Religious Rock Top Ten: Spirit in the Sky (#10)

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For Thanksgiving and the upcoming Hanukkah/Christmas season I’m counting down my ten favorite songs from the era of rock with religious overtones. Although that was generally the late 60s through the mid-70s, you can still find traces of it today. I mean, Don Henley recorded “The Unclouded Day” on his first solo album in 1982! But these were all hits. Maybe I’ll do the album cuts later. Meanwhile, here’s the one everyone probably thought of right off the bat. #10: Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum This song, according to Norman Greenbaum (who was raised, and still is, an observant Orthodox Jew), was more inspired by “Ghost Riders in the Sky” than hymns. Stating that he grew up watching westerns, the thing that went through Greenbaum’s mind was the antithesis of the bad cowboy “trying to catch the devil’s herd” in the Stan Jones song that’s been made famous a billion times in western, country, and even rock. Here we have the “good cowboy” who has “never been a sinner, I’ve never sinned,” so he will be wearing the “white hat” (the symbol of the “good guy” in the old westerns) in eternity. Only in the 60s could you get a song like this from inspiration like that. Spirit in the Sky Written by Norman Greenbaum Recorded by Norman Greenbaum From Spirit in the Sky, 1970 When I lay me down to die: