In late 1979, Rick Griffin was asked to produce an image that would be used on a flyer to advertise Saturday Night Concerts that were being held at Calvary Chapel in Santa Ana, California. These events were primarily youth gatherings where many of the pioneer Christian rock bands played concerts and pastors from the church gave evangelical messages before providing an alter call for people to receive Jesus as Savior.
Rick was affiliated with Calvary Chapel at that time and was busy producing the final art that would soon appear in the Gospel of John publication. At this same time, Bob Dylan announced that he was a Christian and was releasing his fist Gospel record titled Slow Train Coming. Rick was a huge Bob Dylan fan and was elated to learn of Dylan’s conversion. Rick then immediately drew a picture of a young Bob Dylan character stepping out of a world of death and skeletons and into a new life. He turned the art over to the church art department, some lettering was added, and flyers like this were printed up to be given out at the beach and handed out in cities surrounding Calvary Chapel.
This flyer is from the 1st printing. It served as a flyer to advertise the weekly events and on the backside was printed a Christian message titled “In The Beginning-Choice.â€
