Bryson and company (two, soon to be missionaires) came to Twin Falls, ID in 1982 or 1983. The OP's post is accurate. He gave a two day "fireside" and the stake presidenty paid the entire tab; even giving room and board in a counselor's home (he was a gem, pardon the pun, of the triumvirate). The first day consistented of the scary talk and the second, a solution; a pseudo Hegellian Dialectic. Needless to say, I talked my Berkley trained father into purchasing his tapes. Oh, what a crazy story to tell in chapters that follow...

I have a fascination for "rock music is the devil's music" and found a few references about Lynn A. Bryson. I ran down some of his records and listened closely to a copy of a fireside tape.

What I've found about the guy:

About the song, “Monster Shindig”: One of its songwriters was Lynn A. Bryson, known all over Utah for his LDS/Mormon youth fireside speeches about demonic backmasking conspiracies, John Lennon attempted to take over the U.S. government with a “Spear of Destiny,” and a series of cassettes decrying eeevil rock music for Mormon youth.

Here’s what I’ve found about the guy, as much discography info as I can piece together:

Lynn Bryson on 45 RPM singles:

“Big Mean Drag Machine”/”Pretty Things,” Hook 12863.
–A copy went for $31 on Ebay in 2011. The 45 has an orange label with black printing, no listing for record company address, no other (to my knowledge) records issued on that label. It was listed at KMEN San Bernardino, CA, 1290AM radio station local charts as “honorable mention” during 1/10/64, 1/17/64, 1/24/64, and 1/31/64. The record appears to be a garage rock record, not an MGM (or any affiliated label) release. Per Lynn Bryson’s book, page 76, he was a DJ for KMEN at the time. This 45 does not show up in any of my Jerry Osborne 45RPm singles’ price guides (POPULAR & ROCK PRICE GUIDE 3rd edition, ROCK/ROCK & ROLL PRICE GUIDE,4th edition, published by Osborne-Hamilton)–meaning it was extremely obscure as an indie “spec” release or vanity press.

Lynn Bryson was also affiliated/recorded/songwriter for several releases for Hanna-Barbera Records, on the HBR label, beginning April, 1965–per Billboard, May 3, 1965 article listing Larry Goldberg starting it up, signing both Danny Hutton and Lyn Bryson for HBR:

45 singles:
Roger and Lynn, “Summer Kind of Song”/”Baby Move In” HBR 444 (Lynn Bryson was the “Lynn” of Roger and Lynn on this uncharted 45 single release, dating July, 1965, listed as a new release in Billboard on 8/14/65. Both songs show Lynn Bryson’s co-songwriting credit.

Lynn Bryson’s co-songwriting credits appear also on the following HBR 45 singles:
The Creations IV, “Dance In The Sand” HBR 440 (May, 1965)
Danny Hutton, “Monster Shindig” HBR 447 (July, 1965)
Danny Hutton, “Monster Shindig Part 2″ HBR 453 (November, 1965)

“BYU Boy Missionary”/”The Flip Side,” LAB 13966 (recorded 3/09/66; Bryson claims this 45 single sold 15,000 copies in 1966 in Utah. ???)
Listed at position #17, up from #31, at KYME 740, Boise, ID, on 7/16/66, local radio station survey chart.

On Lp, Lynn Bryson is credited on co-songwriting credits on the HBR albums:
SNAGGLEPUSS TELLS THE STORY OF THE WIZARD OF OZ, HBR HLP 2026
WILMA FLINTSTONE TELLS THE STORY OF BAMBI , HBR HLP 2027
THE RELUCTANT DRAGON STARRING TOUCHE’ TURTLE AND DUM DUM, HBR 2029

An Lp discography, of sorts, for Lynn Bryson’s Provo based vinyl record label, circa 1970, LAB PRODUCTIONS:

LAB 100, THE SONS OF MOSIAH (2 Lp set; $5.95 list)
LAB 101, THE MISSIONARY ALBUM (his 1966 45 recording of “The Missionary Song” is one of the tracks on the Lp; $3.95 list)
LAB 102, AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM VOL 1 SUNG BY THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL LAMANITE CHILDREN’S CHORUS (gatefold cover with booklet attached at the inner spine; $5.95 list)
LAB 103, AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM VOL 2 …. ($5.95 list)

