Tedd Smith with Ralph Carmichael & the Young People
“New Vibrations: a QUEST in folk rock”
Light/Word #LS-5561-LP
From the liner notes:
“I have written NEW VIBRATIONS with the intention of having it presented as a staged musical in churches, concert halls, high school auditoriums, etc. The work presents two singers, a boy and a girl, asking each other questions, and sometimes offering possible answers, to the meaning of life. The quest takes place through the medium of music and poetry. The musical portion uses the two singers plus a chorus and folk-rock oriented instrumental group. I have written the poetry as a sort of reflective introduction to each piece of music.
The work begins with the two characters hearing the sounds of life today and wondering what it’s all about. Why is life? A conversational quest develops through youth, marriage, parenthood, old age and comes full circle to the couple’s son who has the same questions.
It is my hope that NEW VIBRATIONS offers some shafts of light to the timeless quest that each has for the meaning of life.”
Pastor John Rydgren
“Silhouette Segments”
1968, The American Lutheran Church #8531
So it’s not a Christian musical, but it is possibly the greatest psychedelic beat-hippy jesus-freak records ever recorded. The tracks are bits taken from the radio show of pastor John Rydgren, whose narrates and acts out strange skits in a Joe Frank meets Ken Nordine voice, often over a mashup of popular song clips and found sounds. Amazing stuff.
“This Silhouette montage of music, voice, and sounds was actually inspired by the thousands of teens who have talked to John or written to him expressing their search for a personal, everyday “experiencing” of Christ. The production dramatizes where they are, where they search… cars, a Monkee concert, the surf, problems… represented by the train, elephants (ala Bill Cosby’s “Little Old Man”) a trip, and in the middle of all this… the answers they have found.”
“A natural phenomenon… watching girls. A special attention… girls… designed for man by God. The beautiful girls today, the colorful music provided by the Bob Crewe Generation, along with the fact that God did design a most special creature to keep man company… provided the inspiration for the Silhouette production, “Music to Watch Girls By”
“A Creation by John dramatizing with humor the near tragedy, or at least unfortunate, condition of shallow opinions. The Silhouette production portrays the almost mechanical responses given by many people regarding what they believe about God, social concerns, or what they expect from life.”
“At John’s request, kind of a hippie D.J. wrote his version of the 23rd psalm. The purpose of the Silhouette production was to help prove that something as ancient as a psalm from the Old Testament could fit right in the middle of today.”
Ralph Carmichael & Kurt Kaiser
“Tell It Like It Is: A Folk Musical About God”
1970, Light (Word) # LS-5512-LP
From the liner notes:
” I don’t pretend to know where it’s all going or where it will end. I don’t have to know. It’s not my responsibility to second guess trends, much less create them and propagate them. But I do have a feeling that we have to stay relevant. We’ve been told straight out to do that and Christ Himself set the example. In TELL IT, we have assembled a conglomerate of sounds (rhythmic, chordal, melodic) that kids are accepting at the moment. Who cares about “pure folk forms”? If this album is pointed to in years to come as a pure form of anything we will have goofed pretty badly.” — Ralph Carmichael
Ralph Carmichael is one of the best known composers of contemporary Christian music, as well as an arranger and writer for everyone from Nat King Cole to Elvis. He now has a “big band gospel” group.
Michael Quatro Jam Band
“Look Deeply Into the Mirror”
1973, Evolution #3021
Far from being the guy-alone-in-his-room performer that this cover suggests, Michael Quatro was a classical music prodigy (performing with the Detroit Symphony at age 7), a Detroit rock producer, and million-selling recording artist. He’s the brother of Patti & Suzi Quatro, the original female rock stars of the 60′s.
This track features Ted Nugent on guitar. Nowadays, I think it would be more likely to find Ted Nugent chasing hippies like Michael Quatro off his land with a shotgun in one hand and a rack of beef ribs in the other.
Michael recently had his own recording and promotion company, but as the website hasn’t been updated since 2004, I don’t think it went much of anywhere.
Swami Satchinadanda – did I spell that right? – is the guru of the Integral Yoga Institute where I do yoga. How funny that he made it to your site. Got some good laughs, though I didn’t see an album given to me: German Beer Drinking Songs. Lots of busty blondes drinking big ‘ol tankards of ale. Anyway, thanks for the fun.
Michael recently had his own 
