Mind Garage
Encyclopedia
Mind Garage was an American psychedelic rock and roll
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...

 band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

 from Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia. It is the county seat of Monongalia County. Placed along the banks of the Monongahela River, Morgantown is the largest city in North-Central West Virginia, and the base of the Morgantown metropolitan area...

, and a progenitor of Christian rock music. Their "Electric Liturgy" performed in 1968 was the first documented Christian rock worship service, and their 1969 eponymous debut RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

 album was one of the earliest Christian rock albums released.

Formation

Mind Garage was formed after a five person band from Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia. It is the county seat of Monongalia County. Placed along the banks of the Monongahela River, Morgantown is the largest city in North-Central West Virginia, and the base of the Morgantown metropolitan area...

 called the Glass Menagerie disbanded in July 1967 after touring the Midwest. Those leaving the Glass Menagerie were John Fisher, lead guitarist, who joined the Shadows of Knight
Shadows of Knight
The Shadows of Knight are an American rock band from the Chicago suburbs, formed in the 1960s, who play a form of British blues mixed with influences from their native city. At the time they first started recording, the band's self-description was as follows: "The Stones, Animals and Yardbirds...

 as a bass player; and Jim Straub, the drummer. The remaining three members, Larry McClurg, Jack Bond, and Norris Lytton returned to Morgantown where they were all students at West Virginia University
West Virginia University
West Virginia University is a public research university in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. Other campuses include: West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg; West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery; Potomac State College of West Virginia University in Keyser;...

. After meeting two other WVU students John Vaughan and Ted Smith, it was decided to form a new band. The band was encouraged by WVU's campus minister, Episcopal
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...

 priest Rev. Michael Paine, who helped the group to organize its religious repertory, while Paine's wife, Victoria "Tori" Paine, suggested the name Mind Garage to the band.

The Electric Liturgy

In 1967 Paine suggested the band write rock music with Christian content for use in the church, following the tradition of Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 who used popular tavern songs in his music. "At that time, there were virtually no albums available to a national audience that could remotely be described as Christian rock; it's impossible to overstate how radical the "Electric Liturgy" was in that context. The Mind Garage, which never limited itself to one style of music began composing the Electric Liturgy in Paine's attic with a serious intent to get the message across. The Electric Liturgy was conceived as an orthodox Episcopalian service, but was immediately 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 live presentation of the Electric Liturgy contains the Kyrie Eleison and The Service of the Word (Greeting, Opening Prayer, First Reading, Psalm, Epistle Reading, Gospel Reading, Sermon, Creed, Pastoral Prayer and the Offertory), immediately followed by the Service of Communion which concludes with a prayer and Benediction and the dismissal of the congregation. 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."

This is the same format used by "Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal service books, historic liturgies from the Catholic Church and the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, and ancient liturgies from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Cappadocia...which all have the same basic structure."

On March 10, 1968, in the first documented Christian rock worship service, the Mind Garage played live in church, "...as cymbals crashed and voices called for love and thanksgiving, babies squealed and happy smiles spontaneously flickered across the congregation". As a result, "those dirty, beatnick-hippies began to have a new image. 'I didn't know they were like THAT,' one woman exclaimed, "That was beautiful!"

The April 14, 1968 Easter Sunday performance originally scheduled on West Virginia University property was cancelled when university administrators backed out of the previous arrangement with Paine and declared the performance unconstitutional. Paine then bargained with the First Presbyterian church to use their parking lot. In the mounting tension the church elders refused to allow the band to use the church facilities when the local paper ran a photo of the Mind Garage in a tree with Paine and friends standing about. At the last moment Rev. Jennings Fast of Wesley Methodist Church provided a place for the service.

The Electric Liturgy became so popular the band was invited to perform the worship service in churches throughout the Eastern United States
Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, the American East, or simply the East is traditionally defined as the states east of the Mississippi River. The first two tiers of states west of the Mississippi have traditionally been considered part of the West, but can be included in the East today; usually in...

 including Washington, D.C., New York, and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 Chapel. The Electric Liturgy was shocking. Dean Ernest Gordon of Princeton University said, "We could all do with a shocking splendid spiritual surprise."

On July 24, 1968, the term "theo-rock" 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, in Episcopal, Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist churches, each time with people dancing in the aisles. Each time the services were attended by Christians and non Christians alike in a communal celebration of life. The Mind Garage "literally packed the church". What they did was "...to contemporize religious music. Make it for people today, much as John Wesley or Martin Luther did.
A nationally televised Christian Rock and Roll worship service was given by the Mind Garage in St. Mark's Episcopal church in New York on ABC TV, on April 13, 1969.

