NORMAN GREENBAUM AND SPIRIT IN THE SKY

Another song from the sixties caught my attention. This time because it was in a commercial. The song was Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum. One of the things that caught my eye was that Norman has a website with an email address where he can be reached. Personally. I mean, how could I pass that up.

I'm sure there's only one Rock N Roller with the name Norman. It's such an unlikely name for a rocker. The song, however, is tremendous. It starts out with a great, distorted guitar intro. And the lyric "When I die I'm gonna go to the place that's the best." And of course the "I have a friend in Jesus."
That last part is interesting because it turns out he's Jewish. I wonder if he got any flack for the song. He could've sang Moses. That fits lyrically. "I have a friend in Moses." But somehow it just doesn't sound as good as Jesus. The same with " I have a friend in Buddha." It doesn't have the same ring. Mohammed doesn't fit at all. Besides, I don't think you can use his name in songs. In fact, I might be in trouble just for typing his name in this blog.

Actually the song Jesus Christ Superstar mentions Mohammed, so maybe in the seventies you could. I don't know. The Muslims were probably not as strict as they are now.

So I emailed Norman and forgot all about it because I truly don't expect a reply. But sure enough, about a week later, I got a reply from Norman himself. Dick Peterson was a big deal because he is a Kingsman. But I had never heard of him personally. I hadn't heard of any of the Kingsman by their names. But Norman Greenbaum I had heard of. I must admit, I was kind of excited.

He wanted to know more about the podcasts so I sent him some more info. After about a week and I hadn't heard from him I emailed him again telling him that I found a video on YouTube and would like to interview him about it. Is that a real video? Is that really him on the video? And so forth. I haven't heard from him. I want to email him again but I read in Nigel Dick's website that it is okay to contact someone three times. After three times it's just plain rude. So I'll go by that rule, which shall henceforth be called Nigel's Rule. I'm sure he probably got it from somewhere else, but he's where I got it from. Nigel Dick, by the way, is mostly known as a music video director and is someone I would like for us to interview. He's done over 280 videos with big name stars like Britney Spears and Guns N Roses.

So, anyway, I think I will wait until the website is up and running to contact Norman again. I hope he does it because there really is no one who could really do the interview better than he could. Some songs could have a number of people interviewed and it would still be good. But other songs, and this is one of them, the interview is only good if the major player is involved.

One of these days I'll contact him again. I keep getting reminded every time I hear his song in commercials.