July 18, 2024 • 47 mins
Ahoy hoy boppers!
We're back and with a fun one in Norman Greenbaum's 1969 classic rock staple you've heard in at least a half-dozen commercials or movies in your life in "Spirit in the Sky." That opening guitar line is one of the most iconic starts to a song!
We'll look at the Greenbaum's start in the music industry, the number-one hit in "Spirit in the Sky" and then review the rest of the songs off the album of the same name using the scientific scale of bops. Does this album fly to the sky or will it be a giant sigh? Only one way to find out in the #1 podcast for one-hit wonders, One-Hit Wonder Why?
Buckle up boppers!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Going up to the spirit in the sky, that's where I'm going to go when I die.
When I die, and they lay me to rest, I'm going to go to the place that's the best.
And you know what also is the best, ladies and gentlemen? That's right, you guessed it.
You're listening to it. It's the number one, one-hit wonder album review podcast.
(00:20):
One-hit wonder why. Buckle up, boppers.
Music.
(00:50):
Hello and welcome to the one hit wonder why podcast the podcast where we review
you one-hit wonder albums, and we wonder why.
My name is Eric Hassenjager, fellow music nerd, fellow, fellow.
If this is your first time, welcome. If this is not your first time, welcome again.
(01:10):
Thank you so much for joining us here. If you are not aware how this podcast
works, I love music and I love One Hit Wonders.
And I love to combine those two loves into reviewing a One Hit Wonders album.
I'll look at the artists, give you a little history, and then look at the song of their hit.
(01:31):
And then I'll look at the other songs, and then I'll review every single song
of the One Hit Wonder album, all right? And then I have a very scientific,
or we have a very scientific scale here at One Hit Wonder HQ called BOPs, all right?
I'll go into it a little later, but BOPs, the higher the better,
five being the highest, one being the lowest, and then I'll add them all up
(01:52):
and then divide it by the amount of tracks on the album, and then the average
BOP rating here at the end here.
It's a very illustrious award of bop
bops all right so i it's very well
thought out well meticulous well rated so it's
been certified by multiple committees i believe so
yeah it's a very thorough review scale i'll
(02:14):
go into what is pretty much it what i went to right
now but that that's the gist here and i just i want to let the public know about
one hit wonder albums it's it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it ladies
and gentlemen and that someone is me so today's episode i am very much looking
forward to it i i'm definitely a fan of the classic rock genre.
(02:35):
Listening to it on the radio a lot and it
you know you hear a lot of you know normal your
standbys of you know your who beatles rolling
stones but this particular artist whenever this song came on i always it was
always unique enough to really like let you listen to it the whole way through
(02:56):
usually like if there's ones you've listened to a million times like bohemian
rhapsody or hotel california you kind of like okay i got the gist of it next but this one is just.
I don't know it was unique enough and i the the production
will go in more detail later but it's just
so well done and there's a reason why it
stands the test of time uh before i forget today's episode
(03:17):
is norman greenbaum's spirit in the sky and boy howdy this one's a very fun
one to go into detail and research about so i'm very much looking forward to
it uh before we look into norman greenbaum let us look on at the music scene
in 1969 this year was bananas one of the biggest
years in music 1969 we had abbey
(03:39):
road by the beatles tommy by the
who let it bleed by the rolling stone green
river by clear credence revival self-titled a
velvet underground just a growing popularity of
different types of rock evolving and artists
experimenting earlier in the decade it was
a very formulaic very sugar bubble
(04:02):
gum type of vibe when it
comes to rock but it just exploded the different types of music we had in the
late 60s and it's i think it shows with norman greenbaum here and that will
lead us into who norman greenbaum was norman is greenbaum i I call him Norm.
(04:23):
Hey, Norm. Born November 20th, 1942. He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family
near Boston in Malden, Massachusetts.
He attended Hebrew school and graduated from Malden High School in the class of 1960.
He had gotten a guitar in junior high school and taught himself the basics of how to play it.
(04:44):
He studied music at Boston University for two years and he played in a lot of
local coffee houses. He eventually he dropped out and moved to L.A.
To, you know, have make it big out in the West Coast in 1965 with the hope of
starting his career like many star starstruck artists did.
Norman, he went on to form a Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band in 1966.
(05:12):
And the band that he was in, Dr.
West, is basically a novelty folk ragtime psychedelic rock band.
That's a lot of descriptors right there.
But it was a very popular folk ragtime music at this time in the mid-60s.
There was a jug band revival in the underground system here.
(05:35):
It started to grow in the Southern California region where Norman was.
This kind of music dominated in the 1920s and 30s because it was the availability
of commonplace instruments like piano, guitar weren't prevalent due to the Depression
and also the infancy of audio recording.
So people used household appliances like a wash tub, a wash board that could
(05:59):
be turned into a rhythm section.
Our kindergarten percussion instruments were welcome. It seemed like from the
research I did, kazoos were always mandatory.
If you weren't a ragtime jug band, unless you had a kazoo.
And the Norman Greenbaum's band definitely had a kazoo.
There were a lot of notable artists that were part of the Jug Band revival in the 60s.
(06:24):
Most notably, the Grateful Dead founder Jerry Garcia, along with other Grateful
Dead members Bob Weir and Ron McKinnon, came up together in a Jug Band of their
own in the early 60s called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions.
And there are some early, pretty decent quality recordings online.
(06:48):
Music.
Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band wanted to stray as far away from the
mainstream at the time in that group.
They painted their faces, and they kind of were like an early,
early version of KISS, where, you know, they painted their faces,
(07:11):
had costumes, had a light show to accompany their sets.
Very, like, weird. It was like niche-on-niche levels of accessibility.
You know, weird for the sake of weird, which I always appreciate.
You know, they didn't have a crazy amount of success,
but at the end, it did pay off for the group as they reached number 52 on the
Billboard chart in 1967 with a song called The Eggplant That Ate Chicago.
(07:36):
You better watch out for the eggplant that ate Chicago, for he may eat your city soon.
Music.
So, after this hit, a couple years later, the band broke up,
and then Norman started touring by himself, played a lot of,
(07:58):
you know, small little clubs here.
After a while, though, Green Bomb was recognized by one Eric Jacobson,
a band member and producer of The Loving Spoonful, which,
if you're not familiar with, The Loving Spoonful had that very catchy, catchy song,
now appropriate for the time of the season now, summer in the
city so eric
(08:27):
attended one of norman's performances at the famous west hollywood troubadour
he introduced himself to the show and he basically said hey i like you i think
we can do something together i'm sure there's more said to it but that was all
i could find but so eric Eric extended the invitation for Norman to travel to San Francisco,
where Eric offered to put him up for a few weeks. That was really nice.
(08:50):
As a result of this collaboration, Norman signed with Warner Brothers as a single artist.
And this is where we are led to our actual album, the Spirit in the Sky album.
After getting signed by Warner Brothers, Norman went to the Coast Rec Recorder
Studios in San Francisco.
And Eric hired a bunch of local session musicians and helped out Greenbaum record the album.
(09:12):
And it was over a course of three months in mid-1969, he recorded the album.
And then finally it was released a little before christmas later
that year now with the spirit in the sky song the single it became a gold record
in the u.s selling 2 million copies from 1969 to 1970 it reached number three
(09:35):
on the u.s billboard hot 100 where it lasted for 15 weeks in the top Top 100.
Fun fact, Warner was leery of releasing this as a single as it was four minutes long.
And four minutes may not seem much to the length of a song, but back then on
AM radio, you basically needed to be like two and a half minutes,
(09:57):
three minutes tops for your single to be appeared kind of in heavy rotation.
So Warner was not a huge proponent.
Actually, too, they they released two singles off
of this album before they finally kind of conceded to
let Norman release this one as a single
and just how much this song is
(10:18):
being used how it kind of has a resurgence being played
Apollo 13 had it in there that montage scene
a bunch of movies like Wayne's World 2 recently
even a decade ago like Guardians of the Galaxy kind of
reinvigorated people's appreciation and love
for this kind of style of classic rock
here and the song itself there's numerous
(10:41):
as you can tell it's a numerous references to jesus
popular a lot of before then or popular music really didn't showcase religious
overtones this song was kind of that kind of had that for a subject matter and
the counterculture at this time was within full Full swing and Christian rock
and folk rock was just starting to mix together.
(11:02):
And I think this song was kind of the forefront of mixing this together.
Cause after this, I felt like we got a lot more after this song started,
we got George Harrison's my sweet Lord.
(11:34):
So we definitely started to see an upswing in the blending of Christian rock and folk rock.
So it's interesting to kind of see the spirit and sky kind of start this movement.
And according to interviews, the inspiration for Norman was seeing a country
variety show of a famous artist, country artist, Porter Wagner.
(11:54):
Porter had a country variety show for a couple of decades, starting in the early
60s. He was responsible for introducing to one an up-and-coming artist you may
have heard of, Dolly Parton.
The song that Norman brings up, Porter's, was Pastor's Absent on Vacation in
1968 for his inspiration.
As the old man read the notice, how it made his spirit burn.
(12:20):
Pastor on vacation, church closed for his return. So that song,
not exactly a song, but it was more of a spoken word against a background music.
But this style was pretty common in mainstream country music back then and having
sentimental or inspirational poems.
(12:41):
So what the song was about, the pastor's absent on vacation,
it was about an old man's reflections and thoughts that come to his head as
he imagines arriving at heaven's gate upon his death,
only to find a sign explaining that since jesus
is on vacation heaven is closed and
this this struck norman kind of a to kind of write
(13:01):
a song about it according to interviews this song is
a direct response to the scenario and norman an
interview said that that guy wanted salvation and the preacher was on vacation
so without thinking about it i made up for what didn't exist in wagner's song
in spirit in the sky the preacher isn't on vacation enabling the protagonist
to ensure his ultimate standing with spirit in the sky by quote-unquote having
(13:25):
a friend in jesus end quote.
Additionally, Norman, he came across a greeting card in a store that read Spirit
in the Sky, and there was a combo right there that struck him as very vivid
going along with Porter's song.
And those two aspects are what we hear of the song now.
And there's numerous theories of what the true, quote-unquote,
(13:48):
true meaning of Spirit in the Sky is.
And from all the interviews I've read and seen of Greenbaum,
ultimately, he just wanted to make a fun song.
There is a bunch of religious theories of this.
Now, I know Norman Greenbaum is an Orthodox Jew singing a song about Jesus.
(14:09):
Ultimately, he didn't care. He just wanted to try his hand at something different.
And that's why the song resonated to this day after decades and decades.
So I am not nowhere near qualified I
am just one music nerd so any anything else
as far as any religious theories that is not in my wheelhouse but what is in
(14:31):
my wheelhouse is music and kind of transitioning over to the kind of going before
the there's a acoustic demo that's on the deluxe version of the album and I
it's very interesting to hear you can see it was the bones of it is there,
but obviously the production was amped up. So yeah, here's just a quick clip.
(15:09):
I always like hearing demos like that of popular songs, just because just seeing
the evolution of what is being added, what's being layered to make a full production.
And it's just cool to see it kind of stripped down. And you can tell the tempo
is a little sporadic, but the vibe is pretty much there.
(15:30):
So it's really cool to hear that. So that's on the deluxe album of Spirit in the Sky here.
The song itself, though, the final version, it seems like it's like an inspiration
of the rhythm of another rock group called Can Heat, another California rock group.
And they have a similar blue shuffle tone in that it came out a couple years
before called On the Road Again, which also had a psychedelic twist.
(16:09):
So there you can definitely see the similarities there going on.
And if you want to even go further, and we will go further back,
1948, another blues similar shuffle beat.
And again, not like, you know, there's many songs that have the same rhythm,
but notable is a classic blues musician, John Lee Hooker, and his song Boogie Chillin'.
(16:50):
So you can tell that, a lot like On the Road again, but even more so,
Spearing of the Sky, you can see where the influence is with Boogie Chillin' by John Lee Hooker here.
And again, not to say like no other artists didn't do this, but it's kind of
doing the research for this song and seeing the through line and the evolution
(17:12):
of what people's interests were and kind of made it their own.
It was interesting to see Greenbaum's kind
of version of his style of blues being
intertwined with a psychedelic twist so interesting to see that point here and
kind of since we're talking about the music here let us talk about that guitar
tone oh my goodness gracious it's one of the most iconic parts of the song according
(17:38):
to Greenbaum one of the former Dr.
West bandmates had a fuzz box built into
the body of green bomb's fender telecaster and
it was a small switch with some wires in
a on and off switch powered by a nine volt battery
very jury rigged together the guitarist
of norman's band russell de shell for this album explains
(17:59):
he has to give credit to jimi hendrix for those
solo sections as well with using the guitar pickup switches to create that staccato
feedback so it's there's been numerous videos over the course of the years on
youtube of people trying to recreate that level of fuzz and it's just has not
been really replicated that much because it's just so unique.
(18:33):
You hear it like the first you know five seconds of the song it's it's so iconic
and the way that it just it comes together is so well done with the guitar so
whatever they did you know the exact
you know way they did it is just amazing and we're
going from the the music to the the backup singers all right
(18:55):
the the gospel singers that contribute on this track were provided by the Stovall
sisters who were a gospel trio from Indiana they were contracted Warner Brothers
talent and they had a lot of connections working with other artists and bands
they sing with a lot of heavy duty acts such as CCR,
Sam Cooke, Al Green, and Earth, Wind & Fire, and many more.
(19:19):
So it's just the level of... oh, I could gush more about this song,
but let's actually play the snippet of the real version here.
Music.
(19:41):
Oh beautiful beautiful beautiful there's there's
so many layers of this i i don't even
know where to begin i guess the easy clap along
verses are so catchy just man
very easy to bop your head to the gospel background singers the stovall sisters
amazing job this is just it's one of those classic rock songs that are played
(20:06):
on classic rock stations that you don't get sick of in between Between Hotel
California and Bohemian Rhapsody,
you get this nice, refreshing,
folksy, but also crazy rockin' song.
And it also gives big Hendrix vibes with a couple of solos. It's just amazing
(20:28):
just to hear one of them, for example.
And with a song with a couple of solos, you think, OK, this is a little overkill.
I can see why people that would not be into classic rock would like this song. And I get it.
(20:49):
But I think this this song kind of demonstrates a perfect level of restraint.
And the reason I say restraint is because, you know, most bands or artists would
layer on everything, you know, solo and more and more solos.
But I do like after the first guitar solo It's just the drums,
clapping And bass after the first solo And I appreciate that I think as we got
(21:14):
into the 70s It was just like Bands like Led Zeppelin Just would have,
And I love Led Zeppelin, but it would be kind of overkill somewhat.
