<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Norman Greenbaum was watching TV one night and saw country music legend Porter Wagoner perform an old Gospel song.\u00a0 Norman thought to himself, \u201cHey, I could do that,\u201d and thus inspired, he proceeded to write his one and only No. 1 hit song <\/span>Spirit in the Sky.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>An urban legend went around that Greenbaum was a dishwasher who happened upon a hit song, but there is a little more to the story than that.\u00a0 The Porter Wagoner inspiration part was real enough, but it didn\u2019t start Norman\u2019s musical journey.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Norman Greenbaum grew up and was raised in the Orthodox Jewish faith in Massachusetts.\u00a0 His interest in music was based on the Southern blues and folk music scenes of the late 1950s and early 1960s.\u00a0 He played in various high school bands and studied music at Boston University for two years before dropping out and moving to Los Angeles.\u00a0 His first foray into the recording business came as a composer and leader of the oddly named Dr. West\u2019s Medicine Show and Junk Band.\u00a0 Their one memorable recording (<\/span>The Eggplant That Ate Chicago<\/span><\/i>) tabbed them as more of\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n a novelty act and Norman had left that group when he had his Porter Wagoner revelation.\u00a0 Reprise Records paired Greenbaum with staff producer Erik Jacobsen who took the simple acoustic arrangement of <\/span>Spirit<\/span><\/i> up a notch or two.\u00a0 The pulsing fuzz guitar and Gospel inspired background vocals elevated the song to No 1 on the 1970 singles and album charts.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Norman told an interviewer he hadn\u2019t intended to write a \u2018Christian praise\u2019 type of song but he had to hang the theme of the <\/span>Spirit in the Sky <\/span><\/i>on something.\u00a0 He went on to say, \u201cIf you ask me what I based it on, what did we grow up watching?\u00a0 Westerns!\u00a0 These mean and nasty varmints get shot and they wanted to die with their boots on.\u00a0 So to me, that was spiritual.\u00a0 Funny enough, I wanted to die with my boots on.\u201d\u00a0 The only problem was Jacobsen\u2019s arrangement was too layered to recreate live.\u00a0 If you watch the clip of Greenbaum \u2018performing\u2019 on <\/span>American Bandstand,<\/span><\/i> one can see he is miming to the record (although most artists on <\/span>AB<\/span><\/i> did the same save the one time I saw Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys perform live).\u00a0 In March of 2015, Norman almost got his wish when a motorcycle crashed into a car in which he was riding.\u00a0 The cyclist died and Greenbaum was seriously injured, but has since returned to performing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When The Beach Boys hit the air with <\/span>Good Vibrations<\/span><\/i>, it took listeners a bit to connect the band with this new direction.\u00a0 Their early hits were well constructed and catchy but <\/span>Vibrations <\/span><\/i>was a whole different thing.\u00a0 The depth of the arrangement was certainly inspired and by no means an accident.\u00a0 According to The Beach Boys\u2019 primary songwriter\/arranger, Brian Wilson,<\/span><\/p>\n The Beach Boys\u2019 <\/span>Good Vibrations<\/span><\/i> was inspired by something his mother used to tell him.\u00a0 She often talked about \u2018cosmic vibrations\u2019 and how dogs will bark at people when they feel their \u2018bad vibrations\u2019.\u00a0 To him, the concept suggested extrasensory perception (or ESP). Mike Love\u2019s lyrics were obviously inspired by the Flower Power movement.\u00a0 The recording was done during sessions for the never released <\/span>Smile <\/span><\/i>album and eventually came out as a single on October 10, 1966.\u00a0 The song was reportedly the most expensive recording made up to that time but it climbed to the top of the charts in the United States and United Kingdom.\u00a0 <\/span>Vibrations<\/span><\/i> did eventually make it onto the <\/span>Smiley Smile <\/span><\/i>album.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This period of Brian Wilson\u2019s songwriting and producing career showed that he was undergoing unprecedented growth as an artist.\u00a0 His perfectionist tendencies were born out by the length of time it took to record <\/span>Good Vibrations <\/span><\/i>(February to September 1966) and the four different Hollywood studios that were used during the sessions.\u00a0 According to Wiki, \u201cThe song is characterized by its complex soundscapes, episodic structure, and subversions of the pop music formula.\u00a0 It was hailed as one of the finest and most important recordings of the rock era.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The approach he used while constructing <\/span>Good Vibrations<\/span><\/i> formed the template he would use to record their historic <\/span>Pet Sounds<\/span><\/i> LP.\u00a0 Dubbed a \u2018pocket symphony\u2019 by the band\u2019s publicist, Derek Taylor, it paved the way for a copycat wave of other artists who began to employ the recording studio as another instrument to craft pop tunes.\u00a0 Wilson used his considerable skill to patch together musical phrases, keys, textures, and mood shifts into a cohesive mixture unlike anything that had been done previously in the pop music world.\u00a0 The final master was cut down from over 90 hours of tape and cost an unheard of price at the time (estimated to be in the tens of thousands of dollars).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Wilson had long been known to construct catchy pop songs from snippets of music he carried around in his head (he called them \u2018feels\u2019).\u00a0 Engineer Chuck Britz said Wilson considered <\/span>Good Vibrations<\/span><\/i> to be \u2018his whole life performance in one track\u2019.\u00a0 Wilson revealed another inspiration that guided him:\u00a0 \u201cI was an energetic 23-year-old.\u00a0 I said, \u2018This is going to be better than [the Phil Spector production] <\/span>You\u2019ve Lost That Lovin\u2019 Feelin\u2019<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t really understand what my mother meant (about \u2018vibrations’) when I was just a boy.\u00a0 It scared me, the word \u2018vibrations\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 Lyricist Tony Asher took a stab at writing lyrics with Wilson but they were ultimately discarded.\u00a0 What remained from Asher\u2019s contribution was a change in title from <\/span>Good Vibes <\/span><\/i>(which Asher described as, \u201ca lightweight use of the language\u201d) to the more trendy sounding <\/span>Good Vibrations.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Little did Brian Wilson realize that the work he was doing in the <\/span>Good Vibrations \/ Pet Sounds<\/span><\/i> period would inspire another earth shaking album.\u00a0 When <\/span>Pet Sounds<\/span><\/i> was released, touring Beach Boy musician Bruce Johntson happened to take a copy with him to England.\u00a0 Mega Beach Boys fan Keith Moon offered to usher Johnston around \u2018swinging London Town\u2019.\u00a0 In their rambling, they ended up bringing Bruce\u2019s record player (with built-in speakers) and the album to a gathering that included Paul McCartney and John Lennon.\u00a0 The Who\u2019s drummer soon lost interest because he preferred the \u2018old\u2019 Beach Boys songs.\u00a0 Lennon and McCartney, however, were smitten by the album even though they had recently released one of their own masterpiece albums <\/span>Rubber Soul<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Feeling the pressure from what was happening in America, the Fab Duo set out to craft their own \u2018pocket symphony\u2019 which would (of course) end up being the <\/span>Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/span><\/i> album.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mark Farner was inspired to begin writing music watching Dick Wagner (his mentor in the band The Bossmen), compose a song seemingly out of mid-air.\u00a0 He told Farner to \u2018go write a song\u2019.\u00a0 His first effort was a pretty good one called <\/span>Heartbreaker<\/span><\/i> which The Bossmen performed several years before the track appeared on Grand Funk Railroad\u2019s debut album <\/span>On Time <\/span><\/i>(1969)<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>The simple act of starting seemed to open the floodgates and GFR would roll out a string of hits over the years.\u00a0 Known primarily for their live shows (as chronicled on their first live album released on Capitol Records on November 16, 1970), it was rather surprising to see them topping the singles charts in the early 1970s.\u00a0 Tracks like <\/span>Footstompin\u2019 Music <\/span><\/i>(1971), <\/span>Rock\u2019N\u2019Roll Soul (1972),<\/span><\/i> and (We\u2019re An) <\/span>American Band <\/span><\/i>(1973) made them staples of FM radio.\u00a0 GFR were inspired to release Little Eva\u2019s hit <\/span>The Locomotion<\/span><\/i> when the band arrived at the studio and found Farner singing the song over and over again.\u00a0 They started jamming on the tune and it was so much fun, they cut it and released it in the run up to their <\/span>Shinin\u2019 On<\/span><\/i> album in February of 1974.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of Farner\u2019s most iconic tracks literally came to him in the dead of night.\u00a0 He says,\u00a0 \u201cI had prayed I could come up with a song that would move people and woke up one night with the words I had been looking for.\u00a0 I wrote them down and the next morning found they matched up with the chords I had been working on.\u00a0 I had been playing around with some chords and made a mistake.\u00a0 It sounded pretty good that way (mistake and all) and they matched up with the words.\u201d\u00a0 The words and chords would become <\/span>Closer to Home (I\u2019m Your Captain<\/span><\/i>) which he took to the band the next day.\u00a0 They loved it and cut it for the <\/span>Closer To Home<\/span><\/i> album.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I remember when Mike and Gene worked out the chords Farner had discovered, they both looked at each other and smiled ear to ear because it sounded great.\u00a0 I wrote down the words that night and the next time we rehearsed, it fell together in a snap.\u00a0 Being fixated on learning the lyrics, I later realized that the drum part I put with the song was nothing like what drummer Don Brewer was playing, but it still fit.\u00a0 When I tried to play it more like Brewer\u2019s version, it was harder to sing so I left well enough alone.\u00a0 We performed the song when it was just out so no one knew it well enough to notice we took liberties with our arrangement.\u00a0 It was and still is a great song even when played live without the orchestral parts added on the album cut.\u00a0 We were already playing several other Grand Funk songs and <\/span>Closer to Home<\/span><\/i> was another good addition to our set.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is no secret that there was a great deal of music ping ponging between the USA and the UK.\u00a0 While the British bands were being influenced by American musicians (from blues to pop), musicians on this side of the pond like Steven Van Zandt (nee: Lento) were absorbing the sounds they heard coming from the east.\u00a0 Van Zandt was seven in 1957 when his mother and her second husband moved from Massachusetts to New Jersey.\u00a0 He learned to play the guitar at an early age and described seeing The Beatles and Rolling Stones on TV (on <\/span>Ed Sullivan <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>The Hollywood Palace<\/span><\/i>, respectively) as \u2018The Big Bang of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll\u2019.\u00a0 George Harrison was his favorite Beatle and he channeled his love for the Brit sound into his first short lived band (The Whirlwinds) in 1964.\u00a0 The bands kept coming with The Mates (1965) and the Shadows of May (1966) as his influences expanded to other British invasion bands like The Dave Clark Five.\u00a0 Van Zandt also credits Ravi Shankar and the culture of India as early influences in his career.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His habit of wearing hats (and later his signature bandanas) came as the result of a car crash that sent the teenage Steven through a car windshield, leaving several scars on his forehead.\u00a0 He met the pre-fame Bruce Springsteen in the Jersey Shore music scene where they performed together in bands such as Steel Mill and the Bruce Springsteen Band.\u00a0 After leaving the music biz for a while to work in road construction in the early 1970s, Van Zandt returned to tour with The Dovells.\u00a0 The last date he played with them was part of Dick Clark\u2019s Old Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Show on December 31, 1974 in Miami, Florida.\u00a0 Upon returning to New Jersey, he kept wearing the Hawaiian shirts he had favored down south, thus earning him the nickname \u2018Miami Steve\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After co-founded Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes with singer John Lyon, they added The Miami Horns to their group (the name in homage to Van Zandt).\u00a0 Steven not only wrote the bulk of the Jukes\u2019 music, he also produced their first three albums.\u00a0 The Jukes (and therefore Van Zandt) were instrumental in giving rhythm and blues oriented music a foothold on the East Coast.\u00a0 After arranging the horns for Springsteen\u2019s <\/span>Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out <\/span><\/i>in 1975, he began touring with the E Street Band while he continued to write songs for the Jukes.\u00a0 His first notable contribution to Springsteen\u2019s career was the main guitar riff he supplied for <\/span>Born to Run <\/span><\/i>(\u201cArguably Steve\u2019s greatest contribution to my music,\u201d according to The Boss).\u00a0 He became an official member of the band when the <\/span>Born to Run<\/span><\/i> tour began on July 20, 1975.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Van Zandt exited and then returned to the E Street Band several times since 1984.\u00a0 When he returned for good in 1999, he left Nils Lofgren in charge of the lead guitar spotlight while Steven stepped into the background to provide more rhythm guitar and backing vocals.\u00a0 As the band\u2019s MTV tenure began, it was hard to miss Van Zandt sharing a mic with Bruce and mugging for the crowd.\u00a0 See how Steven is featured in <\/span>Glory Days <\/span><\/i>and you will get the picture of what his role in the band is today.\u00a0 Outside of his E Street band duties, Little Steven became a sought after producer and arranger for bands in genres from reggae to punk to movie soundtracks.\u00a0 Though many people still didn\u2019t know who LIttle Steven Van Zandt was, his involvement in the 1985 Artists United Against Apartheid recording of <\/span>Sun City<\/span><\/i> certainly elevated his industry status.\u00a0 Gathering a diverse group of international musicians, Van Zandt turned activist when the group pledged to never again perform at the Sun City resort South Africa (chronicled in the documentary <\/span>The Making of Sun City<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 The movement was a positive step in the right direction taken before South Africa finally ended the travesty known as Apartheid.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It would take several pages to cover the vast number of musical projects Van Zandt has undertaken in the last 30 years.\u00a0 One can find an extensive listing on line, so we will end here by mentioning the one that has become his passion project.\u00a0 The Disciples of Soul Band was an earlier side project that Little Steven revived in 2017 with the release of the album <\/span>Soulfire.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The next LP was released in 2019 (<\/span>Summer of Sorcery<\/span><\/i>) and it was followed soon after by the album \/ DVD set <\/span>Soulfire Live.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The Disciples might be described as Little Steven covering the Little Steven from back in the early days of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.\u00a0 Any band out there playing Jersey Shore Rhythm and Blues owes Van Zandt a big debt.\u00a0 He may have been inspired by the British Invasion, but he took the music in another direction.\u00a0 In doing so, he has inspired countless other musicians along the way.\u00a0 Inspiration can come in many forms and in the music industry.\u00a0 It seems to be a cyclical thing as evidenced by artists who are first inspired by others and go on to inspire others!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video: A peek behind the scenes at the making of\u00a0Good Vibrations –\u00a0<\/em>Note the session musicians employed including the legendary drummer Hal Blaine and the boy genius himself, Brian Wilson!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Norman Greenbaum was watching TV one night and saw country music legend Porter Wagoner perform an old Gospel song.\u00a0 Norman thought to himself, \u201cHey, I could do that,\u201d and thus inspired, he proceeded to write his one and only No. 1 hit song Spirit in the Sky.\u00a0 An urban legend went around that Greenbaum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3284"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3288,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284\/revisions\/3288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}