‘Goin’ Up To The Spirit In The Sky, The Place I’m Gonna Go When I Die’- Did This Song Impact You?
Certainly all you aging baby boomers out there remember this song.
It was 1969 when Spirit in the Sky first hit the airwaves and we used to all sing the chorus:
Goin’ up to the spirit in the sky
That’s where I’m gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that’s the best
As I sang along, the lyrics invoking the name of Jesus confused me since Spirit in the Sky was performed by Norman Greenbaum who had an obvious Jewish sounding last name.
Noticing that, I distinctly remember thinking, “why would someone who was Jewish sing about Jesus?”
Important to note here: I too was Jewish. However, since my parents were totally non-religious, so was I. But there was one aspect of my heritage about which I was totally versed and that was Jews did not believe in Jesus.
My questioning this belief began around the age of 11 as I was singing a Christmas carol in school.
(During the 1960s in my public school everyone sang Christmas carols, regardless of your faith.)
The song which sparked my question was The First Noel, with its chorus, “born is the King of Israel.”
Since my Jewish family did not celebrate Christmas (a real bone of contention with me from a very early age) I began wondering why we ignored this Jewish Jesus who I just learned from a song was “born the King of Israel.”
Prompted by this phrase, I asked my mother, “Why don’t we believe in Jesus if He was born the King of Israel?”
Her scholarly reply was “because we are Jewish.”
Now fast forward a few years, as I am listening to Norman Greenbaum sing:
I got a friend in Jesus
So you know that when I die
He’s gonna set me up with the spirit in the sky
These lyrics, combined with the Christmas carol incident just left me more confused about this “forbidden Jesus,” who was “born the King of Israel” and now I hear is “gonna set me up with the spirit in the sky.”
Throughout my teenage years more seeds of religious curiosity were planted, eventually sprouting into a glorious garden leading me to be baptized, “in the name of Jesus” at the age of 21.
So how many of you practice a faith that is different from the one in which you were born and raised?
Many of you is my guess.
For the record, baby boomers are a relatively religious bunch. According to Pew Research:
Among Baby Boomers, 43% say they are a “strong” member of their religion, a higher share than among younger adults and a lower share than among older ones. Four-in-ten say they attend religious services at least once a week.
Then, a new Gallup study on religion just released this week states:
Although it is always difficult to predict the future, certain trends in the age composition of the American public suggest that religion may become increasingly important in the years to come. This is mostly the result of the fact that the number of Americans who are 65 and older will essentially double over the next 20 years, dramatically increasing the number of older Americans. As long as these aging baby boomers become more religious as they age — following the path of their elders — the average religiousness in the population will go up.
So from Pew and Gallup we learn that Christianity, and this message, as reflected in the Spirit in the Sky lyrics is increasingly striking a chord with aging baby boomers:
Prepare yourself, you know it’s a must
Gotta have a friend in Jesus
So you know that when you die
He’s gonna recommend you to the spirit in the sky
While researching this piece I discovered some interesting facts.
Mr. “Spirit in the Sky,” Norman Greenbaum was born in 1942 (which means he is NOT a baby boomer) and is from my hometown of Boston.
Since my maternal Grandmother’s maiden name was also Greenbaum and she settled in Boston after arriving from Russia around 1910, is it safe to assume that Norman and I are somehow related?
Furthermore, Wiki has this to say about my newly discovered long lost relative:
Although “Spirit in the Sky” has a clear Christian theme, Greenbaum was, and still is, a practicing Jew. Greenbaum says he was inspired to write the song after watching country singers Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner singing a religious song on television.
Regardless of Norman’s motives in writing his only hit, the song played a role in bringing me to believe that Jesus was and is the Jewish Messiah, “born the King of Israel.”
(And as you can imagine, Dora Greenbaum Cohen’s daughter, my non-religious Jewish mother Gloria Cohen Kahn, was not at all happy about my embracing that Jewish King.)
So please do comment about any family trauma your faith change may have caused and we can all compare notes.
No. It was a cool song, very positive message, but it didn’t change my life. Frankly, I assumed it was sung by some hippies who were on the “Jesus trip” – one of many alternative lifestyles experimented with during the late 60s – not by full-time dedicated Christians. I didn’t give the name Jewish-sounding name “Norman Greenbaum” much thought, either, since musicians tend to name themselves odd things. I never assumed Hurricane Smith was a weatherman.
Anyway, it was a great little song. Glad it helped steer your life in good direction. I imagine Mr. Greenbaum would be glad, too.
Yeah, it was that song that made me a Buddhist.
Song was written during the high point of the psychedelic folk revival to go along with what sons of former sharecroppers were singing….. y’know….. “It was early one morning, when death came creepin’ in the room”……..
The essential jewish element was that dirty combo-sounding riff, The one he actually made on a Telecaster through a fuzz box….’>…….
I am now a practicing Torah Jew, but I was raised a Democrat.
You might have ended up in the same place if your interest and questions had been about G-d rather than Jesus.
Hate to tell you — or rather LOVE to tell you — werewife, that Jesus IS G-d. Please study the Messianic prophesies of Isaiah, Micah and others and YOU might end up in the same place as Myra.
G-d bless you.
One gets SO sick of this.
1)How about studying the “Messianic prophecies of Isaiah, Micah and others” IN CONTEXT and IN THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE? Not the mention the many passages that don’t fit neatly into the model you use. You might be surprised.
2)Have you studied the Book of Mormon yet? It just might blow you away to find out your culture has been seriously misinterpreting its own foundational texts for centuries! Or not.
Thanks for your comments and I have a question.
Can you explain how Isaiah 53 is taken out of context? How can you say that does not perfectly describe the suffering of Jesus 800 years before His birth. Also the NIV Bible goes back to the original Hebrew, so please explain that comment as well.
Actually, it describes metaphorically the many persecutions and ordeals of the nation of Israel even better.
And it takes a bit of footwork to explain the second half of 53:10 (King James) “…he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days” (New International) “he will see his offspring and prolong his days.” What offspring? “Prolong his days” is a standard idiom for long life. Children and long mortal life are precisely what Jesus did not experience.
Or 53:12 (King James) “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong.” Sounds a lot more like Israel vindicated among the nations than the reign of a living god (who are the great and the strong with whom Jesus shares?)
Those in my position are generally far more familiar with the arguments for Christianity than those in yours are with the foundations of the Torah. It simply goes with American culture. Your story is eloquent testimony to that. I merely suggest that it might have been precipitate to reject your own heritage without trying to learn something about it first before falling for the dominant culture. In this season of Chanukah, it’s something to ponder.
On the subject of the song itself, when first I heard it, I thought it sounded so silly, with its childish bounce, that had to be a put-on, making fun of Christians. It seemed like a novelty tune from the Dr. Demento show. If one is going to search the rock canon for something spiritually effective, I’ve never heard anything better than “Glittering Prize” from Simple Minds’ “New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84,” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot5lObb4YDs) and of course Peter Gabriel’s immortal epiphany “Solsbury Hill” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fF8wU4Nl9Y) There’s a simple, truly beautiful prayer on the Velvet Underground’s third album; it’s called simply “Jesus,” and if I find it moving, you surely will.(A tree would probably find it moving.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmlLSUWDrUg
Thank you for letting me play in your sandbox!
Werewife, the Servant of the Lord spoken of by Isaiah is sinless. Israel, most decidedly, is not. Israel can’t even claim any sort of fidelity to the Covenant, for Deuteronomy declares that Israel will only be exiled as punishment for unrepentant sin. Furthermore, though sinless, the Servant lays down His life for sinners. Israel’s exile was because of her own sin, not that of the Gentiles, nor could the sufferings of national Israel ever redeem the Gentiles. Lastly, the Servant of the Lord is male, while national Israel is female.
Here’s our interpretation. I don’t expect it to impress you any more than the Christian one impresses me. But it’s not as if there are no other answers. Considering this another little bit of myth busting:
http://jewishisaiah53.com/websiterabbinic53.pdf
Werewife, you would be surprised how much we embrace midrash as a concept. It is not a coincidence that the death of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, strikes blatant parallels to the crucifixion of Jesus. Nor is it without cause that Jesus prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and then immediately transitioned to speaking about the Last Days, which is what the Apostles were asking about. Obviously, that is not to say that we necessarily agree with Jewish interpretation of midrash, especially when it is plainly obvious that the Aaronite priesthood is no longer functioning, but the Apostolic priesthood has been uninterupted since the Pentecost following Jesus’ crucifixion.
“I merely suggest that it might have been precipitate to reject your own heritage without trying to learn something about it first before falling for the dominant culture.”
Mr. Werewife: With all due respect, I did not fall for the “dominant culture”
Jesus the Jew came to me and lead me as if I had a ring through my nose. I never made ANY decision. HE wanted me to follow him and that was that. I was clueless about any religion during college when this happened. I did not reject my heritage. I embraced it with the Jewish Messiah who I have studied about for several decades now, both the Old and New Testament because, as we know the New fulfills the Old.
I had faith before I had ANY knowledge. The dominant culture that you say I fell for was in fact anti-religion at the time. Shalom from a Cohen-Kahn Jew.