And having stripped down just the drums and clapping and bass like this,
it just feels nice. It feels calm.
It gives you kind of time to kind of soak in the groove, soak in the rhythm here.
(21:36):
And I really appreciate that. And the fade-out. The song has a fade-out.
Usually I, myself, I have a quirk. I am not a huge fan of fade-outs.
I don't know if anyone else out there likes it or not. But I'm not a huge fan,
but I like how it is done here.
And the second guitar bluesy solo is the cherry on top as the song winds down.
(21:58):
Fun fact, this song is one of the most requested songs to be played at someone's funeral.
And I can see why. Again, it's four minutes of just, it takes you on a ride.
It takes, you know, there's the layers of the gospel singers,
the clap along verses again, like I said.
The hendrix vibe it's just very well
(22:19):
produced and it still stands the test of time
to this day so we have
now gotten to the portion of our review rating here and like i said at the top
of the show what we go off here at one hit wonder hq is bops all right the more
bops the better all right so So we review five being the highest, one being the lowest,
(22:42):
and then we count up the bops and divide it by the amount of tracks on the album.
So with me gushing about Spirit in the Sky, the song here, I don't think it's any surprise.
The bop rating for Spirit in the Sky is five out of five. Five bops.
Congratulations, Spirit in the Sky.
Take your bow. Take your flowers. So yeah, that is that.
(23:04):
Five out of five. Now next up we are going to get on to the other songs of the
album here This is the other portion of our show here Is where we review the
less known songs here So starting off with the album here The first song of
the album is Junior Cadillac.
Music.
(23:41):
Again very funky 70s tune here
you can hear the the strong horn section being displayed
here that the verses are a little
meandering the vocals in the verses
the very talky norm there's not like a strong solid rhythm of it it's it's more
just him kind of talking a little bit and lyrically it's not super interesting
(24:04):
according to you know some interviews i've seen it's basically just Green Bomb
loved the idea of cruising. That's it.
And again, the backup singers are great. I'll appreciate that.
But again, it goes on for about a minute too long.
I guess the only part I like is the horn section a little bit.
(24:27):
It sounds like a Nick at Night early 70s sitcom that lasted maybe for two seasons.
Them but i i myself i can't
i can't see myself going back to this it's very
much product of its time so i
this was actually i believe the first single off the album that the warner brothers
(24:48):
released here so not a strong start that they strong song they decided to release
here so for a final rating i'd uh i have to give junior cadillac two bops out
of five two bops junior in your Cadillac. So on to the next track.
Track 2 was Spirit in the Sky, which we already talked about.
And so track 3 is Skyline.
(25:11):
Music.
All right, I'm going to have to address the elephant in the room.
(25:32):
Just listen to that. Is it me, or does Greenbaum sound a lot,
a lot like Neil Diamond there?
I can't be the only one, right?
(25:53):
I it's just the kind of green bomb
and diamond definitely have a very similar a way
of delivery and tone in their voice just something
i noticed just me or maybe it's others so just something i noticed so the skyline
here again i'll get on the positives here i love the drums love the drums the
(26:14):
pre-chorus tempo shift is fun when he says wait for me you get the guitar.
Breakdown and the bridge is okay but it doesn't
go anywhere the there's heavy tremelo use
in from the guitar i like again green mom's
experimenting with different types of effects to kind of
keep you the listener to in tune
(26:34):
here the vocals they do a better job than
the you know the first track of the album here but the subject
matter itself as far as the lyrics it it
seems like he's just on a plane and now he's you
know leaving his current destination to go to another destination
like skyline no i'm going away but
i'll be back eventually it's just nothing super
(26:57):
strong here and not varied i
will say for this song it's just it's it's
not the worst there's again the drums always a sucker for the way this drums
are mixed here that thud but the song itself not anything super memorable so
for a rating of skyline i'll give you three bops three bops all right on to
(27:21):
the next track track four and that is jubilee.
(27:44):
Jubilee was the second single that was released by Warner Brothers And I should
correct myself Junior Cadillac was not a single relief It was another song later
on the album that was released as a first single Anyway,
yeah, so this song was the second single And it did not chart at all Again,
this is very 70s And it feels like another sitcom theme But I do enjoy the backup
(28:07):
singers appearing again It's a fun bouncy track,
very 70s again the horn section again i
think this is a this is like a better version of junior cadillac
i feel like the song is basically about a party like
a feel-good song and the end with the horn solo
and the harmonica solo intertwined together is nice
there's some variety at the end and also
(28:29):
there's some scatting at the end as well i this is
definitely a fun song for me to listen to and
didn't overstay its welcome and just a feel-good type
of a little little ditty from a you know
from green bomb here i i enjoyed it it's not like the best song on the album
obviously but it's a definitely i i enjoyed a lot of what is on here and the
(28:50):
variety and the melody here so jubilee jubilee you get four bops four bops here
all right on to the next track and that is alice bodine.
Music.
(29:25):
So as you can tell, very spacey. If you like synth, boy howdy,
you are in for a trip, a space trip.
So it's very Bowie-like, you can tell.
Greenbaum's voice cannot carry, obviously, the weight like Bowie,
but who can in this type of matter?
I like I'm a Sucker for Synth. I like it. Maybe it's too much, perhaps.
(29:47):
I do like he's trying to get a little emotional in the lyrics.
And I get where he's coming from.
It's definitely a dreamlike, spacey song because the lyric matter kind of deals
with him dreaming about a girl named Alice Bodine, who he hasn't seen her in 10 years.
So this is all kind of in Greenbaum's mind of dreaming about her and the memories and everything.
(30:14):
So it's a pretty standard song. But the synth, I'd say this is more than enough to turn people off.
And it's just not a lot of different
variety from it and i think a little
goes a long way when it comes to that and yeah the
again the green bomb's voice isn't strong enough to uh get super emotional so
(30:34):
i again i like the variety at least i appreciate that so for a rating a bop
rating for alice bodine you get three bops three bops so on to track six and that is tars of india.
(31:08):
Smoke Tars Avenger Someday gonna be a star Soon as Watson comes out Music so
for a you know the positives
here it's nice a little bopping guitar solo again i
like the a little funky wah-wah shuffle guitar
groove that's going on i will say it
sounds a lot like earlier song in the album jubilee and
it's it's a feel-good song but nothing like heavy lyrical wise i i know i understand
(31:31):
the placement especially you know having a somewhat heavier song from before
alice bodine to kind of you know break it up a little bit make it you know a little more
lighthearted but this song the melody line there's
not really a strong so to like
you know latch on to it seems like it probably should
(31:51):
have been cut it's not a not a terrible song it's just nothing's too too substantial
and we've kind of already heard it for in the jubilee so for a bop rating bop
rating for tarz avengia it is going to be two bops two bops so on to track seven
and And that is the power.
(32:30):
Now, I think, again, this song starts strong, and I like the little grimy guitar
riff associated with it, and I like, again, the horn intro is really nice,
and as you hear in that clip here, I think it's probably the best part of the song right here.
But after the breakdown, after the first verse, it feels stagnant,
and it doesn't really change up.
(32:52):
And vocals, they are kind of mixed low, so you can't really,
I don't know, Green Bomb's vocals are kind of just not really overpowering,
no pun intended, the song The Power.
