Norman Greenbaum
Norman Greenbaum was born in Malden, Massachusetts on November 20, 1942, raised in an Orthodox Jewish home and attended Hebrew school as a child. The first music he remembers listening to was Southern blues and the folk that was popular during the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, and he played with various bands in high school. After graduation, he attended Boston University for two years, playing in local coffeehouses.
Asked about what the Boston scene was like when he started out, Greenbaum said he doesn’t remember many of the details. “Gee, It’s been 53 years since I left Malden,” he said. “I can’t recall any local bands from around there at the time except for The Remains, Freddy Cannon and The Lost. I hung around clubs watching people like Joan Baez, Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band, Eric Von Schmidt, Dave Van Ronk, The Holy Modal Rounders, Tom Paxton, The Fugs, Tom Rush, Taj Mahal and very early appearances by Bob Dylan.”
DR. WEST’S MEDICINE SHOW, JIM KWESKIN, “SPIRIT IN THE SKY”
Greenbaum says he was influenced by folk but had a stronger interest in jug-band music from the ‘20s and ‘30s. “Many of the first albums I bought led me to start my jug band, Dr. West’s Medicine Show, in 1965, when I moved to Los Angeles,” he explains. “Add to that my love of top-40 radio – I mean, who didn’t love that? – and, when I tired of my jug band, I went solo and got into various forms of rock and roll.” Calling himself a “radio head” who was “always listening to the radio, all day and very late at night,” he says he played all kinds of music after he left Boston, from bluegrass, country and western and early rock to hard rock. For some of the ‘60s, Greenbaum performed under the name Bruno Wolf with Kweskin and his jug band.
In 1966, as leader and composer of Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band, recorded the novelty hit “The Eggplant That Ate Chicago” and in 1970 his song “Canned Ham” made it to #46 in the Billboard Hot 100. His best-known song by far is his classic “Spirit In The Sky,” with its infectious mix of a great riff, guitar effects, hand clapping and spiritual lyrics. After Reprise Records released it in December 1969, the song hit #1 in the Cash Box Top 100 while also topping the charts in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and West Germany; it spent 15 weeks at #3 in the Billboard Hot 100 and sold more than two million copies over the next two years. Greenbaum says he played a Fender Telecaster through a Fender Twin Reverb tube amp to get the basic sound, using a custom-built fuzz device that fit inside the guitar body. In a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone’s Angie Martoccio, he said he wrote the tune in about 15 minutes.
“Spirit in the Sky” has appeared in dozens of films, TV shows and commercials over the past 50-plus years and Greenbaum has been living in Santa Rosa, California for almost as long. After recovering from car accident in 2015 that left him in critical condition and required extensive rehabilitation, he returned to performing. Asked what advice he has for up-and-coming artists, he said it’s all about persistence. “I’ve always thought that that’s one of the dumbest questions ever, since first appeared on Dick Clark’s show until now because it’s a simple answer that never has to be repeated: Keep trying,” he said.
(by A.J. Wachtel)
