In twelve years, and in over 540 posts (this is, in fact, blog post 543) how on earth (pun intended) have I managed to ignore writing about the Christian Astronauts, otherwise known as the Shoup family from Fremont, Ohio, and their one classic album Beyond the Blue?
I did include them in a
write-up on Christian music in The World’s Worst Records Volume One, but
for those who have not read the book yet, let me introduce you to one of the weirdest
and most wonderful records this side of Into Outer Space with Lucia Pamela.
This delightfully amateur outer space epic first appeared in 1971. Dean Shoup (referred to on the album’s liner notes and throughout their 10-year career as Captain Shoup), like Marcy Tigner, was a self-taught ventriloquist who realised that America's fascination with space travel could provide him with a platform for spreading the gospel.
Advertising himself as “one
of the world’s leading ventriloquists” and as a “gospel magician” (whatever
that may be), Dean and his family toured America and filmed more than 300
episodes of a cable-TV children's ministry programme, also called Beyond the
Blue, which was broadcast in the Washington state area. The cast included
his wife Connie (a.k.a. Sister Shoup), kids Rick and Michelle (also known as Shelly), Jerry
(a shrill-voiced ventriloquist’s dummy) and his grandmother, and starred a
seven-foot tall robot, Loosenut, apparently fashioned from cardboard boxes and
tin foil but which came equipped with flashing eyes and moving arms and who
sounded, unsurprisingly, exactly like the good captain. In 1972, after the
album was released, the family would be joined by their third and last child,
son Brent. sadly I have been unable to find any footage of the TV show... but I'm sure it's out there somewhere.
The brilliance of Beyond The Blue lies, in part, to
the obvious lack of money spent on the project: Captain Shoup provides all of
the sound effects as well as the voices for the non-human members of the ship’s
crew and the album’s narrative content, while Sister Shoup’s whole raison
d’etre seems to be to chirrup through a handful of hymns.
According to the sleeve notes: “Capt. Shoup is in the pilot
seat and Loosenut is the co-pilot. Lt. Green is sitting at the computer giving
us assistance in helping us to stay on course, using the Bible for the flight
manual”. It’s childish, cheap and utterly charming: Captain Shoup’s stumbling
delivery only adding to the album’s appeal.
Despite the Christian Astronauts delivering their last
earthly sermon in 1981, it’s my hope that the Shoups, Jimmy, Granny and Loosenut
are still out there preaching the good word in a galaxy far, far away. Originally
issued by Gospel Empire Records, the album received a limited reissue, on CDR, from
outsider music specialists Companion Records a few years ago, fully endorsed by
Captain Shoup himself. Sadly, this has now sold out, but you can hear a couple
of tracks here, My Heart Is Reserved (sung by Rick) and I’ll Never Be
The Same (sung by Michelle).
Enjoy!
Record of the year, possibly record of the era.
ReplyDeleteHarry
It's always fun to find oneself having a connection (however tenuous) to stuff like this. I grew up near that church, but never attended it. It's still there by the way.
ReplyDeleteI just listened to the songs on the album and I cringed at every one of them. I really don't like this album. Not even my younger self would've liked it. What did you think when you first listened to it?
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I absolutely love it, but in a perverse almost masochistic way.
ReplyDelete