Sorry not to be more clear, but by “the dominant culture” I didn’t mean our present secularized mess; I meant the great stream of Western Civilization, something WAY greater and more influential than our local puddle of it. But if you experienced what you describe – a spiritual rapture – there’s nothing I or anyone else can say about it, as it’s your experience. Ironically, though, Christian authorities warn against such spiritual experiences as Satanic in origin if they lead to any other religion. But “as we know the New fulfills the Old”? We “know” no such thing. The Torah needs no outside fulfillment, any more than the Book of Mormon fulfills the New. It is greater and fuller than any other contender – “Turn it over and over, for everything is in it.” Try approaching it on its own terms instead of through the lens of the Epistles of Paul, and see what it is.
Thank you for the longest and most interesting discussion I’ve ever had here!
werewife,
You should know very well that for a Jew to accept Christ as his/her Savior invites criticism and even condemnation from family members and other Jews in this country and elsewhere. What Ms. Adams did no doubt took courage. Don’t judge lest ye be judged.
Exactly as to accept Torah and its obligations invites condemnation and rejection from family members and other Jews-in-name-only. Or accepting ANY religion seriously in these times. Ultimately, it always takes courage.
While I admire, like, and respect Mormons, Mormonism as a theology is simply polytheism dressed up in Christian clothes.
All cults have one thing in common: they deny the Trinity. Belief in the Holy Trinity unites the highest Roman Catholic with the lowest backwoods Baptist. It has been an integral part of the Christian faith at least since the great Creeds were written. It holds that the Lord comprises Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — three Persons, one God.
Mormonism denies the Trinity. God the Father was a man who had a son named Jesus. He also had another son named Satan, but that relationship is downplayed. And no real accounting for the Holy Spirit. God and his son Jesus started out same as us, lowly sinners who earned their way to godhood. “As we are, God once was; as God is, we shall become.” That’s the same promise the snake made to Eve: you will be like God. As empty promises go, that one apparently hasn’t lost its lure in thousands of years.
The most interesting idea underlying Mormonism is the idea of attaining perfection — perfection is portrayed as an achievement. The Christian idea is the God is eternal and unchanging, and perfect. If God didn’t start out as perfect but like us had to “achieve” perfection, then there must be some standard that exists apart from God by which perfection can be gauged. That standard, by the way, would be higher than God — an idea that sounds blasphemous to a Christian. And attaining perfection, while an impossible concept for an authoritative God, is ludicrous from the perspective of Biblical authors such as Paul, who wrote that Christians do not become righteous due to their own efforts, but that the Lord imputes Jesus’ righteousness to them by grace, through faith. And let’s add Isaiah, who claims man’s righteous works to be “as filty rags” — that’s man’s righteous works, we don’t even want to hear what God thinks of our unrighteous works.
Suggested reading to all with an open mind interested in conversion experiences:
Honey From The Rock, compiled by Roy Schoeman. Individual stories by sixteen Jews who encountered Christ. Very interesting reading, even if one doesn’t choose the same path they did.
I have read the Torah — and admire it.
Have you ever read the New Testament?
Yes. Now be brave: Consider the Book of Mormon.
I managed to get through two-thirds of it, which is better than I did with the Koran.
Interesting. One of the standard proofs offered for Islam is that the Koran is SO self-evidently perfect and so much more beautiful and profound than any other text that anyone who reads it with an open mind (important caveat, that!) will be converted. I think we can agree on how seriously to take such “proofs.”
And we do agree on that.
Well, I did like the song. A couple of years before it was on the radio, though,my parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,along with several of their children (me, for one). Mom,up to that point, had been a Presbyterian for several years, having followed Dad from church to church, and he’d been not attending any church for awhile. The missionaries from the LDS church taught Dad the Gospel and he wanted to be baptized, Mom decided to go to church with him since he wouldn’t go with her, and the family baptisms began.Most of our relatives were accepting of this,but we had an aunt and uncle whose minister had been preaching anti-LDS sermons off and on for years,and had his parishioners convinced that all LDS were going straight to HELL. So auntie and uncle tried their level best to dissuade Mom and Dad. This made things pretty ugly, since auntie was Dad’s sister, and uncle was Mom’s brother,and we were very friendly with them and us kids were especially close to their children, our double cousins. Mom and Dad were baptized anyway,us kids were,too, and the troubles with them began. We were in the habit of trading kids for kids, their kids would visit us one at a time for a week at a time in the suburbs in the summer, in trade for one of us spending a week in the country with them. What had been a pleasurable tradition for years turned into an ordeal, as uncle and auntie tried, all day every day,during our week long visits, to get us KIDS (ALL underage) to leave the Church before we went to hell,where our parents were assuredly going,Billy Graham said so, they said. Eventually, they took the children of my older sister on a visit, and took them to THEIR church to be baptized,WITHOUT the parents’ consent. DADDY of the kids got wind of it (likely tipped off by one of our cousins) and got there in time to stop the baptism and publicly call uncle and aunt out on it in front of their congregation, and declare that the kids would NEVER be back to visit. EVER! They stopped being quite so horrible after that, but they kept right on talking against us and our religion to our mutual relatives until the day uncle died and auntie went to live with her daughter far far away.
