McLuhan Anomaly Information

More Info

I have provided the great people at Progarchives with information about McLuhan, the Group and also the musicians that recorded the Anomaly album.  Here is that information for anyone interested:

McLuhan was a concept group.  The creator of the idea was David Wright, who also played trumpet, slide-whistle, and some vocals on the Anomaly album.  The concept was to develop a mixed-media group where no particular musical venue or style would necessarily prevail.  We wanted to throw out pre-conceived ideas of what would be “acceptable” to an audience.  The idea was to try different things in our performances including special sound effects such as baby’s crying, various weird instruments, background sounds and we even played old movies during our performance (“Monster Bride” was actually Bride of Frankenstein and in live performance we would turn on the movie at the point where we played the 20^th Century Fox theme). Yes, we had a little attitude.  We were tired of commercial music, marching band music, Burt Bacharach music, elevator music in general.  McLuhan was telling us that “the medium was the message”, not the content.  So, we basically had an attitude that it was not important to be defined as a certain type of band (Rock, Jazz, dixieland, Soul, Prom, Bar-Mitzvah, Country, etc.)  Labels didn’t matter.  We were saying that the world should wake-up and reject conventional norms (Spiders - “business men in ranch-house cages, mindless-prisoners of routine”). 

David Wright was known to me as a fellow-student at UICC (University of Illinois Chicago) who played trumpet in the concert band.  I was playing clarinet and had paid my way through College with week-end prom gigs on Sax, Flute, Clarinet.  My group was called the Seven Seas which did a lot of Burt Bacharach with a female vocalist.  We lost our Trumpet player and so I asked David to fill-in.  He had never played professionally but I loved his trumpet sound quality.  He enjoyed the few months he played with us. Marvin Krout also played organ with the Seven Seas at the time of the break-up.  Then it happened, the group had a falling apart thing with the singer and guitar player feeling like they were the stars, deserved more, had big plans, etc.  (Never did hear what Lawrence Welk program they might have ended up on.)  So, we sat there in my basement after the two stars had walked-out and it was then that Dave introduced us to the McLuhan concept.  He said he had some material that he would like to try to develop as a group.  It was perfect timing.  We were all about 20 years old and at a perfect time in each of our lives to commit to something like this.   My neighbor Neal Rosner heard some of the sounds coming from my house and stopped in and told us he played the base and could sing.  Turned out he really could.  We brought in John Mahoney who was a drummer in the concert band and could also sing very well.  I then ran into a childhood friend also at school who seemed really strung-out but said he played electric guitar.  His name was Mark Rabin.  He gave our group a push over the top to where we were clearly “different”.  Unfortunately, we lost track of Mark before the album was created and he was replaced with Stoney Phillips who filled-in great on the album.  Michael Linn was a friend of Stoney’s and he filled-in on drums on “Witches”.  John Mahoney had gone to Indiana to their Music program so Mike Linn performed with us, but John came back to record most of the album with us.  Marvin had left for Canada before the album was recorded and so Tom Tojza (I believe Stoney Phillips knew him) replaced him and recorded the album with us.  I’ll get back to the album, but let me just say that we approached the studio with the same “anything goes” attitude as we did live performance.  So, we created a different sound by using the 16 tracks to the fullest degree.  For example Dave was the only trumpet player but we often sounded like there was at least 5 players screaming.

Our rehearsals were part development of the piece and performance.  We created together.  We crashed for hours that summer (I think the summer of 1970).  Then in the fall we did a few performances that were not that well received (frat parties wanted Chicago and until we gave that to them they looked at us with blank stares).  We did do the full “Make Me Smile” routine and some other knock-off pieces including a dynamite “Beginnings”.  Anyway, we took our original material down to an audition at “Wise-Fools Pub” on

Lincoln Avenue in Chicago.  They actually hired us to perform every Monday night and that is where we did develop a small local following.  The room was filled at about 75 people and it was a great performance environment.  We really got tight as a performance gorup at Wise Fools.  Eventually that led to our Brunswick Record contract.

