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Hallowed By Their Name: The Unofficial Iron Maiden Bible
by Martin Popoff
A thrilling journey through the superlative recorded canon of one of the
world’s most legendary heavy metal bands, in time for the band’s
50th anniversary in 2025 and their 2025-26 world tour
Coming April 28, 2025 via Schiffer Publishing
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https://joeviglione.com/?page_id=927
The ‘Spirit’ continues: The Observer revisits an interview with Norman Greenbaum
As stated earlier in the saga of Norman Greenbaum, Malden native and singer/songwriter best known for the hit “Spirit in the Sky,” his Dr. West’s Medicine Show was a jug band that hit with a song based on a science fiction movie and comic books, much like a punk band, Unnatural Axe, that would do something similar 10 years later in 1978 with their notorious punk E.P. Science Fiction and comic books go hand in hand with rock and roll, but not necessarily jug band music, which was the strange twist — the seed, if you will, of the consciousness that gave the world “Spirit in the Sky.”
Now back to an interview with Greenbaum that is continued from last week’s edition of the Observer:
Q: Oh, very nice. How did the hit “Eggplant that ate Chicago” come about, writing wise?
Norman: Well, it came from watching outer space type movies, I guess, and comic books...the gist of the story came from the aliens from outer space sort of thing...who knows how my worked then or now to tell you the truth. You’re born with some kind of something but this silliness has always existed there...at that time I found I was really proficient at that...more so than sitting down and writing serious things.
I was a fan of comedy and I was able to express it along with music. So I chose an outer space kind of thing, you know, a song of doom...I don’t know where it came from exactly...but it was our featured song and...
We auditioned for some managers who managed The New Christy Minstrels, Jose Feliciano...amongst other big acts, so they were pretty legit.
Q: A: Q:A: Oh really? He signed us! And that’s how it all got started; we went in and recorded and made an album, he put the single out and surprisingly enough of all things to happen it made the charts. I mean a jug band record made the charts! So that was pretty interesting.
Q: So George Greif was the guy who got the deal with GO GO Records.
A:Q: That’s amazing that George Greif signed Dr. West. I’m very impressed. And then Dr. West ran its course?
A: All the other original members left the band for various reasons as I evolved and they were replaced by different people and the band itself sort of evolved into more electric music...got away from the silliness of the jug band-type material and we worked and recorded some more material but it sort of ran its course. And we disbanded.
Q:A: Yes it is; they released a CD which has a ton of songs on it. Wish it had more, to tell you the truth. I was told they couldn’t find them all. There were some good ones they didn’t find. There were some good ones they did find, believe me, I forgot I had actually written those songs.
A: No, it didn’t. I completely left that situation and the George Greif’s management company and wanted to do something different and on my own. I then went about putting together a band that was more in sync with folk rock, rock, and was going to completely leave this jug band-type music behind. I wanted to have, I was about to say the word “normal” band, but there’s no such things, that’s mental, a regular type four piece band.
Doing that, I had different players but at this point I was the leader and I was calling all the shots. I wanted to do my material only the way I wanted to do it. I had a configuration and we were playing at the Troubadour and Eric Jacobsen happened to stop by and heard me and that’s what started the next stage of my career because he signed me to a writer’s contract to his company. And then...he had an open deal with Warner Brothers to bring acts to them...’cause he had just finished producing all the Lovin Spoonful records and Tim Hardin...so he got me a deal with Reprise and then we recorded “Spirit in the Sky.”
Q:A: That wasn’t put out as a single at first, no, I believe “Jubilee” was put out as a single first; it didn’t make it obviously. We did call the album “Spirit in the Sky” ... the whole object was to have “Spirit in the Sky” out as a single and it did finally get put out. There were a little wary of putting it out at the time, it was very different. Very, very, very different. It was also very long, all of four minutes but compared to 2:20 for everything else. (The executives at Warner Brothers/Reprise said,) “It’s like two songs, too long, they’ll never play it.” But, you know, they did!
Q: The beauty of it...that guitar just grabs you at the beginning...and then the Gospel singers...everything is just perfect around the great melody that you wrote.
A: That was one of the things ...it came about, you know...I worked...the lyrics came easy even though I wasn’t Christian. I was watching Porter Wagoner do a country music show. He’d always do a country gospel lyric song...I’d think “Gee, that’s kind of interesting. I never did anything like that. I’m writing about Eggplants (laughs),” maybe I should go in that direction, you know? Of course you’ve got to write about Jesus if you’re going to write Gospel in America, so that was pretty easy to put the lyrics together. And I worked on arrangements a few months and finally said I’ve gotta do this one because my mind just keeps going back to that beat. So... we got a band together because I was signed as a single artist and so we put a studio band together in Northern California out in San Francisco. We rehearsed, went in and recorded quite a few songs. “Spirit in the Sky” stood out during the sessions — it just came together. We had numerous people working on it. I said, “Great, we’ll get the gospel singers.” We went to Oakland and found these girls ...it just all came together — and it was quite simple...and, in lieu of another word, it was sort of miraculous, you know?
Q: It’s an amazing record; it’s a real work of art. Why go to San Francisco from Hollywood, what was the move?
A: Oh, well, he was based in San Francisco. Erik Jacobsen’s production company.
Q: A: Q: A: Q:A: The road was good, you know. It was like the culmination of what I wanted to do. I had been on the road, of course, with Dr. West. So I knew the road. But this was with a hit. It made a big difference. It went well. Then we had to come back and we were... there wasn’t another hit on the album.
And the problems started...what do you follow-up with when you have a song like that just took America by storm...and the world. The song was in the Top 5 in just about everywhere you could think. Boy, how do you top it? I wasn’t quite prepared. Mentally I was, but mentally for everybody else I wasn’t. And that’s where it kind of started to fall apart...if you wanted to use the words “fall apart.”
We recorded a second album and did it kind of quick. Had to, that’s the way it was...it wasn’t like, “OK, we’ll sit back for two years and work on something” like you do now...uh uh, back then it was like “right away.” So it was rushed. But...I had come up with and again...who knows, my mind wanders, I guess, and when it came to writing it wandered pretty good and here I was, “well, I don’t have (a new) “Spirit in the Sky”...and it wasn’t on purpose that I kept writing about things that were non-Jewish, it just happened to work out that way...but I was in the grocery store with my wife and the people checking out in front of us plopped down this 5 pound canned ham. Now being Jewish I had never had or seen a canned ham in my life. Except if you go to the store and you see one on the shelf. So here’s one right in front of my face — and they seemed all happy about buying this canned ham. So out of nowhere I looked at my wife, my ex-wife now, and said, “When are you going to buy me a Canned Ham, baby?” It just came out. And I go, “Oh boy, that’s a song.” So we did that and we put it out as a single. Now you gotta see the faces on record executives because they had a hard enough time, you know, trying to figure out if they were making the right move by putting out “Spirit in the Sky.” That became a hit so here they are now faced with the same dilemma again, with something crazier called “Canned Ham.” I’m looking at them with a totally straight face going, “Yeah, that’s a hit.” (You could see the executives thinking,) “Can’t you just come in with another ‘Spirit in the Sky’?” But of course I’m going, “When I came in with “Sprit in the Sky” you’re looking at me saying, “can’t you come in with something else!” Anyway they put it out and it was a mediocre hit.
Q: A:Q: I remember the melody, I remember hearing it...so I guess 1,510, maybe Arnie Woo Woo.
A: It got plenty of play but it wasn’t “Spirit in the Sky”...I still like it myself. I get a lot of mail at my Web site which is spiritinthesky.com and there’s a lot of people who really like that song.
Norman is Jewish, of course, and was inspired by Televangelists. "I've never been a sinner/I've never sinned, I've got a friend in Jesus" because he wasn't Catholic. The follow-up hit, "Canned Ham," he asked his girlfriend to buy him a canned ham in a grocery store. He didn't eat ham (at the time, I guess.) He grew up in Malden next door to his first cousin, Roy Belson, ex Superintendent of Schools in Medford. Belson and I were arch-enemies, ha ha, in the public access TV wars, but we always called a truce when it came to our mutual friend Norman. Norman was managed by George Greif (New Christy Minstrels, Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller, Jose Feliciano.) As George and I both managed Mr. Miller at different times, he let me use his office in California! I consider the late Mr. Greif a friend. He got Norman the deal for his first record, Dr West's Medicine Show and Junk Band "The Eggplant that Ate Chicago" https://youtu.be/vfZ1ZHDAq08
Joe Viglione - staff writer for Malden Observer Rosemarie Hague spelling O'Halloran Mickey O’Halloran lived on Clarendon Street in Malden and was a truly unique character working behind-the-scenes in the Boston area music community of the 1970s and 1980s. He died on March 28, 2001 at the age of 58.
https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/observer-advocate/2009/11/26/the-dream-lives-on-malden/39135564007/
Along with booking nightclubs around the region from The Rathskellar in Boston to Jumbos and Jaspers in Somerville, O’Halloran went on to publish a successful local magazine, The Beat, as well as managing the latter-day Stompers (featuring Sal Baglio, cousin of Malden’s own John Baglio) and putting together a quartet of compilation albums of great significance.
Which brings us to our story. Though O’Halloran left this world over eight years ago there was some unfinished business — the release of the compilation album Boston Gets A Grip: 19 Boston bands doing Aerosmith. This was the follow-up to the Motown tribute, Botown Does Motown, the Beatles tribute titled, as you might guess, Boston Does The Beatles, and Boston Gets Stoned, which was re-mastered by former Medford resident, Jimmy Miller, iconic producer of the original versions of “Brown Sugar,” “Gimme Shelter,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” over 100 titles by the group called “The Greatest Rock & Roll Band In The World.”
“Mr. Jimmy,” as Mick Jagger calls his producer in the song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” passed away in 1994, with the Boston Gets Stoned document truly an important nod to this area’s musicians who worked with one of the industry giants.
So why not put an album together of Boston artists performing the music of, unarguably, the region’s most financially successful recording group — Aerosmith. It was a natural, of course, with O’Halloran’s death getting in the way of the album’s release. No one could find the master tapes.
Fast forward to 2009 and with the assistance of Eric Boyer of RockShop.com, the “lost” re-working of Aerosmith’s music by regional bands is finally a reality. The 19 tracks show what strong songwriting exists inside the Aerosmith personality, stage flair and entertainment industry marketing hype: deep within the copyrights are touches of magic that the band’s Steve Tyler and Joe Perry helped spawn give their own impressions of, actually providing insight that the original recordings deliberately hide.
Tyler and Perry are clever showmen and their tongue-in-cheek humor on the original recordings is laid bare here when Kelly Knap and Kim Ernst of The Bristols re-live “Seasons of Wither” or when Kip Martin & The Merles do a rockabilly version of “Sweet Emotion.” Producer Jimmy Miller may not have put these two vibes so close to each other had he compiled this, the juxtaposition is a bit disruptive, especially with Steve Barry’s dreamy “Round and Round” and Girls Night Out keyboard player Alizon Lissance giving such exquisite renditions of their respective tracks. Lissance on “Home Tonight” could be the highlight of a very effective group of recordings, she sounds like early-day Laura Nyro at 3 a.m. in a New York bar, distinctly different from Gigi Abraham’s take on “Uncle Salty,” which is also a key track here, the exotic instrumentation absolutely compelling. A side note: here is that Steve Barry’s own label, Beautiful Sounds, released “Boston Goes Def” in 1986, two years before O’Halloran’s Fast Track released Boston Does The Beatles.
Building the album
Medford resident Jada Tringale puts some hip hop on “Back In The Saddle,” intriguing and displaying Tringale’s mighty talent, it’s the stylistic jolt that is as jarring as the first two tracks noted above.
Local fanzine writer A.J. Wachtel does have a haphazard view on rock and roll, a true anomaly he probably cut up the names of the artists and songs, put them in a hat and tossed them in the air one night at the-bar-that-once-was-Bunrattys (where O’Halloran also worked), and in piecing them together, the album is tracked.
Now this writer isn’t certain that the disc was compiled in that fashion, but knowing A.J., the logical mind certainly understands it’s a good theory. The group known as Seven Times gives the smorgasbord another poke with their hard rock on “No More No More.” Perhaps a folk or softer rock version of Aerosmith on one half of the disc and the harder rocking and more esoteric styles — rockabilly and rap — finding their way onto the second half would have made for a more appealing track order, which wouldn’t be a bad idea of someone compiles all four of O’Halloran’s anthologies into a nice boxed set.
At the very least Boston Gets A Grip brings some attention to these hard-working area musicians, and when Jody Sandwich sings about her “old girlfriend” on “What It Takes” in her best Cher approach to forgetting about sexual ambiguity, just put it all out on the line. Sandwich does a nice end-of-Abbey road guitar thing to take the song to its conclusion. There’s no slight in not mentioning all the groups, Martha’s Vineyard resident James Montgomery is perhaps the most famous name, signed to Cotillion Records back in the 1970s he is a contemporary of Aerosmith and continues the fine tradition of adding a few legends to this reprise of legendary music compositions...John Lincoln Wright having made an appearance on the Rolling Stones’ tribute, Boston Gets Stoned.
The Boston Brats aren’t a household name and never will be — and their “Write Me A Letter” is a nice cover, one that you might find in high school dances. The Polkalotz take on “Livin’ On The Edge” annoys the heck out of me — which doesn’t mean they do a bad job — the accordion angle dips into John Lennon’s “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite” territory from Sgt. Pepper, and is as bizarre a take on Aerosmith as The Strangemen’s perspective on “Let The Music Do The Talking” or Charley Dee Blues Band going modern-day blues on “Cheese Cake.” Yes, Aerosmith have a deep catalog, but even when you a/b “Dream On” with their versions of The Beatles “I’m Down,” “Helter Skelter” or “Come Together” it all fits perfectly into a groove that the fans can grasp.
Charley Dee Blues Band actually rises above it all and delivers something that the individual members of Aerosmith can do a double take on — in a good way. Where Boston Gets Stoned had very high points and some low points all the music here gets a passing grade and, in many instances, more. So Boston Gets A Grip works in providing entertainment and exploiting (in a good way) the local scene. It just needs a new track order; something Mickey O might have figured out in the 11th hour, and perhaps the tracking is a testament to what the scene is lacking — King Memphis doing “Mama Kin” might be nice on a bill with the Stray Cats but it makes this rock & roller want to open the window and use the disc as a Frisbee. Same with Austin’s Dead’s neo-hardcore take on “Toys In The Attic,” but that’s the chance one always takes with putting so many different personalities side by side on one volume of music. Reggae, hip hop, blues, folk, hard rock, cabaret and rockabilly are a bit much to take in one setting, but it is the (Jah) spirit of the musicians, and the intent of the record label, that makes the pluses far greater than the small minuses.
Joey Voices carry through Malden and beyond
One day up at Doug Mascott’s legendary Trax Of The Town local radio show on 91.7 WMWM Salem State I found recordings by Joey Voices. There was a Malden return address on the envelope so I asked Doug about this artist who resides at joeyvoices.com, myspace.com/joeyvoices and facebook.com/joey.voices. Anyone with the phone number 1-866-SEE JOEY has enough intrigue to make a story mandatory, so the Malden Observer decided to make Joey Voices part of our interview series:
Malden Observer: How long have you lived in Malden?
Joey Voices: 37 years
MO: When did you start your career as “Joey Voices?”
JV: I started Joey Voices back in 2001 and for two years pieced together the show that I wanted to take on the road across America for corporate and private events. I got my first big corporate show in January of 2005 with Aflac in Indiana, and it was a great experience for me.
MO: What was the inspiration for this endeavor?
JV: I would do impressions of singers at my friend/neighbor/dentist’s office (Dr. Mark Gianatassio in Melrose) for his patients, and he told me I reminded him of Danny Gans out in Las Vegas. I had never heard of Gans before Mark mentioned his name. So I went out and saw him perform, and knew instantly that I could do that. So I put my own act together and continue to build on it.
