Daniel Amos

In 1987, Daniel Amos put the gospel truth to music, for those few with ears to hear, back when they first released Darn Floor, Big Bite. Tom Gulotta, in his liner notes to Darn Floor, Big Bite, sums it up best when he writes:

“The 1980s were the decade of star-spangled optimism and helmet-haired televangelism.
America, with sparkling teeth and bulging muscles, sat gloriously at the right hand of God, who blazed like neon on his velvet throne. This was no time for talk of mystery, humility and doubt. Yet this was the very decade when Terry Taylor and Daniel Amos (the favored sons of the West Coast Jesus Movement of the ‘70s) took an honest gander in the glass, and rather than regurgitate the same simplistic slogans, sought to mine the deeper veins.”

I was a relative music business virgin working at Frontline Records back then, and thrilled to death to be promoting my all-time favorite Christian rock band. And I’ll never forget the day I asked a famous Christian magazine editor what he thought of this new Daniel Amos record. “Great F-in noise!” he exclaimed. (Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best spiritual assessment of this fine work). But during a time when sugarcane in cellophane was constantly playing at the radio station and it was almost a deadly sin to admit that one didn’t exactly have this whole Christian thing down pat, Darn Floor, Big Bite allowed many of us to just enjoy the mystery of it all and be okay with that. We were like those kids in class honest enough to raise our hands and say, ‘Okay, would you mind explaining that one more time?’

Few at the time even understood the meaning of this album’s title to begin with, let alone appreciate its overall impact. How can average floors and general mastication have anything to do with Christianity, anyway? Well, Taylor took the title from a science experiment where a gorilla was taught to speak in sign language. And when this gorilla experienced an earthquake for the first time, the best means he had to describe it was: Darn floor, big bite. Similarly, as Taylor reminds us with one lyrical line, our “language is weak.” Yet in the title track he also notes, “I pray that writing it down is part of loving you.” God’s ways aren’t man’s ways. Man has an awfully big opinion of himself, but when he looks at himself next to a holy God, he’s shrunk down to realistic size. In a nutshell, this God-to-man comparison is what Taylor has done with Darn Floor, Big Bite.

The notes to this welcome reissue, which include an extra disc of music and Taylor interviews, give new insight into this pivotal release – even for those of us that were there at its inception. For instance, Taylor mostly wrote his lyrics to music beds created by guitarist Greg Flesch and bassist Tim Chandler. This made Darn Floor, Big Bite Daniel Amos’ most collaborative effort to day. Chandler’s booming bass is best showcased during the title track, whereas Flesch’s out-of-this-world electric guitar explorations are all over the place. It’s the sort of album where, even if you don’t dig – or even want to dig — the themes, you can enjoy it simply for the way it rocks.

To paraphrase Taylor from one of the CD interview, Darn Floor, Big Bite is probably the one Daniel Amos that cannot be easily linked to any particular musical era. It’s not New Wave, as were earlier efforts, nor is it as Beatle-esque as much of the group’s succeeding recordings. It stands alone, timeless.

Darn Floor, Big Bite is the sound of a great American rock band biting off more than it can chew — and loving it.

Tagged as: Daniel Amos

↓ 4 comments

#1 tyler h on February 18th, 2009 at 7:13 pm

lolwut?

#2 Bert Saraco on February 19th, 2009 at 7:20 pm

Certainly, if any classic Christian album should get a 10 out of 10, it’s this one. A profound message, high levels of funk and art-rock… this album is full of what’s missing in so much of the very safe albums we hear these days. Questions and answers! It doesn’t get much better than this. Thanks for the review and the reminder…..

#3 Matt on February 20th, 2009 at 3:29 am

wow are we doing classic reviews now?

#4 Andrew Greenhalgh on February 20th, 2009 at 11:06 am

No, Matt, this was a remastered reissue that we thought worth covering…:)

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