Keith Green

Keith Gordon Green (October 21, 1953 – July 28, 1982) was an American contemporary Christian music pianist, singer, and songwriter originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. Beyond his music, Green is best known for his strong devotion to Christ and challenging others to the same. Several of his compositions became standards of contemporary Christian music. Notable songs include "Oh Lord, You're Beautiful", "Asleep in the Light", "Your Love Broke Through", "You Put This Love in My Heart", "The Prodigal Son Suite", and "There Is a Redeemer", the last of which was written by his wife Melody.
Early life.
Green took to music at a young age, as he "began with the ukulele at three, the guitar at five, and the piano at seven." His talents were noted by a major newspaper when he was eight, following a performance of Arthur Laurents' "The Time of the Cuckoo". A local review by the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that "roguish-looking, eight-year-old Keith Green gave a winning portrayal" of "the little Italian street urchin, Mauro"; another review commented that he "stole the show". The show was Green's first appearance in live theater, which was held in Chatsworth, California in September 1962. According to the "LA Times", he had already done a number of television commercials and made a TV pilot.
Green played the role of Kurt von Trapp in "The Sound of Music" starring Janet Blair in the opening production at the Valley Music Theater, a modern 2865-seat theater-in-the-round in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles when he was 10.
Green and his father Harvey signed a five-year contract with Decca Records in February 1965, with Harvey as business manager, having written 40 original songs already. The first song released on disc was "A Go-Go Getter" in May 1965, produced by Gary Usher, which he had composed and published before signing with Decca. He became the youngest person ever to sign with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) upon publication of this song at age 11.
Decca Records planned to make Green a teen idol, regularly getting him featured in fan magazines such as "Teen Scene" and on television shows such as "The Jack Benny Program" and "The Steve Allen Show". He was a guest on the television game show "I've Got a Secret" on May 3, 1965. His secret was "I just signed a five-year contract as a rock-'n'-roll singer." The segment included a live performance of "We'll Do a Lot of Things Together".
Green had written 10 more songs by the time that he was 12. "Time" magazine ran an article about aspiring young rock-'n'-roll singers and referred to him as Decca Records' "prepubescent dreamboat". The national attention that had been envisioned by Decca Records failed to materialize for Green, however, as Donny Osmond captured the attention of pre-teens and teenagers, eclipsing Green's newfound stardom, and he was quickly forgotten by the public.
Spiritual experience.
Green had a Jewish heritage and was raised in Christian Science. He grew up reading the New Testament and called the mixture of being Jewish and learning about Jesus "an odd combination" that left him open-minded but confused and deeply unsatisfied. As a teen perceiving his music career had failed, he ran away from home, began smoking marijuana, and used some psychedelics in hopes of finding spiritual truth. He became interested in eastern mysticism and the "free love" culture. After experiencing what Green described as a "bad trip", he abandoned drug use and became interested in philosophy and theology. "When Green was 19 he met a fellow seeker/musician named Melody Steiner. They were inseparable and got married a year later – now he had a partner as his spiritual and musical quest continued." Green later stated, however, that in the midst of his skepticism, he had "been lost in a fantasy, till [God's] love broke through." and in 1975 he renounced Christian Science and became a Jewish believer in Jesus the Messiah. A week later, Green's wife Melody, whom he had married in 1973 and was also Jewish, became a Jewish believer in Jesus.
Ministry.
In 1975, the Greens, just new believers, began taking people who needed help into their small home in the suburbs of Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley. Both were staff songwriters for CBS Records in Hollywood and used their income to support all who came. Early on, their close friend and Christian recording artist, Randy Stonehill, who was struggling at the time, stayed for a while. Their home was later dubbed "The Greenhouse" – a place where people grow. The Greens continued to open their home but mostly to strangers in need. They eventually ran out of space and, purchasing the home next door to their own and renting an additional five in the same neighborhood, they provided a safe environment of Bible Studies and practical discipleship to young and old alike. The majority were teenagers and those of college age. Much to the consternation of neighbors, there came to be 75 people living in the Green's homes and traipsing down the suburban streets—including recovering drug addicts and prostitutes, bikers, the homeless, and many single pregnant girls needing shelter and safety. Some were referred to the Greens by other ministries and shelters, but most just crossed their path during their normal life at home and on the road. In 1977, the Greens personal outreach became a non-profit ministry they called Last Days Ministries. Green also became an ordained minister.