If you read carefully the many passages about God,Christ and Their relationship in the Bible, it becomes apparent that Jesus of the New Testament was the Creator and Lord and God of the Old Testament,while God the Father was Jesus’ literal Father,and was also He Whom Jesus was always perfectly obedient to. At the time of Jesus’ baptism as recounted in the New Testament, it becomes pretty obvious that there ARE three separate perfect Beings, God the Father, His Son, in whom he is well pleased, and the Holy Ghost. In his intercessory prayer, Christ pleads that the disciples may be one, “as We are one”, obviously,not one physically (eleven people cannot be joined physically and get anything done), but one in purpose and direction, perfectly unified, therefore able to accomplish much in the work of God’s kingdom.
I want to suggest another context setting song; another Jew’s song about…. wait for it……Jesus.
I dreamed i saw St Augustine,(1967) is not literally about the saint; Augustine died of disease not martyrdom.
Dylan sings I dreamed “I was among the ones who put him out to death”: the very nut of the Jewish /Christian pathos, and a key to identifying the cast of characters populating his songs.
It could be argued that long before his born again period, Quinn the eskimo and John Wesley Harding and Judas priest were tropes for a trickster Jesus (the nocturnal thief): “All across the country side he opened many a door but was never known to hurt an honest man.”
It’s a righteous song no matter what. Aside from that, I’m an American, brought up on the principles of Judea Christian values and rule of law. I think that is why this song strikes a cord in me. It is a great sounding tune too, timeless like the great hymnal Savings Grace.
I think, if you can’t believe in the nature of this song, how can you believe in something larger and grander than oneself? Doesn’t that cross all mores and beliefs of a moral people? Something that binds folks together, the idea there is something better, that you can leave something better than when you lived it? Wasn’t that what the King of Israel did? I mean, isn’t that the idea of Liberty in the first place.
I like the sentiments the song speaks of, but have never been crazy about the song itself. This one was better: http: http://youtu.be/u9vBpnN9eJM
I like the tune, the psychedelic/gospel fell, and the guitar-playing very much, I always have. Back in the day, though, it helped spawn the “Jesus Freak” movement, sort of a Tim Leary meets Billy Graham phenomenon.
However, I feel Christian youngsters were misled. The song does not espouse or champion Christianity in any way. What it is, is a straight-faced spoof not on Christianity so much, but on Christians.
The dead give-away is this lyric: “I’m not a sinner, I never sin; I’ve got a friend in Jesus.”
From a Christian perspective, that’s just not theologically correct. It’s refuted all over the Bible: No one is righteous, no, not one. All of our righteousness is as filthy rags. Anyone who says he does not lie is a liar. All have stumbled and fallen short of the glory of God. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. The most deceptive thing is a man’s heart. The Lord is forgiving because He remembers man is just dust.
Anyone who takes an honest look at Christian theology cannot come away with the notion that Christianity holds man to be peachy-keen.
Christians should never walk around feeling holier-than-thou. Holier than anything.
But some Christians probably do. Hence, this song, intended, I think, to cut them down to size.
Hi RT. I haven’t heard the song in quite some time & forgot about the line regarding never sinning you quoted. I take back what I posted about liking the sentiments the song speaks of as posted before you. I should have listened to it again before posting. All have sinned & fallen short of the glory of God, even those who “have a friend in Jesus”.
“[...]However, I feel Christian youngsters were misled. The song does not espouse or champion Christianity in any way. What it is, is a straight-faced spoof not on Christianity so much, but on Christians.
The dead give-away is this lyric: “I’m not a sinner, I never sin; I’ve got a friend in Jesus.”
From a Christian perspective, that’s just not theologically correct.[...]”
That line always puzzled me for this very reason. First heard it in my early teens. Back then, I thought it should have been;
“I’m just a sinner,
I’ve always sinned,
But I’ve got a friend in Jesus”
It would work and put the song back in line.
- a -
Boy do I feel out of step here. I always thought this song was bitterly satirical. Making fun of fundamentalist “Jesus freaks.”
I think that’s pretty close to what I already said, about three posts up.
and Clapton’s “Presence of the Lord” is satirical
and Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” is satirical
McGuinn’s “Jesus is just allright” is satirical
Stevie’s “They won’t Go When I Go”
how about the impressions “People Get Ready” what a bunch of sacriligious cut ups.
George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” is absolutely not satirical. It’s deeply, passionately spiritual. FOR KRISHNA. It’s odd how many people miss the backup choruses chanting the famous Hare Krishna mantra.
Do lang do lang do lang.
Jesus is just alright with me. I just want to see His face.
Myra,
Thanks for your recounting of Jesus’ pulling you into His arms.
DennisD