The Electric Liturgy, recorded for RCA Victor (LSP-4319) in 1969 was the first Christian Rock album ever recorded in Nashville, at RCA's "Nashville Sound
Nashville sound
The Nashville sound originated during the late 1950s as a sub-genre of American country music, replacing the chart dominance of honky tonk music which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s...

" Studio A, on Music Row.

An award-winning article by Joyce Tracewell 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."

One poster associated with the Mind Garage is a line drawing of a bare chested woman with long flowing hair that nearly covers the chest, with her arms raised, surrounded by the group. 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. An adaptation was created for the Electric Liturgy by covering the woman's chest with a banner displaying the words "We Welcome You To The Electric Liturgy, A Festival of Feeling, The Electric Mass".

Recording career

While still known only locally, the Mind Garage recorded an original single 45 rpm "Asphalt Mother", and drew the attention of major record companies like Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....

, Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 and RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

. Marshall Chess
Marshall Chess
Marshall Chess is the son and nephew of the founders of Chess Records, the Chicago-based independent record label that first recorded an unprecedented list of African-American, blues and early rock and roll artists such as: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy...

 came to see the band expecting to hear blues and went away baffled as to the kind of music they played. Atlantic Records only wanted to sign McClurg, but he refused to leave the band. Meanwhile, the Mind Garage continued to play the Electric Mass 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 of secular, psychedelic rock.

In 1969 the group's newly acquired manager, Tom Surman, aka Cossie, negotiated a contract for the entire band with RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

, the largest record company in the world. The Mind Garage recorded two albums and two singles in New York, Chicago and Nashville studios.

Armed Forces Radio and Television Service entertained troops at home and abroad in Vietnam with the music of the Mind Garage and other artists such as Gary Lewis
Gary Lewis (musician)
Gary Lewis is an American musician who was the eponymous leader of Gary Lewis & the Playboys.-Early life:Gary Lewis is the son of comedian and actor Jerry Lewis...

, Bob Seger
Bob Seger
Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...

, and Percy Faith
Percy Faith
Percy Faith was a Canadian-born American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and...

. The Mind Garage often appeared with groups such as Canned Heat
Canned Heat
Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists...

, Sly and the Family Stone, Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...

, all of whom played at Woodstock 1969.

Hiatus

The Mind Garage declined the invitation to perform at Woodstock in 1969.

In 1970, when their recording contract was about to expire, RCA offered to renew it but the band 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. Drummer Ted Smith, acknowledged by the Zildjian cymbals as one of the best drummers in the world, continued his career with the Spinners
The Spinners (U.S. band)
The Spinners is a soul music vocal group, active for over 50 years, and with a long run of pop and R&B hits especially during the 1970s. The group, originating from Detroit, still tours regularly ....

 as tour drummer for the next several decades, and can be heard on the Spinners "LIVE" album (Atlantic SD 2-910-1198).

Reunion

In 2007 all five original band members reunited for a music festival. The Father of Woodstock Artie Kornfeld
Artie Kornfeld
Artie Kornfeld is an American musician, record producer and music executive. He is perhaps best known as the music promoter for the Woodstock Festival held in 1969.- History :...

 teamed up with Larry McClurg to promote Goodstock Music Festival
Goodstock Music Festival
Goodstock Music Festival was a three-day concert arranged by Larry McClurg and Artie Kornfield. It was held on July 19–21, 2007 in Summersville, West Virginia. - Concept and Promotion :...

, reported Pollstar
Pollstar
Pollstar is a concert tour industry's leading trade publication that gets its information primarily from the agents, managers and promoters who are producing concerts. Founded in 1981, it is based in Fresno, California and has an office in London with correspondents in six countries. Pollstar is...

.

According to Kornfeld, "I consider Goodstock to be the first real attempt to have another 3 days of peace and music". "When everybody's doing Woodstocks in 2009, I'm going to be doing Goodstock -The Woodstock Reunion 2009, and that's my dream for Larry and I to have."

Composite Concert Review

A Mind Garage concert was often billed a celebration of life, a total electric happening. Graffiti Magazine
Graffiti (magazine)
Graffiti was a Canadian music magazine in the 1980s. The magazine's primary focus was on Canadian and international alternative music, although it also covered fashion and film.-External links:*...

 reported, "their musicianship was stunning and their stage presence was natural and unpretentious."

