Where did you first hear Spirit in the Sky, Norman Greenbaum’s masterpiece? Released in late 1969, it so perfectly fit the times Back In The Day, that it just couldn’t be duplicated. We listened to it over and over, jamming and losing ourselves in the growly guitar and driving beat. To this day it is still aired on every oldies station worldwide, grabbing new fans in the process.
Greenbaum had other songs that placed on the charts, but we’ll talk about those later. He’s still performing, believe it or not! ‘Spirit in the Sky’ overshadowed everything else, and its popularity went global. Reaching number 3 in the US, it claimed top spot on the UK, Canadian and Australian charts. It sold 2 million singles in 1970 alone.
What’s a nice Jewish boy like you doing in a gospel song like this?
Norman was indeed a nice Jewish boy from Massachusetts, raised in an Orthodox household. He liked the rhythms and harmonies of Southern blues and folk music, popular in the late 1950s/early 1960s. In high school he performed with various bands and went on to Boston University to study music. There, Greenbaum played in local coffeehouses, but dropped out and moved to Los Angeles in 1965.
Out on the Left Coast, Greenbaum reveled in the emerging rock culture. He started up a jug band called Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band, and wrote campy, weird songs like ‘The Eggplant That Ate Chicago’. They even produced an album with the same title. In between numbers in concert, the band would perform medicine show skits. Frank Zappa loved those, and they played later on the Dr. Demento show.
Off on a tangent
One day, watching Porter Wagoner singing a gospel song on TV, he said to himself, ‘Yeah, I could do that.’ Even though he knew nothing about gospel music, ‘It came easy. I wrote the words in 15 minutes.’
Working with producer Erik Jacobsen, the song’s arrangement was worked out in a studio in San Francisco. Greenbaum reportedly used a Fender Telecaster guitar with a fuzz box built into the body, to make the distinctive buzz. Russell DaShiell on lead guitar, Doug Killmer from Crowfoot on bass, and drummer Norman Mayell of Sopwith Camel combined for the session. The Stovall Sisters, a gospel trio from Oakland, were added for backup vocals.
‘Spirit’ takes flight
The sound that emerged, a combination of hard rock and gospel, immediately grabbed us on the album. But as a single, there were two things working against it. The song was twice as long as most others that were considered for radio play, and the lyrics were about Jesus. Can’t have that, now can we? But after two other songs from the album returned poor sales, the record company finally released it as a single.
From that inauspicious beginning, the song quickly took on a life of its own. The words may have been only words to Greenbaum, but being in armed conflict made us look at them differently. Guys deployed to Viet Nam were fully aware that in a matter of seconds they could cease to exist on this earth. And a lot of them did.
That was a lifetime ago, and ‘Spirit in the Sky’ is still popular today. Greenbaum says, “It sounds as fresh today as when it was recorded. I’ve gotten letters from funeral directors telling me that it’s their second-most-requested song to play at memorial services, next to ‘Danny Boy’.”
Spirit in the Sky
(Norman Greenbaum, 1969)
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that’s the best
When I lay me down to die
Goin’ up to the spirit in the sky
Goin’ up to the spirit in the sky
That’s where I’m gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
I’m gonna go to the place that’s the best
Prepare yourself, you know it’s a must
Gotta have a friend in Jesus
So you know that when you die
He’s gonna recommend you to the spirit in the sky
Gonna recommend you to the spirit in the sky
That’s where you’re gonna go when you die
When you die and they lay you to rest
You’re gonna go to the place that’s the best
Never been a sinner, I never sinned
I got a friend in Jesus
So, you know that when I die
He’s gonna set me up with the spirit in the sky
Oh, set me up with the spirit in the sky
That’s where I’m gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
I’m gonna go to the place that’s the best
Go to the place that’s the best