Before "Spirit In the Sky" with its fuzz bass, Norman Greenbaum was part of Dr. West's Medicine Show and composed this half-psychedelic, half-Roaring 20s novelty hit.
Believers noted "Spirit in the Sky" was theologically weak right from the start. No Christian would say "Never been a sinner, I never sinned." It seemed to be one of those California Jesus Freak things. People now know Greenbaum grew up in an observant Jewish family - big surprise, I know. But still...California or maybe Colorado or something.
Well, there is even more to the story than that. He was from Malden, MA, and was obsessed with Westerns as a boy. What he was picturing was being inspired by a cowboy "dying with his boots on." Looked at from that perspective, a vague, general I've been a good person would be about what an average Jewish boy might think of Cowboy Christianity.
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