Note: Orrin Hatch was Bryson’s music attorney for a while for LAB Productions, c. 1970. THE SONS OF MOSIAH had members from a San Francisco psych-rock group, TRIPSICORD, as well as MOBY GRAPE. According to Bryson’s book, WINNING THE TESTIMONY WAR (1982), his SONS OF MOSIAH long-hair Mormon rock group had several bookings canceled and he lost $9,000 on the tour. AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM albums, volumes 1 and 2, were the soundtracks (?) to a movie project shown in southern Utah and Arizona to promote the BYU Indian Placement program, about 1970.

More or less in order, Lynn Bryson was a DJ at the following radio stations, beginning 1958, through December, 1968:

KPKW, Pasco, WA (Mentioned in Billboard in mid-’59)
KWAC, Bakersfield, CA (12/62)
KFXM, San Bernardino, CA
KMEN, San Bernardino, CA (terminated due to his religious stridency in early 1964; however, he’d plugged his own garage hot rod rock 45 single in January, “Big Mean Draggin’ Machine” for over a month on his station, which may have influenced the station)
–met Danny Hutton, later of THREE DOG NIGHT fame, and Larry Goldberg, who started Ultima Records in October, 1964, a label notable for the first appearance of a Jimmy Webb (“Up Up and Away,” “By The Time I Get to Phoenix,” and too many other hit songs to list) song on the first 45 on that label, Ultima 701, by Millie Rodgers, “There You Go”/”Take Marion For Example”. Larry Goldberg was then recruited by Hanna Barbera to turn out children’s albums and rock ‘n’ roll 45 singles on the HBR label, spring, 1965, bringing Danny Hutton and Lynn Bryson with him, for maybe six months.
KLAV, Las Vegas, NV
KSNN, Pocatello, ID
KCPX, Salt Lake City, UT
KNAK, Salt Lake City, UT
KGUD, Santa Barabara, CA
KOVO, Provo, UT
KNAK, Salt Lake City, UT
C. 1969, Provo had some local rock groups with long hair: The Spring Fever, The Soul Sophisticates, the Elder Generation, Brother Bryson’s Traveling Salvation Show (obviously borrowing from the Neil Diamond song, “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show”), and the Sons of Mosiah.

Bryson lost his record label, record studio, and had his house foreclosed in Provo on 8/22/79. He did the THE OCCULT AND ROCK MUSIC firesides after that date. More or less, his act/roadshow about eeevil backmasking conspiracies parallel what a Los Angeles preacher was doing at the same time (early ‘80s), Pastor Gary L. Greenwald, as well as the Dan & Steve Peters record burning ministries going around (my) college campuses at the same time.

He wrote a book, c. 1982, published by his Band-Aid Productions, WINNING THE TESTIMONY WAR. The end of the book concludes with the failure of his Book of Mormon on Tape business that ended with him losing his studio and house in 1979

This is probably about his last HBR 45 single, in 1966:

http://www.45cat.com/record/hbr484

Who wuddah thought it; Bryson really got around more than I expected:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6y_wxhKY6A

The Clinger Sisters. Apparently Jo-Bee 1001 dates after January, 1965. He was the "producer" for a one-off indie 45.

Lynn A. Bryson of Syndicated Recording Studios of America at 702 Columbia Lane Provo, Utah 84601 -narrated the Book of Mormon in fourteen - 90 minute audio tapes in the 1980s. He sold the entire Book of Mormon, D & C, Pearl of Great Price and the New Testament for $32 dollars. You could listen to the entire Book of Mormon masterfully narrated in 21 hours.

Several of the audio tapes I have from him are damaged. I would love to find and get a master copy of his audio tapes. I’d gladly record his narration to FLAC and MP3 file because he narrates so well.

I'm 64. I went to an LDS youth conference in 1966 or 1967, and Lynn Bryson lip-synched a single that was supposed to go popular, then followed up by asking us to phone in to the local DJs and ask them to play the record.