And there's not a lot, again, lyrical-wise, nothing super heavy,
but it doesn't overstay its welcome at just two and a half minutes.
This one could have been nice, but the noodling around guitar-wise,
(33:15):
it seems like the guitarist is kind of all over the place.
There's not really a plan, so to speak.
Not to say there has to be a plan with a melody, it just
it feels like it's just guitar player was just kind of you know
just like playing whatever he felt like playing and call it a day like it not
really anything to really you know go back to and listen again again not not
(33:37):
another song to warn a one but for a bop rating for the power you get two bops
two bops so on to track eight and that is good looking woman.
Music.
(34:06):
Good-looking woman like you. again a very bouncy tune you know it seems to be
a very fun song guitar tone i like the the clean,
guitar being played on the melody the little fills i enjoy i i can't help but
think though it sounds a little like melody wise like happy together by the
turtles which came out a couple years before.
(34:37):
So, yeah, definitely melody-wise, that was the first thing that came to mind
with this happy together here.
But, again, the good-looking woman song here, it wasn't too bad.
I wanted to like this more, but the lyrics are suspect, to say the least.
For example, you want to have nice things say, oh, yeah, all you got to do is come to me.
(35:00):
I said, whoa, whoa, yeah, I'll give you everything you want.
I'll fill your heart's desires. desires baby you just
can't go higher because i'm the last of the big
time spenders so in the the song it
seems to you know green bomb seems to flaunt his money a
lot or the the women he uh he
is with it's he's worried about the money he has
(35:21):
to repeatedly assure her he has money my me
thinks mr green bob or at least whoever you
know character he's singing as uh he's feeling a little insecure
here he has to be like hey i got money please stay with me it
just is weird i don't know i don't know if it matches the the
song that the the music matches the lyrics but again i wanted to like the song
(35:44):
more than i did because i really like the rhythm of it and it's definitely it
sounds different than the rest
of the record here but i get the lyrics are very goofy and it just kind of
takes me out so i i did like a little bit at the end here he the melody kind
of matches with the guitar tone a little bit but other than that i just i wanted
(36:05):
to like this song a lot more so for a rating for good looking woman you get
three bops three bops so on to the next one and that is milk cow.
Music.
(36:37):
For background here, Greenbaum does have a history of being a farmer, a goat farmer.
So there's certain inspiration that Greenbaum's drawing out of here.
Musically, it's very mellow. It has a similar tempo to the previous track of
Good Looking Woman here.
Harmonica is very nicely played. Again, as you notice in the last few songs
(37:01):
here, lacking in the backup singers.
I don't know if they were only contracted for a certain amount of songs on this
album, but I would have liked to hear more from the Chevelle sisters.
It would have been nice. It would have been nice. I think this song probably could have used it.
But again, this doesn't really change up too much for the song.
(37:22):
And lyrically, again, like I said earlier, Greenbaum, he being a goat farmer,
he kind of makes sense for the subject matter of the song.
It's a farm song. It's about a milk and a cow. No, there's no other,
you know, heavy duty subtext to it.
So again, it's an okay song, but nothing I really would want to go back and listen to.
(37:42):
So for a rating of Melkow, you get two bops, two bops.
So on to the next track, and it's the last track of the album,
track 10, and that is Marcellus.
Music.
(38:20):
This song, Marcy, was a lead single of the record here that Warner issued out.
And I got to say, weird choice to put the closing track of this album as a lead single.
And this doesn't scream to me a, you know, it's very crazy to think that,
you know, it took, you know, a couple of singles before they realized Spirit
in the Sky was going to be a big hit.
(38:42):
But you never know what's going to hit with the audience here.
But anyway, going back to the track itself, musically, pros that I,
or positives I like, I like how the bass is mixed. The bass is awesome.
Probably one of the best parts of the song. It's just grimy sounding.
It's loud, but not too loud. And I wish I could have more of it.
The backup singers like i said before wanting more
(39:04):
hey ask and you shall receive they make.
An appearance here a little bit but not a lot i
obviously i would like more just it gives more layers to you
know green bombs of vocals and again much
like the same spacey vibe as alice
bodine marcy possesses the same kind of
song they're they're pretty similar songs when you
(39:26):
listen to them back to back or if you listen to them
just in a very short period of time this is
as even maybe more synth if that's even possible just a
little goes a long way when it comes to this and it becomes where
it's like it's almost near impossible for it
to have a break and you need that a little bit and
again i know probably at the time synth was very you
(39:47):
know the novel thing to use i just
but i think it just dates it a little too much and the
lyrics it's another it's again another song about a girl you
sung in the second person about a girl named marcy and the
main character being too shy or afraid nothing too
crazy for a you know a song but
kind of an odd choice to have as a closer i don't know
(40:08):
what else you would put on here but maybe you'd put alice bodine on here you'd
swap them but again these two songs sound a lot alike and i think maybe this
one marcy is maybe like the lesser of the you know the synth women named songs
so i i i I couldn't say this has ended on a great note.
This album, having Marcy at the end.
(40:30):
But, you know, again, that bass saves it right there from being a one.
So for a final rating for Marcy, you get two bops, two bops.
And with that, that is the complete review of 1969's Norman Greenbaum's Spirit in the Sky.
I have calculated all the bops. I've done all the science, all the math,
all the arithmetic that you could do.
(40:52):
And I have calculated all the bops. Now, I know there's a deluxe version of
Spear in the Sky with some unreleased material.
But I am going as strictly what was released at the time, and there are 10 tracks
on here, and altogether there is 28 bops.
28 bops. So, divide 28, divided by 10, 10 tracks we have. Drum roll,
(41:15):
please. Drum roll, please.
2.8 bops, 2.8 for a final rating for Spirit in the Sky, the album by Norman
Greenbaum, released in 1969.
And I'd say the science and math does not lie, ladies and gentlemen, 2.8.
I feel this album is almost right at the average point, but there's just a few
(41:38):
songs on here that just kind of feel like they could have been cut,
or they sound too similar.
And I always like to, you know, have some recommendations for songs for people
to add to their playlist.
And, you know, first up, we have obviously Spirit in the Sky.
I gushed about it forever earlier on the podcast here.
So you got to add that on. But another song that people may not be aware of is a track for Jubilee.
(42:02):
I liked, again, the backup singers did a great job adding more to the song.
Song the definitely the has a
nice vibe with the horn section and the
harmonica solo being at the end a lot of
variety to it i was very surprised to it and i would
have liked to see more of this kind of level of music here there's
another song that sounded like it but it just doesn't compare
(42:25):
so jubilee was a nice surprise kind of nice deep
cut that i would recommend here but the rest of the songs i
i wouldn't i i would have i've gone back and forth
good looking woman rating that a three or four but i think three
i feel feel better with i do like the the
dreamy guitar tone of that but not not enough to
give it a go and i always i always try you know even if you're
(42:45):
not a fan of classic rock i think these two songs tubally and
spirit in the sky i think i think people would enjoy it
so if anything i would add those songs
to your playlist and give them a go because music's
beautiful and art is beautiful and that
is why i'm here just to talk about music i could
do it all day but i won't and i i
(43:06):
can't i i wish i could and so that is
the episode nine norman greenbaum spirit in
the sky 1969 here so
that has been one hit wonder why i am your host eric hosniager i apologize for
the infrequent schedule but i will try my best to get more produced here more
(43:27):
episodes produced because i absolutely love talking about music and i hope you
love listening to music and listening to people talk about music.
