#69 JUST BECAUSE by The Imperials (1976)

JUST BECAUSE by The Imperials (1976)
Impact - R3390

There were only a handful of CCM groups with distinct eras that appealed to diverse audiences.

For example, Petra fans fall into two camps: those who love lead singer Greg X. Volz and those who prefer the vocals of John Schlitt.

Some people prefer the early Archers with Nancye Short and Billy Masters, while others enjoy the family appeal of the group with little sister Janice.

Fans of White Heart actually fall into three separate categories: those who like the early group under frontman Steve Green, those who prefer the band’s middle years with vocalist Scott Douglas, and those who love the group’s zenith with lead singer extraordinaire Ric Florian.

But the group with perhaps the largest number of distinct eras (due to lineup changes) was The Imperials.

Among them…

• the formative Jake Hess years

• the group of the late 60s that began to slowly and carefully expand boundaries and test limits

• the racially integrated group of the early 70s that successfully transitioned from Jesus Music imitators and Vegas lounge singers to spiritually reborn masters of Contemporary Gospel

• the tremendously popular CCM supergroup led by Russ Taff

• the radio-friendly Paul Smith years

• the Danny Ward era (that few knew about and even fewer remember)

• the ecstasy or controversy (depending on your point of view) of the Jimmy Lee-Ron Hemby years

• the short-lived Pam Morales experiment

• the controversial twilight years of the group, marred by litigation and infighting

• and the P.T. Barnum-like, post-Imperials era, marked by some former members performing as the Classic Imperials, while other former members sing under the moniker Elvis’ Imperials.

But to many devoted Imperials listeners, the band’s most exciting era took place in the early to mid-1970s…a lineup of Armond Morales, Jim Murray, Terry Blackwood and Sherman Andrus…a period in the storied history of this group that was marked by musical maturity and spiritual integrity.

L-R: Jim Murray, Terry Blackwood, Sherman Andrus and Armond Morales

In an earlier post we examined the origins of The Imperials. The short explanation is that famed Gospel singer Jake Hess wanted to start a new “supergroup” in the southern gospel field, handpicking the singers that he considered to be the very best at each position. Armond Morales was the bass singer in that original group (and remained a fixture with The Imperials for 40+ years). The group recorded with HeartWarming Records, an imprint of the Benson Company. Tenor Jim Murray, lead singer Terry Blackwood, and pianist Joe Moscheo were welcomed into the group in the late 60s, as the group’s founder, Hess, was forced to retire due to health concerns.

L-R: Joe Moscheo, Murray, Andrus, Blackwood & Morales

At that point, the group began to slowly morph into a unit that looked and sounded more like the popular culture by which it was surrounded. They moved to the more “contemporary” Impact record label. Gone were the matching suits and short haircuts of Southern Gospel; instead the boys began to wear modern fashions, brought on a young black singer named Sherman Andrus, hired a backing band called “Solid Rock,” and wore long hair (and, in the case of Jim Murray, even a beard)! More importantly, they were paying rapt attention to the cultural and musical changes in the world around them. They started covering Jesus Music classics – songs by Larry Norman, Love Song, and Dallas Holm. They ripped off Mylon LeFevre’s arrangement of the old hymn Gospel Ship and turned it into an Imperials staple for decades to come. And they even covered "spiritually-aware" secular songs. All of which opened a whole new world for their audience.

After a quick detour during the late 60s/early 70s to serve as a back-up vocal band for Elvis Presley in Las Vegas, the group reportedly experienced a spiritual revival and recommitted themselves to a career that was more than just music for music’s sake…it was decided that The Imperials would renew their focus on  ministry.

The Murray-Blackwood-Andrus-Morales nucleus of the group created a very special synergy and had great chemistry together from 1972 through 1976. That’s all it was, just four short years...

• There was the self-titled album in 1972, full of mainstream cover tunes and a purposeful move away from the Southern Gospel subculture and toward contemporary acceptance

• A landmark double live album came along in 1973 that seemed to complete the transition to “Gospel rock”

• 1974’s Follow the Man with the Music further cemented the band’s new identity as barrier busters

• The highly regarded No Shortage in 1975 was tuned into current events and won the group its first Grammy Award

• And Just Because, our featured album, came along in 1976 and would be not only the group’s last release on the Impact record label, but sadly, it would turn out to be the last album for this particular incarnation of The Imperials

The cover art for Just Because was, um, interesting. The front cover featured an artistic rendering of a baby chick that had just hatched from an egg. The back cover was two photographs of the group members leaning against trees in the woods, superimposed over each other. Artsy and somewhat memorable, but not particularly attractive.

