Our choir consists of people from all walks of life. We are dedicated to one common cause – making the humanistic teachings of Jesus Christ part of our daily lives. Our inspiration is a lifestyle demonstrated by our pastor, James W. Jones.
He's Able is a gospel album recorded in 1973 by the Peoples Temple Choir. At 12 tracks, the album is right at 37 minutes long. About half of the songs are fully original compositions while the others are a mixture of hymns, spirituals, and a couple of popular songs that have been reworked to varying degrees (including an Elvis song). The title of the album is a reference to one of several identically-named songs popular in black church revivals in the 20th century, although the version that appears here seems to have also been an original composition.
Like all albums of this type, it was produced to spread the group's message and to generate some revenue through sales. I have seen sources indicating that it sold about 100,000 copies but I don't know how accurate that is. The original LP is of course long out of print, and copies in good condition sell for anywhere from $100 to $200. On the other hand, I suppose it does a good enough job of telling you what the Peoples Temple was all about. Unusually for a gospel album (and specifically one recorded by the members of a church), the word "God" appears a total of three times across two songs and the name "Jesus" is said one time. Considering that the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, Jim Jones, alternately described himself as a communist and an "apostolic socialist," it's perhaps not too surprising that the lyrical content of He's Able shies away from religion (the fact that it is performed by an ostensibly Christian group notwithstanding).
Instead, the songs focus on broader issues of social justice and veneration for Jones personally. "Walking With You, Father" reads and sounds like a standard praise song with lyrics like "I need you every hour/I need your cleansing power/I need you when I'm lonely/I need you when I'm hungry/I want you to wash us in your love!" until you realize that Jones' preferred title among his followers was "father" or "daddy." Jones himself appears on the album, powerfully belting out "Down From His Glory," an abbreviated version of a traditional Christian hymn. According to Jack Beam, the guitarist and director of the choir, Jones showed up to the recording session with an entourage of uniformed bodyguards and changed "a few crucial lyrics to make sure everyone knew he was God."
Most of the 50+ people who participated in the recording of the album died in the mass murder/suicide in Guyana in 1978. Even though Jonestown wouldn't happen for another five years after the album's production, it's impossible view some of the lyrics in any context other than what would later occur. "Set Them Free" warns "now the end is near, and there's not much time/to give those who need a change of mind/the love they need." "Hold On, Brother" is a joyful interpretation of Jones' belief that the world was fundamentally bad and that he could change it: "hold on, brother! We'll make it through/working for changes, so long overdue!" "Will You?" describes the mission of the Peoples Temple, saying "let's keep on living a better way/so that others/will change their minds and follow too."
The membership of the Peoples Temple was something like 70% black. Jones, despite being white, frequently described himself as black or even Native American. Jim Jones evidently believed in a sociological concept of race as opposed to a biological one, and if the black members of the Peoples Temple had any misgivings about an obviously white guy seriously and unironically calling himself a "nigger" in public or using the phrase "we black people," they did not voice these concerns. The song "Black Baby" is a sad track sung by a mother to her child that expresses a longing for a world free of racism with lines like "when out of men's hearts all hate is gone/you're going to live in a better land/my little black baby." More telling, however, is another line that appears in the song: "your daddy and mommy will protect you/and keep you safe from all harm." As we've seen, Jones is daddy. The point of the song is therefore not truly about a mother's aspirations for a better future for her child, but the notion that only Jim Jones can truly protect the baby. This of course was the primary rationale for the Peoples Temple leaving the United States and settling in Guyana.
I can't pretend that I'm anything remotely resembling an expert on gospel music. As far as music of this type is concerned, I guess He's Able is fairly good. Most of the songs are energetic, upbeat, and reasonably well-produced. It's more than a little unsettling to listen to the happy people here -- including the children -- knowing that the majority of them would die in a horrible way five years later. The few participants who are still alive today have fond memories of recording the album and of the Peoples Temple in general. I imagine, however, that this is not something that these people listen to very often.
As noted earlier, the original pressing of this album commands pretty high prices. There are of course alternate ways of hearing it; a bootleg version has been released on CD that includes the infamous 45 minute tape recording of the actual mass murder/suicide in Jonestown at the end of it. This version is naturally available to hear on YouTube, although I doubt most people would want to listen to the, uh, bonus track. Douglas Pearce, the singer/guitarist/songwriter of the English neofolk band Death In June, acquired a copy of the album in the early 1990s and morbidly reworked lyrics from the songs "Because of Him," "Black Baby," "He's Able," and "Something Got A Hold of Me" into "Because of Him," "Little Black Angel," "He's Disabled," and "the Mourner's Bench" for his 1992 album But, What Ends When the Symbols Shatter?, although the musical arrangements bear no resemblance to the originals.