The group only was together for about 1 to 1 ½ years.  The very last thing we did was produce the album.  We never had a live performance where we could promote the album because we disbanded right after the album was completed.  We all were at crossroads in our lives and their really seemed to be no hope of earning of living with the "new" music which we had invented, so-to-speak.

There is a lot of catching-up needed if we can put together a reunion, first step to find everyone.  Last I knew John went to Univ of Indiana graduate school in Music and later was at IBM, Neal a doctor in Chicago area, Dave had gone to work repairing trumpets and I don't have any idea after that, Marvin had moved to Canada, and I also lost track of Stoney and Tom.

The producer of the album is Bruce Swedien who went on to become the God of recording engineers, winning something like 13 Emmys. (He did Thriller for example).  He and Dave were a great team in the booth and although we were in the studio maybe for 8 or 9 hours total over maybe 3 different days, the album turned out to be a gem.

OK, get this…..Nothing ever happened to this album that I ever knew about for 35 years!  Yes I am an old man now of almost 57.  We all knew it was special but no one including Brunswick Records promoted it.  It got some obscure radio play but it was “dead” as far as we all knew.  Years went by and occasionally one of my kids would run into it and ask about it.  About five years ago my daughter took it to a local studio and had a CD made for me.  It brought back huge emotion when I listened again.  Then last November my wife was telling me about my cousin Bryan Scary and his new group (Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears).  She said I could order his album on-line and so I did.  Then it happened.  I googled “McLuhan Anomaly” and I couldn’t believe my eyes.  There were people out there buying my album on Ebay (my daughter bought me my own album for $35).  There were companies bootlegging the album in Japan Germany and other places.  There were reviews that called my album legendary and mysterious.  Nobody knew anything about where it came from.  I was thrilled that people were listening. 

Of course the story fits.  The internet had given new life to this 1971 moment.  The very thing that we sang about (Electric Man, Electric Man, Electric Man, in “Brief Message”,  10 years before Bill Gates had thought about computers, the very Global Village that we were referring to also in “Brief Message” had given life to our album.  Brings a tear to me, sorry.

Now, here is where I need your help.  I can’t find David Wright.  I googled him and no, he isn’t the guy in England or the baseball player on the Mets. He doesn’t come up. He is not on alumni records and the last place he worked in Chicago doesn’t know where he went.  He is the one who should be the most proud and I don’t know if he is alive to tell him about the new recognition that people like you have given his concept album.  In fact the only other person I have been able to get in touch with is Neal Rosner (Base and Vocals). area.   Hopefully they are all alive and well.

I also am extremely interested in getting a CD re-release although after approaching Brunswick I think this will not be easy.  However, I am just so thrilled that McLuhan Anomaly has found an audience. 

Key Prog Rock Sites

Although there are numerous sites selling the actual album, selling an illegitimate CD, reviewing the album, etc., two major prog-rock sites have reviewed or included information about McLuhan Anomaly.  These are member generated sites and are very comprehensive.  Please follow the links to these sites.  On the progarchives link McLuhan info is now included with a link back to this blog.  You may join this site free of charge and we encourage you to enter a review of McLuhan's album Anomaly.  On the gnosis2000.net site McLuhan is highly rated and can be found by entering in 1972, USA in their search engine.  This will list albums by their rating system.  Or you may view the actual ratings of individual reviewers. 

Pictures and Tapes

You know it's interesting that I don't think McLuhan ever had a publicity photo.  I was asked to submit a group shot to progarchives so I will have to see. We had no outside manager and the idea of that went against the viewpoint of the group.  Those kind of things were really unimportant.  There were a few pictures from a few articles written.  I have a newspaper article by Bruce Vilanch that, unfortunately, doesn't have a photo.  There was one article that did and l will try to find it and possibly get an elecronic copy from the newspaper.  I will look around a little more in my basement.....Well, it's really a little ugly down there so I didn't actually look that hard but I did come up with a reel-to-reel home made tape labelled "McLuhan live at Northwestern". I think that was at a Fraternity House on Sheridan Rd. in Chicago.  I will have to try to find a working reel-to-reel tape player. 

