SUNDAY MORNING SOUND COLLAGE

For a maniac's Easter morning...

The history of sampling the sounds of preachers is pretty much the history of sampling in general, as many of the most prominent names in sound collage, from the avant/electronic world to mashup/dance djs, have used 'em.  And considering the classic status of so many of these tunes, how can you blame them?  Passionate, loony, exciting, hilarious religious orators make for great (inadvertent) guest vocalists. The '80s industrial crowd seemed particularly fond of this strategy. I remember reading (the L.A. Weekly, probably) around '87 or '88 that the sampling of preachers had officially become a cliche.  No way - we weren't even half-way there yet! Part 2 takes us up thru the Internet/mashup era. [Preacher's name, if known, included in brackets.]

SUNDAY MORNING SOUND COLLAGE 1

1 Steve Reich [Brother Walter] - It's Gonna Rain (Part II) [1965]
2 John Oswald [unknown preacher - R.W. Schambach maybe?] - Power [1975]
3 Brian Eno and David Byrne [Kathryn Kuhlman] - Into The Spirit Womb [1979]
4 Chris & Cosey [Dr Gene Scott] - Put Yourself In Los Angeles [1981]
5 Cabaret Voltaire [Dr Gene Scott] - Sluggin Fer Jesus (Part One) [1981]
6 Zoviet France [R.W. Schambach] - Ram [1984]
7 Adam Cornford and Daniel Crafts - Fundamentals [1985]
8 Tackhead - Mind At The End Of The Tether [1985]
9 Front 242 [R.W. Schambach] - Angst [1987]
10 Negativland [Rev. Estus Pirkle] - Christianity Is Stupid [1987]
11 John Adams/Edo De Waart: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra - Christian Zeal & Activity [composed in 1973/recorded 1987]

SUNDAY MORNING SOUND COLLAGE 2

1 Praga Khan [R.W. Schambach] - Injected with a Poison [1991]
2 KMFDM - We Must Awaken [1992]
3 The Tape-Beatles - Home Problems [1993]
4 Lecture on Nothing - Truckload Of Bibles [1997]
5 Reality Engine - Blame The Kingdom Of God [1999]
6 Escape Mechanism - Worship [c. 1999-2001]
7 Fatboy Slim [Reverend W. Leo Daniels] - Drop The Hate [2000]
8 The Evolution Control Committee [Elder Marshall Taylor] - Don't Miss the Great Snatch [2003]
9 Celebrity Murder Party [12 year old preacher Rev William Hudson, III] - God vs the Gays [2007]
10 dj lobsterdust [Pastor Gary Greenwald] - It's Fun To Smoke Dust (Queen vs. Satan)  [2009]
11 CutUpSound - God In a Linoleum Roll [recorded ?; released 2013]

I was amused to find out that two British acts, Chris & Cosey, and Cabaret Voltaire, both sampled L.A.'s infamous, frizzy-haired, cigar-chomping, foul-mouthed televangelist Dr Gene Scott. I wondered: how in the heck did they know about him?  Turns out that Werner Herzog, no less, made a documentary about Scott called "God's Angry Man" in 1981 that provided much yucks (and sample fodder) for those wacky industrialists: