Day 457 - Leslie Phillips - Bring Me Through

457. Leslie Phillips - Bring Me Through
from the Album Great Lengths
(Myrrh, 1983)

"[Leslie Phillips] first entered the music world through dance and turned to writing and playing in her early teens as she watched her parents’ marriage disintegrate and end in divorce. 'Basically, I was crying into the piano,' she confessed to Jeff Giles in Newsweek.'One of the first songs I wrote was called Walls of Silence, about the fact that my father would go days, weeks, even months without speaking.' She learned to play her brother’s guitar and began exploring music outside the Top 20, finding such artists as singer-songwriters Randy Newman and Bruce Cockburn. Her non-musical interests led her even further from the Top 20. She studied philosophy and religion—primarily fundamentalism—and found herself drawn to the counterculture Christian movement of southern California.

Undoubtedly, the splintering of her family contributed to this attraction. 'Because of that pain, I’ve always been interested in metamorphosis, and when that can happen to a human being, emotionally and spiritually,' Phillips revealed to Rowland. 'I’ve always loved that theme throughout literature. I think that’s what attracted me to Christianity the most.' She also found the church attractive because of her music. 'I thought I would find an audience there that would want to listen to songs about spiritual things,' she explained to David Wild in Rolling Stone.

At 18 years old, Phillips signed a contract with A&M’s gospel label, Word/Myrrh Records, and performing as Leslie Phillips, she became a Christian music star. A 1985 press release, reprinted in Harper’s, described her image: 'If ever there was a Queen of Christian Rock, she’s it. She’s 22, blond, hazel-eyed, lovely, and single, and her hair and clothing are up-to-date, California youth style.' Her albums sold well, up to 200,000 a piece, and she toured the country, performing in churches, coffeehouses, and festivals."(source: Answers.com)

Bring me Through was first released on the A&M Records Sampler Back to the Rock which was released almost two years before Leslie's first album came out. I spent the next two years trying to find more songs from her but had to wait for release of this album. Here is the original album version of the song: