PORTLAND, Ore. (OCP) July 29 — Recorded on a TEAC four-track tape recorder, the St. Louis Jesuits never-before heard “Berkeley Basement Tapes” recently surfaced to offer a glimpse of a summer in 1974 when five young men from Saint Louis University spent five weeks together praying and composing music in Berkeley, California.
The release of the 40th Anniversary edition of the St. Louis Jesuits’ Earthen Vessels commemorates and celebrates the revolutionary album with the original songs in addition to five more Schutte discovered.
“Discovering again the raw beauty of those ‘basement’ tapes was thrilling. The flood of memories and images of that summer in Berkeley felt like coming home to a dear, long-forgotten friend,” said Dan Schutte.
“The Berkeley Basement Tapes” were album ready upon their discovery. The form and arrangement of the five songs featured on the commemorative album have been untouched since their inception. These never before released tracks provide a rare look at the creative process of the dynamic quintuple of Dan Schutte, Fr. Roc O’Connor, Tim Manion, Fr. Bob Dufford and Fr. John Foley.
The album changed Catholic music upon its initial release in 1975. To this day, it is still one of the best-selling Catholic albums of all-time having sold millions of copies. The song “Be not Afraid” even made its way to the 1995 movie Dead Man Walking and into the greater U.S. when it was sung on the evening of September 11 after the terrorist attacks struck fear into the heart of the country.
The St. Louis Jesuits have a reunion charity concert to celebrate the release of the 40th Anniversary edition of Earthen Vessels. Proceeds from the concert will benefit Cristo Rey High School in Milwaukee on September 20. To find out more visit ocp.org.
For more information or to submit your stories, please contact Kelcee Marcum at [email protected] or 503.460.5358.
About OCP
OCP, a not-for-profit publisher of liturgical music and worship resources based in Portland, Oregon, has been in operation for more than 90 years. Worship programs produced by OCP are used in over two-thirds of Catholic churches in the United States and are distributed worldwide. Find OCP on Facebook at Facebook.com/OCPmusic.
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