Consumer Guide Album

The Persuasions: Spread the Word [Capitol, 1972]
The offhand concept announced by the title--gospel and its dissemination--doesn't come out as sentimental as you might expect. Not counting "The Lord's Prayer," the only straight gospel song here is "When Jesus Comes," a millenarian vision that seems rather vague after the more detailed (and profane) utopia described in "When I Leave These Prison Walls." "The Ten Commandments of Love," "Heaven Help Us All," and "Hymn #9" (a Vietnam junkie song recommended to John Prine) all translate church metaphor into secular maxim, while "Lean on Me" and "Without a Song" apotheosize the pious commonplace. "T.A. Thompson" reveres a rev. And Bob Dylan's "Three Angels"--one of the dopiest songs about religion ever written--is here transformed into apt intro and reprise. B+