Cover scan courtesy of Left Ear Records

Would you believe that a high-level government executive in Bethesda is behind a highly sought after private-press electronic funk album? That’s the story of Eugene Hagburg. A Korean war veteran, co-author of the college textbook, Public Sector Labor Relations, and Assistant Postmaster General, Hagburg was also a late-night musician whose 1979 album Spaced Out has inspired collectors and musicians around the world.

At a time when the nation’s music consumers were more likely than not to question authority, Hagburg was authority; upper-level management for the U.S. Postal Service with a workforce 800,000 strong. He managed an annual budget of $12 billion and was a frequent spokesperson for the Postal Service, quoted in the Washington Post on numerous occasions from a controversy over the development of “clusterboxes” (individual mailboxes grouped together, as in a subdivision) to the unveiling of a new stamp honoring Oglala Chief Crazy Horse.

But this upper level manager still had a musical ear to scratch. Hagburg writes that he was inspired to write music after hearing, “terrible music” on the radio one morning. “Anyone can do better than that stuff…” he thought. So he called his son-in-law Tom Crawford, a talented sax and piano player.

Hagburg and Crawford followed the example of geographically-inspired bands like Boston, Chicago, and the New York Dolls and recorded under the name ‘Thesda. If Bethesda now has a reputation for being one of the Washington-area’s most vanilla suburbs, in the 1970s it was home to the old WHFS, when underground radio was really underground and years before alternative music became a brand name.

Spaced Out was their first of two very limited releases pressed in editions of 100. You can buy an original copy of the album on Discogs right now for $825—there’s no decimal point there—but if that’s out of your range, the Australian label Left Ear Records plans to reissue the album on vinyl this fall.

Hagburg was the group’s lyricist, while Crawford wrote dreamy electronic-fueled music that was indeed spaced out. On “Stroke My Mind” [from an album released under the name Crawford; listen to a clip below], lead singer Lateefah soulfully navigates lyrics like, “Stroke my mind so I can cope / Release the tension and frustration in my mind / Simplify my world and quiet my relations.” It almost sounds like she’s going postal inside.

Mr. Hagburg, who currently lives in New Mexico, responded to questions over email with answers studded with ellipses like he’s Montgomery County’s version of the bad-boy French author Celine.

Eugene Hagburg in Brussells, 2013. Photo courtesy of the artist.

“The second record was first … based on themes which are still profound … for example “Oceanic Feeling” [released under the name credited to Crawford; listen to a clip below] is an important psychological assumption … that is people have a choice to follow the crowd … or float on the same boat with others OR paddle away in a different direction. Approach was I would write lyrics and then describe to TOM [sic] the message and he would compose the music to carry the lyrics … anyway it was great experience.”

The former Assistant Postmaster General never intended to make any money from the project. But just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in. “More than 30 years later someone found an LP in a thrift shop and found me … one guy from Burton’s Snowboards said ‘send me 10 LPs and will send you $600 over night.'”

Fans called from Bologna and Paris. A Korean hip-hop group recently approached him to adapt his music. Hagburg isn’t making music anymore, but is enjoying retirement in Santa Fe.

A recurring theme among the private press musicians I’ve spoken to for this series is the amazement that people still care. “So nearly 50 years later we are still having a conversation …h ow to explain? Must be the music!,” he writes.

Listen to an excerpt from “Stroke My Mind,” from the Crawford album The Peak Experience.

Listen to an excerpt from “Oceanic Feeling,” from the Crawford album The Peak Experience.

Listen to a track from ‘Thesda’s album “Spaced Out.”

Listen to “We Gon’ Make it,” a Korean hip-hop adaptation of Thesda’s music