TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

From TV Times "Pop music has turned to religion for its inspiration in a way that has not been known since negro spirituals. On disc are George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel. And commenting on the music - the people who make it and those who listen to it."

Broadcast on a Sunday (natch) the Stars On Sunday slot was for one week taken over by an examination of the then current Jesus Rock fad. Staring with the hippie generation's quest for self it would later be the subject for many singer-songwriters, folkies and prog rock acts, and not just Christianity, other religions would also be targeted by pop (and vice versa).

Broadcast from 6.15 - 7.00 pm those artists invited to talk included, Quintessence, Ashton - Gardner & Dyke and members of the Radha Krishna Temple. All discussing their own take on what messages their songs may contain. Just before the broadcast the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar had been a surprise number one album hit in America, while a stage version would open on Broadway in October, while That's The Way God Planned It had been another George Harrison related religious hit, accompanying My Sweet Lord and his productions for the Radha Krishna Temple.

In 2023 Cherry Red released an excellent primer All God’s Children: Songs From The British Jesus Rock Revolution 1967-1974.

IT'S CALLED GOD ROCK

London Weekend

11th July 1971