The Mind Garage 1967-1970
In July 1967, the Glass Menagerie group disbanded after touring the Midwest, and Larry McClurg, Jack Bond, and Norris Lytton returned to Morgantown where they were all students at West Virginia University. Jim Straub, drummer, left for parts unknown. John Fisher, lead guitar, joined the Shadows of Knight as a bass player from 1967-1971. At the University, Larry, Norris and Jack met John Vaughan, Ted Smith and the fiery, young, controversial and imaginative campus minister, Reverend Michael Paine. Soon a new, as yet unnamed band was formed. Reverend Paine's wife, Tori, named the band the Mind Garage.
Christian Rock Genre
Christian rock music did not exist in 1967 for mainstream American media. The Mind Garage is perhaps the first Christian Rock band [1], with documentation going back to 1967 in local media and national magazines and newspapers and television such as The Village Voice[2], Billboard and Rolling Stone magazine, ABC and NBC TV.[3] Because the Mind Garage never limited itself to one kind of music, in 1967 at the suggestion of Reverend Paine, in the tradition of Bach who used popular tavern songs in his music, the psychedelic hard rock band began writing rock music for church in Reverend Paine's attic, with a serious intent[4] to get the message across. They took Rock 'n Roll into churches, playing an actual Mass with communion.[citation needed] The music they created was named the Electric Liturgy[5], and subtitled A Festival of Feeling, The Electric Mass.[citation needed]
The premier performance, originally scheduled on West Virginia University property was cancelled when university administrators backed out of the previous arrangement with Reverend Paine and declared the performance unconstitutional. Reverend 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 Reverend Paine and friends standing about. At the last moment Reverend Jennings Fast of Wesley Methodist Church provided a place for the service. 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 [6] began to have a new image. "I didn't know they were like THAT," one woman exclaimed, "That was beautiful!"
By July 1968, the term "theo-rock"[2] was coined in the Village Voice in reference to The Mind Garage music.[citation needed] 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.
Mind Garage: First nationally televised Christian Rock worship service
The persistent efforts by the Mind Garage to contemporize religious music[7] succeeded in church after church, state after state.[citation needed] They broke the barrier between church and rock and roll, creating an environment where Christian Rock, a new genre of rock music could thrive.[citation needed]
The first 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 April 27, 1969,[8] catapulting Christian Rock into the mainstream.[citation needed]
The Electric Liturgy, recorded for RCA Victor (LSP-4319) in 1969 was the first Christian Rock album recorded in Nashville at RCA's "Nashville Sound" Studio A, on Music Row, foreshadowing CCM. It was a godsend that gave Christian Rock music a whole new distribution beyond the traditional Christian marketplace.[citation needed]
Electric Mass Experience
An award winning article by Joyce Tracewell[9] 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."
Impact on Religion
The Electric Liturgy was conceived in 1967 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.[10]
The church programs explained that "the Holy Communion[11] 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 perform the service 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."[12]
Controversy
The most famous Mind Garage poster[13] 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. The design was too controversial for most church bulletins in mainstream conservative America of 1968, so a variation[14] of the poster, was made by covering the woman with a banner saying, "Welcome to the Electric Liturgy".
Mind Garage Signs with RCA
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, Atlantic Records and RCA. Marshall Chess came to see the band expecting to hear blues and went away baffled as to the kind of music they played. Atlantic Records wanted to sign only the lead singer, Larry 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. The group's newly acquired manager, Tom Surman, aka Cossie, negotiated a contract for the entire band with RCA, the largest record company in the world. The Mind Garage signed with RCA in 1969, and 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, Bob Seger, and Percy Faith. The Mind Garage often appeared with groups such as Canned Heat, Sly and the Family Stone, Paul Butterfield, all of whom played at Woodstock 1969, but the Mind Garage declined the invitation themselves [15] to play at Woodstock Festival. In 1970, when their recording contract was about to expire, RCA offered to renew it but the band declined. Then 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,[citation needed] continued his career with the Spinners as tour drummer for the next several decades, and can be heard on the Spinners "LIVE" album (Atlantic SD 2-910-1198).
For as little time as the Mind Garage performed, the fresh, unique style and energy had a ripple effect that, even without a #1 hit, continued to influence groups from one end of the musical spectrum to the other long after they had stopped recording.[citation needed] The Fleshtones from the 70's era of Punk rock and New Wave music credited the Mind Garage as an influence.
John Denver, noted folk singer, listed the Mind Garage members in the liner notes of his 1982 vinyl Gold record "Seasons of the Heart" for contributing to the album.[16]
Composite Concert Review
A Mind Garage concert was often billed a celebration of life[17], a total electric happening. Graffiti Magazine 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[18]. 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.[19] The intent was to involve all the senses. The band had the power to transform[20] the places they played in and the people they played for with a primal heartbeat rhythm[21], an exacting, instrumental harmony[22] 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 (September 1970).[23] 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.[24] 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 spilling out the doorways.[25] 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.
