22 May 1970
I’m surprised to listen attentively to the original ‘Spirit In The Sky’ and find myself feeling a little disappointed. Okay, obviously the scuzzy minimalist riff is pure gold and the stompy clap-along beat is great fun: no issues there. And I’m already familiar with the buzz-killing Jesus namecheck, making this the first overtly religious Irish number one single, so that’s not the sticking point this time around.
No, it’s just that I hadn’t realised how the actual song itself is comparatively weedy and woolly. Greenbaum’s delivery isn’t blessed with much oomph or energy, so the church-revivalist frenzy that lurks within this track never really catches fire, and by the end it’s even starting to drag. Imagine Keith scorching through the opening riff of ‘Satisfaction’ only for Bill Wyman to follow it up with four minutes about what the priest said at mass: that’s my takeaway feeling here.
Still, and despite crappy cover versions that can top the charts seemingly at will, I also feel generous towards ‘Spirit In The Sky’. That’s because the electrifying Southern-fried boogie of its riff and beat are the forerunner of a truly glorious genre of ’70s music, one which we’ll meet here soon and which is genuinely one of the few reasons I’m doing this trudge through that decade’s mostly appalling chart-toppers. Many others have used the prefix ‘proto-‘ to describe Greenbaum’s solitary hit and its influence to come, which is accurate. However, hopped up on giddy anticipation and pure notions, plus with a nod to its Jesus content, I’ll go even further: ‘Spirit In The Sky’ is the John The Baptist of glam.
