White Rockers in Search of Soul Salvation
Paul HarveyThis piece of mine comes from today's Religion Dispatches -- I'm posting a snip below and you can follow the link from there.
Fifty-eight-year old rock veteran John Mellencamp recorded his latest record live, in three different sacred spaces — a legendary studio (Sun Studios in Memphis), a hotel room in San Antonio (where blues legend Robert Johnson cut some epochal sides in 1936), and, most significant for this article, the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia.
The first two are hallowed ground of American musical recording history. The third is the oldest black Baptist congregation in the country; so far as I know, it has no history of being used as a backdrop for popular recordings. All three, though, have deep mythical meanings for white Americans in search of authenticity. . . .
Fifty-eight-year old rock veteran John Mellencamp recorded his latest record live, in three different sacred spaces — a legendary studio (Sun Studios in Memphis), a hotel room in San Antonio (where blues legend Robert Johnson cut some epochal sides in 1936), and, most significant for this article, the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia.
The first two are hallowed ground of American musical recording history. The third is the oldest black Baptist congregation in the country; so far as I know, it has no history of being used as a backdrop for popular recordings. All three, though, have deep mythical meanings for white Americans in search of authenticity. . . .
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