2003 OCTOBER 12 #285
Teen Challenge Choir - My Psychiatrist/Mary Jane
If you look at only image I put up on this site all year, let it be this back cover of "Champions": it's what compelled me to take this album home. It also tells you everything you need to know about the Teen Challenge Choir.
"My Psychiatrist" challenges the validity of modern psychiatric practices, suggesting instead that maybe all these people seeking professional help really just need Jesus. Either that or it's a song about a seriously deluded individual who believes her psychiatrist actually IS Jesus. One or the other.
The psychiatrist's identity isn't revealed until the end of the song, so I guess I just spoiled the riddle for everybody. It's a catchy little number, though, and that should more than make up for any disappointment anyone should feel about that.
Besides, I'll leave it up to you clever people to figure out what "Mary Jane" refers to.
- Suzanne Baumann
TT-6:10 / 7MB / 160kbps 44.1khz
Jonboy writes:
If I'm not mistaken, I think the Teen Challenge kids are
the same ones who do a car-wash & rummage sale every
weekend on Grand River Ave. near my house. The first song
presents a rather ominous parallel: the Nazis were also
very anti-psychology, largely due to the fact that many
of the luminaries in the field at the time were Jewish.
I've also seen some pretty horrific anti-psychology propaganda
stuff from the Scientologists, where they do dramatic
re-enactments of Soviet brain experimentation. As for
musical caliber, I couldn't even make it to "Mary
Jane". Sorry. Maybe later.
Jef Stevens writes:
Teen Challenge began in the 1950s when the Rev. David
Wilkerson set out for New York to minister to teen gang
members. It was the conversion of gang leader Nicky Cruz
that laid the foundation for the beginnings of Teen Challenge
ministries. Cruz's conversion is chronicled in the novel ""The Cross and the Switchblade."
Suzanne Baumann writes:
Hmm. I'm starting to think there may be multiple Teen
Challenge Choirs. On my album, they appear to be located
in Rehersburg, PA. That's their contact address and also
the location of the recording studio. Bernie Gillott and
Chuck Cyrus produced, arranged songs, and played instruments
on the album. They seem to be the guys in charge. It was
recorded in 1986. Maybe the movement had spread nationwide
by then?
Jef Stevens writes:
Exactly! That was part of the idea of the ministries was
to have these Teen Challenge programs all acoss the country,
and part of that program is the choir. They had spread
nationwide by the 60's I believe. The movie "The
Cross & The Switchblade," with Erik Estrada and
Pat Boone, came out in the early 70's, so they were already
well known by then. They are kind of like "Up With
People" for reforming drug addicts.http://www.teenchallenge.com/