McLuhan Anomaly The Album and Maybe More

OK - A lot of strange things have renewed my attention to my one and only album published by Brunswick Records in 1972.  In November last year I discovered that McLuhan Anomaly lived and apparently will be living after I am gone.  The Internet had apparently given birth to a world-wide interest in the Album, although perhaps still limited.  What a unique and wonderful feeling that gave me.  When you are 20 years old and involved in something that you feel is very special that is a great feeling.  We managed to be fortunate enough to have captured that experience in the studio.  I think Dave and the rest of us knew we had laid down something unique for sure and maybe significant.  But only the passing of years have made that more and more clear to me. 

Since the discovery that McLuhan was not just a memory of the people in the band it has occupied my thoughts on a daily basis.  I have been re-listening and loving it more and more.  The music seems to be fighting it's own way out of obscurity.  The tracks seem to evolve with every listening.  I have stumbled on to websites and Prog Rock Forums and the like that are alive with chatter of the album. I love that the music we created back then is alive today and growing in popularity.  Yes, I want to explore a re-release which many of these forums are requesting.

I hope to evolve this site as a dedication to the group and the album.  May main hope is to contact other band members, especially David Wright who was the composer and absolute genius who drove this album to existence.  The album will indeed outlive us all....Thanks Dave. 

Your input is most welcome.

Anomaly Personnel and Other Information

Side One

Monster Bride - Composition by David Wright, David Wright on Trumpet and Vocals, Paul Cohn on Tenor Saxophone and Flute, Tom Tojza on Organ and background vocals, Stoney Phillips Electric Guitar and background vocals, John Mahoney on Drums and background vocals,  Neal Rosner on Base, Narrative Reading, and background vocals,  Bobby Christan Tympani and Xylophone.

SPIDERS (IN NEALS BASEMENT) - Composition by Marvin Krout, Neal Rosner lead vocals, Base, and group vocal part, David Wright on Trumpet and group vocal part, Paul Cohn on Tenor Saxophone and clarinet, Tom Tojza on Organ and group vocal part, Stoney Phillips on Electric Guitar and group vocal part, John Mahoney on Drums and Group Vocal Part.

Side Two

WITCHES THEME AND DANCE - Composition by David Wright, David Wright Trumpet, Slide-Whistle, and Group Vocals, Paul Cohn Flute and Flute with Maestro Woodwind Device, Michael Linn on Drums, John Mahoney Group Vocals, Neal Rosner on Base, Falsetto Vocals, and Group Vocals, Stoney Phillips on Electric Guitar, Tom Tojza on Organ.

A BRIEF MESSAGE FROM YOUR LOCAL MEDIA - Composition by David Wright

1. The Garden - David Wright  on Vocals, Bobby Christian on Chimes, Stoney Phillips on Guitar, Neal Rosner on Base, Paul Cohn on Flute, Tom Tojza on Organ, John Mahoney on Drums.

2. The Assembly Line - David Wright - Narrative Reading, Trumpet, Paul Cohn on Flute and Clarinet,  Neal Rosner on Base, Tom Tojza on Organ, John Mahoney on Drums, Stoney Phillips on Electric Guitar, and Bobby Christian on Xylophone.

3. Electric Man - Neal Rosner on Base and Vocals (Soul Section Vocalist and Group Vocals), Paul Cohn on Tenor Saxophone, David Wright on Trumpet and Group Vocals, John Mahoney on Drums and Group Vocals, Stoney Phillips on Electric Guitar and Group Vocals, and Tom Tojza on Organ and Screaming.

