"Spirit in the Sky" 7"

Posted by Campbell at Saturday, January 26, 2008

One of my earliest memories of listening to music was driving around in my mother's Pinto, and later Buick, listening CBS 101 in New Jersey. CBS 101 was an oldies station and it was the *only* station my mom would play in the car. I'd hear Elvis, Herman's Hermits, The Everly Brothers (mom's favorite) and tons of other doo-wop tunes from the fifties.

Most of this music usually went right over my head. It didn't capture me. Then one day CBS 101 played Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and I felt a connection. I recall begging my mother to play that song again. Unfortunately, she didn't have it.

A few days later, mom knocked on my bedroom door and handed me a 7" of "Spirit in the Sky". I'm not positive, but I'm fairly certain that this was the first record that I could call my own. Some time later we picked up a Fisher all-in-one stereo - one of those with tapedeck, turntable and stereo all in one jobs. I remember flipping the knob to 45 and spinning "Spirit in the Sky" and having that feeling in my gut, that feeling that would happen thousands of times over for the years to come. Music touched me.

This evening I was flipping through my 7" records and, much to my surprise, I found "Spirit in the Sky". There's no jacket, the record's coated in dust and every groove is laced with scratches.

Similar to 1979 or so, I turned the knob to 45 and placed "Spirit in the Sky" on the table. And it played. And it sounded sweet. Just as sweet as it did in my tiny bedroom in Northern New Jersey almost thirty years ago. It nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Thanks mom.