11. If you believe your god is dead, try mine
Shaking your ass in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Hi friends, welcome back.
I’m not religious and I come from a distinctly not-religious family. My experience with anything religion-related is either rooted in my silly little archaeology degree, the budget church camps my parents put me in for summer childcare, or vacation sightseeing. Despite that, I find myself listening to a ton of music that’s heavily indebted to black gospel and black spirituals— the line, at least to my uneducated ear, between early soul and church music is sort of blurry. I’ve been throwing songs that I like that fall into the category of “explicitly mentions a christian god” into a playlist for a while now, and I figure this is as good a time as any to share them. Here are twenty of my favorites:
11.1 If You Believe Your God is Dead, Try Mine, The Swan Silvertones (1947)
This song goes unbelievably hard for a track released only two years after the end of WWII. You heard that! 1947! I also had to double-check because it seemed so improbable that this was being recorded the same year that this shit topped the charts for months on end. The title is the second-most poetic I’ve ever seen in music— more on that later.
The members of The Swan Silvertones, I kid you not, were all coal miners who had a sidehustle singing on local radio. Fun fact: Paul Simon has also admitted to fully stealing the chorus of Bridge Over Troubled Water from their track Oh Mary Don’t You Weep, which includes the lyrics “I’ll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in my name”.
11.2 Heaven Bound, Sharon Jones & E.L. Fields Gospel Wonders (mid-1970s)
You’re hearing Sharon Jones of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings at the sweet, baby age of seventeen!
11.3 I Believe, Sir Stanley (1970s)
Like a lot of tracks on this playlist, this song was included on a compilation re-release of rare singles released by a reissue label— this one is from Numero Group’s If There’s Hell Below (more on that later).
11.4 God Will Answer, The Jordan Travelers (1970s)
Also via Numero Group, this time from Good God! Born Again Funk.
11.5 How Great Thou Art, The Sensational Saints (1970s)
Another reissue, included on Forge Your Own Chains from Now-Again Records in 2009. Now-Again really was doing it best and doing it first, and I owe them a blood sacrifice/my firstborn child/a big ol smooch for introducing me to so many iconic tracks over the years.
This track is a rework of Ain’t No Sunshine by Bill Withers.
11.6 God Will Dry My Weeping Eyes, Horace Family (1977)
Also from Numero’s Good God! Born Again Funk. This is the only record laid down by a Chicago-based gospel group, and there’s so little about them out there that I can’t even find the B-side.
11.7 Get Involved, Jonah Thompson (?)
Numero loves church music. This track is from Good God! Apocryphal Hymns, and it was sampled by Dr. Yen Lo in the excellent track Day 1125.
11.8 With Jesus You’re Free, Sons of Truth (1972)
Sons of Truth were directly inspired by Curtis Mayfield (more on that later, be patient!), which you can definitely hear.
11.9 Somewhere To Lay My Head, The Highway Q.C.’s (1960)
I trimmed this playlist down from about 25% acapella quartet music to just this one. You’re welcome! Maybe someday I’ll treat you to the real goods.
By the way, former members of The Highway Q.C.’s include Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls. The lead here is Johnnie Taylor, who has an impeccable voice and went on to have a successful solo career in his own right.
11.10 Nobody Knows, Pastor T.L. Barrett & the Youth for Christ Choir (1971)
As a tried and true, garden-variety white hipster, this was probably my first introduction to overt church music, thanks to Light in the Attic. The bass on this track is of course Phil Upchurch, who was also the bassist for Rotary Connection. I bet he could really fill… up… a church…
T.L. Barrett is an actual south side Chicago pastor with a fascinating life story that includes getting kicked out of school, a multiple-offense arrest record (some warranted and some almost certainly not), working as a shoeshiner, playing piano at the Waldorf Astoria, and putting out a ton of legitimately incredible music over the course of his lifetime.
11.11 The Message, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley (1970s).
Welcome to the disco half of the playlist! I’m glad you’re here. This is the song that made me want to make this playlist— I was absolutely vibing to it on my commute and suddenly had to ask myself what a 20-something white person with absolutely no religious inclinations was doing listening to Ghanian highlife gospel.
11.12 Holding On, Darryl Douglas Inc. (1981)
The bass on this song is soooooo nasty
11.13 Awake O Zion, Elbernita “Twinkie” Clarke (1979)
I have absolutely no notes. This song grooves so hard— apparently that’s the Detroit Symphony Orchestra behind her. Upon hearing this song for the first time I realized why people would want to go to church. Anyway, here’s my favorite comment from the YouTube listing:
11.14 Holding On, House of Spirits (2014)
I was floored that this wasn’t actually from the 1970s.
11.15 Brother Sister, Cho and Random Impetus
Another contemporary one that pays such excellent, loving homage to its roots.
11.16 He’s On Time, The Harlem Gospel Travelers (2019)
This is another contemporary gospel group, which formed when the members were all part of an arts scholarship program for black teens based in Harlem. The Swan Silvertones from track 11.1 are an explicit inspiration. Also their lead is nonbinary!! Also that’s Aaron Frazer on drums!!
11.17 (I Wanna) Testify, The Parliaments (1967)
Hey, uh, that’s George Clinton. You know, of Parliament Funkadelic.
11.18 Save Their Souls, Bohannan
This one was recently featured in my playlist 08. Lately, pt. II.
11.19 The Truth Shall Make You Free, The Mighty Hannibal (1998)
This track is unhinged (complimentary). It’s so good and so weird. Was this a DARE campaign?? Also, The Mighty Hannibal had a really wild ride of a life— he backed Gladys Knight and the Pips as a child, worked briefly as a bona fide pimp, legitimately did get addicted to and then clean from heroin, and later went blind and kept performing.
11.20 (Don’t Worry) If There Is a Hell Below, We’re All Going to Go, Curtis Mayfield (1970)
Okay kids, it’s later. This the song title of all time. I’m not taking counter-arguments or feedback— it reads like a Richard Siken poem and I’ve never seen a better one. Curtis Mayfield was one of the best to ever do it, you know?? And don’t get me wrong, most of his songs are funky and groove hard, but this one is kind of an anomaly to my ear in that it’s sort of scary. It’s got this really hard edge to it that most Curtis Mayfield songs just usually don’t traffic in— it’s like a life-outlook B-Side to Come On Up. I love it to absolute pieces.
Please enjoy the holy sunday of jesus’s rebirth by eating lots of deviled eggs and getting a tummyache, as I will. Everything else is on you. I’ll see you next week, gorgeous weirdos.
xoxo em