Background
Greg Pichler of the Progressive Shamanists composed a revised version of the song, Twenty-One Years, on May 27, 2024.
Greg Pichler originally composed the song, Twenty-One Years, over the course of the month of May, 1978 at the Glenwood Road Studio in Bethesda, Maryland, while performing as a member of the Walt Whitman High School group, The Headlights. At that time the song was entitled, Ashes Can't Be Burned. Click here to listen to The Headlights' rendition of the Song, Ashes Can't Be Burned, recorded over the course of a rehearsal in July, 1978.
Later, in January, 1981, while attending Lehigh University and performing with the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity, house group, The Shrooms, Pichler changed the title and the lyrics of the song.
The song, Twenty-One Years, was the most extensively performed song by the members of Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity house group, The Shrooms, as well as the follow on groups, the Phoenix, and the Progressive Shamanists over the decade of the Eighties. Both the Shrooms and the Phoenix were pre-cursor groups of the Progressive Shamanists. The fraternity house band, The Shrooms, performed the song, Twenty-One Years, at a number of concert events, including one at the Catacombs at Lehigh University on Wednesday, March 28, 1981, one at the Tau Epsilon Phi, off campus, fraternity house at 216 Warren Square, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Saturday, April 18, 1981, one at the open air grounds on Warren Square on Friday, November 7, 1981 and one again at the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity house on Saturday, November 21, 1981.
The Pheonix performed the song, Twenty-One Years, during an evening performance at the German House on Warren Square, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on April 2, 1982.
On Saturday, April 26, 1983, Rob Prigge, Keith Swanson, Rob Kowtko and Greg Pichler recorded what was to be the definitive version of the song, Twenty-One Years. Click here to listen to The Progressive Shamannists' rendition of the Song, Twenty-One Years, recorded over the course of a rehearsal on Saturday, April 26, 1983.
The bass riff for the verse of this rendition is a slight modification of Keith Swanson's bass guitar contribution on April 26, 1983.
What the song is about
The revised lyrics of the song, Twenty-One Years, recounts the dissolution of the Walt Whitman High School music group, The Headlights.
Credits
The archive photos were taken over the course of Pichler's senior year attending Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland in 1977.
The Progressive Shamanists are currently working on the composition, adding instrument parts. What is currently available is otherwise a work in progress.
more information
Lyrics of the Song, Twenty-One Years
full score of the Song, Twenty-One Years, dated May 27, 2024
tenor saxophone score of the Song, Twenty-One Years, dated May 27, 2024
lead guitar score of the Song, Twenty-One Years, dated May 27, 2024
Microsoft Wave File Version of the Song, Twenty-One Years, Music only; no visuals, no video
Microsoft Wave File Version of the Song, Twenty-One Years, excluding vocals, including a candence
Microsoft Wave File Version of the Song, Twenty-One Years, including a candence
The Progressive Shamanists' rendition of the Song, Twenty-One Years, recorded Saturday, April 26, 1983
The Headlights' version of the Song, Ashes Can't Be Burned, recorded in July, 1978