So that is it. I think I already said my name. My name is Eric Hosnager. I've been your host.
So glad you listened to this part through the episode here.
I'm going to wrap it up and say have a pleasant day and a pleasant tomorrow.
(43:55):
Music.
Going up to the spirit in the sky, that's where I'm going to go when I die.
When I die, and they lay me to rest, I'm going to go to the place that's the best.
And you know what also is the best, ladies and gentlemen? That's right, you guessed it.
You're listening to it. It's the number one, one-hit wonder album review podcast.
(00:20):
One-hit wonder why. Buckle up, boppers.
Music.
(00:50):
Hello and welcome to the one hit wonder why podcast the podcast where we review
you one-hit wonder albums, and we wonder why.
My name is Eric Hassenjager, fellow music nerd, fellow, fellow.
If this is your first time, welcome. If this is not your first time, welcome again.
(01:10):
Thank you so much for joining us here. If you are not aware how this podcast
works, I love music and I love One Hit Wonders.
And I love to combine those two loves into reviewing a One Hit Wonders album.
I'll look at the artists, give you a little history, and then look at the song of their hit.
(01:31):
And then I'll look at the other songs, and then I'll review every single song
of the One Hit Wonder album, all right? And then I have a very scientific,
or we have a very scientific scale here at One Hit Wonder HQ called BOPs, all right?
I'll go into it a little later, but BOPs, the higher the better,
five being the highest, one being the lowest, and then I'll add them all up
(01:52):
and then divide it by the amount of tracks on the album, and then the average
BOP rating here at the end here.
It's a very illustrious award of bop
bops all right so i it's very well
thought out well meticulous well rated so it's
been certified by multiple committees i believe so
yeah it's a very thorough review scale i'll
(02:14):
go into what is pretty much it what i went to right
now but that that's the gist here and i just i want to let the public know about
one hit wonder albums it's it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it ladies
and gentlemen and that someone is me so today's episode i am very much looking
forward to it i i'm definitely a fan of the classic rock genre.
(02:35):
Listening to it on the radio a lot and it
you know you hear a lot of you know normal your
standbys of you know your who beatles rolling
stones but this particular artist whenever this song came on i always it was
always unique enough to really like let you listen to it the whole way through
(02:56):
usually like if there's ones you've listened to a million times like bohemian
rhapsody or hotel california you kind of like okay i got the gist of it next but this one is just.
I don't know it was unique enough and i the the production
will go in more detail later but it's just
so well done and there's a reason why it
stands the test of time uh before i forget today's episode
(03:17):
is norman greenbaum's spirit in the sky and boy howdy this one's a very fun
one to go into detail and research about so i'm very much looking forward to
it uh before we look into norman greenbaum let us look on at the music scene
in 1969 this year was bananas one of the biggest
years in music 1969 we had abbey
(03:39):
road by the beatles tommy by the
who let it bleed by the rolling stone green
river by clear credence revival self-titled a
velvet underground just a growing popularity of
different types of rock evolving and artists
experimenting earlier in the decade it was
a very formulaic very sugar bubble
(04:02):
gum type of vibe when it
comes to rock but it just exploded the different types of music we had in the
late 60s and it's i think it shows with norman greenbaum here and that will
lead us into who norman greenbaum was norman is greenbaum i I call him Norm.
(04:23):
Hey, Norm. Born November 20th, 1942. He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family
near Boston in Malden, Massachusetts.
He attended Hebrew school and graduated from Malden High School in the class of 1960.
He had gotten a guitar in junior high school and taught himself the basics of how to play it.
(04:44):
He studied music at Boston University for two years and he played in a lot of
local coffee houses. He eventually he dropped out and moved to L.A.
To, you know, have make it big out in the West Coast in 1965 with the hope of
starting his career like many star starstruck artists did.
Norman, he went on to form a Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band in 1966.
(05:12):
And the band that he was in, Dr.
West, is basically a novelty folk ragtime psychedelic rock band.
That's a lot of descriptors right there.
But it was a very popular folk ragtime music at this time in the mid-60s.
There was a jug band revival in the underground system here.
(05:35):
It started to grow in the Southern California region where Norman was.
This kind of music dominated in the 1920s and 30s because it was the availability
of commonplace instruments like piano, guitar weren't prevalent due to the Depression
and also the infancy of audio recording.
So people used household appliances like a wash tub, a wash board that could
(05:59):
be turned into a rhythm section.
Our kindergarten percussion instruments were welcome. It seemed like from the
research I did, kazoos were always mandatory.
If you weren't a ragtime jug band, unless you had a kazoo.
And the Norman Greenbaum's band definitely had a kazoo.
There were a lot of notable artists that were part of the Jug Band revival in the 60s.
(06:24):
Most notably, the Grateful Dead founder Jerry Garcia, along with other Grateful
Dead members Bob Weir and Ron McKinnon, came up together in a Jug Band of their
own in the early 60s called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions.
And there are some early, pretty decent quality recordings online.
(06:48):
Music.
Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band wanted to stray as far away from the
mainstream at the time in that group.
They painted their faces, and they kind of were like an early,
early version of KISS, where, you know, they painted their faces,
(07:11):
had costumes, had a light show to accompany their sets.
Very, like, weird. It was like niche-on-niche levels of accessibility.
You know, weird for the sake of weird, which I always appreciate.
You know, they didn't have a crazy amount of success,
but at the end, it did pay off for the group as they reached number 52 on the
Billboard chart in 1967 with a song called The Eggplant That Ate Chicago.
(07:36):
You better watch out for the eggplant that ate Chicago, for he may eat your city soon.
Music.
So, after this hit, a couple years later, the band broke up,
and then Norman started touring by himself, played a lot of,
(07:58):
you know, small little clubs here.
After a while, though, Green Bomb was recognized by one Eric Jacobson,
a band member and producer of The Loving Spoonful, which,
if you're not familiar with, The Loving Spoonful had that very catchy, catchy song,
now appropriate for the time of the season now, summer in the
city so eric
(08:27):
attended one of norman's performances at the famous west hollywood troubadour
he introduced himself to the show and he basically said hey i like you i think
we can do something together i'm sure there's more said to it but that was all
i could find but so eric Eric extended the invitation for Norman to travel to San Francisco,
where Eric offered to put him up for a few weeks. That was really nice.
(08:50):
As a result of this collaboration, Norman signed with Warner Brothers as a single artist.
And this is where we are led to our actual album, the Spirit in the Sky album.
After getting signed by Warner Brothers, Norman went to the Coast Rec Recorder
Studios in San Francisco.
And Eric hired a bunch of local session musicians and helped out Greenbaum record the album.
(09:12):
And it was over a course of three months in mid-1969, he recorded the album.
And then finally it was released a little before christmas later
that year now with the spirit in the sky song the single it became a gold record
in the u.s selling 2 million copies from 1969 to 1970 it reached number three
(09:35):
on the u.s billboard hot 100 where it lasted for 15 weeks in the top Top 100.
Fun fact, Warner was leery of releasing this as a single as it was four minutes long.
And four minutes may not seem much to the length of a song, but back then on
AM radio, you basically needed to be like two and a half minutes,
(09:57):
three minutes tops for your single to be appeared kind of in heavy rotation.
So Warner was not a huge proponent.