Reunion
Mind Garage at Goodstock Music Festival
In 2007 all five original band members reunited for a music festival. The Father of Woodstock Artie Kornfeld teamed up with Larry McClurg to promote Goodstock Music Festival, reported Pollstar.
According to Kornfeld[26], "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.
Members
* Larry McClurg - lead vocals
* Norris Lytton - vocals, bass and sax
* Ted Smith - percussion
* Jack Bond - vocals, keyboard
* John Vaughan - vocals, lead guitar
Paint It Black
Mind Garage Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I want it into black
No colors anymore
I want them to turn black
I see a line of cars
And they're all painted black
With flowers and my love
I see the girls walk by
Dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head
Until my darkness goes
Paint it black, oh
I look inside myself
And see my heart is black
I see my red door
And it's painted into black
No more will my green sea
Go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing
Happening to you
I see people turn their heads
And quickly look away
Like a newborn baby
It just happens anyway
Paint it black, oh
I see a red door
And I want it into black
No colors anymore
I want them to turn black
If I look hard enough
Into the setting sun
My love will laugh with me
Before the morning comes
Paint it black, oh
I wanna see it, baby
Painted black
I wanna see it baby, baby
Painted black
I wanna see the sun
Painted black
The song "Paint It Black" by Mind Garage is a meditative song on the theme of darkness, blackness, and grief. The song is a cover of The Rolling Stones' 1966 hit, but it's done in a more psychedelic, experimental style featuring some unique instrumentation such as the harmonica, sitar, and haunting vocal arrangements. The lyrics depict an individual's bloodthirsty desire to paint everything in their vicinity black, to rid the world of "colours" and embrace darkness, even their own heart.
The song's opening lines "I see a red door and I want it painted black / no colors anymore, I want them to turn black," symbolize the singer's desire to remove the brightness from their life and embrace the darkness. The red door can be seen as a symbol of passion, desire, and emotion, something the singer wants to suppress and erase. The following lines "I see a line of cars / and they're all painted black / with flowers and my love both never to come back" convey the image of a funeral procession. The "flowers" and "my love" are both gone, and the singer feels a need to turn everything around them black.
Furthermore, the chorus, "I wanna see it painted, painted black / Black as night, black as coal / I wanna see the sun … painted black," showcases the singer's desire for everything to be black, even the sun which in essence is the bringer of brightness and life. The last verse, "I look inside myself and see my heart is black / I see my red door and it's painted into black" suggests that the singer has embraced the darkness and blackness to the point where their heart, which is typically seen as a place of warmth and hope, is now completely black.
Line by Line Meaning
I see a red door
There is a red door in front of me.
And I want it into black
I wish to change the color of the red door to black.
No colors anymore
I don't want to see any more colors.
I want them to turn black
I want everything to be black.
I see a line of cars
I see a row of cars.
And they're all painted black
All of these cars have been painted black.
With flowers and my love
There were flowers and my love on these cars.
Both never to come back
They will never return.
I see the girls walk by
Girls are walking past me.
Dressed in their summer clothes
They are wearing summer clothes.
I have to turn my head
I must look away.
Until my darkness goes
Until I feel better and less dark.
Paint it black, oh
Make everything black.
I look inside myself
I am introspecting.
And see my heart is black
I see that I am feeling very dark.
I see my red door
I can see my red door in my mind.
And it's painted into black
It is now black in my imagination.
No more will my green sea
The green sea will no longer be present.
Go turn a deeper blue
It will not get darker, it will only turn blue.
I could not foresee this thing
I didn't expect this to happen.
Happening to you
It is happening to the person I am speaking to.
I see people turn their heads
I watched people turn their heads.
And quickly look away
They were looking away quickly.
Like a newborn baby
It is like how babies do something without thinking.
It just happens anyway
It happens without any real reason.
Paint it black, oh
Let's make everything black.
I see a red door
Once again, I see the red door.
And I want it into black
And I still want it black.
No colors anymore
I don't want to see any more colors.
I want them to turn black
Make everything black.
If I look hard enough
If I try hard enough to see.
Into the setting sun
In the direction of the setting sun.
My love will laugh with me
I will laugh with my love.
Before the morning comes
Before morning arrives.
Paint it black, oh
We should make everything black.
I wanna see it, baby
I really want to see it.
Painted black
Painted black.
I wanna see it baby, baby
I want it so badly.
Painted black
Painted black.
I wanna see the sun
I want to see the sun.
Painted black
Painted black.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Abkco Music Inc.
Written by: Keith Richards, Michael Jagger
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind