2003 FEBRUARY 2 #033
His Kids - It's Contagious/What's God Like?/I Can See God/God Doesn't See Us Through The Flowers
I lost the album cover to this record years ago, but who cares about that for Suzanne over at Fridge-Mag serves up clip-art wonders for your visual enjoyment. I remember the actual record cover filled with pictures of smiling faced kids dancing and singing, resembling your standard run of the mill Up With People, but when putting this record on they are anything but that. Sometimes the beat drags as if the drummer was inspired by The Shaggs.
The first song "It's Contagious" is a standard that most young hip now sound church groups were singing in the early 70's. The remaining 3 cuts are all Kurt Kaiser/Ralph Carmichael compositions for folk rock Jesus musicals in the early 70's ("What's God Like" is from "Tell It Like It Is" and the last two cuts are from "Natural High").
Not exactly sure where this was recorded, but the label (Band 'n Vocal Mobile Recording Service) is located in Orange, California and the date on this LP is 1971. Tom Newman is listed as the director with Mike Thomas, Barki Stepp, Lee Newman, Jeff Jeffers, John Mulak, Diane Johnson, Scott Crittenden, Robin McKinnon, Dell St. Julien and Kim Kocman as the Soloists.
Found in a Reno, Nevada 'Savers' thrift store in 1993.
- Otis Fodder
TT-5:21 / 4.9MB / 128kbps 44.1khz
from the LP, "His Kids" (Band 'n Vocal BVRS-1187)
Suzanne Baumann writes:
Up With People was the first big stadium-style concert
I ever attended (maybe the only one... I can't remember
any others at the moment). I was like 9 or 10. My mom
worked for General Motors at the time and the concert
was in honor of their 75th anniversary. I don't remember
any overtly religious numbers (okay, there was one called
"What Color is God's Skin?"), but I do recall
songs about Cadillacs and Pontiacs and one written especially
for that night called "Rollin' on to 75."
As I sit here delving into this memory for the first
time in ages, it just occurred to me that I may have
witnessed the 80's equivalent to a product musical that
night. Weird. The artwork (above) comes from a hymnal
published in 1967 ("Hymns for Now 1: a Portfolio
for Good, Bad, or Rotten Times". Or maybe it's
"Hymns for Nowl". Hard to tell with the typeface
they're using.) Below is the passage from the "Hymns
For Now" intro. It seems strangely fitting.
Mark writes:
After sampling the His Kids song on your site I can
say definitively that CHRISTIANS ROCK! His Kids have a
new career waiting for them - I can see their comeback
in today's Christian Rock Scene. But why dwell in the
60s, or 70s, or whatever it was. I anxiously await the
new generation of church musical hip-hop CD's.