Side One begins with a song that has held up quite well over the years. Just Because He Loves You was basically the title track and served notice that this collection would be a somewhat serious group of songs, displaying a certain maturity from a group of men who had weathered many storms and traveled many miles together, both literally and figuratively. The tune opened with a gentle acoustic piano intro before settling into smooth vocal harmonies over a bed of strings. Sherman Andrus and Terry Blackwood trade leads on this song that outlines the life and ministry of Jesus:

He walks along the lonely streets and byways
Compelling the lost and dying to come in
Searching for the brokenhearted
Bringing rest to the weary souls of men

He heals the fleeting wounds of pain and sadness
He makes the lame to walk, the blind to see
Reaching out in mercy and compassion
Breaking the bonds to set the captive free

The song's chorus featured an Imperials trademark, with the various group members breaking out into different parts, showcasing the diversity of talents and the strengths of the four individual singers. Andrus and Blackwood occupied the middle ground, while Murray took the high notes and Morales provided the anchor. Terry Blackwood was most often responsible for the vocal arrangements, by the way.

Just because He loves you
Just because He cares
Just because He loves You
His life He did not spare
Just because He loves you
He wants to give eternal life
Just because He loves you
He wants to end your sin and strife

The song’s second verse took a decidedly evangelistic turn…

Some may try to say they’re just not ready
Others seem to never have the time
Still others have never heard the story
How for the world our Savior bled and died
How can you show His love and mercy
Will you turn your heart to walk away
You need not die in sin and sadness
Accept His gift of love and live today

Just Because He Loves You was later included in three separate greatest hits compilations.

Jesus Came Into My Life is up next with its jangly acoustic guitar, melodic bass lines, tasteful horn parts and interesting chord progression. This is basically a testimony song, as the title implies. It contains a really interesting lyrical passage:

Jesus came into my heart
He gave me all with which to start
I don't why He did
But He did 
But I'm glad He did
'Cause He really did

Which, on its face, sound ridiculously lazy and repetitive. But in the song...it just works.

The impact that Sherman Andrus had on this group cannot be overstated. He was a great singer with a presence and an anointing, especially in a live setting, that was vital to The Imperials. But the question of ethnic identity cannot and should not be ignored. It seems like no big deal today, but racially integrated groups in Christian music in the 1970s were virtually nonexistent. When Andrus was invited to break the color barrier, as it were, The Imperials were not far removed from the Southern Gospel world -- a musical subculture with its deepest roots in the largely segregated South (as the name implies). The Imps made an important and courageous decision when they invited Sherman into the fold.

It could be said that Sherman Andrus is the Jackie Robinson of contemporary Christian music.

So the next song on Just Because was very fitting indeed. Written by the inimitable Gary S. Paxton, Love, It Comes In All Colors was an important statement. Set to a funky, Paxton-esque backbeat, the song featured Sherman on the lead vocal:

Love, it comes in all colors

You can accept it or you can be blind
Good can come in all colors
When you accept it, more love you will find

Colors are a figment of a blind imagination
If you think about skin a man must wear
Just because to you he has a foreign pigmentation
All creation knows that our Lord don't care

This was several years before Resurrection Band addressed racial prejudice and a few decades before dc Talk recorded Colored People.

Sweet Jesus showcased Terry Blackwood's considerable talents and features some of the tastiest blues piano I've ever heard on a record. It's another "testimony song," all about the deliverance, joy, and fulfillment that comes from a personal relationship with Jesus. After several key changes, the song takes on sort of a New Orleans jazz/blues approach before drawing to a close.

Closing Side One was another Gary S. Paxton song. This one was an epic titled He Made My Life Come Together. Dark, brooding, moody...it's one of the record's highlights. Yet again, personal Christian testimony is the theme of the song (and pretty much the thematic thread running through this album). Sherman handles the solos, but various vocal parts are distributed to the other members, with Armond's bass parts being particularly memorable. There are "shu-wops" and "sha-na-nas" sprinkled here and there and rather than being cheesy, they serve the song well and sound entirely appropriate. This one eventually fades out, but not before clocking in at over five minutes.

Just Because was produced by Phil Johnson and was nominated for a Grammy Award, although Sherman Andrus told me that it was not one of their better selling albums.