4. Question - Paul Cohn on Flute, John Mahoney on Drums, Neal Rosner on Base, David Wright on Trumpet.

Swedien The Legend

Well - Being driven by the Internet, Information Age, Global Information Era, whatever, I easily discovered, that Bruce Swedien, the Studio Engineer who produced our album, has become a God!  I read that description of him in several places recently having googled his name.  Try googling him if you have about a month to look through all of the references to Mr Swedien.  I haven't got a phone number for him yet but I am going to look further when I get a minute.  I'm thinking it is very likely that Bruce has forgot about the McLuhan album, Anomaly, but would quickly remember the Spring of 1972 when it was born, and would be pleased that it is being ranked by the Gnosis group among the top albums of it's kind, whether from 1972 or without regard to date.  Most of the information I see is about Michael Jackson and all of the albums he produced for him, or Quincy Jones and other legends from earlier Jazz communities.  However, Bruce, you should give a listen again.  "Anomaly", the album,  might be special.

Anomaly - A Push From McLuhan

Not sure where I am going with this but my daughter Stephanie pointed out something that had been kicking around in my subliminal thoughts but she expressed it.  That is, Anomaly the album circa 1972 Brunswick Record label, has been given a re-birth, 34 years after inception, totally through the Electronic Age, the Media being the message.  Without funding, without promotion, without awareness, without any strategy, effort, program or plan, the album was discovered and given life.  How?  Through our new Internet driven Global Village without a doubt.  And, of course, the theme of the group McLuhan and it's only album, Anomaly, was The Medium is the Message.  Very frightening, goosebumps, etc.  In particular, cut #4 on the album, A Brief Message From Your Local Media, detailed the history of Man in terms of the stages of Technology; Tribal (Touching and Feeling), Print (secluded), Assembly Line (specialization), Electronic Man (TV images creating Global Village), and now the Computer, which seems as if it is jacking our information age up exponentially.

At this point it would seem that awareness of Anomaly, the album, is confined to be within the Collectors, Fusion or Rock Historians, and maybe Music Seekers who have their ears tuned to the internet to grab or discover something they had not heard before.

As Tom Hayes, co-founder of the Gnosis project, gnosis2000.net suggested to me, the illegal CD's are probably not very significant with respect to any distribution. 

I am still trying to contact others, including Dave Wright, Neal Rosner, John Mahoney, Marvin Krout, Stoney Phillips, Tom Toja Laney, Mike Lynn, Bruce Swedien and others to see if any of the ideas that are emerging about a legitimate re-release on CD might be possible.

Paul Cohn

In Search of Dave Wright

Seeking information on the whereabouts of David Wright, McLuhan's chief architect, composer, and trumpet player.  Last information was that Dave was in Chicago in the early 70's and worked at Schilke Trumpets in Chicago at that time.  He is probably unaware of the recognition the McLuhan Anomaly album (Brunswick Records) has been receiving.  He was certainly the main genius behind the concept, composition, and production of this unbelievable album.  Hoping to locate him to explore possible re-release opportunities and to make him aware of the recent, internet driven world-wide recognition of the album.  Please contact Paul Cohn 616-396-9000 at CityWide.

Dave attended University of Illinois at Chicago Circle Campus and was involved in the Music program at that time (1971).  Also, would like to contact Stoney Phillips (Guitar) Tom Toja Laney (Organ), Marvin Krout (Organ), and John Mahoney (Drums).  Please contact Paul Cohn 616-396-9000 with any information you may have.

My Background

I am Paul Cohn.  I have been around the block a few times (57 at last count).  I currently spend most of my time running my own business involved with telecommunications products and services but I still would define myself as a musician.  I play the sax, flute, clarinet and piano and write a little music mostly for my own enjoyment these days.  I hope to dedicate much more of my time to music in the near future.  In 1970 I was part of a band called McLuhan that was together for about 2 years and then went separate ways.  Being a part of this group even for this limited time was perhaps the most fulfilling event of my life to date.  I have a great family and have been married for 34 years.  I have a dog named Jake who is a superstar among Golden Retrievers and all members of this great universe.  I will publish his picture soon.  After all, as Judy and I like to say, "it's all about Jake".  That's my biography for all who care.