shopped around became Sticks And Stones, and then we all came back together again at a very memorable Cornerstone 1990 appearance with other Exit exiles on the bill (Steve Scott, Vector, and Charlie Peacock).

From there, the 77s became a band again, with members coming and going (goodbye Jan & Aaron, hello David Leonhardt, Mark Harmon and Bruce Spencer). And with all that, you had a group sometimes stumbling, sometimes finding its way in the studio, but always rebounding with remarkable shows and often-great albums.

On this set, you’re going to see Warehouse clips from 1982 - 1989; performances at Icthus 1985 -1993; footage from 1997 - 1999 in Seattle and much more. (Wait until you see Mike as Elvis, or the brilliant 1997 ‘Safe As Milk’ set) Through it all, Roe is certainly the one constant force, but the music retains its power though it swerves from garage rock to garage jazz.  It’s always somehow stayed 77s music, and that couldn’t have been easy to accomplish.


I think The 77s today, casually labeled yet indeed a ‘power trio’, are about as essential of a live act as they have ever been. And, it’s an interesting question to ponder whether they would be an even better band if they played and recorded together consistently.  Or, whether by coming together sporadically as they have done (as they pursue side projects) actually makes them as good as they are when they do agree to get together?  (I opt for the second scenario myself.)



I still think this is a band that has a lot left in them, and after everything that has gone down over the years, that’s a small miracle. As fans, we are fortunate to have them, and the band is likewise fortunate to have such a dedicated following. No, this document isn’t perfect by professional standards, but the fact that we even have it at all is cause to celebrate.




Enjoy, and treasure, this record of the time.


Randy Layton