Edgar Jones with the Gnostic 5 – Doo Woppin for Jesus
Words: Prince Far Out
Pictures: AV8 and Edgar Jones
Jesus.
Where to start?
Well, He’s not answered… so I guess I’ll have to do it alone.
And I have to start by saying that this is a fucking ace album.
If you like great song writing, gospel music (if you don’t you should be asking yourselves questions), and the vocals of Delta bluesmen, and if you want to hear something that sounds like it was created decades ago, or indeed, if you want to be a pioneer and be able to say “I own the first ever Gnostic Gospel album”, and have all the cool guys and gals looking at you in awe, then you should be banging AV8’s online doors down at 6 p.m. on the 23rd October to get this.
I’m going to get straight into it, as it doesn’t look like He’s coming any time soon.
Living in the World of Demiurge sounds like all great gospel, set to a train-track backing conjuring up images of the deeply spiritual south, whilst Edgar Jones‘s voice embodies the spirit of the bluesmen of whom he is so fond. It is a fantastic opening, the authenticity of which is evidenced in my head because it reminds me of one of my favourite gospel performances, that of Sister Rose (whose illustrious brother is none other than Sly Stone, in whose band she helped make his songs come to life) singing of Trouble in this World in the film LadyKillers (the Tom Hanks one – not the Alec Guinness one) – those handclaps, man! If you like that, you will adore this album, and indeed more than once I thought how majestic the songs on Doo Woppin’ for Jesus would be with this kind of full treatment. Get on it Edgar! A gig with a full gospel choir!
On Your Way To Heaven Anyhow confirms this thought, with a wonderful doo-wopped verse and a catchy as hell (sorry Jesus) chorus and once more, wonderfully authentic backing vocals.
Jesus is Waiting begins with a delightfully catchy laid back strum but nothing that prepares you for what is about to come out of the speakers – some deeply, dark vocals that threaten the bass speaker. As he embodied the spirit of Jamaican Ska with Mellow Down Pussycat, so he has here with gospel. Edgar‘s riffing over the top is simply majestic. In contrast, a shockingly psychedelic introduction heralds in Dontcha Know, with a vocal like the disembodied and discombobulating soul of Screaming Jay Hawkins before entering the western outskirts of Ennio Morricone territory with ‘hoo’s and ha’s’ like something straight out of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. It’s still gospel sounding though!
We Should talk About Mary is surely the first ever Feminist gospel song. Edgar, his voice reaching depths otherwise unknown, tells the story of how Ms Magdalene was written out of history as the apostle boys closed ranks, whilst the gloriously titled Doo Woppin for Jesus has Edgar delivering a deep vocal whilst the voices higher in the mix wail mysteriously over the top, exhorting us to “put a little time away, for doo woppin for Jesus“.
As wonderfully authentic as this album is, it is also a lot of fun!
Unto Each begins with a quirky organ before the sumptuous vocals once more enter the fray and later fly high in what is his most impressively delivered vocals on the album. Again, it is lyrically rich and if you didn’t know it, you would swear it was straight out of a hymn book. This listen has been a surprising and remarkable journey. If you sat someone down, put the album on and asked where this music comes from, it would not be Liverpool, but more likely the southern states of America, anytime between the thirties and fifties, and yet it is indeed from the Merseysippi Delta, and Edgar Jones is the ‘have guitar, will travel‘ embodiment of that era.
Ealderbeath’s Rule (One Rule) sees the tempo upped a notch and is lyrically an aggressive defence of Jesus. Gospel-churching his way through the song, in places the spectre of Van Morrison‘s spiritually is discernible, especially when Edgar begins growling for all he’s worth towards the end.
The closing MEDLEY (Take a Walk with Jesus) Dontcha Let the Grass Grow, sees Edgar sashaying the streets with the Big J in the thrilling Take A Walk with Jesus, which then seamlessly joins the other track mentioned in the title. The latter Dontcha Let the Grass Grow sees tempo shifts, and playful tunesmithery until it sounds like slow motion, before building up into a triumphant return to Take Walk with Jesus, with Edgar‘s final scatting sounding like someone utterly confident that all that has gone before has made this a quite wonderful L.P.
When you see Edgar Jones live he mines his impressive and stacked back catalogue, and consequently you get a real mixed bag of the genres that he has dipped into in his thirty plus years of music making. However, here he has restricted himself to the self-made genre of Gnostic Gospel and it is musically, a deeply rewarding, and lyrically, thought provoking, trip. Yes indeed daddie-o.
Doo Woppin for Jesus is miles (and astonishingly) removed from Edgar‘s last album, which delved amongst the treasures of Northern Soul, RnB and Pop with the stomping Reflections of A Soul Dimension. Similarly, I saw him live recently and I don’t think he played one of the songs of this album and yet, the ones he did play were new also. The man is bursting with ideas and thankfully, a desire to share them with us. Those who see themselves as the beacons of good taste in music should give this a listen, because if an album is more deserving of something like a Mercury Music nomination (I know, I know), then I have yet to hear it this year. Edgar Jones with the Gnostic 5, whoever they may be (I secretly suspect him to be all six members) have delivered a little masterpiece here, that will delight real music lovers and have gospel songwriters everywhere looking disappointingly at their own quill’s efforts.
A unique and wonderful addition to anybody’s record collection.
Doo Woppin for Jesus is out on the 23rd October and available from AV8 Records
Prince Far Out
(Waiting for my Man, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem.)
