Dorothy Morrison – Spirit In the Sky
Miss Dorothy Morrison
Listen/Download – Dorothy Morrison – Spirit In the Sky
Greetings all.
I hope all is groovy on your side of the interwebs.
The tune I bring you this fine day is something I only heard earlier this year, though the artist been bouncing around in my subconscious since I was a little kid.
I first heard of Dorothy Morrison’s version of Norman Greenbaum’s ‘Spirit In the Sky’ when I saw it on an auction list earlier this year.
I picked up a copy without having heard it, on the strength of Morrison, a well-known gospel artist, crossing over into (mostly) secular territory.
Though I didn’t initially know it was her singing, I fell in love with Morrison’s voice as a child when the Edwin Hawkins Singers ‘Oh Happy Day’ (on which she was the lead) hit the charts. A major hit in the US and internationally in 1969, the decidedly lo-fi, yet incredibly powerful and inspirational number is one of the great musical moments of the peace and love era (which I’ll have to post here sometime soon).
Flash forward some years later, as a teenager burning the midnight lamp (and whatever else was laying around) I first saw what became one of my all-time favorite music documentaries ‘Celebration at Big Sur’.
A remarkable artifact of the hippie era, ‘Celebration…’ was a film about the 1969 Big Sur Pop Festival which was held at the visually stunning (but wholly unlikely, mostly unsuitable) Esalen Institute on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Featuring a stellar line-up, helmed by Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Joni Mitchell, John Sebastian and Joan Baez, the film also featured a rousing performance by Dorothy Combs Morrison (as she was billed before and after her secular sojourn) and the Combs Sisters, performing ‘All God’s Children Got Soul’, a minor chart hit 1969, as well as reprising ‘Oh Happy Day’ with an all-star group.
Morrison, possessed of a powerful voice and herself physically stunning (she reminds me somewhat of Teresa Graves) was an ideal candidate for crossover success, and for a short time made the non-gospel rounds, touring the festival circuit, appearing on a number of television shows and recording secular records. She would eventually return to her gospel roots, winning a number of Grammy Awards during the 70s and 80s.
Her 1970 version of ‘Spirit In the Sky’ takes the spacey tempo of the original and kicks it up a few notches, adding a muscular horn section and percussion, making the religious underpinnings of Greenbaum’s version and pushing them to the fore.
The transition of gospel artists into the world of soul was certainly not unique, with countless soul artists having sharpened their instruments in the gospel world (most notably Sam Cooke). The influence of church singing on secular soul is so great as to be practically immeasurable, and the artists that created and then (sometimes) burned bridges – in both directions – between them are at the heart of a story that someone with a deeper understanding of that world than myself needs to tell.
Not being privy to the intimate details of her career, I wonder if Morrison, who’s husky voice was a powerful and at times deeply sexy instrument, had a greater level of success in the secular world, would have continued on in that direction.
As far as I can tell her secular career lasted about half a decade, including a few 45s on Elektra (including ‘All God’s Children Got Soul’) prior to her 1970 album on Buddah, a 45 for MGM (covering Jackie Wilson on one side and Marvin Gaye on the other) as well as a (now expensive) 1975 45 for Oakland’s Brown Door label, written and produced by none other than Marvin Holmes. A look at the most of the material that she recorded during that period seems to indicate that she never committed to the secular sound completely, always keeping one foot partially planted on the gospel border.
It’s important to note that as far as stylistic influence is concerned, the gate swung both ways. The black gospel world of the 60s and 70s has grown considerably as a genre of importance with funk and soul collectors, and this can be traced directly to the fact that while singing styles were traveling across boundaries, instrumental styles were doing so as well, often in the opposite direction, producing gospel recordings that are, aside from their lyrical bent, unmistakably soulful and funky.
This may have been merely the result of the growth of funk, since its influence can be heard in jazz and rock as well, but it is all the more remarkable when you consider how unusual it is for some to acknowledge the crossover between the sacred and the profane.
The flipside of this record is a cool version of another very interesting song, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill’s ‘Black California’, also recorded a year or so later by Patti Austin.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Friday with another interesting cover.
Peace
Larry
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Themocracy
Oh, this is sweet, bringing together some of my faves. I dig the song, the singer and the group she came from. Thanks, man!
A gem and a joy Larry. What a find. I know the name Celebration at Big Sur, but never seen it. I’ll dig about for clips
Innawebz is being good to me today! Just found this while doing a post for our NAACP Texas Black History Series. https://bit.ly/jlwY9t
Would like to know more about Black California….
Have a gospel-filled Sunday!