Actually, too, they they released two singles off
of this album before they finally kind of conceded to
let Norman release this one as a single
and just how much this song is
(10:18):
being used how it kind of has a resurgence being played
Apollo 13 had it in there that montage scene
a bunch of movies like Wayne's World 2 recently
even a decade ago like Guardians of the Galaxy kind of
reinvigorated people's appreciation and love
for this kind of style of classic rock
here and the song itself there's numerous
(10:41):
as you can tell it's a numerous references to jesus
popular a lot of before then or popular music really didn't showcase religious
overtones this song was kind of that kind of had that for a subject matter and
the counterculture at this time was within full Full swing and Christian rock
and folk rock was just starting to mix together.
(11:02):
And I think this song was kind of the forefront of mixing this together.
Cause after this, I felt like we got a lot more after this song started,
we got George Harrison's my sweet Lord.
(11:34):
So we definitely started to see an upswing in the blending of Christian rock and folk rock.
So it's interesting to kind of see the spirit and sky kind of start this movement.
And according to interviews, the inspiration for Norman was seeing a country
variety show of a famous artist, country artist, Porter Wagner.
(11:54):
Porter had a country variety show for a couple of decades, starting in the early
60s. He was responsible for introducing to one an up-and-coming artist you may
have heard of, Dolly Parton.
The song that Norman brings up, Porter's, was Pastor's Absent on Vacation in
1968 for his inspiration.
As the old man read the notice, how it made his spirit burn.
(12:20):
Pastor on vacation, church closed for his return. So that song,
not exactly a song, but it was more of a spoken word against a background music.
But this style was pretty common in mainstream country music back then and having
sentimental or inspirational poems.
(12:41):
So what the song was about, the pastor's absent on vacation,
it was about an old man's reflections and thoughts that come to his head as
he imagines arriving at heaven's gate upon his death,
only to find a sign explaining that since jesus
is on vacation heaven is closed and
this this struck norman kind of a to kind of write
(13:01):
a song about it according to interviews this song is
a direct response to the scenario and norman an
interview said that that guy wanted salvation and the preacher was on vacation
so without thinking about it i made up for what didn't exist in wagner's song
in spirit in the sky the preacher isn't on vacation enabling the protagonist
to ensure his ultimate standing with spirit in the sky by quote-unquote having
(13:25):
a friend in jesus end quote.
Additionally, Norman, he came across a greeting card in a store that read Spirit
in the Sky, and there was a combo right there that struck him as very vivid
going along with Porter's song.
And those two aspects are what we hear of the song now.
And there's numerous theories of what the true, quote-unquote,
(13:48):
true meaning of Spirit in the Sky is.
And from all the interviews I've read and seen of Greenbaum,
ultimately, he just wanted to make a fun song.
There is a bunch of religious theories of this.
Now, I know Norman Greenbaum is an Orthodox Jew singing a song about Jesus.
(14:09):
Ultimately, he didn't care. He just wanted to try his hand at something different.
And that's why the song resonated to this day after decades and decades.
So I am not nowhere near qualified I
am just one music nerd so any anything else
as far as any religious theories that is not in my wheelhouse but what is in
(14:31):
my wheelhouse is music and kind of transitioning over to the kind of going before
the there's a acoustic demo that's on the deluxe version of the album and I
it's very interesting to hear you can see it was the bones of it is there,
but obviously the production was amped up. So yeah, here's just a quick clip.
(15:09):
I always like hearing demos like that of popular songs, just because just seeing
the evolution of what is being added, what's being layered to make a full production.
And it's just cool to see it kind of stripped down. And you can tell the tempo
is a little sporadic, but the vibe is pretty much there.
(15:30):
So it's really cool to hear that. So that's on the deluxe album of Spirit in the Sky here.
The song itself, though, the final version, it seems like it's like an inspiration
of the rhythm of another rock group called Can Heat, another California rock group.
And they have a similar blue shuffle tone in that it came out a couple years
before called On the Road Again, which also had a psychedelic twist.
(16:09):
So there you can definitely see the similarities there going on.
And if you want to even go further, and we will go further back,
1948, another blues similar shuffle beat.
And again, not like, you know, there's many songs that have the same rhythm,
but notable is a classic blues musician, John Lee Hooker, and his song Boogie Chillin'.
(16:50):
So you can tell that, a lot like On the Road again, but even more so,
Spearing of the Sky, you can see where the influence is with Boogie Chillin' by John Lee Hooker here.
And again, not to say like no other artists didn't do this, but it's kind of
doing the research for this song and seeing the through line and the evolution
(17:12):
of what people's interests were and kind of made it their own.
It was interesting to see Greenbaum's kind
of version of his style of blues being
intertwined with a psychedelic twist so interesting to see that point here and
kind of since we're talking about the music here let us talk about that guitar
tone oh my goodness gracious it's one of the most iconic parts of the song according
(17:38):
to Greenbaum one of the former Dr.
West bandmates had a fuzz box built into
the body of green bomb's fender telecaster and
it was a small switch with some wires in
a on and off switch powered by a nine volt battery
very jury rigged together the guitarist
of norman's band russell de shell for this album explains
(17:59):
he has to give credit to jimi hendrix for those
solo sections as well with using the guitar pickup switches to create that staccato
feedback so it's there's been numerous videos over the course of the years on
youtube of people trying to recreate that level of fuzz and it's just has not
been really replicated that much because it's just so unique.
(18:33):
You hear it like the first you know five seconds of the song it's it's so iconic
and the way that it just it comes together is so well done with the guitar so
whatever they did you know the exact
you know way they did it is just amazing and we're
going from the the music to the the backup singers all right
(18:55):
the the gospel singers that contribute on this track were provided by the Stovall
sisters who were a gospel trio from Indiana they were contracted Warner Brothers
talent and they had a lot of connections working with other artists and bands
they sing with a lot of heavy duty acts such as CCR,
Sam Cooke, Al Green, and Earth, Wind & Fire, and many more.
(19:19):
So it's just the level of... oh, I could gush more about this song,
but let's actually play the snippet of the real version here.
Music.
(19:41):
Oh beautiful beautiful beautiful there's there's
so many layers of this i i don't even
know where to begin i guess the easy clap along
verses are so catchy just man
very easy to bop your head to the gospel background singers the stovall sisters
amazing job this is just it's one of those classic rock songs that are played
(20:06):
on classic rock stations that you don't get sick of in between Between Hotel
California and Bohemian Rhapsody,
you get this nice, refreshing,
folksy, but also crazy rockin' song.
And it also gives big Hendrix vibes with a couple of solos. It's just amazing
(20:28):
just to hear one of them, for example.
And with a song with a couple of solos, you think, OK, this is a little overkill.
I can see why people that would not be into classic rock would like this song. And I get it.
(20:49):
But I think this this song kind of demonstrates a perfect level of restraint.
And the reason I say restraint is because, you know, most bands or artists would
layer on everything, you know, solo and more and more solos.
But I do like after the first guitar solo It's just the drums,
clapping And bass after the first solo And I appreciate that I think as we got
(21:14):
into the 70s It was just like Bands like Led Zeppelin Just would have,
And I love Led Zeppelin, but it would be kind of overkill somewhat.
And having stripped down just the drums and clapping and bass like this,
it just feels nice. It feels calm.
It gives you kind of time to kind of soak in the groove, soak in the rhythm here.