MO: The late Brad Delp of the band “Boston” was amazing in being able to replicate the voices of John, Paul, George and Ringo, not to mention his own identifiable voice as the sound behind “More Than A Feeling” and other hits. Do you have a “secret sauce” or formula in your mind that enables you to copy sounds as dissimilar as Cher, Frank Sinatra, Joe Cocker and Michael Jackson?
JV: No formula. I’ve just been mimicking the radio since I was a little kid. So it comes natural to me to imitate voices. I can’t do everybody’s voice, but I have a pretty good arsenal that I continue to build upon.
MO: How many gigs do you think you’ve performed in the past decade or so?
JV::I don’t know, maybe upwards of 1,000?
MO: Is there any character you really enjoy more than others?
JV: Michael McDonald (former lead singer of the Doobie Brothers).
MO: How often do you play in the Malden area?
JV: As often as I can. I love Malden and my fellow Maldonians. They are my base and spread the word about me faster than anybody else ever could. I’m grateful for this town. My family has been here since 1943 when my dad came here from South Boston at 6 years old. His name was attorney Thomas P. Noone of Maplewood Square for 30 years. He was the best friend I ever had, and I still have a hole in my heart since he passed in September 2006.
MO: Have you released official CDs or DVDs of your work?
JV: I released an Italian-American parody song on CD of the Irish song “Danny Boy” (I’m Irish by the way), called “Tony Boy, the Italian Danny Boy,” that my fans seem to love ($5.50 at JoeyVoices.com). I also write country songs (50 over the last five months) and will eventually release an original country CD. I also have Joey Voices T-shirts.
MO: What two or three gigs stand out in your mind as extraordinary personal experiences for you?
JV: I have four.
1. Being asked back in 2008 to be the headliner act at the National American Legion annual banquet dinner to honor the living and dead American heroes from around the country, of WWII, Korean, Vietnam and Gulf wars.
2. Back in 2004 I got the opportunity to open for crooner Al Martino (“Spanish Eyes,” “Daddy’s Little Girl” and played Johnny Fontane in the Godfather I) before he died this past year. He told me I look like actor Robert Mitchum. I said, “He’s Dead!” He laughed. Martino told me to take every gig I can get, big and small, because I’ll be using my voice, and you never know who’s going to be in the audience. He told me that’s how he got discovered. Best advice I ever got in this business so far. He even showed up early before his show to see me perform and sent his body guard right over to me as I was waiting to take the stage, to tell me he was watching. What a sweet spirit he had and may God rest his soul.
3. When I opened for 80’s band Bad Company at the Hard Rock Café in Boston, in 2007.
4. Homeland Security’s Christmas party in NYC back in 2006 (great audience).
MO: Have you appeared on MATV and, if so, on which programs?
JV: I was supposed to appear with Malden Good Guys “Colonel” Pete Levine and “The Samaritan” Mike Cherone (Bread of Life) on their new MATV show, which got derailed due to technical difficulties. I’m still waiting for a call back to tape that show. I love those guys.
MO: Have you performed at the Malden Public Library?
JV: Veteran’s Advocate John Webster (who is a veteran himself if I’m not mistaken) asked me to come perform Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” to honor the WWII Vets, of which my neighbor and one of the biggest supporters of my show, Joe Croken Sr. was in attendance. That was one of the biggest honors of my life, next to performing at the National American Legion.
MO: Anything else you’d like to say to readers of the Malden Observer?
JV: Yes, here’s something I’d like people to know. I have been a Born Again Christian for 10 years now, am in my third year of Theological Seminary/Bible College at ACTS Seminary down in Plymouth, am so eternally grateful to Jesus for saving my life and to have fans that love my talent enough to pay money to see me perform, and hire me for their events. If anybody out there is having or planning a private or corporate event, and would like something different as entertainment to make it a memorable one, call Joey Voices at 781-589-7777.
If you want to see a video preview of my show, and purchase tickets to one of my upcoming public appearances, log onto JoeyVoices.com. Thank you for your continued support and may continue to God Bless “We the People.”
Joey Voices will be performing live on Saturday, April 18 at the Georgetown Club in Georgetown. It’s a dinner and a show.
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