365 DAYS PROJECT

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.