Anyway, I thought he was a bit of a hero, since it looked like he was going to be popular. I went on to BYU, and left on a mission. Bryson asked my ex-girlfriend out, and she was all enthusiastic about dating a Mormon celeb. She wrote me later that Bryson took her to his apartment or house, and began making out with her on the couch. He reached up her skirt and grabbed her in the crotch. She tried to move his hand, but he resisted and held his hand hard between her legs. Finally, she moved away and told him not to do that. She said that he bowed his head and got all repentant over it. Fact is, they went on making out, and she didn't go out with him anymore.

Hoo, boy, I lit into another one:

YESTERDAY & FOREVER, THE LOVE STORY OF JOSEPH SMITH AND EMMA HALE. A MULTI-MEDIA PLAY BY BUDDY YOUNGREEN WITH MUSIC BY LYNN A. BRYSON.

label is Yesterday and Forever Productions, 724 Columbia Lane, Provo, Utah 84601. Liner notes show: "Lynn Bryson sang leads, arranged, wrote, played, engineered."

This Lp dates about a year before his "monumental 24-track SYNDICATED SOUND STUDIO in Provo, Utah." was foreclosed, as was his home at the time.

I also found another LDS clone up the UP WITH PEOPLE group, THE GRAND LAND SINGERS "IN WASHINGTON, D.C." on the Century Records private press label (LDS Keysor family owned the record label, out of Saugus, California; mostly high school and college band recordings, with some exceptions like the Mugleston Family Band album) #38900--dates July, 1970; it's a folk-rock band backing with 50+ male/female vocal group all in matching uniforms, like the Doodletown Pipers, doing Nixonian pop-rock songs. Three songs from UP WITH PEOPLE, "The Ride of Paul Revere," "Freedom Isn't Free," and the Maureen Reagan/John Birch Society 1968 45 single, "Which Way America." (Maureen Reagan was Ronnie Reagan's young daughter at the time.)

I did recording in my home studio for Lynn in 1987-88. He told me he had sold 100,000 music compilation cassettes to stakes for their stake dances, called "Saturday Night..." something, (can't remember). They were tapes of many popular rock songs, basically ripped off, recorded from records, totally infringing on all the copyrights.

Another song I produced for Lynn was something he was all excited about, "The Devil and Diesel" kind of a "The Devil Went to Georgia" song. I produced the tracks and recorded Lynn singing.

I put in a lot of time I did not charge. When I built a new studio on Provo and did a 5 hr session, and charged $30 hr. Lynn was not happy, but wrote me a check for $150 anyway, and I never saw him again.

I visited him in the hospital before that, after some guy hit him when standing in line for a movie. He was in ICU, and some lady, not his wife, with some 60's beehive hairdo, obviously an admirer, stood by his bedside.

The whole Lynn Bryson thing was pretty weird. We were "friends" I guess, and he lived on the edge, renting big homes he could not afford, and showed me his new, cool 300 gallon aquarium full of exotic fish.

He was facinating, but in the end, I think he was just another narcisist, riding the LDS youth/fireseide wave, making and selling talk tapes, etc, kid of like Paul Dunn did for years before being exposed as a fraud.

Saturday Night ...something...

Oh please ghawd, let it be "Saturday Night Fervor"

That may have been the same time that my FIL was a Bishop in Twin Falls. My wife said he thought Bryson was an idiot and his subject matter inane.

I used to have one of his talk tapes back in the 1980s. I thought he had an ax to grind against the music industry for not getting paid for some work he claimed he did on a Three Dog Night album. He seemed majorly upset about it, and I thought that was at the root of his accusations about Satanism that he made against popular musicians throughout his talk.

Funny you should mention Lynn. Back in the early 80's he moved into our ward in Cedar Hills, UT. Even though he was much older than me we became fast friends. I used to help him with his "firesides" setting up his equipment and taking it down. I was basically his "roady". Before he left Utah for someplace like Kentucky or I don't remember where, he had a run-in with one of the GA's who didn't like him using the fear factor in his firesides.

As far as I know he never did leave the church. I saw that he passed away a couple of years ago. I just happened to see his obit in the Provo Daily Herald. He was a nice enough guy just trying to make a buck off of one of the teachings of the church. He was a pretty talented musician too, not in a way that he could sell his music, but he made a lot of music when he wrote jingles for local ads before he started doing the whole fireside thing.

