It says here to add one dash of Black Oak Arkansas !

It’s almost time to leave the issue of Satanic Baskmasking behind. At least for now. I have commented elsewhere on the allegations made against Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). It is very much true that it is Stairway to Heaven that served as the foundation upon which Evangelicals sought to build a very strange building…one that is ultimately a House of Cards. Led Zeppelin’s classic song became a small planet that drew various things into orbit around it…other bands, other songs, Evangelists, politicians…among others. Without Stairway to Heaven, there would have been no backmaking scare. However, the most absurd allegations of backmasking were absurdly made, in a distinctly absurd way, against an absurd band…Black Oak Arkansas.

Essentially, Black Oak Arkansas fits into the category, and I admit that fitting Rock musicians into artificially created categories ultimately falls short. Nonetheless, I would put this band into the Southern Rock category. This includes the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Molly Hatchet, Charlie Daniels, the Marshall Tucker band, and the biggest band in the category…Lynyrd Skynyrd. But Black Oak Arkansas was the only band to be accused of including Satanic messages in their songs.  They frequently appear alongside Led Zeppelin and ELO when it comes to accusations involving backmasking. Actually, serious accusations were made prior to the Backmasking Hysteria. These came from two sources, one of which was…

That is dated April 1975. More:

So, according to J.D. Tedder, pastor of the Open Door Baptist Church, Black Oak Arkansas are Satanic mongrels, promoting drugs, sex, and revolution. And! Arkansas is the only place in America that is Christian. I guess it’s sort of a Battle for the Soul of Arkansas. It seems that he went door-to-door and spoke to everyone in Arkansas, and he found out the 90% of the people of Arkansas do not want become heathen pagans like the remaining 10%.

Ok…managers of Rock bands seem to be painfully honest. They definitely aren’t lawyers. So he admits that Black Oak Arkansas is promoting sex and revolution, but not drugs! Still, they don’t mind weed, they just don’t like heroin, cocaine, speed, and downers. And Mr. Stone is a theologian. Speaking of Pastor Tedder…

He’s the kind of guy who burned witches and stood with Pontius Pilate

Not good company to be in.

So a group of preachers accompanied by Pontius Pilate complained that Black Oak Arkansas would somehow interfere with garbage collection if they put on their concert.

The authorities ruled against the Pontius Pilate Gang. Undaunted, Tedder decided to pray. And what a request!

How are Black Oak Arkansas concerts like baseball games?

Both get called on account of rain!

 Wait! Not all Rock stars are put off by a little rain…

I think it would be enlightening to ask the guys who started it all…the guys who made the song that started it all…

Rain, I don't mind…shine, the weather's fine,
I can show you that when it starts to rain,
Everything's the same…
 

Can you hear me? That when it rains and shines,
It's just a state of mind,
I can show you...

But alas…a cloudless sky. And, by the way…this band is not an acid rock group. I’ve seen no connection between Black Oak Arkansas and LSD, although it is interesting that Pastor Tedder moved to Arkansas from San Francisco…the LSD and acid rock capital of the counter-culture. And I love the hypocritical bit about American Ideals! Censorship is against American Ideals…establishing Theocratic Rule over the people of Arkansas, that’s also against American Ideals. Trying to squash artistic expression and Freedom of Speech is against American Ideals. In fact, the greatest threat to American Ideals are Evangelicals. Still, undaunted, other attempts to crush American Ideals were in the offing:

Of course, he’s a fan of free speech and freedom of assembly. But only the extent that these Pesky American Ideals don’t extend past the distance you can scream. From 1975 to 2018…the sheer hypocrisy of the Evangelical, Freedom Loving, Family Values crowd boggles the mind. The scariest part of it, is that they truly believe that they are no hypocrites, and I will offer the reason why an Evangelical congressmen can found cheating on his wife and still claim to be a true Evangelical Family Values kind of guy. I think the explanation is rather obvious. And I am disturbed by the fact that a pastor doesn’t care one bit about the fact that the proceeds from the concert went to a local charity. It would seem that the 90 Percenters…those Non-Heathen, Non-Pagan residents of God’s New Chosen Land…yes, Arkansas, really aren’t as numerous as the pastor seems to think they are:

So there were 5,000 people at the concert, and only sixty 90 Percenters protesting the concert. If that wasn’t bad enough….it didn’t even rain! Whose side was God on? Answer…the hospital…if the band wins their law suit against the Great and Good. One more quote:

So Tedder’s Gang was made up of 4 preachers, an evangelist (of course), and a physician…not to mention a certain ancient Roman governor. What was the physician going to do? And I love Councilman Hugh Ashley’s comment…you can’t keep kids under a tub…even though, Jim Dandy plays a washer-board! What about this law suit?

For a guy who cares so little for American Ideals, it seems a tad bit hypocritical to start quoting the Constitution…the same document that protects freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, not to mention…freedom of Rock and Roll!

How did the lawsuit go?

Jim Dandy is the singer…who also plays the washer-board. Why mention that the jury was made up of middle-aged people? Because you can bet that they weren’t Black Oak Arkansas fans. They were, apparently, big fans of American Ideals. And how many times is Tedder going to lose to these guys? It should be noted that Tedder made no accusations about backmasking, but he did take the low road and accuse the band of being Satanic. And there were other Religious Fanatics who were, perhaps, intent on the resounding loss suffered by Tedder at the hands of Black Oak Arkansas. And in yet another victory, we find that…

Tedder was run out of Arkansas! One last victory for Rock music! He was broke. The following refers to the time that, so it appears, that Rev. J.D. Tedder was pastor of the Open Door Baptist Church in Sebastopol, California...

How much do you wanna bet that KSRO-1350 didn’t play Black Oak Arkansas! And if these two Reverend J.D. Tedders are one and the same, then another Christian made a comment that is hardly surprising…

This article announces the opening of a new church..The Open Door Baptist church. The Tedders moved from Tulsa so that Tedder could be pastor. The first  service was to be on Sunday. They were with the Baptist Bible Fellowship International. Dr. Elmer Towns…

He was a former cop, and graduated in December 1973 from Theology Baptist Bible College; Springfield, Missouri. And a Militant Evangelical? Who saw that coming?

The band would receive another broadside alleging Satanic influence. William Harvey Jett, guitarist for the band, quit the band in 1974. And guess why! Yes, to become an Evangelical. He became a certain type of Militant Evangelical:

Yes…a record burning Militant Evangelical…the best kind! And he couldn’t just have his little conversion and start a ministry. No! He had to become a Satanic Conspiracy. At least, unlike Geeky Rocker Bob Larson, Jett had been a real Rock guitarist. He attacks against Rock music were also attacks specifically against Black Oak Arkansas, putting him shoulder to shoulder with the guy exiled from Arkansas…the guy with no money. And to illustrate the concept of Fascist even more, records weren’t the only thing ending up in Christian bon-fires:

Yes! He’s a book-burner too! More:

So, he stayed in the band to convert the others. I’m glad it wasn’t for the money. And I’m sure glad that he wasn’t…kicked out of the band.

Stand up against the power of hell? A bit over the top.

Another virtue of Evangelicals…grossly over-estimating their own importance in the cosmos.

And he is one of those Apocalyptic Christians. The end is nigh! In fact, in a year or two. Oh, these comments are from 1976. I guess Jett was wrong. Perhaps he didn’t know that the Book of Revelation is not meant to be read literally. And you have be careful about declaring the end of the world. It sounds good in an Anti-Black Oak Arkansas pamphlet or even in the newspaper, since it may resonate:

I hope Mr. Yost is kidding.

I suppose I find myself questioning, again, whether Mr. Jett really tried to turn the rest of Black Oak Arkansas, the guys who ran Tedder out of the state, into Record and Book Burning We’re All Gonna Die Evangelicals. In fact, it would appear that there was some bad blood. Tedder wasn’t the only person sued by the band. Someone else was:

Yes! Jett (1976) had taken the extraordinary step of printing up a laughable pamphlet called Black Oak Loses- To Jesus, which amounted to libel. So Jett bore a grudge, which makes me wonder about the real reason he left the band. And he became an Evangelical Musician, although he never seems to stop mentioning his role in Black Oak Arkansas. This is dated to 1996:

As if he feels that he will get bigger audiences if he keeps mentioning his old band. 2010:

From edgy rocker to business casual performer….hmmm. By 1997, he was supplementing the money he made as a I-Was-With-Black-Oak-Arkansas-But-Not-For-Decades…

As a car salesman. 1983:

Time for a familiar, Evangelical Theme…Hypocrisy!

A familiar story among those who are incessantly preaching at everyone and hurling moral condemnations at anyone who stands still long enough to get hit. Drinking and drugs. For many Family Values Policitians…it’s extramarital affairs. Then when you get caught, you tell everyone that it’s ok because you told Jesus you were sorry. Then you go back to where you were before. But in the case of the guy who once attacked his old band mates with a pamphlet he circulated, got his life back on track. From 1996:

This confuses me. He gave up alcohol and drugs that “framed his life of fame.” One is tempted to see here a reference to his time in Black Oak Arkansas. But we know that it was only 4 years earlier, i.e. 1992, that he had to give up drugs and alcohol again, which lead to his divorce. It seems odd to connect embracing sobriety by jumping back into the dim recesses of the past and connecting it with Black Oak Arkansas. 2003:

2010:

The problem was in the 70s.

So, no drugs! And no booze! No booze? Fast forward to 2016….

MADISONVILLE, Ky. (WBKO)-- Saturday around 3:30 p.m. a crash sent one person to the E.R.

Kentucky State Police got the call about a motorcycle crash and sent two troopers to investigate.

According to KSP, 67-year-old William Harvey Jett of Madisonville was driving his Harley Davidson motorcycle north on I-69, just two miles south of Madisonville.

Jett lost control of his bike and went onto the median. The motorcycle went down the median and fell on its side. After more investigation, police determined that Jett had been drinking.

Jett did have on a helmet and had no passengers. Police called a tow truck to remove the motorcycle from the scene.

Jett was taken to Baptist Health in Madisonville by Medical Center EMS and was treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Jett was then taken to the Hopkins County Detention Center on the following charges: no registration plate, no registration receipt, no motorcycle operators license, and a DUI.

Wow! No license, no licnese plate, no registration receipt, and…drunk! A drunk driver! I really hope... 

That this isn’t him.