“I know there’s no disease in Paradise, but Grandma’s still going to have a heart attack if these guys show up there!”

Lennon, Dylan, Alice & Jesus, Greg Laurie’s “spiritual biography of rock ‘n’ roll,” traces the rise of popular music from the 1950s through present day with a mind toward clarifying the faith journeys of various rock icons. As a fan of numerous genres of music, but particularly of the styles and eras covered in this book, as well as a Christian, I was eager to dig into Laurie’s potted history.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much being said here that hasn’t been previously recycled numerous times. While there are a few tidbits that I had not encountered before and a handful of original insights, this short book is largely a workmanlike compilation of interview snippets and news articles that have been in circulation for decades—the 27 Club, the Beatles’ foray into transcendental meditation and their claim to be “bigger than Jesus,” the gospel roots of the Million Dollar Quartet, Bob Dylan’s born again phase, Alice Cooper’s drastic turnaround. The author does sniff out a few under-the-radar musicians whose radical life changes starkly contrast with various popular artists who have claimed the name of Christ, however, too often I felt like I would have been just as well served by pulling up the artist’s Wikipedia page.

Even so, Laurie writes from an experienced and passionate perspective—he grew up alongside rock music and the countercultures that came along with it, he rubbed shoulders with some rock royalty, and he has been a champion for Christ for a long time. For better or worse, this naturally leads the author to insert many personal anecdotes; he even works up enough steam to give mid-book altar calls. It’s a strange brew, with the most informative and edifying portion (for me anyway) coming when the book chronicles the advent of Contemporary Christian Music (according to Laurie, Larry Norman was the Bob Dylan of Christian music), a “genre” I struggle to embrace because of its derivative nature, but which has produced plenty of good music and is comprised (especially in those early days, it seems) of good, solid Christians.