Posted by:
snagglepuss
(
)
Date: January 31, 2014 04:56AM
I have a fascination for "rock music is the devil's music" and found a few references about Lynn A. Bryson. I ran down some of his records and listened closely to a copy of a fireside tape.
What I've found about the guy:
About the song, “Monster Shindig”: One of its songwriters was Lynn A. Bryson, known all over Utah for his LDS/Mormon youth fireside speeches about demonic backmasking conspiracies, John Lennon attempted to take over the U.S. government with a “Spear of Destiny,” and a series of cassettes decrying eeevil rock music for Mormon youth.
Here’s what I’ve found about the guy, as much discography info as I can piece together:
Lynn Bryson on 45 RPM singles:
“Big Mean Drag Machine”/”Pretty Things,” Hook 12863.
–A copy went for $31 on Ebay in 2011. The 45 has an orange label with black printing, no listing for record company address, no other (to my knowledge) records issued on that label. It was listed at KMEN San Bernardino, CA, 1290AM radio station local charts as “honorable mention” during 1/10/64, 1/17/64, 1/24/64, and 1/31/64. The record appears to be a garage rock record, not an MGM (or any affiliated label) release. Per Lynn Bryson’s book, page 76, he was a DJ for KMEN at the time. This 45 does not show up in any of my Jerry Osborne 45RPm singles’ price guides (POPULAR & ROCK PRICE GUIDE 3rd edition, ROCK/ROCK & ROLL PRICE GUIDE,4th edition, published by Osborne-Hamilton)–meaning it was extremely obscure as an indie “spec” release or vanity press.
Lynn Bryson was also affiliated/recorded/songwriter for several releases for Hanna-Barbera Records, on the HBR label, beginning April, 1965–per Billboard, May 3, 1965 article listing Larry Goldberg starting it up, signing both Danny Hutton and Lyn Bryson for HBR:
45 singles:
Roger and Lynn, “Summer Kind of Song”/”Baby Move In” HBR 444 (Lynn Bryson was the “Lynn” of Roger and Lynn on this uncharted 45 single release, dating July, 1965, listed as a new release in Billboard on 8/14/65. Both songs show Lynn Bryson’s co-songwriting credit.
Lynn Bryson’s co-songwriting credits appear also on the following HBR 45 singles:
The Creations IV, “Dance In The Sand” HBR 440 (May, 1965)
Danny Hutton, “Monster Shindig” HBR 447 (July, 1965)
Danny Hutton, “Monster Shindig Part 2″ HBR 453 (November, 1965)
“BYU Boy Missionary”/”The Flip Side,” LAB 13966 (recorded 3/09/66; Bryson claims this 45 single sold 15,000 copies in 1966 in Utah. ???)
Listed at position #17, up from #31, at KYME 740, Boise, ID, on 7/16/66, local radio station survey chart.
On Lp, Lynn Bryson is credited on co-songwriting credits on the HBR albums:
SNAGGLEPUSS TELLS THE STORY OF THE WIZARD OF OZ, HBR HLP 2026
WILMA FLINTSTONE TELLS THE STORY OF BAMBI , HBR HLP 2027
THE RELUCTANT DRAGON STARRING TOUCHE’ TURTLE AND DUM DUM, HBR 2029
An Lp discography, of sorts, for Lynn Bryson’s Provo based vinyl record label, circa 1970, LAB PRODUCTIONS:
LAB 100, THE SONS OF MOSIAH (2 Lp set; $5.95 list)
LAB 101, THE MISSIONARY ALBUM (his 1966 45 recording of “The Missionary Song” is one of the tracks on the Lp; $3.95 list)
LAB 102, AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM VOL 1 SUNG BY THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL LAMANITE CHILDREN’S CHORUS (gatefold cover with booklet attached at the inner spine; $5.95 list)
LAB 103, AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM VOL 2 …. ($5.95 list)
Note: Orrin Hatch was Bryson’s music attorney for a while for LAB Productions, c. 1970. THE SONS OF MOSIAH had members from a San Francisco psych-rock group, TRIPSICORD, as well as MOBY GRAPE. According to Bryson’s book, WINNING THE TESTIMONY WAR (1982), his SONS OF MOSIAH long-hair Mormon rock group had several bookings canceled and he lost $9,000 on the tour. AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM albums, volumes 1 and 2, were the soundtracks (?) to a movie project shown in southern Utah and Arizona to promote the BYU Indian Placement program, about 1970.
More or less in order, Lynn Bryson was a DJ at the following radio stations, beginning 1958, through December, 1968:
KPKW, Pasco, WA (Mentioned in Billboard in mid-’59)
KWAC, Bakersfield, CA (12/62)
KFXM, San Bernardino, CA
KMEN, San Bernardino, CA (terminated due to his religious stridency in early 1964; however, he’d plugged his own garage hot rod rock 45 single in January, “Big Mean Draggin’ Machine” for over a month on his station, which may have influenced the station)
–met Danny Hutton, later of THREE DOG NIGHT fame, and Larry Goldberg, who started Ultima Records in October, 1964, a label notable for the first appearance of a Jimmy Webb (“Up Up and Away,” “By The Time I Get to Phoenix,” and too many other hit songs to list) song on the first 45 on that label, Ultima 701, by Millie Rodgers, “There You Go”/”Take Marion For Example”. Larry Goldberg was then recruited by Hanna Barbera to turn out children’s albums and rock ‘n’ roll 45 singles on the HBR label, spring, 1965, bringing Danny Hutton and Lynn Bryson with him, for maybe six months.
KLAV, Las Vegas, NV
KSNN, Pocatello, ID
KCPX, Salt Lake City, UT
KNAK, Salt Lake City, UT
KGUD, Santa Barabara, CA
KOVO, Provo, UT
KNAK, Salt Lake City, UT
C. 1969, Provo had some local rock groups with long hair: The Spring Fever, The Soul Sophisticates, the Elder Generation, Brother Bryson’s Traveling Salvation Show (obviously borrowing from the Neil Diamond song, “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show”), and the Sons of Mosiah.
Bryson lost his record label, record studio, and had his house foreclosed in Provo on 8/22/79. He did the THE OCCULT AND ROCK MUSIC firesides after that date. More or less, his act/roadshow about eeevil backmasking conspiracies parallel what a Los Angeles preacher was doing at the same time (early ‘80s), Pastor Gary L. Greenwald, as well as the Dan & Steve Peters record burning ministries going around (my) college campuses at the same time.
He wrote a book, c. 1982, published by his Band-Aid Productions, WINNING THE TESTIMONY WAR. The end of the book concludes with the failure of his Book of Mormon on Tape business that ended with him losing his studio and house in 1979