Keith Green

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Keithgreen.jpg

Keith Green (born October 21, 1953 in Sheepshead Bay , New York , † July 28, 1982 in Lindale , Texas ) was an American gospel musician , singer , songwriter and pianist . Green became known for his commitment to the socially disadvantaged and the Christian faith. His best-known songs are You Put This Love In My Heart , Your Love Broke Through , Asleep In The Light , as well as his worship songs O Lord, You're Beautiful , There Is A Redeemer and Create In Me A Clean Heart .

Life

At the age of eight he made his first public appearances as a singer and played "Kurt Von Trapp" in the musical The Sound of Music . Green was the youngest person to ever land a contract with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) when he composed and published the song The Way I Used to Be at the age of eleven .

He composed over 50 songs and got a contract with Decca Records that wanted him to be a teen idol. Keith Green slipped into drug problems, practiced astrology and devoted himself to Eastern religions instead of - at the request of his record company - to worry about his career. The contract was soon terminated. In 1973 he married. Soon after the wedding, he and his wife, Melody, became Christians . They became members of the Vineyard Fellowship in California.

The greens began caring for drug addicts, prostitutes, and the homeless. In Lindale, Texas, they bought a ranch and started Last Days Ministries .

Keith Green began a series of Christian albums in 1977 . From 1979 he stopped charging for his concerts and selling his records at fixed prices. Everything was now available for what you could afford ("whatever you could afford") directly from Last Days Ministries . His new album So You Wanna Go Back To Egypt? to produce, he had to raise the mortgage on the farm. This album also features a guest appearance by Bob Dylan , with whom Keith was friends. In May 1982 over 200,000 albums had been sent, 61,000 of which were free.

Green died on July 28, 1982 in a plane crash while flying over the farm with friends to show them around the farm. Everyone on the plane died, including two of Melody's and Keith's children: Josiah, 3, and Bethany, 2. The pilot Don Burmeister, the married couple John and Dede Smalley and their six children were also killed. The investigation into the crash revealed that the aircraft was overloaded by around 200 kg, as twelve people were sitting in the six-seat aircraft.

In 1992 the tribute album: No Compromise: Remembering the Music of Keith Green was released by Sparrow Records . Well-known Christian artists such as Petra , Charlie Peacock , PFR , Susan Ashton , Margaret Becker , Michael Card , Rich Mullins and Russ Taff participated. In 2003 the German singer Beate Ling recorded an album called Green . It contained twelve songs by Keith Green, translated into German by Manfred Siebald and Christoph Zehendner , among others .

On November 27, 2001, Keith Green was inducted into the Gospel Music Association 's Gospel Music Hall of Fame .

Discography

  • For Him Who Has Ears To Hear (1977)
  • No Compromise (1978)
  • So You Wanna Go Back To Egypt (1980)
  • The Keith Green Collection (1981)
  • Songs For The Shepherd (1982)
  • The Prodigal Son (1983)
  • I Only Want To See You There (1983)
  • Jesus Commands Us To Go (1984)
  • The Ministry Years, Volume One (1977-1979) (1987)
  • The Ministry Years, Volume Two (1980-1982) (1988)
  • No Compromise: Remembering the Music of Keith Green (Tribute CD with covers) (1992)
  • Live (1995)
  • Best of Keith Green: Asleep in the Light (1996)
  • The Early Years (Compilation) (1996, reissued 2006)
  • Your Love Broke Through: The Worship Songs of Keith Green (tribute CD with cover versions) (2002)
  • Ultimate Collection (Compilation) (2002)
  • KEITH GREEN the live experience (2008)

literature

  • Keith Green: What's Wrong With The Gospel? Christian Media Service, Hünfeld 2006, ISBN 978-3-9810173-6-6
  • Melody Green: I'm not letting go of your hand. Diary notes and impulses by Keith Green , Projektion J, Asslar 2004, ISBN 3-89490-539-5
  • Melody Green, David Hazard: Uncompromising - Keith Green , Hänssler, Holzgerlingen (new edition) 2006, ISBN 3-7751-4561-3

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Green, Keith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer and songwriter of Christian pop music
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Sheepshead Bay , New York
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1982
Place of death Lindale , Texas