Illinois Rock & Roll Music Archives

McLuhan was a concept and a mixed-media group where no particular musical venue or style would necessarily prevail. The creator of the idea was David Wright who composed most of the music and wrote the lyrics on their only album Anomaly https://youtu.be/7AJ0A_VKgig (Brunswick) which they did in 1972.
The McLuhan personnel included Paul Cohn (flute, clarinet, tenor sax), Neal Rosner (bass, vocals), Michael Linn (percussion), John Mahoney (percussion), Dennis Phillips (guitar, vocals), Ton Laney (keyboards), David Wright (trumpet, vocals)
Paul Cohn was a friend and fellow-student of David Wright at UICC (University of Illinois Chicago). He was also a sax, flute and clarinetist in a week-end prom group called the Seven Seas. When the band lost their trumpeter he asked his friend who he knew could play, to fill in. Soon after the group had a falling apart with the singer and guitar player who had big plans and wanted to be stars.
So after the two stars had walked out, David introduced the remains of the group to the McLuhan concept. The idea was to try different things in performances including special sound effects such as baby’s crying, various weird instruments, background sounds, playing old movies during their performance (“Monster Bride” was actually Bride of Frankenstein and in live performance they would turn on the movie at the point where the “20th Century Fox” theme is played). The medium was the message, not the content. Labels didn’t matter
The Wise Fools Pub on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago hired McLuhan to perform every Monday night and they developed a small local following. Their performance got really tight at Wise Fools, and eventually it led to a Brunswick Records contract.
McLuhan was only together for about a year and a half. And they never had a live performance promoting their album, because the very last thing they did was producing Anomaly. It got some obscure radio play but it was “dead” as far as the band knew.
Anomaly’s concept and ideas were sounds advanced for its time of release in the early ‘70s. Uniquely American art rock in a brassy and groovy kind of way. Over the years it’s become a cult album, but it’s never been re-released.
These days three of the original members – Rosner, Cohn and Mahoney – have revived McLuhan and are playing Chicago clubs such as the Montrose Saloon, Reggies, et al. 

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