Mind Garage

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Mind Garage is a 5 man psychedelic rock and roll band from Morgantown, West Virginia.

1 The Mind Garage 1967-1970
2 Christian Rock Genre
3 Electric Mass Experience
4 Impact on Religion
5 Controversial
6 Mind Garage Signs with RCA
7 Composite Concert Review
8 Members
9 Discography
10 References
11 See also
12 External links

[edit] The Mind Garage 1967-1970

In 1967, the Glass Menagerie group disbanded, and Larry McClurg, Jack Bond, and Norris Lytton added John Vaughan and Ted Smith to form a new, as yet unnamed band. All were students at West Virginia University. There they met the fiery, young, controversial and imaginative campus minister, Reverend Michael Paine, whose wife, Tori, named the band. While still known only locally, the group recorded an original single 45 rpm "Asphalt Mother" along with a cover of "Reach Out".

[edit] Christian Rock Genre

Christian rock music did not exist in 1967, however, Mind Garage is considered the first "Christian Rock band." The band never limited itself to one kind of music, so in 1967 at the suggestion of Reverend Paine, in the tradition of Bach who used popular tavern songs in his music, the psychedelic rock band began writing rock music for church with a serious intent^[1] to get the message across. They took Rock 'n Roll into churches, assisting in an actual Mass with communion. The music they created was named the Electric Liturgy^[2], sometimes called the Electric Mass. By January 1968, after months of writing, the Mind Garage finished the Electric Liturgy in Reverend Paine's attic with the premier performance a few weeks away. Then, as cymbals crashed and voices called for love and thanksgiving, babies squealed and happy smiles spontaneously flickered across the congregation, those dirty, beatnick-hippies^[3] began to have a new image. "I didn't know they were like THAT," one woman exclaimed, "That was beautiful!"

By July of 1968, the term "theo-rock"^[4] was coined in the Village Voice in reference to The Mind Garage music. By the end of 1968, the Mind Garage had performed the "Electric Liturgy" live more than a dozen times, each time with people dancing in the aisles. The persistent efforts by the Mind Garage to contemporize religious music^[5] succeeded in church after church, state after state. They broke down the barriers between church and rock and roll, creating an environment where a whole new genre of rock music^[6] could thrive. By January 1970, they accomplished what they had set out to do. Today, the genre has been termed, "Christian Rock." The early beginnings were well documented from 1967 to 1970 by local and national media in the late sixties (this included media outlets like ABC, NBC, The Village Voice, Billboard and Rolling Stone magazine).

[edit] Electric Mass Experience

Electric Liturgy in St Marks 1969.

An award winning article by Joyce Tracewell^[7]describes the Electric Mass. Sun shines through stained glass and colors bounce until the kaleidoscopic vision is suddenly shattered by incredibly swelling music. Smiling musicians with flowery clothes, jeans, long hair, beards and sunglasses play deliberate alien music, the kind that makes you shiver.

It fills the room to the ceiling pushing against the walls. They sing in voices that should have belonged to Druids or Incas, or Gypsies under a night sky, and you see Jesus smiling at them. When you leave you feel somebody has been dissecting your soul and everything is clearer. And that's what an Electric Mass is.

[edit] Impact on Religion

The Electric Liturgy was conceived as an orthodox Episcopalian service, but was immdeiately transformed into an inter-denominational service by the people themselves. It was not uncommon to witness Episcopalians, Catholics, Protestants and Jews together, all taking Communion. People who were out of religion found a meaning in the music.^[8]

The church programs explained that "the Holy Communion^[9] is the Creator's act through His people of binding the wounds and healing a broken humanity. Sometimes it is a party, sometimes not. But participation in it signals your desire to take on hope. Therefore all people confessing their frail humanity and yearning for a greater are welcome to come to the altar and receive Holy Communion." The Electric Liturgy became so popular the band was invited to assist in services in churches throughout the Eastern United States including Washington, D.C., New York, and Princeton University Chapel. The Electric Liturgy was shocking. Dean Ernest Gordon of Princeton University said "We could all do with a shocking splendid spiritual surprise".^[10] The Electric Liturgy cultivated an environment in church where rock music could thrive, and in the process established Christian Rock which continues to influence and inspire untold millions worldwide.

[edit] Controversial

The most famous Mind Garage poster^[11] was controversial and depicts a semi-nude woman surrounded by the group. However, it was used several times as the cover for service booklets, most notably in St. Mark's Episcopal Church in the Bowery, New York City. A nude woman was too controversial for most church bulletins in mainstream conservative America of 1968, so a variation^[12] of the poster, was made by covering the nude woman with a banner saying, "Welcome to the Electric Liturgy".