(21:36):
And I really appreciate that. And the fade-out. The song has a fade-out.
Usually I, myself, I have a quirk. I am not a huge fan of fade-outs.
I don't know if anyone else out there likes it or not. But I'm not a huge fan,
but I like how it is done here.
And the second guitar bluesy solo is the cherry on top as the song winds down.
(21:58):
Fun fact, this song is one of the most requested songs to be played at someone's funeral.
And I can see why. Again, it's four minutes of just, it takes you on a ride.
It takes, you know, there's the layers of the gospel singers,
the clap along verses again, like I said.
The hendrix vibe it's just very well
(22:19):
produced and it still stands the test of time
to this day so we have
now gotten to the portion of our review rating here and like i said at the top
of the show what we go off here at one hit wonder hq is bops all right the more
bops the better all right so So we review five being the highest, one being the lowest,
(22:42):
and then we count up the bops and divide it by the amount of tracks on the album.
So with me gushing about Spirit in the Sky, the song here, I don't think it's any surprise.
The bop rating for Spirit in the Sky is five out of five. Five bops.
Congratulations, Spirit in the Sky.
Take your bow. Take your flowers. So yeah, that is that.
(23:04):
Five out of five. Now next up we are going to get on to the other songs of the
album here This is the other portion of our show here Is where we review the
less known songs here So starting off with the album here The first song of
the album is Junior Cadillac.
Music.
(23:41):
Again very funky 70s tune here
you can hear the the strong horn section being displayed
here that the verses are a little
meandering the vocals in the verses
the very talky norm there's not like a strong solid rhythm of it it's it's more
just him kind of talking a little bit and lyrically it's not super interesting
(24:04):
according to you know some interviews i've seen it's basically just Green Bomb
loved the idea of cruising. That's it.
And again, the backup singers are great. I'll appreciate that.
But again, it goes on for about a minute too long.
I guess the only part I like is the horn section a little bit.
(24:27):
It sounds like a Nick at Night early 70s sitcom that lasted maybe for two seasons.
Them but i i myself i can't
i can't see myself going back to this it's very
much product of its time so i
this was actually i believe the first single off the album that the warner brothers
(24:48):
released here so not a strong start that they strong song they decided to release
here so for a final rating i'd uh i have to give junior cadillac two bops out
of five two bops junior in your Cadillac. So on to the next track.
Track 2 was Spirit in the Sky, which we already talked about.
And so track 3 is Skyline.
(25:11):
Music.
All right, I'm going to have to address the elephant in the room.
(25:32):
Just listen to that. Is it me, or does Greenbaum sound a lot,
a lot like Neil Diamond there?
I can't be the only one, right?
(25:53):
I it's just the kind of green bomb
and diamond definitely have a very similar a way
of delivery and tone in their voice just something
i noticed just me or maybe it's others so just something i noticed so the skyline
here again i'll get on the positives here i love the drums love the drums the
(26:14):
pre-chorus tempo shift is fun when he says wait for me you get the guitar.
Breakdown and the bridge is okay but it doesn't
go anywhere the there's heavy tremelo use
in from the guitar i like again green mom's
experimenting with different types of effects to kind of
keep you the listener to in tune
(26:34):
here the vocals they do a better job than
the you know the first track of the album here but the subject
matter itself as far as the lyrics it it
seems like he's just on a plane and now he's you
know leaving his current destination to go to another destination
like skyline no i'm going away but
i'll be back eventually it's just nothing super
(26:57):
strong here and not varied i
will say for this song it's just it's it's
not the worst there's again the drums always a sucker for the way this drums
are mixed here that thud but the song itself not anything super memorable so
for a rating of skyline i'll give you three bops three bops all right on to
(27:21):
the next track track four and that is jubilee.
(27:44):
Jubilee was the second single that was released by Warner Brothers And I should
correct myself Junior Cadillac was not a single relief It was another song later
on the album that was released as a first single Anyway,
yeah, so this song was the second single And it did not chart at all Again,
this is very 70s And it feels like another sitcom theme But I do enjoy the backup
(28:07):
singers appearing again It's a fun bouncy track,
very 70s again the horn section again i
think this is a this is like a better version of junior cadillac
i feel like the song is basically about a party like
a feel-good song and the end with the horn solo
and the harmonica solo intertwined together is nice
there's some variety at the end and also
(28:29):
there's some scatting at the end as well i this is
definitely a fun song for me to listen to and
didn't overstay its welcome and just a feel-good type
of a little little ditty from a you know
from green bomb here i i enjoyed it it's not like the best song on the album
obviously but it's a definitely i i enjoyed a lot of what is on here and the
(28:50):
variety and the melody here so jubilee jubilee you get four bops four bops here
all right on to the next track and that is alice bodine.
Music.
(29:25):
So as you can tell, very spacey. If you like synth, boy howdy,
you are in for a trip, a space trip.
So it's very Bowie-like, you can tell.
Greenbaum's voice cannot carry, obviously, the weight like Bowie,
but who can in this type of matter?
I like I'm a Sucker for Synth. I like it. Maybe it's too much, perhaps.
(29:47):
I do like he's trying to get a little emotional in the lyrics.
And I get where he's coming from.
It's definitely a dreamlike, spacey song because the lyric matter kind of deals
with him dreaming about a girl named Alice Bodine, who he hasn't seen her in 10 years.
So this is all kind of in Greenbaum's mind of dreaming about her and the memories and everything.
(30:14):
So it's a pretty standard song. But the synth, I'd say this is more than enough to turn people off.
And it's just not a lot of different
variety from it and i think a little
goes a long way when it comes to that and yeah the
again the green bomb's voice isn't strong enough to uh get super emotional so
(30:34):
i again i like the variety at least i appreciate that so for a rating a bop
rating for alice bodine you get three bops three bops so on to track six and that is tars of india.
(31:08):
Smoke Tars Avenger Someday gonna be a star Soon as Watson comes out Music so
for a you know the positives
here it's nice a little bopping guitar solo again i
like the a little funky wah-wah shuffle guitar
groove that's going on i will say it
sounds a lot like earlier song in the album jubilee and
it's it's a feel-good song but nothing like heavy lyrical wise i i know i understand
(31:31):
the placement especially you know having a somewhat heavier song from before
alice bodine to kind of you know break it up a little bit make it you know a little more
lighthearted but this song the melody line there's
not really a strong so to like
you know latch on to it seems like it probably should
(31:51):
have been cut it's not a not a terrible song it's just nothing's too too substantial
and we've kind of already heard it for in the jubilee so for a bop rating bop
rating for tarz avengia it is going to be two bops two bops so on to track seven
and And that is the power.
(32:30):
Now, I think, again, this song starts strong, and I like the little grimy guitar
riff associated with it, and I like, again, the horn intro is really nice,
and as you hear in that clip here, I think it's probably the best part of the song right here.
But after the breakdown, after the first verse, it feels stagnant,
and it doesn't really change up.
(32:52):
And vocals, they are kind of mixed low, so you can't really,
I don't know, Green Bomb's vocals are kind of just not really overpowering,
no pun intended, the song The Power.
And there's not a lot, again, lyrical-wise, nothing super heavy,
but it doesn't overstay its welcome at just two and a half minutes.
This one could have been nice, but the noodling around guitar-wise,
(33:15):
it seems like the guitarist is kind of all over the place.
There's not really a plan, so to speak.