Green's initial tone of ministry was influenced by the words of Jesus in the Bible. Later, he was also influenced by his friends Winkie Pratney, and Leonard Ravenhill, who pointed him to Charles Finney, a nineteenth-century revivalist preacher who preached the holiness of God to provoke conviction in his hearers. During his concerts he would often exhort his listeners to repent and commit themselves more wholly to following Christ. Through relationships with Loren Cunningham the Founder of Youth with a Mission (YWAM) missions leader John Dawson, and a trip with his wife to overseas missions projects Green saw the worldwide need for missionaries. He realized he was often too hard on growing believers and believed that all Christians needed to have at least a brief stint on the mission field. His assurance of God's unconditional love for him grew as well. This transition is evident in his music beginning with "So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt" in 1980. He described the changes he went through in his next-to-last article for the Last Days Magazine.
Recording.
Green was signed to Contemporary Christian music label Sparrow Records in 1976 and worked on the album "Firewind" (1976) with Christian artists 2nd Chapter of Acts, Terry and John Michael Talbot, and Barry McGuire. Prior to Keith's signing with Sparrow Records, and two years before the release of "No Compromise", Tommy James, of Tommy James and the Shondells, recorded "Don't Wanna Fall Away from You," composed by Green, for his 1976 Fantasy album titled "In Touch".
His first solo project, "For Him Who Has Ears to Hear", was released in 1977 and topped the charts. His second solo release, "No Compromise", followed in 1978. In 1979, after negotiating a release from his contract with Sparrow, Green initiated a new policy of refusing to charge money for concerts or albums. Keith and Melody mortgaged their home to privately finance Green's next album, "So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt". The album, which featured a guest appearance by Bob Dylan, was offered through mail-order and at concerts for a price determined by the purchaser. By May 1982, Green had shipped out more than 200,000 units of his album – 61,000 for free. Subsequent albums included "The Keith Green Collection" (1981) and "Songs for the Shepherd" (1982).
When his music was carried by Christian bookstores, a second cassette was included free of charge for every cassette purchased to give away to a friend to help spread the Gospel.
Last Days Ministries.
In 1978, Last Days Ministries (LDM) began publishing the "Last Days Newsletter" from the Greens' garage. Originally printed on a few pages of loose paper, the newsletter grew in content to eventually become a "small, colorful magazine" and was renamed in mid-1985 as the "Last Days Magazine." The magazine featured articles by Green and his wife Melody, as well as contemporary Christian authors David Wilkerson, Leonard Ravenhill, and Winkie Pratney, all of whom lived in the area. The publication also later included the reprinted works of classic Christian authors such as Charles Finney, John Wesley, and William Booth and his wife Catherine. Most of the articles were reprinted as tracts. After Keith's 1982 death Melody was appointed to lead the ministry. By the mid-1980s, the Last Days Magazine was sent out to over 500,000 people worldwide.
In 1979, the ministry relocated from the San Fernando Valley to a plot of land in Garden Valley, Texas, a crossroads community about west of Lindale, Texas. Within a few years, Last Days purchased additional land, bringing the total to .
Death in plane crash.
Along with eleven others, Green died on July 28, 1982, when the Robertson STOL-modified Cessna 414 leased by Last Days Ministries crashed after takeoff from the private airstrip located on the LDM property. The small two-engine plane was carrying eleven passengers and the pilot, Don Burmeister, for an aerial tour of the LDM property and the surrounding area. Green and two of his children, three-year-old Josiah and two-year-old Bethany, were on board the plane, along with visiting church planters, John and Dede Smalley and their six children. Green's wife Melody was at home with one-year-old Rebekah and six weeks pregnant with their fourth child, Rachel, born in March 1983.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the crash was caused by the pilot in command (PIC) allowing the aircraft to be loaded beyond its operating limitations. The required pre-flight weight and balance computations responsibility of civilian pilots would have shown it was dangerously overloaded and also outside its weight and balance operating envelope. This responsibility with military pilots is the responsibility of the military loadmaster, and thus he may have, by force of habit, overlooked this responsibility. Don Alan Burmeister was a former United States Marine Corps aviator, but FAA records show he had very limited experience / training in flying conventional (vs. centerline thrust) twin engine aircraft. Records show it was only a short time prior to the accident (6/9/82) that he completed a check-ride to remove the "centerline thrust" restriction from his pilot's certificate. This check-ride should have fully evaluated his ability to fly a conventional multi-engine aircraft throughout its designed range of operations, but the flight examiner was decertified the next month (7/10/82) by the FAA due to a "history of incomplete or substandard check-rides". Additionally, the insurance carrier (Ideal Mutual Insurance Co.) required Burmeister to log 1,045 hrs of flying time, attend a Cessna ground and flight training course, as well as log 15 hours in a Cessna 414 (C-414) prior to acting as the PIC of the leased aircraft. The NTSB record shows he failed to accomplish all of these requirements. With pilot and eleven passengers, the aircraft was overloaded by an estimated , and the location of the center of gravity was found to be beyond the maximum aft limit. Combined with an air temperature of , creating a condition known as "hot and high" (high density altitude, producing a lower climb rate on takeoff and greater danger of stalling), the C-414 could do little but struggle into the air within ground effect, and once airborne was left virtually uncontrollable. These factors prevented the aircraft from ever attaining sufficient altitude, and it crashed into trees less than a mile from the airport.