[edit] Mind Garage Signs with RCA

The Mind Garage drew the attention of major record companies like Chess Records, Atlantic Records and RCA. They still continued to assist in church services for free wherever asked, while at the same time shocking and entertaining the audiences in clubs, concert halls and stadiums with their own style secular, psychedelic rock.

They signed with RCA in 1969, and recorded 2 albums and 2 singles in New York, Chicago and Nashville studios. Armed Forces Radio and Television Service included the Mind Garage in its playlist with such artists as Gary Lewis, Bob Seger, and Percy Faith to entertain service men at home and abroard in Vietnam. The Mind Garage often performed with such acts as Bob Seger, Canned Heat, Sly and the Family Stone, Paul Butterfield but declined the invitation^[13] to play at Woodstock Festival in 1969 as did also Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Bob Dylan and The Moody Blues. In 1970 when their recording contract was about to expire, RCA offered to renew it but they declined. Without explanation they walked away from a recording career, and simply stopped playing. The band never officially broke up. There was no press release, and no dispute among members, or management.

As short as their career was, even without a #1 hit, their fresh, unique style and energy had a ripple effect that continues to influence groups from one end of the musical spectrum to the other long after they stopped recording. The Fleshtones from the 1970s era of Punk rock and New Wave music credit the Mind Garage as an influence.

John Denver, a top 40 folk musician, also credits the Mind Garage as an influence. In 1982 he thanked the them on the liner notes of "Seasons of the Heart"^[14] for contributing to the album. It became his last million selling gold album.

In 2007 all five original band members reunited for a music festival. Father of Woodstock Artie Kornfeld teamed up with Larry McClurg to promote Goodstock_Music_Festival, reported Pollstar. According to Kornfeld, "I consider Goodstock to be the first real attempt to have another 3 days of peace and music".

[edit] Composite Concert Review

A Mind Garage concert was often billed a celebration of life^[15], a total electric happening. Graffiti Magazine reported "their musicianship was stunning and their stage presence was natural and un-pretentious. But the ‘Garage was so much more."^[16] People experienced real shock^[17], and were then overcome by the band's sincerity and superb musicianship. They are able to draw people into what they are doing.^[18] The intent is to involve all the senses. The band has the power to transform^[19] the places they play in and the people they play for with a primal heart beat rhythm^[20], and exact harmony and instrumentation^[21], raising and lowering the pitch to magnify the frenzy of the audience. The visual theatrics seem to invoke the forces of nature to come crashing down, reports Hit Parader Magazine, September, 1970.^[22] They play soft familiar passages to bring the listerner back to reality.

They were not the usual fraternity party/sock hop style band of that era. They took over with mind blowing techniques.^[23] Hours before the show, people would arrive to get a good seat only to find a crowd already there. People would push and shove to get in until the doors were finally opened. The entire street would fill up and the police would give up trying to make people line up and just re-route traffic. The venue would pack beyond capacity for both club settings and the Mass with people literally swelling out the doorways.^[24] Even the act of entering was part of the entertainment. For example, in the Fairmont Theatre lobby you might see someone in a tub taking a bath. Nothing was routine.

On occasion there were other performers, light shows, bizarre psych fashion shows and dancers, but the Mind Garage was always THE show. The sound was mind blowing. The general comment that floated around while the band was on break was "man these guys are f---ing' good." The Mind Garage not only had the right sound but the band had a spark or charisma or magic. They just clicked. They were far out in front of the curve and ahead of their time.

[edit] Members

Larry McClurg - lead vocals
Norris Lytton - vocals, bass and sax
Ted Smith - percussion
Jack Bond - vocals, keyboard
John Vaughan - vocals, lead guitar

[edit] Discography

Asphalt Mother/Reach Out - Morning Glori Music 45RPM 1000 - 1968
Mind Garage - RCA VICTOR Srereo LSP-4218 Album - 1969
What's Behind Those Eyes/There Was a Time - RCA Victor 45RPM 47-9755 - 1969
Mind Garage Again (w/Electric Liturgy) - RCA Victor Stereo Album LSP-4319-1970
Tobacco Road/Jailhouse Rock - RCA Victor 45RPM 47-9812 - 1970
Mind Garage Lost Demo Early Years CD - Morning Glori Music 2000 - 2005
Mind Garage / Again! Complilation CD - Caustic Eye Productions CAUS017 - 2007

[edit] References

Celebrate Life, Morgantown, WV, October 14, 1967
Village Voice July, 1968
The National Liturgical Conference, Washington, DC, August 21, 1968
ABC TV "Direction Series" St Mark's Episcopal Church, NY, April 27, 1969
NBC's Huntley Brinkley News, from Trinity Episcopal Church, NY, August 8, 1969
Rolling Stone August 6, 1970

[edit] See also

[edit] External links