‘I was working as a cook when it went to No 1’: how Norman Greenbaum made Spirit in the Sky
‘My label said a four-minute single with lyrics about Jesus would never get played on radio,But, in 1969, the song sold two million copies,It’s now been No 1 in three different decades’Spirit in the Sky started as an old blues riff I’d been playing since my college days in Boston, but I didn’t know what to do with it,After I moved to LA, a guy I knew came up with a way of putting a fuzzbox inside my Fender Telecaster, which created the distinctive sound on Spirit in the Sky,I’d come across a greeting card with a picture of some Native Americans praying to the “spirit in the sky”.
The phrase stuck in my head.One night I was watching country music on TV and the singer Porter Wagoner sang a gospel song, which gave me the idea to write religious lyrics.Although I came from a semi-religious Jewish family, I wasn’t religious, but found myself writing Christian lyrics such as “When I die and they lay me to rest, I’m going to the place that’s the best” and “Gotta have a friend in Jesus”.It came together very quickly.Soon after that, I was playing the Troubadour club in LA when the Lovin’ Spoonful’s producer Erik Jacobsen walked in.
He said he had a production deal with Warner Brothers and was interested in signing me,When we recorded Spirit in the Sky for my debut album, the finished mix sent shivers up my spine,Initially, Warner said a four-minute single containing lyrics about Jesus would never get played on pop radio, but eventually they relented,In 1969, it sold two million copies,But I couldn’t recreate the success.
In 1986, I was working as a cook when Dr and the Medics took it back to No 1 in the UK,Then Gareth Gates’s 2003 version meant it was No 1 in three different decades,It’s been in countless movies, including Apollo 13, Oceans 11 and Guardians of the Galaxy,I’m 82,A few years ago, I was a passenger in a car crash and spent three weeks in a coma.
I feel like I was granted another life.So now every day, I pray and give thanks to the spirit in the sky.I saw Norman at a hootenanny at the Troubadour singing one song, School for Sweet Talk, but he said: “I’ve got a million songs I’d love to play for ya.” It turned out he’d had a minor hit called The Eggplant That Ate Chicago with a group called Dr West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band and had a whole raft of crazy songs about goats, chickens or a Chinese guy who ate some acid.I said: “Let’s make some records that somebody might like.
”I put him together with Norman Mayell, the drummer from San Francisco psychedelic group Sopwith Camel, and Doug Killmer, a bassist, who’d played a lot of black music.The Spirit in the Sky riff originated in an old John Lee Hooker tune called Boogie Chillen’ and set the tone for where the song went, but the rhythm track sounded too loose.I got Norman to bring his acoustic guitar in and we recorded two performances – each slightly different – and made it stereo.Then we brought in gospel singers the Stovall Singers and their church-type clapping became a key part of the groove.A guitarist called Russell DaShiell played a hell of a solo.
By now, the track was sounding immense, but when I heard Norman’s little vocal, my heart sank.It just wasn’t heavy enough, so once again I recorded two performances and combined the two together.I thought: “Thank God!” It sounded amazing.The single got a lot of play on KRLA, a hugely influential radio station, but it came out just before Christmas, when people buy records for others, not for themselves, so there were no sales.KRLA stopped playing it.
Then, two weeks into January, 22,000 orders came in from record stores in LA,Everyone started playing it again – and it just took off,The funny thing is that when we went in to record it, my engineer was sick but we went ahead anyway with just a handful of little mics, no headphones and no sound baffling,Every sound was coming in on every mic, but it sounded great,For years people asked: “How in the world did you get that sound?” I said: “I just pointed the amps right at the drums.
