Now whether the actual Gospel recordings were a marketing move, I really don’t know. Elvis really had nothing to gain by recording Gospel music, except maybe it gained him a little more acceptance by the older audience. When the “How Great Thou Art” album was recorded in 1966, it was at one of his lowest commerical periods, and the album’s release did not change that, but it did help to recharge him creatively. The Gospel LPs were not big sellers initially, but had a very good “shelf” life, and sold continually through the years.

CG suggested the book on Calvin Newton. I’m sure it’s a good read, however I don’t want something that focuses on one artist, but all the groups as they began, interacted, developed and grew through the decades.

It definitely does not focus on just Calvin. It’s a pretty good “tell-all”. So good in fact, that, apparently, it was, at least for a while, banned from product sales at all Gaither Homecoming events.

I have appreciated your writing and work in the business so thanks for offering a comment.

I guess what I’m talking about would be, basically, a reference book. A few years ago Mark Allen Powell wrote a pretty exhaustive history of contemporary Christian music. It’s well over a thousand pages and while, in places, he errs by injecting some personal editorializing, the work is outstanding in both its depth and breadth, offering personal history of the artists and groups, their relationships with each other and their record and publishing companies, as well as providing a complete discography wherever possible. Perfect? No. But the best, more comprehensive work I’ve seen on the subject.

That’s the type of work I’d like to see available. CG suggested the book on Calvin Newton. I’m sure it’s a good read, however I don’t want something that focuses on one artist, but all the groups as they began, interacted, developed and grew through the decades. How the changes in society and technology changed them; and yes, the foibles and the triumphs they faced. I have not had the opportunity to read your book yet, but I understand what you’re saying about peoples’ reaction to including Swaggart. So the book I’m proposing would not be something any group would probably want to buy from the publisher and put on their product table. It probably wouldn’t be accepted for advertisement in some of the publications.

As I asked in my original post, aren’t there people who would want to read such a book? Or are they mostly, as you suggest, unwilling to accept the truth about many of the individuals who’ve made this genre what it has become through the years? And if their question is, well why drag people through the mud, especially those who are gone? Because unless you do, you dishonor the greater truth and ignore the deeper message that could be brought, which in its simplest form is, that God uses people. Sometimes mean, hopelessly flawed people. People who have addictions, people who don’t even fully embrace the message. Does Elmer Gantry come to mind? God isn’t shamed in the process. And what made a lot of these people so colorful and good at what they did was the exact thing no one wants to talk about…their flawed humanity. Look at the Old and New Testaments; hardly a slickly polished PR piece on many of the historical peronages of the Bible. Yet it’s there and we are not ashamed.

Objectivity is a hard lens to look through. AFL does a fine job of asking these sorts of questions and providing a forum for the conversation. I’m thinking it would almost have to be published by a university press or a botique publisher because it would be a niche product, yet one of huge historical value.

I’d like to see an honest, factual, colorful book or DVD produced about the history of SG. Not another soft-focus puff piece, but something that acknowledges both the good and bad of its past (and present for that matter). Who would be qualified to write it? No idea, but ideally it would be someone who is intimately familiar with the history of SG (someone who grew up in and around the business?) and at the same time enough of an objective writer to capture all the passion, blood, sweat, tears and spirit of this genre of music we love in a historically accurate way.

Actually, it has been written by Calvin Newton. The title is “The Bad Boy of Gospel Music”. It’s a great read.

I’d like to see an honest, factual, colorful book or DVD produced about the history of SG. Not another soft-focus puff piece, but something that acknowledges both the good and bad of its past (and present for that matter). Who would be qualified to write it? No idea, but ideally it would be someone who is intimately familiar with the history of SG (someone who grew up in and around the business?) and at the same time enough of an objective writer to capture all the passion, blood, sweat, tears and spirit of this genre of music we love in a historically accurate way.

I wonder sometimes, do we ’sanitize’ the past out of respect for those who’ve gone before, or to convince ourselves that they were all great people, every deal was a clean one and nothing untoward ever went on?

I’m not suggesting we point fingers or that it be done in an tell-all, sensationalistic way. I just think we all, the world, and SG itself would best be served by something that was revealing and honest. I don’t believe it would take anything away from the ‘legends’; after all, the people inside the business already know the ’stuff’ and those who are outside (fans) could benefit from an understanding that these folks had feet of clay just as we do. In other words, it would be a historical book, not a PR piece, more scholarly than entertaining perhaps.

Just a thought.

And another point, everytime I hear anything about Elvis I can’t help but flash back to the double album recording that JD Sumner and the Stamps issued shortly after Elvis’ death, “J.D. Sumner and the Stamps present Memories of Our Friend Elvis.” I may still have the album. In between the tracks of the Stamps singing -(with Ed Enoch singing Elvis’s high notes)- there are several tracks of J.D. going on and on repeating the mantra “Elvisss Presssly wuz not on drugzzz” “Elvisss Presssly wuz not on drugzzz.” Did J.D. honestly believe this was the truth or was he trying to protect Elvis’ image? The recording was made, and the album released long before the truth came out about how Elvis was medicated to death. Comments?

(Of course I know what you meant…we won’t ever know this side of eternity which side Elvis chose in the end.)

Where the documentary runs into trouble is when it attempts to weave those stories into the broader implication that Elvis’ affiliation with gospel music was some real spiritual reflection of his own life or faith.

It sanitizes the spiritual experiences of Elvis’ adult life, omitting both his experimentations with non-Christian religious thinking or rituals and the distaste for organized religion that was present during his post-Army life.

It is important to remember (and is historically authenticated) that the gospel singers who spent time with Elvis saw only one side of him: they were not given the access to be aware of full extent of his drug use, womanizing, or other obsessive behaviors, though I am sure they heard the rumors at the time that every one else did. Their recollections of their wholesome experiences with Elvis are real and valuable—despite possible embellishments—but cannot be taken to implicate a broad understanding of Elvis’ spiritual condition.

Elvis was many things to many people. Many people today claim to have been a close confidant to him, yet the truth as told by his inner circle is that almost none of them were. The cocoon placed around Elvis by his “Memphis Mafia” entourage both protected his safety and enabled the destructive behaviors that destroyed him.

That his gospel singing friends were outside that cocoon somewhat jades their perspectives on him, and allows them to honestly and wholeheartedly participate in the ongoing rehabilitation of Elvis’ legacy which brings economic gain and added fame to all involved.