The ‘Spirit’ continues: The Observer revisits an interview with Norman Greenbaum
As stated earlier in the saga of Norman Greenbaum, Malden native and singer/songwriter best known for the hit “Spirit in the Sky,” his Dr. West’s Medicine Show was a jug band that hit with a song based on a science fiction movie and comic books, much like a punk band, Unnatural Axe, that would do something similar 10 years later in 1978 with their notorious punk E.P. Science Fiction and comic books go hand in hand with rock and roll, but not necessarily jug band music, which was the strange twist — the seed, if you will, of the consciousness that gave the world “Spirit in the Sky.”
Now back to an interview with Greenbaum that is continued from last week’s edition of the Observer:
Q: Oh, very nice. How did the hit “Eggplant that ate Chicago” come about, writing wise?
Norman: Well, it came from watching outer space type movies, I guess, and comic books...the gist of the story came from the aliens from outer space sort of thing...who knows how my worked then or now to tell you the truth. You’re born with some kind of something but this silliness has always existed there...at that time I found I was really proficient at that...more so than sitting down and writing serious things.
I was a fan of comedy and I was able to express it along with music. So I chose an outer space kind of thing, you know, a song of doom...I don’t know where it came from exactly...but it was our featured song and...
We auditioned for some managers who managed The New Christy Minstrels, Jose Feliciano...amongst other big acts, so they were pretty legit.
Q: That’s amazing that George Greif signed Dr. West. I’m very impressed. And then Dr. West ran its course?
A: All the other original members left the band for various reasons as I evolved and they were replaced by different people and the band itself sort of evolved into more electric music...got away from the silliness of the jug band-type material and we worked and recorded some more material but it sort of ran its course. And we disbanded.
A: Oh really? He signed us! And that’s how it all got started; we went in and recorded and made an album, he put the single out and surprisingly enough of all things to happen it made the charts. I mean a jug band record made the charts! So that was pretty interesting.
Q: So George Greif was the guy who got the deal with GO GO Records.
A: Yes it is; they released a CD which has a ton of songs on it. Wish it had more, to tell you the truth. I was told they couldn’t find them all. There were some good ones they didn’t find. There were some good ones they did find, believe me, I forgot I had actually written those songs.
Q: We’ll have to get the audience out there watching this to put the hunt on for the old Dr. West songs that are missing in action.
A: No, it didn’t. I completely left that situation and the George Greif’s management company and wanted to do something different and on my own. I then went about putting together a band that was more in sync with folk rock, rock, and was going to completely leave this jug band-type music behind. I wanted to have, I was about to say the word “normal” band, but there’s no such things, that’s mental, a regular type four piece band.
Doing that, I had different players but at this point I was the leader and I was calling all the shots. I wanted to do my material only the way I wanted to do it. I had a configuration and we were playing at the Troubadour and Eric Jacobsen happened to stop by and heard me and that’s what started the next stage of my career because he signed me to a writer’s contract to his company. And then...he had an open deal with Warner Brothers to bring acts to them...’cause he had just finished producing all the Lovin Spoonful records and Tim Hardin...so he got me a deal with Reprise and then we recorded “Spirit in the Sky.”
Q:
A: That wasn’t put out as a single at first, no, I believe “Jubilee” was put out as a single first; it didn’t make it obviously. We did call the album “Spirit in the Sky” ... the whole object was to have “Spirit in the Sky” out as a single and it did finally get put out. There were a little wary of putting it out at the time, it was very different. Very, very, very different. It was also very long, all of four minutes but compared to 2:20 for everything else. (The executives at Warner Brothers/Reprise said,) “It’s like two songs, too long, they’ll never play it.” But, you know, they did!
Q: The beauty of it...that guitar just grabs you at the beginning...and then the Gospel singers...everything is just perfect around the great melody that you wrote.
A: That was one of the things ...it came about, you know...I worked...the lyrics came easy even though I wasn’t Christian. I was watching Porter Wagoner do a country music show. He’d always do a country gospel lyric song...I’d think “Gee, that’s kind of interesting. I never did anything like that. I’m writing about Eggplants (laughs),” maybe I should go in that direction, you know? Of course you’ve got to write about Jesus if you’re going to write Gospel in America, so that was pretty easy to put the lyrics together. And I worked on arrangements a few months and finally said I’ve gotta do this one because my mind just keeps going back to that beat. So... we got a band together because I was signed as a single artist and so we put a studio band together in Northern California out in San Francisco. We rehearsed, went in and recorded quite a few songs. “Spirit in the Sky” stood out during the sessions — it just came together. We had numerous people working on it. I said, “Great, we’ll get the gospel singers.” We went to Oakland and found these girls ...it just all came together — and it was quite simple...and, in lieu of another word, it was sort of miraculous, you know?
Q: It’s an amazing record; it’s a real work of art. Why go to San Francisco from Hollywood, what was the move?
A: Oh, well, he was based in San Francisco. Erik Jacobsen’s production company.
Q: A: Q: A: Q:
A: The road was good, you know. It was like the culmination of what I wanted to do. I had been on the road, of course, with Dr. West. So I knew the road. But this was with a hit. It made a big difference. It went well. Then we had to come back and we were... there wasn’t another hit on the album.
And the problems started...what do you follow-up with when you have a song like that just took America by storm...and the world. The song was in the Top 5 in just about everywhere you could think. Boy, how do you top it? I wasn’t quite prepared. Mentally I was, but mentally for everybody else I wasn’t. And that’s where it kind of started to fall apart...if you wanted to use the words “fall apart.”
We recorded a second album and did it kind of quick. Had to, that’s the way it was...it wasn’t like, “OK, we’ll sit back for two years and work on something” like you do now...uh uh, back then it was like “right away.” So it was rushed. But...I had come up with and again...who knows, my mind wanders, I guess, and when it came to writing it wandered pretty good and here I was, “well, I don’t have (a new) “Spirit in the Sky”...and it wasn’t on purpose that I kept writing about things that were non-Jewish, it just happened to work out that way...but I was in the grocery store with my wife and the people checking out in front of us plopped down this 5 pound canned ham. Now being Jewish I had never had or seen a canned ham in my life. Except if you go to the store and you see one on the shelf. So here’s one right in front of my face — and they seemed all happy about buying this canned ham. So out of nowhere I looked at my wife, my ex-wife now, and said, “When are you going to buy me a Canned Ham, baby?” It just came out. And I go, “Oh boy, that’s a song.” So we did that and we put it out as a single. Now you gotta see the faces on record executives because they had a hard enough time, you know, trying to figure out if they were making the right move by putting out “Spirit in the Sky.” That became a hit so here they are now faced with the same dilemma again, with something crazier called “Canned Ham.” I’m looking at them with a totally straight face going, “Yeah, that’s a hit.” (You could see the executives thinking,) “Can’t you just come in with another ‘Spirit in the Sky’?” But of course I’m going, “When I came in with “Sprit in the Sky” you’re looking at me saying, “can’t you come in with something else!” Anyway they put it out and it was a mediocre hit.
Q: A:
Q: I remember the melody, I remember hearing it...so I guess 1,510, maybe Arnie Woo Woo.
A: It got plenty of play but it wasn’t “Spirit in the Sky”...I still like it myself. I get a lot of mail at my Web site which is spiritinthesky.com and there’s a lot of people who really like that song.
No comments:
Post a Comment