History Music / The77s

-->J. Edward Keyes, ''An Atheist's Guide to Christian Rock''

The band has played a wide variety of music over the years, as most long-running acts do: They began as a NewWave act, but by the time the '90s had rolled around, had become much more influenced by BluesRock and HardRock. In the Christian rock community, they were known for walking an uncomfortable line between Christian and secular, with many of their lyrics dealing frankly with topics like abortion and premarital sex that were generally considered off limits for Christian bands.

* SelfTitledAlbum: From 1987, though thanks to ExecutiveMeddling, ''Pray Naked'' can be mistaken for this.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* LongTitle: “The Lust, the Flesh, the Eyes, and the Pride of Life.”

* AllGuitarsAreStratocasters: At least Mike Roe's primary guitar is.

->''"Singer and guitarist Mike Roe, at the time, was arguably one of the greatest rock frontmen working, a twitching live wire of charisma and gusto and swagger. Where so much of the bad end of Christian rock feels like it was parbaked in a germ-free environment, Roe had absorbed decades worth of actual rock history – mostly from the ‘50s and ‘60s – and understood instinctively that fronting a rock band was not the same thing as leading eyes-closed acoustic worship at the weekly teen service. . . . Almost as important, Roe looked like a rock frontman – a wild shock of [[Music/TheCure Robert Smith]] hair perched atop his pale, bony face, Roe at the time was enigmatic without even trying to be. There was something renegade about his whole demeanor, the sense that he was some sort of Creator/JimJarmusch Rock Singer Character, a ghost without a past who appeared out of nowhere and could just as easily return to the same."''

* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: Almost always between 4 and 6, though a song like “Smiley Smile” heads down toward 1.

->''"Singer and guitarist Mike Roe, at the time, was arguably one of the greatest rock frontmen working, a twitching live wire of charisma and gusto and swagger. Where so much of the bad end of Christian rock feels like it was parbaked in a germ-free environment, Roe had absorbed decades worth of actual rock history – mostly from the ‘50s and ‘60s – and understood instinctively that fronting a rock band was not the same thing as leading eyes-closed acoustic worship at the weekly teen service. . . . Almost as important, Roe looked like a rock frontman – a wild shock of Robert Smith hair perched atop his pale, bony face, Roe at the time was enigmatic without even trying to be. There was something renegade about his whole demeanor, the sense that he was some sort of Jim Jarmusch Rock Singer Character, a ghost without a past who appeared out of nowhere and could just as easily return to the same."''

The 77s (occasionally the Seventy Sevens) are a ChristianRock band from Sacramento, California. Their one consistent member throughout their four-decade history has been the singer and guitarist Mike Roe, whose range and abilities as a vocalist and a musician are sizeable.
//

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: More than most Christian rock bands, that's for sure.
** The first stanza of "Your Pretty Baby" is a series of coded references to a woman getting pregnant because she won't demand that her boyfriend wear a condom, and then deciding to get an abortion.
--->He comes unprepared, but to interrupt\\
Would surely be uncouth\\
And when your time comes 'round, and he's nowhere to be found\\
You wait for color red\\
And when the ring you get is not the one you want\\
Then you begin to plot somebody's death
** "Rocks in Your Head": "Let me make no bones about it / You ain't jumping mine for free."
** "Unbalanced": "Babe, you're so inviting, but I still can't come."
** One of the bonus discs in the 2012 re-issue of ''Sticks and Stones'' is called ''Seeds and Stems''.

* CoverVersion: Washington Phillips's "Denomination Blues"; Dee Clark's "Hey Little Girl"; Music/HankWilliams's "I Saw the Light"; Music/VelvetUnderground's "Jesus"; a cover of Music/LedZeppelin's cover of Blind Willie Johnson's "Nobody's Fault but Mine"; Music/DanielAmos's "Shotgun Angel"; Blind Willie Johnson's "I'm Gonna Run to the City of Refuge."

* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: The band has spent much of the 2010s putting these out for all their albums.

* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: "You Don't Scare Me": "I could ride on a plan / Losing all its en''gines''."