Lonesome Stone [US version]

Description

The US version of the rock musical Lonesome Stone was released by Deo Gloria Productions in 1974.

Lonesome Stone was a Christian rock musical first brought over to the UK from California by the American band The Sheep. The storyline set in San Francisco, it aimed to speak to those for whom the message of “freedom and instant love” was turning sour. With financial assistance from the pioneering Deo Gloria Trust, Lonesome Stone was billed as a musical that “Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell failed to present,” being “a story of what Jesus is doing now, by his Spirit, in thousands of lives.” Due for a three-month run, Lonesome Stone was first staged at the Rainbow Theatre, a 2,700 seater arena in North London, on July 11, 1973, performed by members of The Sheep and produced by K. P. Frampton and Jim Palosaari.

The following year The Sheep and the rest of the cast performed Lonesome Stone at the first Christian arts festival, Greenbelt, complete with high volume and smoke bombs. Like the musical, Greenbelt, held in 1974 at Prospect Farm, Charsfield, was sponsored by the Deo Gloria Trust. Key figures in the organising committee for the event were Matt Spransy and Jim Palosaari. By this time The Sheep and the rest of the Lonesome Stone cast were back in the USA, preparing to launch the rock opera in their homeland. Unfortunately, the US version attracted far less attention, and audiences, than its UK counterpart though Jesus music experts are adamant that the US version of the Lonesome Stone cast album featuring all new recordings is superior to the UK released version.

One of my favorite rock musicals just got better. This is the mega-obscure US version. Although the participants (i.e., The Sheep, plus others) and the song titles are more or less the same, this version is in fact an entirely different recording. There’s much more of an underground rock feel, the kind of sound typically preferred by private press collectors. The fact that there’s applause following some of the tracks makes me suspect that at least portions may have been recorded live. Nice edgy west-coast Frisco guitar/organ vibes throughout, both on the rock cuts («War Babies», «Bear Boogie», «Looking For Love», «Changes», «Free», «Rejoice» and the title track), as well the more folky acoustic numbers («Blind Man Blues», «Going Back» and their cover of «San Francisco»). All music, no narration. I see Pat Copalello’s name in the cast (Zip the Speed Freak) – he’s got an excellent custom LP worth tracking down. Front cover has a cartoon-ish drawing of a lightning bolt through a cloud with a hand reaching down. Back shows eight color pictures from the production. Man, what a bunch of hippie freaks – looks like they came straight off the set of Hair. [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th edition]

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. Rick Haas – “War Babies”
A2. Greg Nancarrow – “Lonesome Stone” / Caroline Green – “San Francisco”
A3. Mary Damrow & Rick Haas – “Queen of the Street” / Mole Barker – “Vegetables”
A4. Dave Hoyt – “Where Do We Go From Here?”
A5. Fred Gartner – “Bear Boogie”
A6. Dave Hoyt – “Looking For Love”
A7. Greg Nancarrow – “Blind Man Blues” / “Going Back”

Side Two
B1. Rick Haas – “Changes”
B2. Dave Hoyt – “He’ll Set You Free”
B3. Mary Damrow – “Studied Lives of Men”
B4. Mary Damrow – “Come Jesus Come”
B5. Mary Damrow – “Free” / The Cast – “Rejoice” / The Cast – “Take A Little Time”

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The advertising leaflet widely distributed in the Christian media before Lonesome Stone’s premier at London’s Rainbow Theatre in July 1973 explained in more detail what the audience could expect from the production:

The theme of Lonesome Stone portrays the search of thousands of today’s youth surrounded by the darkness of materialism, dead religions, sex, new gurus, astrology and mind expanding and bending drugs. They were called the ‘war babies’, conceived in times of frustration and anxiety. A generation born into the atomic age, confused about God and almost everything else. In protest, they searched to change their destiny, but only found discouragement, despair and hypocrisy in themselves, others and everything around them. This brought them one by one to their moment of truth in finally calling out upon God, and finding the true peace and love was to be found in knowing Jesus Christ. This production will no doubt reach deeply into the hearts and minds of many who are searching for these answers still.