My LDS Music History - Part 1 - In the Beginning

I find myself at odds with much of the LDS Music world.  In a lot of ways, it’s the club that I always wanted to be in, full of all the cool kids in school, but for which I, myself, would never qualify.  On the other hand, it’s full of songs and albums that, while I may own them for their study and archival value, I hardly ever listen to for fun.  To that mix, add that many of the people in the LDS Music world are some of my closest and truest friends.

Yes, it’s complicated, innit?

In addition, it’s tough to say which moments in LDS music history were the most influential, because, frankly, most of it isn’t really history yet.  It’s all still too new.  The big picture is still too small.  Yes, there are core moments like “The Plan”, and “Saturday’s Warrior”, but their impact is still, being measured, I think.

But, I CAN talk about the moments that had a big impact on me, personally.  So, I think I’ll tell that story, in the context of as much of the big picture as possible.

The Seventies

In the summer of 76, I started to wake up to popular culture.  Prior to that I was in isolation as a geek.  I listened to classical music and read fantasy novels.  But that summer, a friend I grew up with introduced me to The Rolling Stones, Nazareth, and Kansas.  

I also went into ninth grade, and so I stared early morning Seminary.  That was when I had my first taste of LDS pop music.  In those years, the church did two things in the Seminary curriculum that struck me:  They had a series of films starring a group of Mormon teenagers (that we supposedly could relate to), and a soundtrack album of songs that went with it, that we would supposedly like better than the evil noise that was on the radio.  The first one I remember was called “Like Unto Us”, and I can still sing the hook line of the title track.  Back in the day, I didn’t really like it.  It wasn’t my sound, but it gave me some hope.  Each year, another soundtrack album came out, with new films.  Most were, in my ears, pretty forgettable. Others were bad enough to actually make me angry (like “I’ll Build You a Rainbow”).

There was another thing in the LDS pop world that was stirring up waves, a play called “Saturday’s Warrior”.  Since we lived in Indiana, however, it never was performed even close to us, so it’s impact wasn’t felt until many years later.

Another thing was happening to me, during those early high school years.  My musical focus began to shift.  I had grown up playing classical music on the ‘cello, and I got fascinated by the electric bass and, eventually, the guitar.  A friend of mine took me to my first rock concert:  Styx, on the Grand Illusion tour.  It was eye and ear opening to me in many ways.

Soon, other friends introduced me to other bands that would have an equally big impact on me:  The Resurrection Band (later known as the “Rez Band”, and even later as “Rez”), and Petra.  I discovered Christian Rock.  In my own mind and limited experience, I held the three up and compared them:  Like Unto Us, Mainstream rock, and Christian rock.  Even back then, I was forming a dream that someday, someone would do hard rock like the mainstreamers and the Christians were doing, but they’d do it for us Mormons.

Also unknown to me at the time, the Osmonds had put out their Mormon Concept Album “The Plan”, several years before, and I didn’t even get a copy or listen to it until just a few years ago, as of this writing.

I kept learning to play bass and guitar, and I also began writing songs.  If nobody else was going to do it, I would!





Come back often to hear about new songs and shows. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including his Dutch Oven blog: Mark's Black Pot and his LDS pop culture blog: MoBoy blog.