I just remembered a couple things about good ole Lynn.

First does anyone here remember the story of a book called "Jay's Journal"? It was about a kid back in the 70's I think that got involved in devil worship and ended up dying because of it. His mother published his personal journal after he died to help other parents recognize when their kids were getting involved in this stuff. I never did hear if it was genuine or just a stunt to get a book published but Lynn talked about it sometimes in his firesides.

The other thing I remembered was that Lynn was a DJ in CA and was personal friends with Sharon Tate who was killed by Charles Manson. He said that it was this incident and his investigation into it that led him to the church and why he became a member of the church.

Just little tidbits I thought I would share.

Off topic regarding Brother Bryson. But regarding Jay's Journal - it was put together by the same author who edited and published "Go Ask Alice." Given Brother Bryson's interest in the occult, I am not surprised that he mentioned the book, but he did not write it, and never claimed to.

It was clear to me when I read Jay's Journal that the boy was a Mormon. And I did not understand how his mother could not realize that SOMEthing was wrong, even if she didn't know what it was.

Jay was a real person, but that is not his real name. I don't think I have permission to say his real name; but his mom, as an older sister missionary, was missionary companion to my sister who was a 21-yr-old sister missionary, back in 1982. Jay's mom and her husband divorced after Jay's suicide.

My sister said if they were having a problem as a companionship, Jay's mom would declare she loved my sister, but would never ever address the problem in any way. It was quite frustrating.

Bryson was invited to speak to my young men's group in the mid eighties in north Orem, Utah. He got about 15 minutes into his pitch when he claimed that Rush stood for "Ruled Under Satan's Hand" and KISS stood for "Knights in Satan's Service". Now, while I'm no KISS fan, Rush was and is my favorite band and I just couldn't let him lie to these poor saps.

I asked him if he could give me an example of Rush's satanic influence. He mentioned the "pentacle" on the cover of the album 2112. I explained that the story of 2112, is about the fight against a futuristic federation whose symbol was a red star. The naked man putting his hands up to shield himself from the star on their next album, Hemispheres, was the lyricist's setting up that album's message of man fighting to overcome evil. Of course, he couldn't provide a single lyric that supported Satan (which would really be something seeing that Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart once said "I don't even believe in the old bastard!")

But my favorite was him bringing up a lyric from an obscure but incredible song from Rush called Vital Signs. He claimed that the lyric "everybody needs reverse polarity." I asked him what he thought that meant. He said, "It's obviously condoning homosexuality!" This actually got a laugh out of me and another Rush fan in attendance. We proceeded to walk him and the audience line by line through the songs lyrics, proving to all minus Bro Bryson that you'd have to be a loon to think that Rush lyrics were anything but thought provoking, uplifting and downright poetry.

I met Lynn as a newlywed in 1969 as best I can remember. I have fond memories of him as a friend. I was a recent convert to the Church. We spent fun times together singing and just hanging out. He was a character and our friend. My wife and I didn't have much. When my mom died in 1970 I didn't have any money to fly home to Boston for her funeral. Lynn heard about her passing and came over to our trailer and gave me the money for My wife and I to fly home. I never asked him for it but he insisted. I went off to dental school and never saw him again. I loved his heart then and still do. No one I ever knew lived a perfect life back then and no one does today. I love Lynn and hope to see him again to thank him for his friendship and kindness.

Back in the 70's, my Father was an aspiring song writer. He wrote Mormon themed folk songs. He became friends with some of the popular LDS Musicians including Lynn Bryson. Dad became pretty good friends with him. Lynn visited our stake center in California and to show his Indian Placement movie "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them". He also did a preshow concert. He sold his records and other related items in the foyer. Over the years, Dad, began to see that Lynn was not very honest about his past and in some of his business dealings. Dad eventually parted ways with him because he though Lynn was kind of a conman. Lynn was always nice to me, but he had a phoniness about him which became more noticeable when I was a teenager.

Attended one of Lynn Bryson's firesides probably back in the late 70's or early 80's. He had screens set up and would talk about the evils of rock and roll music. Let's put it this way. I was a bigger KISS fan than a Lynn Bryson fan. Just struck me as a guy who had sour grapes because he never really made it in the business.