I had no idea what I was doing.” Norman Greenbaum’s 1969 debut, Spirit in the Sky, is available on vinyl on Craft Recordings, with a Dolby Atmos mix of the single on Apple Music.Read more about Erik Jacobsen’s career in music at www.allabouterik.com
Australia’s surprise unemployment spike suggests an economy not overheating but in need of stimulus | Greg Jericho
You didn’t vote for it, you weren’t even asked, but it was decided three years ago – mostly by those running the Reserve Bank – that Australia needed an extra 150,000 or so people to be unemployed. Back in 2022 Australia’s unemployment was 3.5%; last week the Bureau of Statistics announced it had reached 4.5% – roughly an extra 150,000 people out of work.Goodbye full employment, welcome back the arbitrary higher level of people being out of a job for the good of the economy
UK energy firms call for overhaul of regulator Ofgem
The UK’s energy companies have called for a radical shake-up of the regulator Ofgem, accusing it of overseeing a rise in domestic bills and slowing Britain’s economic growth.The industry’s trade association, Energy UK, has called for Ofgem to be stripped of some of its responsibilities after overseeing “a dramatic increase in red tape” that it claims has reduced growth and pushed up costs for households.In a report, the trade group noted that despite the government’s plan to reduce the cost of regulation by 25% by the end of this parliament, Ofgem’s headcount had been allowed to increase by 120% over the past 10 years while its budget grew by 200%. By contrast, the energy sector’s workforce had grown by only 8% over the same period. Ofgem is the energy regulator for Great Britain
Barclays plays down £20bn exposure to private credit industry
Barclays has insisted it has the right controls in place to manage a £20bn exposure to the under-fire private credit industry despite warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank of England.The bank’s chief executive, CS Venkatakrishnan, said it ran a “very risk-controlled shop” and was comfortable with its lending standards for the private credit industry.That was despite taking a £110m loss over the US sub-prime auto lender Tricolor, which collapsed amid fraud allegations last month.Losses stemming from the dual collapse of Tricolour and the US auto parts company First Brands have raised fears over potentially weak lending standards in the private credit industry. There are concerns that the potential fallout could destabilise traditional banks that issue loans to the shadow banking sector
‘It’s 3p on a pack of sausages’: UK food firms say packaging tax adds to inflation
A packaging tax designed to end our throwaway society is under fire for inadvertently adding to food price inflation as it pushes up the cost of everything from sausages to soft drinks.“It’s about 3p on a pack of sausages,” says Andrew Keeble, the co-founder of Heck, of the new extended producer responsibility (EPR) tax.This year’s packaging tax bill for the family-run food manufacturer, based near Bedale, North Yorkshire, which landed this month, is £153,000.Heck has already absorbed the increases in employer national insurance contributions and the “national living wage” announced a year ago by the chancellor, but Keeble suggests this new tax will have to be “passed on to a fairly cash-strapped nation”.The packaging levy – designed to end excessive packaging and create a circular economy – transfers the cost of recycling the ready meal containers and wine bottles in your kerbside bin from councils back on to the companies that sold them
Signs of peak inflation open door to earlier Bank of England interest rate cuts
Has UK inflation peaked? The latest official figures showing price growth in the UK stayed at 3.8% in September seem to suggest so.The statement cannot be made with absolute certainty yet but many economists reacted to the latest consumer prices index (CPI) data with a message that the only direction for inflation over the rest of the year was down.City economists had expected the Office for National Statistics to report an increase from August’s 3.8% to 4%, and they were in good company – the Bank of England also said inflation would top out at that level last month
Eurostar to run doubledecker trains through Channel tunnel from 2031
Eurostar is to start running doubledecker trains through the Channel tunnel to meet growing demand for international rail travel from the UK.The rail operator announced it had signed a €2bn (£1.7bn) deal for at least 30 – and up to 50 – new trains from the manufacturer Alstom.The doubledeckers will start operating from 2031, with each able to carry more than 1,000 passengers.Eurostar said the Celestia trains, the first high-speed doubledeckers to run on the UK mainland, would have about 20% more seats than its biggest existing trains
UK inflation unexpectedly remains at 3.8% for third month in a row
UK inflation stays at 3.8% as food price rises slow for first time since March – as it happened
Apple and Google face enforced changes over UK mobile phone dominance
Google hails breakthrough as quantum computer surpasses ability of supercomputers
Australia bring back bad memories for England at Women’s World Cup
The forgotten story of the US soldiers who integrated baseball before Jackie Robinson