Search - Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet :: Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet 1939-43

Gospel Memories

Charles Motton | Chicago, Illinois | 02/27/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In today's onward march of gospel music we in the music industry sometimes forget our roots. I intend to introduce selections from this disc to my choir to sung on the sabbath day. Thank you and God Bless"

The most imaginative gospel group ever!

Eloi | Ely, NV USA | 03/04/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I gave this recording 4 stars rather than 5 only because some of the tracks are scratchy and sound like Document Records just miked the 78s with no filter. But one track that has clear sound is "Jezebel." Whoever wrote the text seems to have mixed up the story of Jezebel with that of Salome and John the Baptist, but there's no denying the hypnotic power of the refrain, "You got to go to judgment and stand your trial, you got to go to judgment and stand your trial" leading up to "Nine days she lay in Jerusalem's streets, her flesh was too filthy for the DOGS to eat." Not for the faint of heart!



Another well-presented track is "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'," my first ever exposure to this group. I was taking a class on the history of WW II and the prof did a lecture on "the home front." We heard about Rosie the Riveter, got to finger some ration coupon books, and then heard this: "Well, now, Stalin wasn't stallin' when he told the Beast of Berlin that they'd never rest contented till they had driven him from the land, so he called the Yanks and English, and proceeded to extinguish, the Fuehrer and his vermin, this is how it all began: Well, the Devil he was reading in the Good Book one day, how the Lord created Adam to walk the righteous way, and it made the Devil jealous, he got green up to his horns, and he swore by things unholy that he'd make one of his own! So he packed two suitcases full of grief and misery, then he caught the Midnight Special goin' down to Germany ..." All this in the GG Quartet's fast-paced Jubilee Gospel style. It was electrifying!



But bitter irony comes with the line "Now Adolf got the notion that he was the master race, and he swore by all things evil he'd put mankind in its place ...." This at a time when the GG Quartet would have been refused service at half the hotels and restaurants in Virginia because of their race. I wonder what went through their minds as they sang this propaganda piece commissioned by the US government for entertainment of the troops. Ah well, a gig's a gig.



Despite the cover photo with piano, most of the tracks are 4 voices without accompaniment.

"