Not to say there has to be a plan with a melody, it just
it feels like it's just guitar player was just kind of you know
just like playing whatever he felt like playing and call it a day like it not
really anything to really you know go back to and listen again again not not
(33:37):
another song to warn a one but for a bop rating for the power you get two bops
two bops so on to track eight and that is good looking woman.
Music.
(34:06):
Good-looking woman like you. again a very bouncy tune you know it seems to be
a very fun song guitar tone i like the the clean,
guitar being played on the melody the little fills i enjoy i i can't help but
think though it sounds a little like melody wise like happy together by the
turtles which came out a couple years before.
(34:37):
So, yeah, definitely melody-wise, that was the first thing that came to mind
with this happy together here.
But, again, the good-looking woman song here, it wasn't too bad.
I wanted to like this more, but the lyrics are suspect, to say the least.
For example, you want to have nice things say, oh, yeah, all you got to do is come to me.
(35:00):
I said, whoa, whoa, yeah, I'll give you everything you want.
I'll fill your heart's desires. desires baby you just
can't go higher because i'm the last of the big
time spenders so in the the song it
seems to you know green bomb seems to flaunt his money a
lot or the the women he uh he
is with it's he's worried about the money he has
(35:21):
to repeatedly assure her he has money my me
thinks mr green bob or at least whoever you
know character he's singing as uh he's feeling a little insecure
here he has to be like hey i got money please stay with me it
just is weird i don't know i don't know if it matches the the
song that the the music matches the lyrics but again i wanted to like the song
(35:44):
more than i did because i really like the rhythm of it and it's definitely it
sounds different than the rest
of the record here but i get the lyrics are very goofy and it just kind of
takes me out so i i did like a little bit at the end here he the melody kind
of matches with the guitar tone a little bit but other than that i just i wanted
(36:05):
to like this song a lot more so for a rating for good looking woman you get
three bops three bops so on to the next one and that is milk cow.
Music.
(36:37):
For background here, Greenbaum does have a history of being a farmer, a goat farmer.
So there's certain inspiration that Greenbaum's drawing out of here.
Musically, it's very mellow. It has a similar tempo to the previous track of
Good Looking Woman here.
Harmonica is very nicely played. Again, as you notice in the last few songs
(37:01):
here, lacking in the backup singers.
I don't know if they were only contracted for a certain amount of songs on this
album, but I would have liked to hear more from the Chevelle sisters.
It would have been nice. It would have been nice. I think this song probably could have used it.
But again, this doesn't really change up too much for the song.
(37:22):
And lyrically, again, like I said earlier, Greenbaum, he being a goat farmer,
he kind of makes sense for the subject matter of the song.
It's a farm song. It's about a milk and a cow. No, there's no other,
you know, heavy duty subtext to it.
So again, it's an okay song, but nothing I really would want to go back and listen to.
(37:42):
So for a rating of Melkow, you get two bops, two bops.
So on to the next track, and it's the last track of the album,
track 10, and that is Marcellus.
Music.
(38:20):
This song, Marcy, was a lead single of the record here that Warner issued out.
And I got to say, weird choice to put the closing track of this album as a lead single.
And this doesn't scream to me a, you know, it's very crazy to think that,
you know, it took, you know, a couple of singles before they realized Spirit
in the Sky was going to be a big hit.
(38:42):
But you never know what's going to hit with the audience here.
But anyway, going back to the track itself, musically, pros that I,
or positives I like, I like how the bass is mixed. The bass is awesome.
Probably one of the best parts of the song. It's just grimy sounding.
It's loud, but not too loud. And I wish I could have more of it.
The backup singers like i said before wanting more
(39:04):
hey ask and you shall receive they make.
An appearance here a little bit but not a lot i
obviously i would like more just it gives more layers to you
know green bombs of vocals and again much
like the same spacey vibe as alice
bodine marcy possesses the same kind of
song they're they're pretty similar songs when you
(39:26):
listen to them back to back or if you listen to them
just in a very short period of time this is
as even maybe more synth if that's even possible just a
little goes a long way when it comes to this and it becomes where
it's like it's almost near impossible for it
to have a break and you need that a little bit and
again i know probably at the time synth was very you
(39:47):
know the novel thing to use i just
but i think it just dates it a little too much and the
lyrics it's another it's again another song about a girl you
sung in the second person about a girl named marcy and the
main character being too shy or afraid nothing too
crazy for a you know a song but
kind of an odd choice to have as a closer i don't know
(40:08):
what else you would put on here but maybe you'd put alice bodine on here you'd
swap them but again these two songs sound a lot alike and i think maybe this
one marcy is maybe like the lesser of the you know the synth women named songs
so i i i I couldn't say this has ended on a great note.
This album, having Marcy at the end.
(40:30):
But, you know, again, that bass saves it right there from being a one.
So for a final rating for Marcy, you get two bops, two bops.
And with that, that is the complete review of 1969's Norman Greenbaum's Spirit in the Sky.
I have calculated all the bops. I've done all the science, all the math,
all the arithmetic that you could do.
(40:52):
And I have calculated all the bops. Now, I know there's a deluxe version of
Spear in the Sky with some unreleased material.
But I am going as strictly what was released at the time, and there are 10 tracks
on here, and altogether there is 28 bops.
28 bops. So, divide 28, divided by 10, 10 tracks we have. Drum roll,
(41:15):
please. Drum roll, please.
2.8 bops, 2.8 for a final rating for Spirit in the Sky, the album by Norman
Greenbaum, released in 1969.
And I'd say the science and math does not lie, ladies and gentlemen, 2.8.
I feel this album is almost right at the average point, but there's just a few
(41:38):
songs on here that just kind of feel like they could have been cut,
or they sound too similar.
And I always like to, you know, have some recommendations for songs for people
to add to their playlist.
And, you know, first up, we have obviously Spirit in the Sky.
I gushed about it forever earlier on the podcast here.
So you got to add that on. But another song that people may not be aware of is a track for Jubilee.
(42:02):
I liked, again, the backup singers did a great job adding more to the song.
Song the definitely the has a
nice vibe with the horn section and the
harmonica solo being at the end a lot of
variety to it i was very surprised to it and i would
have liked to see more of this kind of level of music here there's
another song that sounded like it but it just doesn't compare
(42:25):
so jubilee was a nice surprise kind of nice deep
cut that i would recommend here but the rest of the songs i
i wouldn't i i would have i've gone back and forth
good looking woman rating that a three or four but i think three
i feel feel better with i do like the the
dreamy guitar tone of that but not not enough to
give it a go and i always i always try you know even if you're
(42:45):
not a fan of classic rock i think these two songs tubally and
spirit in the sky i think i think people would enjoy it
so if anything i would add those songs
to your playlist and give them a go because music's
beautiful and art is beautiful and that
is why i'm here just to talk about music i could
do it all day but i won't and i i
(43:06):
can't i i wish i could and so that is
the episode nine norman greenbaum spirit in
the sky 1969 here so
that has been one hit wonder why i am your host eric hosniager i apologize for
the infrequent schedule but i will try my best to get more produced here more
(43:27):
episodes produced because i absolutely love talking about music and i hope you
love listening to music and listening to people talk about music.
So that is it. I think I already said my name. My name is Eric Hosnager. I've been your host.
So glad you listened to this part through the episode here.
I'm going to wrap it up and say have a pleasant day and a pleasant tomorrow.
(43:55):
Music.
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