Holy Vinyl, part 1

Any Bad Music collector will tell you that the religion section tends to provide a lot of good material. The following is a quick look at some of the religion-themed LPs that we've found in the immediate past.

Most of the religious LPs that catch the collector's eye are ones that have amazing cover art. The one on the right, "Thank God I Am Free" by the Ambassador Quartet, is such an album. The scanned image doesn't do justice to the electric-blue color of the jackets of this band (which, if you count carefully, seems to number more than the 4 members that the band name would seem to suggest). Also take note of the one guy's flat-top, which looks like you could position a level on it.

Unfortunately, the cover is the best part about this particular LP. The record itself is fairly ordinary gospel music, although it does get a little weird on "Daddy Sang Bass", because their tenor is not the woman pictured on the cover, but a man. So you get a weird falsetto sound for the line "Mama sang tenor!"

"Daddy Sang Bass"
MP3 audio, 1.07 Mb

Another so-so LP with an extremely weird cover picture is this item from the Celebration Road Show, "Amazing Grace". It's difficult to see what's going on here, but it appears to be an old drunk sitting in some alley, sobbing himself to sleep over the thought of some child (himself? his son? the kid he ran over?), whose picture appears to be printed on a doily.

The weird thing about this picture is that the guy's head is bowed in such a way that it's difficult to see his face when you first look at it, and you get the impression that the guy doesn't have a head, or is deformed, or something.

Taking the time-honored step of providing a trippy LP cover to trick "the kids" into buying your album, the album "Freedom High!" sports a Marcia-Brady-looking girl on its cover, with a very lysergic color combination. Freedom will get you HIGH, man, get it? No? Okay.

The Gospel Crusaders' "Love Is A Strange Word" present a very strange group picture. Here we see leader Gary Alfson (looking like a dentist in his white high-collared shirt), directing our attention the the group of singers, with arms outstretched, as if to say, "Don't ask us!" The Gospel Crusaders showed up on the Bad Music 2000 album with their anti-conformity song, "Conform".

And finally, here are two religious LPs for the kiddies. Jim and Tammy Bakker started their holy empire with a children's program, and this album shows two of the stars of their puppet show. On the Bad Religion 2001 album, we presented the title track from "House on the Rock", which featured Tammy singing a little too convincingly as a puppet.

And last but certainly not least, the soothing sounds of Charlie the Hamster are well known to all who frequent the many rodent churches in this country. With his straw hat, golden cross lapel pin, and powder-blue eye shadow, Charlie T. Hamster has been saving rodent souls for decades. Give a listen to the praising power in this little fella:

"When the Saints Go Marching In"
MP3 audio, 918 Kb

And that draws this look at religious albums to a close. Keep your eyes peeled for more album covers showing up in the Gallery, as we scan more and more LPs, and digitize their audio offerings for your hungry little ears!

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