Keith Gordon Green, Josiah David Green (September 18, 1978 – July 28, 1982), and Bethany Grace Green (February 5, 1980 – July 28, 1982) are interred in the same coffin at Garden Valley Cemetery behind the Garden Valley Baptist Church, less than a half-mile from the LDM property. He was survived by his wife and two daughters, Rebekah Joy Green (b. 1981) and Rachel Hope Green (b. March 1983, eight months after Green's death).
Last Days Ministries continues.
Melody Green continued to lead Last Days Ministries from Texas until 1996, when she moved to California and launched Last Days Ministries Online where all of Green's writings are free and his music can be found. The free monthly Last Days Ministries Newsletter is also sent out by request.
Melody maintains the Keith Green Facebook page to honor Keith and also shares her opinions on the Melody Green Facebook Page where she interacts with Green's fans and Last Days Ministries fans.
Legacy.
Two full albums of original Green songs were released posthumously: "The Prodigal Son" (1983) and "Jesus Commands Us to Go!" (1984). Another release, "I Only Want to See You There" (1983) contained mostly previously released material. A compilation of his recorded work, "The Ministry Years", was released as a two-volume set in 1987 and 1988 and included five previously unreleased songs.
Another unreleased Christian song "Born Again" by Keith and Melody was finally released in 1999, 17 years after his death, on the "First Love" compilation video and CD. Both feature a two-song tribute to Green by other Christian artists.
In 2008, Melody with her grown daughters Rebekah Joy and Rachel Hope partnered with Sparrow Records and released "The Live Experience – Special Edition", a CD/DVD combination of 16 live recordings and 4 hours of DVD footage including video of live performances as well as details regarding Green's life and his passing. A "Greatest Hits" album was also released at the same time, including 17 of Green's most popular songs and one more previously unreleased Christian song, "Your Love Came Over Me".
On November 23, 2009, the EP "Happy Birthday to You Jesus" was released, containing a talk by Green about Christmas and another previously unreleased song, "Happy Birthday to You Jesus".
A prolific personal journalist, Green's writings were published as excerpts in the books "A Cry in the Wilderness" (Sparrow, 1993), "If You Love the Lord" (Harvest House, 2000), and "Make My Life a Prayer" (Harvest House, 2001).
Tribute recordings.
In 1992, several artists joined together to re-record many of the Green's best-known songs for a tribute album called "No Compromise: Remembering the Music of Keith Green" under the Sparrow Records label. Artists contributing to the recording include Petra, Charlie Peacock, Susan Ashton, Margaret Becker, Michael Card, GLAD, Rich Mullins, Steven Curtis Chapman, Steve Green, and Russ Taff.
In 2001, BEC Recordings released a second tribute record "Start Right Here: Remembering the Life of Keith Green". Produced by Derri Daugherty, the album included performances by new contemporary Christian artists MxPx, Joy Electric, Starflyer 59, among others.
At the twentieth anniversary of Green's death, Sparrow Records released another tribute album, "Your Love Broke Through: The Worship Songs of Keith Green". The 2002 album contains re-recordings by Rebecca St. James, Michelle Tumes, Chris Tomlin, Twila Paris, Darlene Zschech, Jason Upton, Martin Smith, Charlie Hall, Joanne Hogg, Matt Redman, Paul Oakley, and Sarah Sadler. The album contains contemporary Christian and mainstream artist Michael W. Smith's version of the song "There Is One", an unfinished work by Green. Composition of the song was completed by Smith, along with British songwriter and Christian music artist Martin Smith.
Honors.
On November 27, 2001, Green was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Melody Green and their daughter attended to receive the honor for Keith.
On April 3, 2006, Green was honored with the ASCAP Crescendo Award at the 28th annual ASCAP Christian Music Awards presentation dinner. His widow, Melody Green, was present to receive the award for her late husband.
Documentary.
"The Keith Green Story - Your Love Broke Through", a 2002 documentary DVD about Green's life, was directed by Daren Thomas with Melody Green as executive producer. Narrated by Toby Mac, it was distributed by Sparrow Records.
Film.
In 2011 Melody Green announced that a feature film about Green's life was in development. After the initial producers failed to exercise their final option to obtain long-term film rights, Melody began to gather a new production team. As of 2013 the film is currently under development.
Material loss.
On June 25, 2019, "The New York Times Magazine" listed Keith Green among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
Discography.
Career releases: 1965–1982.
Mainstream recordings.
Besides the first disc release in May 1965 (pictured above), two more Decca disc releases occurred before Donny Osmond took the spotlight.
Bibliography.
"(All released posthumously)"