Side Two opens with a staple of CCM albums in the 1970s -- a song about the second coming of Jesus. I've noticed that it's no longer popular among the cool kids to talk about Jesus coming back. They say that the "eschatology" of 70s CCM was hopelessly naïve and theologically incorrect. Well, I'm still a student of what the Bible says -- particularly the statements that Jesus Himself and the Apostle Paul made concerning the end times. And I don't lose any sleep at all over whether that makes me popular with the armchair theologians of our day. But my overarching philosophy concerning the Second Coming goes something like this: Stay ready to go, and let the Lord handle the details. He's Coming Back starts Side Two on a high note; it's one of my favorite songs about the return of Christ:

Sometimes we get discouraged / Blunders and failures in life put us down
Sometimes we get worried / After all we've sinned how could He love us now
But my friend, don't doubt His mercy / His grace and power make the sinner free
Right now He reigns in glory / Interceding for you and me /
Don't you know He died to set us free

He's coming back / He's coming back
Don't you worry, my friend / He's coming back
It may be the morning / May be the nighttime
Don't you worry my friend / He's coming back

Sometimes we get worried / Sometimes it seems we just won't make it through
But my friend, He is faithful / He will finish what He started out to do
So keep your eyes on the horizon / For soon we're gonna fly away
Someday we'll be together / We will meet him in the air
All of his glory we will share

We're gonna fly away (I know He's comin')
We're gonna fly away (I know He's comin')
We're gonna fly away (I know He's comin')
We're gonna fly away

The song builds and gains in intensity to the point that even an Episcopalian would be tempted to stand up and shout by the end of the song.

After that comes a smooth, gentle tune that brings back a lot of memories for me. I was a young, teenaged Pastor's kid with a "Wurly," a Wurlitzer electric piano in 1976, and I spent many hours playing this song on that electronic keyboard. In fact, my brother and I sang it now and then in our Dad's little Assembly of God church in Phenix City, Alabama. It is (surprise!) another testimony song and extols the great love of the Lord:

I am glad my dear Redeemer
Walked the shore of Galilee
His life was pure and holy
And His grace was full and free
Now He bids for me to follow
I will walk with Him below
I will lean upon His promise
Just because He loves me so

I will sing His boundless mercy
All the beauty of His ways
In the times I do not see Him
I will trust and give Him praise
And no matter where He leads me
It is best for me I know
He will never, never leave me
Just because He loves me so

He Loves Me So was another song that contained the words "just because" in the lyrics. At one point the music drops out completely and all you hear is the rich and beautiful harmony that these men were so adept at creating together:

He loves me so
Yes, He loves me so
He left His home in Glory
To bring redemption story
And now I'm gonna sing in Glory
Just because He loves me so

Strings lead into David's Psalm, a song that features the tenor of Jim Murray and is the closest thing to traditional inspirational music on this album. It is a moving musical adaptation of Psalm 27.

Sunny Day might be my least favorite song on the album. It's a bouncy, quirky tune that comes across as something akin to a show tune. The song does feature some nice horn work and allows the listeners to hear several interesting solo lines from bass singer Armond Morales.

To close the album, The Imperials continue their tradition of covering songs by Chuck Girard/Love Song. Sometimes Alleluia is now considered a worship classic but was not as well known in 1976. Here, it benefits from lush production and the considerable vocal talents of The Imperials.

Oh let us lift our voices
Look toward the sky and start to sing
Oh let us now return His love
Just let our voices ring
Oh let us feel His presence,
Let the sound of praises fill the air
Oh let us sing the song of Jesus' love
To people everywhere
As the song draws to an end, the music fades away, leaving only the signature harmony of this legendary group to close the album.

This lineup of The Imperials, one that had been such a blessing and inspiration to so many people, would soon disband. Shortly after the release of Just Because, Terry Blackwood left the group due to the death of his father, and his need to be at home with his family. Sherman Andrus subsequently left as well. According to Andrus, he and Blackwood did not set out to start a new group as most assume. "Terry and I were good friends, but we never planned to sing together in a group," Andrus said recently. "We left at different times and different reasons. But the Benson company was losing The Imperials to Word Records. And in an effort to keep some of the audience that they lost when The Imperials left, they called Terry and me and asked us to form a group." And that's how Andrus, Blackwood & Co. was born. The Imperials would hire a new lead singer named David Will and a young, inexperienced baritone singer by the name of Russ Taff...and the rest is history.

Their greatest, most successful chapter as a group was yet to be written. But the four men who recorded Just Because left an indelible mark on my heart and life and were a tremendously positive influence on me, both musically and spiritually. I've gotta believe I'm not alone.

The Foursome gets together at a reunion event: (L-R: Murray, Blackwood, Andrus, & Morales)