Hicks, “Spencer Kimball’s Record Collection: Essays on Mormon Music” (Reviewed by Chad King)

Title: Spencer Kimball’s Record Collection: Essays on Mormon Music
Author: Michael Hicks
Publisher: Signature Books
Genre: Essay collection
Year of Publication: 2020
Number of Pages: 232

Reviewed by Chad King

I didn’t know what to expect when I opened this book but came away pleasantly surprised. The essays range from brilliant to deeply flawed but lean towards brilliant. My favorites were “Joseph Smith’s Favorite Songs (or Not),” “The Mormon Pioneers’ Trek East,” “How to Make and Unmake a Mormon Hymnbook,” and “Making Book on the Tabernacle Choir.” They are all excellent.

The collection also includes a feel-good piece (“Spencer Kimball’s Record Collection”), an oddly effusive and sort-of-weird fanboy piece (“Elder Price Superstar”), and an essay that someone else will probably find absolutely fascinating but wasn’t my cup of Mormon tea (“People of the (Other) Book”). And yes, Spencer Kimball did have a Motley Crue album in his collection.

The “How the Church Left Emma Smith and Why You Should Care” piece discusses the conflict and intrigue caused by the demands placed on leaders of an incredibly fast-growing church on the one hand, and a woman with a divinely-appointed responsibility on the other. One was bound to override the other and the history Hicks describes is both sad and interesting, albeit predictable.

The essay entitled “Ministering Minstrels” feels like Hicks wrote it in the 1980s or 90s and tried to update it for this collection. It would have been much more interesting in a broad survey of the minstrel movement of the time, but as a stand-alone Mormon piece it’s somewhat…meh. I was surprised when he made a bold statement that “[b]lackface entertainment was by now woven into Mormon life” but then supported his claim with only a prop inventory sheet and three small congregational announcements over a two-year period. C’mon Hicks — is that really the best you’ve got to show that something is “woven” into Mormon life? Maybe tone down the hyperbole for the second edition.

But Hicks’ weakest piece is the most disappointing since it had considerable potential. “Tracking ‘The Spirit of God'” could have been a window of light into a beloved Mormon hymn, but it ends up feeling like an opinion piece sprinkled with obligatory, but sparse, footnotes. Hicks admits that written sources are lacking when it comes to how “The Spirit of God” came to be, but the personal conjectures, speculations, and suspicions he uses to fill in the missing background feel unsupported and, on occasion, illogical. Perhaps he should change a line from “[s]o, let me tell you some things about the song you may not know” to “[s]o, let me tell you what I think happened, although no one really knows for certain.”

Overall the excellent essays far outweigh the flaws, and I’d give this a solid 4 stars out of 5. Skip “The Spirit of God” essay to make it a 4.5.

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