Mind Garage
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Mind Garage is a 5 man psychedelic rock and roll band from Morgantown, West Virginia.
[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 imaginitive 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", which sold well in Morgantown and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is now a collectors item.
[edit] Christian Rock Genre Created by Electric Liturgy
Christian rock music did not exist in 1967, but an unknown band straight from the beer halls with long hair, beards and wild clothing was about to change everything. 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 taven songs in his music, the psychedelic rock band began writing rock music for church with a serious intent to get the music across. They took Rock n Roll into churches, assisting in an actual Mass with communion. The music they created was named the Electric Liturgy, sometimes called the Electric Mass. By January 1968, the Mind Garage had finished the Electric Liturgy, unaware of the Electric Prunes' January, 1968 album Mass in F Minor, and was practicing 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 had 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" was coined in the Village Voice in reference to The Mind Garage. 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 isles. The persistent efforts by the Mind Garage to contemporize religious music. succeeded in church after church, and state after state, and broke down the barriers between church and rock and roll, creating an environment where a whole new genre of music could thrive. By January, 1970, they had accomplished what they set out to do. Today the genre is called Christian Rock. The early beginnings are well documented from 1967 to 1970 in the local and national magazines, newspapers and TV shows of the late sixties.
[edit] Electric Mass Experience
An award winning article by Joyce Tracewelldescribes 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.
The church programs explained that "the Holy Communion 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".
[edit] Controversial
The most famous Mind Garage poster 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 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. Mind Garage declined the invitation to play at Woodstock Festival in 1969. 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 continued to influence musicians long after they stopped playing. In 1982, John Denver thanked each one of the Mind Garage for contributing to "Seasons of the Heart", his last million selling gold album.
[edit] Composite Concert Review
A Mind Garage concert was often billed a celebration of life, a total electric happening. People experienced real shock, and were then overcome by the band's sincerity and superb musicianship. They are able to draw people into what they are doing. The intent is to involve all the senses. The band has the power to transform the places they play in and the people they play for with a primal heart beat rhythm, and exact harmony and instrumentation , 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. 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. 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. 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
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[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
[edit] Reference: The Beginning of Christian Rock Music
- 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
- Celebrate Life October 14, 1967
- Village Voice Magazine July, 1968
- National Liturgical Conference August 21, 1968
- ABC TV "Direction Series April 27, 1969
- NBC's Huntley Brinkley News August 8, 1969
- Rolling Stone Magazine August 6, 1970
- Controversial Mind Garage Poster
- Mind Garage Electric Liturgy Poster
- Princeton Poster
- Mind Garage Website www.mindgarage.com