But a Garage performance could be so much more. People would not only be stunned by the musicianship, but they would experience shock. It was then that they would be overcome by the band's sincerity and superb musicianship. They were able to draw people into what they were doing. The intent was to involve all the senses. The band had the power to transform the places they played in and the people they played for with a primal heartbeat rhythm, an exacting, instrumental harmony and a rising pitch that reflected or drove the intensity of the audience. The visual theatrics seem to invoke "the forces of nature to come crashing down," reported Hit Parader Magazine. Then they would play soft familiar passages to bring the listener back to earth.

Mind Garage was not the usual frat party or sock hop band of that period. 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 finally burst open. The entire street would fill up and police would give up trying to keep some sense of order and took to re-routing traffic. Sites would pack beyond capacity at many of the venues with people swelling out the doorways. Getting in the door insured the participant some form of entertainment. In the Fairmont Theatre lobby, someone was seen in a tub taking a bath. Nothing ever seemed to be routine at these engagements.

On occasion there were other performers, light shows, bizarre, psychic, fashion shows and dancers, but the Mind Garage was always the central focus. General comment from rockers would float around in conversations while the band was on break. It usually would be summed up in the only way they knew how to express it, "Man, these guys are f---ing good!"

The Mind Garage not only had the right sound but they had, it seemed, much more - a spiritual spark, a magnetic charisma, a mesmerizing magic. It moved cynic; it moved saint. Mind Garage would become the proto-Christian music rock band for the wave of Jesus music that would follow them.

Significance

Christian rock music
Christian rock
Christian rock is a form of rock music played by individuals and bands whose members are Christians and who often focus the lyrics on matters concerned with the Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands...

 did not exist in 1967 for mainstream American media. As alternative styles of music developed "...Christian Rock Music began in the 1970s when a group known as the Mind Garage recorded "Electric Liturgy". The Mind Garage is perhaps the first Christian Rock band, with documentation going back to 1967 in local media and national magazines and newspapers and television such as The Village Voice, Billboard and Rolling Stone magazine, ABC and NBC TV. "Today original records from many of the original Jesus Rock bands like The Mind Garage (arguably the first band of its kind), Aslan, Selah, The Concrete Rubber Band, and Agape go for hundreds of dollars to collectors...".

For as little time as the Mind Garage performed, their original, unique style and energy had a ripple effect that reached the Punk era
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 and New Wave music
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 and beyond. The late 1970s group The Fleshtones
The Fleshtones
The Fleshtones are an American garage rock band from Queens, New York formed in 1976.- 1976-1979 :The Fleshtones were formed in 1976 in Whitestone, New York by Keith Streng and Marek Pakulski The Fleshtones are an American garage rock band from Queens, New York formed in 1976.- 1976-1979 :The...

 refer to the Mind Garage as an influence. Noted folk rock musician John Denver
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...

 acknowledged each member of the Mind Garage for contributing to his 1982 Gold album "Seasons of the Heart".

Members

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

Discography

  • "Asphalt Mother"/"Reach Out" - Morning Glori Music 45RPM 1000 - 1968
  • Mind Garage - RCA VICTOR Stereo 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
    Tobacco Road (song)
    "Tobacco Road" is a song written and first recorded by John D. Loudermilk in 1960 that was a hit for The Nashville Teens in 1964 and has since become a standard across several musical genres....

    "/ "Jailhouse Rock
    Jailhouse Rock (song)
    "Jailhouse Rock" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller that first became a hit for Elvis Presley. The song was released as a 45rpm single on September 24, 1957, to coincide with the release of Presley's motion picture, Jailhouse Rock...

    " - RCA Victor 45RPM 47-9812 - 1970
  • Mind Garage Lost Demo Early Years CD - Morning Glori Music 2000 - 2005
  • Mind Garage /and Mind Garage Again! Compilation CD - Caustic Eye Productions
    Caustic Eye Productions
    Caustic Eye Productions is a small Charleston, West Virginia based record label and promotions company that was started in August of 2001 by Rod Lanham. The focus of the label is to give local WV artists the means to essentially self-release their works without having to know how to do it...

    CAUS017 - 2007
  • Mind Garage: A Total Electric Happening - European Release on Anazitisi Records 2009
  • Mind Garage Five Yellow Sun Music 2010

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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