Before Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, or DC Talk, there was a band of barefoot musicians in Southern California who just wanted to sing about Jesus using the music of their generation. Their name was LoveSong, and a new documentary tracing their story is now streaming free for Prime Video subscribers worldwide.
"A Band Called LoveSong: The Music and Movement of the Jesus Revolution" chronicles how the band, formed during the Jesus Movement of the early 1970s, helped lay the foundation for what would become the Contemporary Christian Music industry. Their self-titled debut album released in June 1972, and many historians point to it as one of the founding moments of the genre.
The three-part series goes beyond band history, using rare archival footage and interviews to document the broader spiritual awakening that swept through America in the late 1960s and early '70s - a movement born out of cultural division, addiction, and a generation searching for truth.
"We were using the musical style of our culture and replacing the rock lyrics with lyrics about Jesus," LoveSong founder Chuck Girard explains in the film. Girard, who died last year, remains one of the most influential figures in Christian music history - his fingerprints are still audible in worship music today.
For longtime fans of Christian music, the documentary is a reminder that before the charts and the industry, there was simply a movement of young people who wanted the world to know about Jesus.
