Ping Pong Over the Abyss
1982 - EXIT Records

Pseudo-new-wave excess - and bad new wave at best. The music sounds as cool as the album cover looks. The heavy-handed evangelism doesn't help either. Call it a recording exercise for the boys. At the time of recording, the group was called The Savage Young Scratch Band. Changed the name of the group to The 77's as record was being pressed.

In fact, the group really had no intentions of being a serious band until they started recording - prior to that, they were a praise & worship group at a local Sacramento youth center.

EXIT records was a San Francisco area company whose primary mission it was to get Christian groups that showed promise a record deal, then search for the Big Time record deal. The 77's were one of the feature groups on EXIT along with Vector, Charlie Peacock, and Steve Scott.

track listing:
A Different Kind of Light
How Can You Love
It's So Sad
Falling Down a Hole
Someone New
Renaissance Man
Ping Pong Over the Abyss
Time Is Slipping Away
Denomination Blues (That's All)
 personnel:
Mike Roe - guitar, vocals
Mark Tootle - guitar, keyboards, vocals
Jan Eric - bass, vocals
Mark Proctor - drums


(l-r Mark Tootle, Mark Proctor, Mike Roe, Jan Eric)

(l-r Jan Eric, Mark Proctor, Mike Roe, Mark Tootle... from the same photo shoot as above - note the clothes)