Witthuser & Westrupp
Der Jesuspilz Live
Bernd Witthuser and Walter Westrupp have been active in the Essen folk scene since the 1960s. After Witthuser had organized the Essener Songtage (feat. The Mothers of Invention, Amon Duul, Guru Guru etc.) in 1968, the two musicians joined forces in June 1969 to a folk duo with psychedelic impact. (The duo can be counted on the very popular genre of acid folk then, where bands such like The Inceredible String Band, Fresh Maggots, Syd Barrett and Tea & Symphony belonged to). First they called themselves W & W's Pop Cabaret, in 1970 they changed their name to Witthuser & Westrupp. The duo existed from 1969 to 1973, lived and worked together and also worked in sessions by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser at this time, which appeared on several albums under the band name Cosmic Jokers. The third and most successful LP "Der Jesuspilz - Musik vom Evangelium" was produced in August 1971 in the wake of the Jesus movement. It was based on the book " The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross" by John Marco Allegro. The basic idea for this LP was to reinterpret the Bible. Thus, the "Brosel" (engl. crumb) was declared the essence of life, and Jesus addresses his disciples as "boys". Biblical texts were musically translated and interpreted by Witthuser & Westrupp. " The songs on this album were recorded at the public rehearsal in the JZ (Youth Center) Essen a few days before the first church performance. A true historical sound document! Unfortunately, Bernd Witthuser could not live the release of this record, he died in August 2017!Der Jesuspilz" took place on 25.11.1971 i the apostle church in Essen. The media response was huge, so that the duo then appeared in over a hundred churches in Germany and at German television.