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MP3 Gerald Nelson - in the beginning...GOD
Apollo 8 and Rob Townsend.
8 MP3 Songs
GOSPEL: Traditional Gospel, SPOKEN WORD: With Music
Details:
in the beginning, GOD…
Lyrics: The Holy Bible
Music written, arranged and conducted by Gerald Nelson
Narrator: Rob Townsend / and the Crew of Apollo 8
Produced by Gerald Nelson
Engineers: Tommy Strong and Lacey O’Neal
Musicians:
Guitars - Grady Martin, Chet Atkins, Ray Eddington,
Harold Bradley
Pianos - Floyd Cramer, Bill Purcell
Bass - Bob Moore, Lighting Chance
Drums - Buddy Harmond
Percussion - Charlie McCoy
Vocal Choir - The Anita Kerr Singers and Millie
With Jerry & Jan Crutchfield, Helen Chance and
Deloris Denning
Strings - Courtesy of The Nashville Symphony with
Benton Banks and Vivian on 1st Chair violin
Horns & Harp - Danny Davis on 1st Trumpet, other horns and
Harp courtesy of The Nashville Symphony
Woodwinds - Courtesy of the Nashville Symphony
Album liner notes from the original release:
“An Album never before attempted…and never to be forgotten.
A work of such distinction that four years of preparation and timing were necessary with the use of arranger-producer-writer Gerald Nelson and narrator Rob Townsend to capture the proper sound effects and sincere feeling to produce this most unique and effective work.
IN THE BEGINNING, GOD….moves on its musical sound track from the now-historic reading of the Creation Story by the Apollo 8 crew (Borman, Lovell, and Anders) to living instructions from the Creator for happiness, peace, tranquility and contentment.
Mr. Nelson’s magic in musical arranging produces sounds, which appeal to both young, and old like, an element so necessary in the presentation of the album’s all-important message. No other talent could have been acceptable.
After a nationwide search, Mr. Townsend, recognized as one whose narrative style is the sound of music, was chosen for this recording.”
THE TRACKS:
IN THE BEGINNING, GOD seg. 1. The Void seg.2 Apollo 8
seg. 3. The Creation Story. In this typical Gerald Nelson composition and arrangement of musical scene painting, he portrays the earth and heavens as without form and void. Setting the stage for the lift off of the Apollo 8 mission. Then, the now historic reading of the Creation Story by the Astronauts.
MAN - GOD’S CREATION AND PROMISE Now we are joined by the authoritative voice of Rob Townsend as the words from the Bible unfold man’s creation.
A CHILD IS BORN In this classical pop arrangement, original music blends in quiet harmony with familiar Christmas carols as the story of Christmas relates the beginning of promise.
THE GREAT COMMNDMENT The growth and development of the Perfect Life demonstrates His compassion for His fellow man, climaxed by the Great Commandment.
LOVE The words from the Apostle Paul tell, “What it’s all about”: one small word – LOVE
PRAYER AND PREPARATION We are invited into the family circle of God to partake of His gift, the power of prayer. Warnings of abuse of that power lead then to the preparation of the Teacher for the supreme sacrifice of the Creator.
CRUCIFIXIION Agony and suffering are vividly painted by the arranger as the orchestra and choir answer the narrator in this most life-like scene.
GO YE THEREFORE Brass and violins bid for musical prominence as the lyrics assure that love never fails as all are instructed to “Go Ye Therefore” and tell the whole world of the good news of the promise of God.
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If you have a moment, let me tell you the story surrounding this work.
Late one night I received a telephone call from Charlie Templeton.
Easy going – laid back – good ole southern boy. He was irate, beside him self with anger, almost coming through the phone. I sure wanted to know what this was all about. I had produced a lot of records for his label, and we had become comfortable with each other.
The story was revealed that a Madeline “Somebody” had sued the Federal Government to take prayer out of the public schools. The courts, in her favor, to do just that, had handed down the decision.
Charlie wanted to vent and I was the ventee.
Sometime later he showed up at my door. Burst into the house and bellowed: “I’ve got a plan!”
What plan? To do what?
And so he explained:
NASA had just sent Apollo 8 to the moon. The Astronauts had read Geneses to the world back from space. Charlie declared that this event now made the Bible modern day “HISTORY”, and he was going to put that history into the library of every public school in America.
Said he: “I’m going to set up a non-profit foundation called the First Foundation for One Nation Under God. Then I’ll get NASA to let me use the rocket blast off recording and the tape of the Apollo 8 crew’s transmission. I’ll find the best narrator in the country to tell the rest of the story and I want you to write the music and produce an album.
I said: “Charlie that’s going to cost more money than is in the state of Mississippi” He retorted: “You make the album, I’ll handle the rest.”
Ok, I can do that. Yeah, right, let me tell ya!
Charlie’s plan took four years to put together. The bumps in the road are legendary.
Rob Townsend lived in Arizona and couldn’t get to Nashville. I had to have his pace and timing on the narration to make the music fit. The radio station where he worked only had a 7½ ips tape deck. Not too good for sound reproduction on a project of this magnitude.
Nashville studious can to a lot a things today. Back then? More than likely no studio in Nashville had ever recorded more than, say, six or seven musicians at one time. What difference does that make? Pack ‘em’ in the studio and turn on the tape machine! You want a mess? Do that! Sound leakage from one-musician section microphones into another was the problem, and when we got to the mix down stage leakage would have been catastrophic. Strings leaking into vocal mics, voices leaking into wherever, and on and on. Could have been a sonic nightmare.
The only studio, at the time, with a big enough room was RCA. Fortunately the chief engineer there was Tommy Strong, a magic making sound engineer, but we never solved the problem of the Brass section leaking all over the studio. If the sound barriers were big enough to block, the musicians couldn’t see the conductor. We ended up removing the microphones from the section and just picked them up from the room. They were still too loud. But – we lived with it, but it still bugs me THEY ARE TOO LOUD.
Today we would have sent them home and brought them back later for over-dubs in complete isolation. Back then, no such thing as overdubbing – or stacking. Same thing for mistakes. You let it go or started over at the top until everyone got it right. Not a problem now – just punch in any repairs later and keep going.
After all the tracks were recorded, Lacey O’Neal and I went into the Columbia studio mix-down and mastering room. There we stayed for literally hundreds of hours. Getting the EQ, echo, mix right. We started on the sound tracks on a stand-alone basis. Then, floating the Townsend narration, and the Apollo 8 crew tape into the mix at the right time, at the right volume level.
Lacy O’Neal, your patience and dedication were priceless.
Sadness floods me while writing about this…Most of those great people that participated in the making of this album is deceased.
The First Foundation manufactured the album with a duel-disc leather jacket, a beautifully done insert of the narrated scriptures, a vocal disc and an instrumental disc. The soundtracks were pressed so that others could play the tracks and do their own narration over them in live programs, whatever.
The Foundation had the score to the music printed, and it was sent free of charge to whoever might want to use it in a live production.
I don’t know exactly how many albums were put into the public schools and libraries around the country – a lot. Later, the album won the Freedom Foundation Award. After the Foundation ran its’ plan, the album was released in the Columbia Record Club.
It still gets logged radio plays from around the world, and many request from people who want to purchase a copy.
Now, with the facilities of a great company, CD Baby, that can be done. Perhaps the new generation and others who have not had the chance to hear it will get some meaning, use and enjoyment out of it.
Very truly yours…Gerald Nelson
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