Hypnotic Rock

Hypnotist Damon Reinbold raised the bluish ball of glass into the light. "You are drifting down," he intoned. "Farther and farther into a deep, sound and relaxing hypnotic sleep." Lower and lower drooped the heads of the two rock musicians, David Teegarden, 27, and Skip ("Van Winkle") Knape, 28. When their chins touched their chests, Damon, as he is known professionally, nodded to the engineers. The recording session was about to begin.

To combat the chilling impersonality of the recording studio, rock stars have been known to indulge in alcohol, pot or worse. But the recent events at Detroit's Westbound Records were something new. "The mood of music is now flowing through your mind, through your body, through your entire being," boomed Damon, a regular guest on late-night TV talk shows several years back. "When I count to four, Skip will count off the first number." One...two...three...On four, Van Winkle struck a chord on his electric organ, Teegarden spun a roll on his drums, and away they went into Dancing in the Street. Up in the engineer's booth, a spectator, Rock Guitarist Mike Bruce, fell under Damon's spell and slid off a stool to the floor. A bystander caught Bruce's head inches from the tile floor.

Was it all a gimmick? Partly. Westbound, distributed nationally by the New York-based blues-and-rock label Chess/Janus, plans to release the whole wacky affair, hypnosis and all, in late February. The session did produce some surprising results for the performers, who once recorded for Atlantic but who had their biggest hit with a disk that they put out at their own expense in 1970 (God, Love and Rock & Roll).

Though Teegarden and Van Winkle slumped back into their chairs after every number, they later recalled feeling as though they had been performing in front of a live audience. "I felt like I was on a gig," said Van Winkle. "I kept expecting applause." At one point during the session Damon asked Teegarden and Van Winkle to play one song, Happy Organ Shuffle, in three different moods: light, sad, then angry ("All the frustrating and angry things that have ever happened over the years are now building up inside of you"). On the angry version the music grew harsh and rushed, then got out of hand. "When I get mad, I play real fast," Van Winkle explained afterward.

When Damon finally brought Teegarden and Van Winkle out of their trance, Van Winkle blinked and drew laughs from observers in the studio by asking: "Now are we going to play?" In fact, most critics who attended the session felt that the duo had played up to or better than their norm--whatever the reason. Said Detroit News Amusement Writer Bill Gray: "The music was good and the duo was incredibly tight. It was definitely a mind blower."

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